bearshorty (
bearshorty) wrote2023-07-07 02:10 pm
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Entry tags:
Book Post: Mandel, Lindgren, McDonald, Le Tellier and Brosh
The Glass Hotel by Emily St John Mandel, 273pp
I wanted to read more by this author since I did like "Station Eleven". And this book takes place in a sort of parallel universe where the pandemic never happened. Two characters recur in this book - Leon and Miranda, so that link is there but this is not a sci-fi world, it is like our world. This book is about a woman named Vincent and a Ponzi scheme and how it affects several characters. A terrible message is grafitied on the front window of a fancy hotel and lots of things stem from that. I actually didn't understand why all the characters were shocked by the message, I didn't find it that threatening. And most people would just dismiss that kind of thing, but in the story people were shocked.
I think Mandel is good at developing her characters and their story but not many characters in the story were that interesting. I didn't find Vincent and all she was going through that interesting or the mystery about how she came to be in the ocean, which starts the story. There are sad parts, especially for people who invested their money and were left with nothing, and some good passages from perspective of people perpetuating the scheme as they know they are about to get arrested. But overall, this book was just ok. I found "Station Eleven" better. I still want to read the next book, as I heard good things but this one is not sticking much in my head.
Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren, 98pp [translated from Swedish].
I read this as a kid but barely remembered it. My friend got Tanya a big 3 book volume and beautiful pictures for the her birthday a few years ago, but Tanya wasn't interested at the time. She tried it out this year and decided to read it and then liked it enough to read all three Pippi books in this volume. I decided to reread the first one since it has been quite a long time.
I think it does read better for a kid but it was still amusing. It feels like very separate short stories without too big of an overarching plot but a lot of kid stories are like that.
Pippi lives all alone in her giant house with her horse and her monkey and makes friends with next door neighbors Annika and Tommy. She is also super strong and doesn't go for any conventions. The school episode, the one with the burglars and the circus were probably the funniest. But now as an adult, I can't read this book the same way. I feel bad for her being all alone with no parents and no one to care for her - She is a fantasy all kids want to be but as a grown-up it is a bit sad. I'm glad Tanya finally read it though and enjoyed it as it is certainly a classic.
Judy Moody and the NOT Bummer Summer by Megan McDonald, 186pp
I got Tanya a couple of Judy Moody books in the library in May and June since she read pieces of one in school and she wanted me to get this one. Turns out this is also a movie that is available on for free on YouTube, which the girls eagerly watched. Tanya insisted that I had to read it, so I did during my commute. It didn't take too long.
For a kid book, it is pretty good. Judy just finished 3rd grade (which is why Tanya's class also watched this movie at the end of June at the end of their 3rd grade) and she wants to have a great summer so she develops a chart for excitement points. The problem is that two of her friend leave town for the summer, her parents leave for California and her aunt comes to watch her and her brother and the summer looks like it would stink. There are Bigfoot chases, a hunt for her teacher who is working a summer job somewhere, some circus stuff, a poop picnic, and a gross roller coaster ride. It was amusing and Tanya had fun reading it so win win.
The Anomaly by Herve Le Tellier, 391pp [translated from French].
My Dad gave me this book for my birthday, and I read it pretty quickly since I really liked the premise. Four months after a Paris-New York plane lands in New York after experiencing severe turbulence, another identical plane appears in the sky with identical people. So now there are two of the same people, except those who died in the meantime, but the first ones have four more months of memories, went through breakups or other things. The US government detains the plane, and the scientists posit that the whole thing proves the world is a simulation, that it is a test from some very advanced AI, or at least that is the most plausible theory. Which is really weird. Anyway, a lot of the book are people coming to terms with this and several characters either learn from what ones before did or have to learn to share a kid who wasn't on the plane and doubled or learn how to split a life. One guy is an author who wrote a bestselling book after he got off the first plane and then killed himself so now his counterpart in the second plane have to live with that. And they have to contend with the reaction of the world.
This book is definitely French since it has a certain view of the US, that US is full of religious fanatics, which is not exactly wrong, but certainly mocking. And the ending is also very French I think.
Overall it is a good take on the turbulence doing a weird thing to a plane (a bit more interesting than Manifest to me since there are not really weird callings here) but the premise is also a bit weird in its explanation of what caused this. I liked the book overall, even if some things didn't exactly work for me. But I like the writing style.
Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh, 369pp
A quick read since these are collected comic strips from Brosh's blog of the same name. I read it because of an online rec but it was just ok. Some of the stories about her childhood were funny like the one about the cake or getting lost in the woods or the goose. Some stuff about depression is an interesting perspective - she is certainly very honest and has a way of explaining. There are a lot of stuff about her dogs - I don't really care about dogs so that wasn't compelling. But mostly is was just ok, sort of amusing.
I wanted to read more by this author since I did like "Station Eleven". And this book takes place in a sort of parallel universe where the pandemic never happened. Two characters recur in this book - Leon and Miranda, so that link is there but this is not a sci-fi world, it is like our world. This book is about a woman named Vincent and a Ponzi scheme and how it affects several characters. A terrible message is grafitied on the front window of a fancy hotel and lots of things stem from that. I actually didn't understand why all the characters were shocked by the message, I didn't find it that threatening. And most people would just dismiss that kind of thing, but in the story people were shocked.
I think Mandel is good at developing her characters and their story but not many characters in the story were that interesting. I didn't find Vincent and all she was going through that interesting or the mystery about how she came to be in the ocean, which starts the story. There are sad parts, especially for people who invested their money and were left with nothing, and some good passages from perspective of people perpetuating the scheme as they know they are about to get arrested. But overall, this book was just ok. I found "Station Eleven" better. I still want to read the next book, as I heard good things but this one is not sticking much in my head.
Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren, 98pp [translated from Swedish].
I read this as a kid but barely remembered it. My friend got Tanya a big 3 book volume and beautiful pictures for the her birthday a few years ago, but Tanya wasn't interested at the time. She tried it out this year and decided to read it and then liked it enough to read all three Pippi books in this volume. I decided to reread the first one since it has been quite a long time.
I think it does read better for a kid but it was still amusing. It feels like very separate short stories without too big of an overarching plot but a lot of kid stories are like that.
Pippi lives all alone in her giant house with her horse and her monkey and makes friends with next door neighbors Annika and Tommy. She is also super strong and doesn't go for any conventions. The school episode, the one with the burglars and the circus were probably the funniest. But now as an adult, I can't read this book the same way. I feel bad for her being all alone with no parents and no one to care for her - She is a fantasy all kids want to be but as a grown-up it is a bit sad. I'm glad Tanya finally read it though and enjoyed it as it is certainly a classic.
Judy Moody and the NOT Bummer Summer by Megan McDonald, 186pp
I got Tanya a couple of Judy Moody books in the library in May and June since she read pieces of one in school and she wanted me to get this one. Turns out this is also a movie that is available on for free on YouTube, which the girls eagerly watched. Tanya insisted that I had to read it, so I did during my commute. It didn't take too long.
For a kid book, it is pretty good. Judy just finished 3rd grade (which is why Tanya's class also watched this movie at the end of June at the end of their 3rd grade) and she wants to have a great summer so she develops a chart for excitement points. The problem is that two of her friend leave town for the summer, her parents leave for California and her aunt comes to watch her and her brother and the summer looks like it would stink. There are Bigfoot chases, a hunt for her teacher who is working a summer job somewhere, some circus stuff, a poop picnic, and a gross roller coaster ride. It was amusing and Tanya had fun reading it so win win.
The Anomaly by Herve Le Tellier, 391pp [translated from French].
My Dad gave me this book for my birthday, and I read it pretty quickly since I really liked the premise. Four months after a Paris-New York plane lands in New York after experiencing severe turbulence, another identical plane appears in the sky with identical people. So now there are two of the same people, except those who died in the meantime, but the first ones have four more months of memories, went through breakups or other things. The US government detains the plane, and the scientists posit that the whole thing proves the world is a simulation, that it is a test from some very advanced AI, or at least that is the most plausible theory. Which is really weird. Anyway, a lot of the book are people coming to terms with this and several characters either learn from what ones before did or have to learn to share a kid who wasn't on the plane and doubled or learn how to split a life. One guy is an author who wrote a bestselling book after he got off the first plane and then killed himself so now his counterpart in the second plane have to live with that. And they have to contend with the reaction of the world.
This book is definitely French since it has a certain view of the US, that US is full of religious fanatics, which is not exactly wrong, but certainly mocking. And the ending is also very French I think.
Overall it is a good take on the turbulence doing a weird thing to a plane (a bit more interesting than Manifest to me since there are not really weird callings here) but the premise is also a bit weird in its explanation of what caused this. I liked the book overall, even if some things didn't exactly work for me. But I like the writing style.
Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh, 369pp
A quick read since these are collected comic strips from Brosh's blog of the same name. I read it because of an online rec but it was just ok. Some of the stories about her childhood were funny like the one about the cake or getting lost in the woods or the goose. Some stuff about depression is an interesting perspective - she is certainly very honest and has a way of explaining. There are a lot of stuff about her dogs - I don't really care about dogs so that wasn't compelling. But mostly is was just ok, sort of amusing.