Review: The Winter Garden: Create a Garden That Shines Through the Forgotten Season

The Winter Garden: Create a Garden That Shines Through the Forgotten Season by Val Bourne
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I found only a few tips that I think attractive, but my, I do wish I could grow Clematis cirrhosa!! I didn't even know there are winter flowering Clematis. But, I'm like two zones too far north :(

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Review: Birds, Nests, And Eggs

Birds, Nests, And Eggs by Mel Boring
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

The idea is fabulous: a little simple guide to birds almost every (American) kid can see. The realization, not so much. I get it, birds are of different sizes, the ruler at the end can help with visualization, but my, why not draw eggs to scale?! Their shape is ok, their color is ok, but even the largest eggs in this book can easily fit in the space reserved for them. Instead they are all the same size, about a quarter in diameter. Very helpful. The text says how big they are, but actually comparing a real egg to a life-sized picture can go a long way in identification. Besides, the book is full of tiny little... inaccuracies, let's call them that. What do you mean, the cardinal is "our only all-red bird"? It's not all red, it has a black mask! Summer Tanager is the only all-red bird in the US. There is no such thing as Northern Oriole, and the picture shows a Baltimore Oriole. "Hummingbirds make tiny sounds" you can only hear when it "hovers near your ear"? Have the author ever saw a hummingbird? They sound like tiny helicopters. Or a huge bumblebee. I can continue this list. It's one of the things I never forgive a children's book - factual mistakes that then get stuck in the kid's head and are very hard to chase away.

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Review: The Worst Breakfast

The Worst Breakfast by China Miéville
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

That was a lot of strange words! And some of them I didn't know. Actually, some of those I still don't know. In summary, it's a good idea for a children's book, with a simple take away message, which is not spelled out and chewed, and a bunch of interesting words to learn, which kids probably will not see in a book anytime soon. But there are two big buts. The illustrations are terrible. And it's not just me, my sob didn't like them as well, and the average rating of 3.1 indicates that a lot of other people share our opinion. A bunch of words without any context, other than probably being food items, will stay just a bunch of words and won't make their way into vocabulary. So 3 stars seems like a fair rating.

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Review: Ball

Ball by Mary Sullivan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

My uncontrollable laughter aside, this book with only one word offers a great opportunity for beginning readers to focus on punctuation and the meaning and emotions it carries. Because, you know, there is always more to a book than just words :)

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Review: The Adventures of John Blake: Mystery of the Ghost Ship

The Adventures of John Blake: Mystery of the Ghost Ship by Philip Pullman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I think it's more like 3.5 stars, but I'll round up. The book feels like it should be at least three books. Or maybe a three times longer book. There is a lot packed into this one adventure. And as usual I have some ideological disagreements with Philip Pullman. For starters, the science fiction here feels too much like magic. And a lot is left unsaid (The captain was injured at the end! And then what?). And the book certainly calls for a sequel or two (read, a dozen). Waiting...

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Review: Bloodline

Bloodline by Jordan L. Hawk
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I must admit, Bloodline was much more entertaining than the previous couple of books in the series. And much better written too, with an interesting plot and some romantic developments. I think I need a new shelf for my books - "nonsense". I also need a shelf called "moresense", but it will be sadly almost empty :)

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Review: The Summer Book

The Summer Book by Tove Jansson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is an exceptional novel. I don't what people who have never seen a cold northern sea make of it. For me the book is so special. It makes me very sad and impossibly nostalgic. It makes me light and curious. It fills me with the need to come back to the world of granite, water, midnight sunlight, and life. It makes me restless, filled with desire to travel, to see, to touch. It makes me wiser.

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Review: Dinosaur Tree

Dinosaur Tree by Douglas Henderson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I heard about this book in reference to its wonderful illustrations. And the illustrations are indeed fabulous! However, there are at least two things that prevent it from being a perfect book for kids. First, too many words. Yes, I know, it's often easier to say what you mean and to carry the emotions with a lot of words, rather than a few, but in a children's book that won't do. Second, from a book about a tree, I would expect more of a "tree perspective" probably. It's easy to slip into that notion that everything is born, killed and then fossilized. And as someone who has seen the Painted Desert and the Petrified Forrest, I understand the sentiment. What we see now seems so extraordinary, it's easy to forget it's a coincidence and chance, rather than something that had to happen. A bit of more focus on the tree's life cycle would remedy the situation. For example, why was such a crucial moment in the tree's life as starting producing seeds completely left out of the narrative?

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Review: The Fantastic Adventures of Baron Munchausen

The Fantastic Adventures of Baron Munchausen by Heinz Janisch
My rating: 0 of 5 stars

I suppose it is a very ungrateful job to write old tales in a new way. The adventures of Baron Munchausen came to my life thirty years ago and are here to stay, incorporated into my perception of the world. This book... I am not quite sure what to think of it. "When I am cut, I endure, but when supplemented, it becomes intolerable." It was the only book about Munchausen in the library though, so I picked it up to read to my son. And he enjoyed it. But as it happens, tomorrow we'll have an older book, written by Rudolf Erich Raspe and illustrated by Gustave Doré. We'll see which one he likes more. Though this will also be in English and the English spelling of Baron Münchhausen's name jars me.

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Review: A Very Hairy Scary Story

A Very Hairy Scary Story by Rick Walton
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Well written and we'll rhymed (despite some people's claim that English is hard to rhyme :) ). The illustrations are pretty awesome, showing scary creatures with not too obvious, but kid-friendly, clues to what they might really be. There are also not one, but several moral messages to discuss, which are subtle enough to not sound annoying. I wonder why it's not very popular. My library refused to buy it and the record from the library they borrowed it from for me shows it's been read 2 or 3 times a year... I'd be reading it at least once a month!

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Review: Necropolis

Necropolis by Jordan L. Hawk
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

It was supposed to be nonsensical romance, no? Well, that "romance" part isn't there much in this installment for some reason. Though the book is still completely nonsensical. There is too much plot, but plot is not one of author's forte. Too much of it just means more loose ends and discrepancies. I wonder what American papers would make of a half-jackal murderer shot in a museum...

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Review: The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life by Mark Manson
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Oh my! 54,000 ratings averaging at more than 4! While in reality it's just 200 pages of common sense and well-known ideas. With too many f*cks per unit area to my taste. The author seems well read and versed in literature and more or less in history, but his understanding of biology is quite superficial. All in all, my impression is that, after reaching a respectable age of thirty something, he suddenly realized that his hormonal status has changed he doesn't want to seek adventures on his ass anymore and became quite happy settling down. Also, he considers his previous experiences (including a lot of exciting travel) as devoid of true happiness, as some sort of temporally high. And of course he wishes happiness at once, for free, and for everyone.

I was stunned by his interpretation of Russians after he spent a month in St. Petersburg. This rant about turbulent history making Russians honest and trusting? Oh sweetheart, you are so wrong, Russians don't trust anyone. Besides this remark, for dramatic effect apparently, about snow in May... There are a lot of places in the world north of 60N and south of 60S or high up the mountains, where you can get snow in May or even in July, and sometimes it's snowing in May in St. Petersburg. However, I remember quite well Spring 2011 in St. Petersburg. There wasn't any May snow that year. If the author lies about that, what else does he lie about?

The latest chapters make even less sense. What was that with "victims" and "savers" being in unhealthy relationships? As long as all involved are consenting adults, why would they even want to change? To find some "unconditional love" someone told them they have to have? Besides, If "we need some sort of existential crisis to take an objective look at how we've been deriving meaning in life, and to consider changing course", meaning we don't change without some sort of inflicted pain, then what's the point of this book? It doesn't inflict any pain...

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Review: Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!

Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! by Mo Willems
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

We've been holding on to this one for quite a while now. I lost count how many times I had to read it! Today my 6.5-year-old managed to read it to me, so it's time to move on. It is a very good and fun book, and it's been one of the favorites for more than a year!

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