Lisa
A very engaging look at the good and bad of zoo conservation.
I love zoos. I know that's probably not very hip to say but I have fond memories of going to Griffith Park and San Diego Wild Animal Park as a kid.
The author does a great job of pinpointing why zoos are crucial for the future of endandgered and protected species but also why we should feel quite uneasy about the amount of meddling we do in animal affairs.
I wasn't overblown by the narrator of this series as she was quite proper, quite long winded, and quite judgy. That being said, when you edit the Journal of Applied Ethics, I suppose those character traits go with the territory. I loved the descriptions of Edinburgh and I thought the housekeeper was a hoot. I still haven't read No 1 Ladies Detective Agency, but I'll give the second in this series a shot for sure,
This was pretty bad. Like some poorly edited love child of the Hunger Games and The Giver, Divergent rails on topics like dystopia, free will, and forcing young folk into life changing situations. But I love the aforementioned two books, and Divergent is a bit like when two beautiful people have an ugly baby. The baby itself is probably just fine looking, but doesn't compare to the source material. The whole book revolved around the idea that people's nature divides them into factions. Fine, I can go along with that. Then one of the factions is completely irrelevant and mentioned twice in the entire book.
That being said, I could not stop reading this. Why? I have no flipping clue. I'll probably read the sequels too.
Alien plants take root on earth, sap the planet of its vital nutrients, decimate modern civilization and the human race. The patriarch of the last band of humans is a religious nut job who whips his grown children. The roots of the plant turn out to be full of spun sugar which is edible in moderation. Seriously. The femme fatale of the group eats too much and turns into jabba the hut. SPOILERS She ends up being too gelatinous to leave their underground root system sanctuary.
This book was like someone took a SyFy made for TV movie but wrote the screenplay in 1960 and had Heironymus Bosch do the storyboards. Somehow I mean that in a begrudgingly good way.
Sweet and very sad.
My husband is a tried and true F1 fan, so seeing Enzo wax philosophic about the ease with which Michael Schumacher wins was comical and very satisfying.
Enzo's voice was perfect. I talk to my pets all day long and often wonder what they'd say to me if they could. I have nut ball cats, but it's be nice if they were as poetic and wise as the narrator here.
An interesting conceit bogged down by excessive mentions of the protagonist's sexual prowess. It turns out that the number of times I will put up with an author describing how a character wants to boink his ultimate grandmother while time traveling in Byzantium is actually quite small. The history aspect of the novel was cool though!
Geez. I read this book out of order and was pretty confused at the start. It stood on its own okay and was a rather gripping account of the mother of Henry Tudor. She is appallingly unlikable, which I really enjoyed. Seriously, someone should have told this pious shrew that pride is a sin. More's the better when Thomas, Lord Stanley comes into the picture as her incredibly traitorous husband. Good stuff.
I went to school with a girl like Stargirl. She transferred to us in junior high and she was different. Alarmingly different. She held seances. Her hair was this wild brillo pad that stuck straight out in all directions. She tried to levitate herself at recess. She had funny moles. She was a budding artist who drew on any surface that would not be deemed vandalism.
She was completely ostracized. Like the students at Mica, we did not know what to do with her. Unlike the students at Mica, there was no honeymoon period. Just hate. Here we were, little Catholic conformists with our plaid uniforms and this complete oddball had been thrust into our midst. I have never before or since seen children be so mean. To be associated with her was anathema. I haven't thought about her in years, but now I wonder, what were her parents thinking? Why send your child who desperately wants/needs to be different, to be herself- into this hotbed of sameness. She even joined my scout troop. Another uniform to wear. Unlike Stargirl (spoilers I guess) she survived the year. She actually stayed with us until high school. Unlike Leo, I never got the chance to see her jar of stones. I never allowed myself to be friends with her. I don't know how unhappy or happy she was with her lot. She must have the toughest skin or maybe she didn't care. I hope she's doing well, wherever she is today. I know it's a stretch, but I hope high school was better for her.
Reading this book was in a way very cathartic. I have reservations about its plausibility, but that's honestly a good thing. If some junior high student reads this book and decides to be a little left of the center, or better still, if some jerky junior student reads this book and decides to be a little nicer to the kids who take a chance on standing out, it's worth its weight in gold.
I had every reason to like this book and I could not get through it.
It must just be me though since it has relatively good ratings.
“Park watched the undulated blade of a flamberge pierce the side of the Northerner and rip upward, unzipping the huge barbarian's rib cage in a spray of blood.”
It made sense in context, but undulated blades are where I hang my hat up.
Was a reach to give this three stars, though it's considered a classic. This story failed for me in two different ways. First, the story is structured around vignettes told by multiple narrators. The quality of these stories varies widely. One of them was so schlocky I could hardly finish it. Two of them were brilliant, so I guess that redeemed the story enough for me. Second, there was absolutely no resolution. The finalization of the story is dependent on the sequel, which totally aggrevates me.
Pete Postlethwaite died today. His death saddened me for a number of reasons, not the least of which being he was a tremendous actor. Most relevant in this case, as I read The Book Thief, I marveled at what a well constructed character Leisel's foster father was and how perfectly Pete would have played him on screen. That being said, this might be a book better left to the imagination, for it's utterly sad and absolutely worth reading. Highly recommended.
I've read more than a couple negative reviews of Generation Kill, which recounts an embedded journalist's journey with Recon Marines through the first stage of ‘Iraqi Freedom.' These folks all seem dismayed that the young marines are portrayed as reckless, or crass, or lacking heroism. That there were no real obstacles, that their mission was mishandled, or futile.
I think that was the whole point. Like a slice of the war as a whole, their superiors made terrible judgment calls, they took an unacceptable amount of friendly fire, and killed a lot of civilians. It's not like this was a tale of fiction where soldiers have strong morals and the enemies are 100% evil. In a way, the marines of Generation Kill are much more human. They routinely show remorse, question their actions, and above all, question their superiors.
I watched Band of Brothers and it made me cry. Reading Generation Kill made me lament my misspent tax dollars. Nevertheless, it was a gripping read that I think accurately depicted this generation of enlisted and their officers. Like Band of Brothers, it's also been adapted as an HBO miniseries.