Review: The Essex Serpent

The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received a copy of The Essex Serpent via a Goodreads giveaway. My copy arrived with two tea bags to go with it, which was lovely. As I finished the book, I can testify it takes about 15 cups of tea though :)
I must confess I didn't find the reading particularly entertaining. The last two thirds of the book (yes, 2/3) I had to actively restrain myself from giving up and starting something else. Or just starting something else with the intention to finish later... only I would have never finished it. The blurb says the book is mostly about love, which means nothing really happens there. Well, that is totally true, nothing happens. Love there is also quite mundane. I didn't find any of the characters interesting. Yes, they are well written and I can easily imagine half the humanity thinking these same thoughts, but does it make it interesting? We are live our little lives and think our little thoughts, and I'm surely can do it without reminders. Reading it was living two uneventful lives at once :)
Besides, as much as the author knows the history, she doesn't know the color of walnuts' stains on the skin.

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Review: Dizzy Dinosaurs: Silly Dino Poems

Dizzy Dinosaurs: Silly Dino Poems by Lee Bennett Hopkins
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

That was a typical 3-star children's book right up till the last "poem", which happens to be super-moralistic and plainly disgusting.

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Review: Stick Man

Stick Man by Julia Donaldson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Any other author would have gotten 5 stars from me for this book. I guess it's unfair, but I can't do anything with myself. The Gruffalo and The Gruffalo's Child are so much better, everything else pales in comparison. And yes, we found the Gruffalo in this book too :)

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Review: Grasshoppers

Grasshoppers by Connie Colwell Miller
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

That was terrible: It's a book about locusts that doesn't have the word locust in it, they are called grasshoppers. But all the pictures and facts are of locusts... Try to explain the difference to the kid after that.

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Review: Maelstrom

Maelstrom by Jordan L. Hawk
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It was full of action and entertaining, I give it that. But (view spoiler)[why bother with the elaborate plot around a body switch, if it takes only 30 seconds for Griffin to recognize his husband? This "shadowsight" turned out to be a little too convenient. And poor car... (hide spoiler)]

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Review: Atlas Obscura: An Explorer's Guide to the World's Hidden Wonders

Atlas Obscura: An Explorer's Guide to the World's Hidden Wonders by Joshua Foer
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

After reading this (very heavy) book, I'm under the impression it should have stayed in on-line form. There is no reason to spend paper on a collection of facts not united in any special way and chosen from a bigger collections for no apparent reason. Plus, some factual mistakes make the book even less appealing. Unsurprisingly also, this atlas makes the reader think that USA is the weirdest country in the world. Every state has more noteworthy "obscure" places most other countries! Including the whole of Russia, which is mostly just an uninteresting place-holder apparently between its European part and the Far East. Most of the places in the atlas are not enticing in the least, anyway. I would not visit most of them even going by, not to mention traveling specifically to them.

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Review: Hoarfrost

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

Those books are obviously addictive. I was in the middle of another interesting enough book, when I received this one and just couldn't resist starting it immediately. As usual, a complete nonsense plot-wise, but there is a few interesting character developments. I can't say though I appreciated this new feature of switching perspectives. Everything from Whyborne's perspective was sweet and comfortable. I guess it's hard to write a book from one perspective when your two main characters are separated for prolonged and action-filled periods of time, but I would expect them to sound much more differently than they do. Whyborne and Griffin are not married long enough to think as twins.

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Review: The Crossley ID Guide: Eastern Birds

The Crossley ID Guide: Eastern Birds by Richard Crossley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As far as bird ID guides go, this one is still very American, despite possibly "belonging to England tradition", which means quite poor. There is still a wealth of critical information missing from this book, especially considering its formidable size. But at least there are field marks, distribution maps, and even some mention of the habitat, which is more than I came to expect from American bird guides. I personally prefer drawings by a biologist to photos to drawings by an artist. So photographic illustrations in a more or less natural habitat are ok, though I'm not thrilled about them. But this is a matter of taste, I'm sure a lot of people prefers photos. All in all, this is not a field guide (way too heavy), but maybe a good reference for sorting out bird pics taken on a birdwatching trip.

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Review: The Big Book of Little Amigurumi: 72 Seriously Cute Patterns to Crochet

The Big Book of Little Amigurumi: 72 Seriously Cute Patterns to Crochet by Ana Paula Rimoli
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Aside from my general dislike of line-by-line instructions, especially when so obviously not necessary, I was (unpleasantly) surprised at how big those "little" amigurumi are. I guess I didn't read the introduction carefully, but went straight for a pattern I wanted to try. So the size issue came up unexpectedly. I used thread three time thinner than in the instructions, but the toy still turned up almost too big. It's more like a small book of huge kid-sized amigurumi.

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