Little Penguin Monsters
May. 24th, 2008 08:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
maribouThe Monsters of Templeton, by Lauren Groff
A glorious book. Lush and rambly and realistic and fantastic and funny and sad and ... Much like _Ahab's Wife_ (where you didn't need to have read Melville), you don't have to have read any Cooper to love this one.
(88/300)
The Penguin Book of Modern Irish Short Stories, edited by Ben Forkner
There were some brilliant stories by authors I'd not read before in here - Sean O'Faolain, Somerville & Ross, Seumas O'Kelly, Mary Lavin, Benedict Kiely - as well as some old favorites like Joyce, Yeats, and Stephens. But even most of the less-amazing stories were fun to read because of the way Irish people talk, and how it's translated to the page. See, I grew up in a very Irish/Scottish kind of place and so all my neighbors talked that same way (*especially* the old ones) and so the lilting, rambling, word-wallowing style used in most of these stories makes me all warm and fuzzy inside, no matter the content of the story.
(89/300)
Little (Grrl) Lost, by Charles De Lint
This was alright. I really like de Lint, but somehow most of his YA stuff doesn't click for me to the same extent that the things marketed as adult do. Honestly, I don't always buy his version of 'modern adolescent girl', I think, and because I *do* like his stuff so much in general, I have a higher standard for him than for most people. The magical bits of this were lovely and actually once the protagonist had stuff to do other than sit around and angst, she was mostly great - just the beginning was a little twee, or something... dunno. I did like it, just - when you are used to someone hitting it out of the park most of the time, it's hard to be impressed by a double.
(90/300)
A glorious book. Lush and rambly and realistic and fantastic and funny and sad and ... Much like _Ahab's Wife_ (where you didn't need to have read Melville), you don't have to have read any Cooper to love this one.
(88/300)
The Penguin Book of Modern Irish Short Stories, edited by Ben Forkner
There were some brilliant stories by authors I'd not read before in here - Sean O'Faolain, Somerville & Ross, Seumas O'Kelly, Mary Lavin, Benedict Kiely - as well as some old favorites like Joyce, Yeats, and Stephens. But even most of the less-amazing stories were fun to read because of the way Irish people talk, and how it's translated to the page. See, I grew up in a very Irish/Scottish kind of place and so all my neighbors talked that same way (*especially* the old ones) and so the lilting, rambling, word-wallowing style used in most of these stories makes me all warm and fuzzy inside, no matter the content of the story.
(89/300)
Little (Grrl) Lost, by Charles De Lint
This was alright. I really like de Lint, but somehow most of his YA stuff doesn't click for me to the same extent that the things marketed as adult do. Honestly, I don't always buy his version of 'modern adolescent girl', I think, and because I *do* like his stuff so much in general, I have a higher standard for him than for most people. The magical bits of this were lovely and actually once the protagonist had stuff to do other than sit around and angst, she was mostly great - just the beginning was a little twee, or something... dunno. I did like it, just - when you are used to someone hitting it out of the park most of the time, it's hard to be impressed by a double.
(90/300)
