Rachel Manija Brown's Blog, page 106
August 23, 2019
The Mysterious Shrinking House, by Jane Louise Curry
In my ongoing efforts to review ALL the books I read, and which I invite you to join in on, I present to you The Mysterious Shrinking House (original title: Mindy’s Mysterious Minature), by Jane Louise Curry, a Scholastic children's book from 1970.
Mindy, whose parents run an antique shop in which they also live, bids ninety cents and a crate of pop bottles at an auction to win a filthy and decrepit dollhouse. But when she cleans it, she finds that it’s beautiful and incredibly intricate. Then her father uses SCIENCE to figure out that it was a regular house that got shrunk. (Upon microscope examination, he finds that the cells of the wood in a table are way tinier than normal wood cells, and reasons that rather than being a small thing carved from normal wood, the wood itself has been shrunk.)
Mindy’s elderly neighbor Mrs. Bright recognizes the house as her own childhood home which mysteriously disappeared. (Literally, it just vanished into thin air. This was so weird that nobody wanted to discuss it ever.) When she and Mindy examine it, there is an explosion, and then they are shrunk and end up in the dollhouse!
The first part of this book (up to this point) is delightful. I have a weakness for tiny things, being tiny, and normal things being huge, and was hoping for life in a dollhouse, facing down giant chipmunks, etc. That is not how the story goes.
And then there is an unexpected amount of plot. ( Read more... )
Also, needed more giant chipmunks. A giant chipmunk is briefly glimpsed, but that's all.
The Mysterious Shrinking House ( mindy's mysterious miniature)[image error]
[image error] [image error]
comments
Mindy, whose parents run an antique shop in which they also live, bids ninety cents and a crate of pop bottles at an auction to win a filthy and decrepit dollhouse. But when she cleans it, she finds that it’s beautiful and incredibly intricate. Then her father uses SCIENCE to figure out that it was a regular house that got shrunk. (Upon microscope examination, he finds that the cells of the wood in a table are way tinier than normal wood cells, and reasons that rather than being a small thing carved from normal wood, the wood itself has been shrunk.)
Mindy’s elderly neighbor Mrs. Bright recognizes the house as her own childhood home which mysteriously disappeared. (Literally, it just vanished into thin air. This was so weird that nobody wanted to discuss it ever.) When she and Mindy examine it, there is an explosion, and then they are shrunk and end up in the dollhouse!
The first part of this book (up to this point) is delightful. I have a weakness for tiny things, being tiny, and normal things being huge, and was hoping for life in a dollhouse, facing down giant chipmunks, etc. That is not how the story goes.
And then there is an unexpected amount of plot. ( Read more... )
Also, needed more giant chipmunks. A giant chipmunk is briefly glimpsed, but that's all.
The Mysterious Shrinking House ( mindy's mysterious miniature)[image error]
[image error] [image error]
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August 19, 2019
comments
Adventures in LA
One of my resolutions for this year was to get out and do more stuff in the city. So by delightful coincidence,
![[personal profile]](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1491408111i/22407843.png)
lydamorehouse
was bringing her son Mason to visit UCLA and attend an Overwatch tournament. I have been showing them around and having an absolute blast. She also introduced me to Maureen McHugh, who lives in my neighborhood! I had no idea.
When I heard they were taking my recommendation to go to the Museum of Jurassic Technology, I decided they needed to have a thoroughly weird day and took them to Destroyer, LA's second-most avant-garde restaurant. It is across the street from Vespertine, which is a very strange wavy building run by the same chef, where they serve alien food for about $500. Reviews of Vespertine are equally split between "The greatest restaurant in America," "What the hell is this scam," and "The experience is great but the food doesn't quite live up to it." The Yelp reviews are a trip and include photos.
Destroyer serves very strange, very pretty, very expensive, very LA food which is also (mostly) legit delicious. Lyda was struck by an very pretty muffin-like object decorated with delicate sprigs of herb. When she asked what it was, the waiter said in rather warning tones, "It's a brioche. It's gluten-free." Sadly, the gluten-free brioche had the texture of a rock and bounced when we attempted to cut it.
The rest of the food was quite delicious, if odd. I inhaled my ash-roasted potatoes with poached egg, the spice cake was dense and tasty, and the chocolate mousse topped with cucumber-flavored snow was absolutely fantastic, complete with surprise crunchy streusel on the bottom.
See
lydamorehouse
for a description of the Museum of Jurassic Technology.
We then went to the Long Beach Aquarium. By then we were verging on hangry, so we went to a pleasant grassy area with a tiny train and a Ferris wheel going backwards, and I introduced them to the taco truck. Lyda had tacos, I had a quesadilla with carnitas, and Mason had the world's largest plate of chili fries. It made a nice pairing with Destroyer, and TBH was equally delicious if less photogenic.
I spent 3 1/2 hours observing leafy sea dragons, sea horses, gobis poking in and out of sand like cylindrical underwater gophers, a spider crab apparently earnestly attempting to communicate with me, a crab leisurely eating a clam, penguins having a poetry slam, bioluminescent comb jellies, lorikeets doing strange things with their heads and looking very dinosaur-like, moon jellyfish the size of a pinhead which visibly moved the same way as the hand-sized adults, sea otters rapidly revolving, and the only photo I took was this one of a flounder we watched for about 20 minutes:
comments
lydamorehouse
was bringing her son Mason to visit UCLA and attend an Overwatch tournament. I have been showing them around and having an absolute blast. She also introduced me to Maureen McHugh, who lives in my neighborhood! I had no idea. When I heard they were taking my recommendation to go to the Museum of Jurassic Technology, I decided they needed to have a thoroughly weird day and took them to Destroyer, LA's second-most avant-garde restaurant. It is across the street from Vespertine, which is a very strange wavy building run by the same chef, where they serve alien food for about $500. Reviews of Vespertine are equally split between "The greatest restaurant in America," "What the hell is this scam," and "The experience is great but the food doesn't quite live up to it." The Yelp reviews are a trip and include photos.
Destroyer serves very strange, very pretty, very expensive, very LA food which is also (mostly) legit delicious. Lyda was struck by an very pretty muffin-like object decorated with delicate sprigs of herb. When she asked what it was, the waiter said in rather warning tones, "It's a brioche. It's gluten-free." Sadly, the gluten-free brioche had the texture of a rock and bounced when we attempted to cut it.
The rest of the food was quite delicious, if odd. I inhaled my ash-roasted potatoes with poached egg, the spice cake was dense and tasty, and the chocolate mousse topped with cucumber-flavored snow was absolutely fantastic, complete with surprise crunchy streusel on the bottom.
See
lydamorehouse
for a description of the Museum of Jurassic Technology.We then went to the Long Beach Aquarium. By then we were verging on hangry, so we went to a pleasant grassy area with a tiny train and a Ferris wheel going backwards, and I introduced them to the taco truck. Lyda had tacos, I had a quesadilla with carnitas, and Mason had the world's largest plate of chili fries. It made a nice pairing with Destroyer, and TBH was equally delicious if less photogenic.
I spent 3 1/2 hours observing leafy sea dragons, sea horses, gobis poking in and out of sand like cylindrical underwater gophers, a spider crab apparently earnestly attempting to communicate with me, a crab leisurely eating a clam, penguins having a poetry slam, bioluminescent comb jellies, lorikeets doing strange things with their heads and looking very dinosaur-like, moon jellyfish the size of a pinhead which visibly moved the same way as the hand-sized adults, sea otters rapidly revolving, and the only photo I took was this one of a flounder we watched for about 20 minutes:
comments
August 16, 2019
Wait Till Helen Comes: A Ghost Story, by Mary Downing Hahn
A children’s book from the 80s which I somehow missed, as I missed everything by Hahn, but I have remedied this now thanks to recs from
sovay
and
skygiants
.
Like a Brady Bunch gone wrong, a blended family has been formed, consisting of Jean and her two children, 12-year-old Molly and 10-year-old Michael, and Dave and his 7-year-old daughter Heather, whose mother died in a fire when she was 3. Heather hates the entire idea, and takes her unhappiness out fighting with her new siblings and then blaming them.
Because nothing helps a difficult family dynamic like suddenly uprooting everyone and then isolating them together, the parents move them from Baltimore to a secluded church converted into a house, a mile from anywhere, complete with a graveyard in the backyard. This freaks out Molly to begin with, and she gets even more alarmed when Heather gets obsessed with the grave of a 7-year-old child—her age—marked only with the initials H.E.H—her initials.
When Molly spots Heather at the grave talking to an unseen person she calls Helen, Heather accuses her of spying and says threateningly, “Wait till Helen comes.”
AIEEEEEEE!
A very satisfying, eerie ghost story, playing on elements of grief, guilt, and family. Molly, not Heather, is the narrator, and once she realizes that Heather may be in as much or more danger as anyone, she’s put in the difficult position of trying to save someone she doesn’t like, who doesn’t like her and doesn’t want to be saved, when no one else even believes there’s a problem.
I was delighted to discover that many of Hahn’s books are currently in print. If you’ve read others, what do you recommend?
Wait Till Helen Comes: A Ghost Story[image error]
[image error] [image error]
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sovay
and
skygiants
.Like a Brady Bunch gone wrong, a blended family has been formed, consisting of Jean and her two children, 12-year-old Molly and 10-year-old Michael, and Dave and his 7-year-old daughter Heather, whose mother died in a fire when she was 3. Heather hates the entire idea, and takes her unhappiness out fighting with her new siblings and then blaming them.
Because nothing helps a difficult family dynamic like suddenly uprooting everyone and then isolating them together, the parents move them from Baltimore to a secluded church converted into a house, a mile from anywhere, complete with a graveyard in the backyard. This freaks out Molly to begin with, and she gets even more alarmed when Heather gets obsessed with the grave of a 7-year-old child—her age—marked only with the initials H.E.H—her initials.
When Molly spots Heather at the grave talking to an unseen person she calls Helen, Heather accuses her of spying and says threateningly, “Wait till Helen comes.”
AIEEEEEEE!
A very satisfying, eerie ghost story, playing on elements of grief, guilt, and family. Molly, not Heather, is the narrator, and once she realizes that Heather may be in as much or more danger as anyone, she’s put in the difficult position of trying to save someone she doesn’t like, who doesn’t like her and doesn’t want to be saved, when no one else even believes there’s a problem.
I was delighted to discover that many of Hahn’s books are currently in print. If you’ve read others, what do you recommend?
Wait Till Helen Comes: A Ghost Story[image error]
[image error] [image error]
comments
August 14, 2019
The Dogs, by Richard Calder (DNF); A Very Special Offer
If I'd opened The Dogs without seeing the cover or title, I would have assumed it was a mainstream novel about a college professor who experiences ennui and has an affair with a student. Here are a few typical quotes from the beginning.
Farrell's wife Hilary had pursued Bauer with the enthusiasm of a sportful porpoise.
He looked at her ass.
Sit on my face, Miss Lippman, and know the enamel reality of my teeth.
Then some dogs appear, thank God... or so I thought, until I was promptly flung into an extremely graphic dog sex scene which began with extremely graphic DOG WATERSPORTS. I have no idea where it ended, as I crammed the book into my airplane stuff holder and abandoned it there, hopefully to intrigue and then traumatize some curious flight attendant.
The Dogs [image error]
[image error] [image error]
Of course this is disappointing to me that all four of the ridiculous books I found proved unreadable. Perhaps it is disappointing to you too. And so I am giving you all a very special offer!
If you mail me a ridiculous pulp novel, I will at least attempt to read it and report back on my attempt, IF you follow the rules:
1. It must be or at least promise to be entertaining. I think you know what I mean by that. Terrible improving books also qualify (i.e., books purporting to warn about the dangers of Advanced D&D, etc).
2. You must provide a bonus/incentive with the book, i.e., jerky, unusual candy, a pretty card, art, coffee, another book, etc.
3. I have a short attention span so you must do this quickly, before I lose interest or get caught up in something else.
4. Email me at Rphoenix2@gmail.com and I'll give you a mailing address.
comments
Farrell's wife Hilary had pursued Bauer with the enthusiasm of a sportful porpoise.
He looked at her ass.
Sit on my face, Miss Lippman, and know the enamel reality of my teeth.
Then some dogs appear, thank God... or so I thought, until I was promptly flung into an extremely graphic dog sex scene which began with extremely graphic DOG WATERSPORTS. I have no idea where it ended, as I crammed the book into my airplane stuff holder and abandoned it there, hopefully to intrigue and then traumatize some curious flight attendant.
The Dogs [image error]
[image error] [image error]
Of course this is disappointing to me that all four of the ridiculous books I found proved unreadable. Perhaps it is disappointing to you too. And so I am giving you all a very special offer!
If you mail me a ridiculous pulp novel, I will at least attempt to read it and report back on my attempt, IF you follow the rules:
1. It must be or at least promise to be entertaining. I think you know what I mean by that. Terrible improving books also qualify (i.e., books purporting to warn about the dangers of Advanced D&D, etc).
2. You must provide a bonus/incentive with the book, i.e., jerky, unusual candy, a pretty card, art, coffee, another book, etc.
3. I have a short attention span so you must do this quickly, before I lose interest or get caught up in something else.
4. Email me at Rphoenix2@gmail.com and I'll give you a mailing address.
comments
August 13, 2019
Wildcat Under Glass, by Alki Zei (translation: Edward Fenton)
A classic Greek children's novel from 1963 about a little girl living in Greece when it goes under a fascist dictatorship in the 1930s, written by a woman who had that exact experience.
Melia and her older sister lead a relatively carefree life, bored when they're stuck inside in the rain and delighted when their uncle Niko spins tales of the stuffed wildcat they have in a glass case, until the fascists take over and Niko becomes a rebel, her sister joins the Youth Fascist League, Melia is stuck in between, and the wildcat takes on both a real and metaphoric life of its own.
The earlier sections focus on the real details of a specific childhood; the later ones are more event-based about "this is what happens under a dictatorship." I was expecting things to get a lot more catastrophic and tragic than they actually did.
( Read more... )
I feel a bit philistine for saying so, as it's obviously an Important Book, I didn't find it terribly memorable purely as a reading experience. I read it because I'm trying to read books that have been sitting on my shelves for ages and I have no idea why I even have them. In this case I suspect that the cover made me think it was about either a living or a magical wildcat. Generally I avoid Important Books for children about historical events, as I very rarely enjoy them.
Wildcat under glass[image error]
[image error] [image error]
comments
Melia and her older sister lead a relatively carefree life, bored when they're stuck inside in the rain and delighted when their uncle Niko spins tales of the stuffed wildcat they have in a glass case, until the fascists take over and Niko becomes a rebel, her sister joins the Youth Fascist League, Melia is stuck in between, and the wildcat takes on both a real and metaphoric life of its own.
The earlier sections focus on the real details of a specific childhood; the later ones are more event-based about "this is what happens under a dictatorship." I was expecting things to get a lot more catastrophic and tragic than they actually did.
( Read more... )
I feel a bit philistine for saying so, as it's obviously an Important Book, I didn't find it terribly memorable purely as a reading experience. I read it because I'm trying to read books that have been sitting on my shelves for ages and I have no idea why I even have them. In this case I suspect that the cover made me think it was about either a living or a magical wildcat. Generally I avoid Important Books for children about historical events, as I very rarely enjoy them.
Wildcat under glass[image error]
[image error] [image error]
comments
August 12, 2019
Alex inspects my dry hair
OK, you're cleared to go out:
comments
My New Book: Defender Cave Bear
Two damaged people. One deadly enemy.
And a pair of hell-raising flying kittens....
I have a new book out, under my pen name Zoe Chant. It's a publicly known pen name so it's OK to link me to it.
It's a spinoff from my Protection, Inc. series and is ideally read after the final book of that, Top Gun Tiger. However, it's the first book of a new series and should stand on its own.
I hope readers have even half the amount of fun reading it that I did writing it. I consulted my id and decided that what it really wanted was hurt-comfort, flying kittens, miniature flying ponies, dollhouses, and dinosaurs. So if you like any of those things, enjoy!
It's $2.99 on Amazon. If you would like an epub, please Paypal that amount to Rphoenix2@hotmail.com (not gmail) and I will send you one. If you would like a free copy, please email me at Rphoenix2@gmail (not hotmail! these are two different email addresses) and let me know what format you'd prefer, and I'll send it to you.
Tirzah hacked into a shady agency’s computers to get proof of their evil deeds...and uncovered a secret so wild it can’t possibly be real.
Shapeshifting supersoldiers on the run from their creators? A lab studying captive mythical creatures? It has to be some bored employee’s fantasy novel. Right?
Then the flying kitten turns up. And the assassins. And the gargoyles.
But just because Tirzah uses a wheelchair doesn’t mean she’s helpless. Okay, so some secret organization is gunning for her? She’s going to gun right back... and she knows exactly who can help her. If she can track him down...
Pete was once a Recon Marine. That was before he was abducted and turned into a monster. Now he's escaped his prison... but in his heart, he’s still in chains.
It’s not just his ferocious cave bear he has to hide. For the safety of everyone - his team of misfit shifters, his family, and especially his thirteen-year-old daughter - no one can discover what his captors did to him.
He can’t let himself get close to anyone.
Until the most gorgeous woman he’s ever seen hacks her way through all his defenses, to offer him a job he can’t refuse...
Defender Cave Bear (Protection, Inc: Defenders Book 1)[image error]
[image error] [image error]
Cover by Augusta Scarlett (aka
telophase
).
comments
And a pair of hell-raising flying kittens....
I have a new book out, under my pen name Zoe Chant. It's a publicly known pen name so it's OK to link me to it.
It's a spinoff from my Protection, Inc. series and is ideally read after the final book of that, Top Gun Tiger. However, it's the first book of a new series and should stand on its own.
I hope readers have even half the amount of fun reading it that I did writing it. I consulted my id and decided that what it really wanted was hurt-comfort, flying kittens, miniature flying ponies, dollhouses, and dinosaurs. So if you like any of those things, enjoy!
It's $2.99 on Amazon. If you would like an epub, please Paypal that amount to Rphoenix2@hotmail.com (not gmail) and I will send you one. If you would like a free copy, please email me at Rphoenix2@gmail (not hotmail! these are two different email addresses) and let me know what format you'd prefer, and I'll send it to you.
Tirzah hacked into a shady agency’s computers to get proof of their evil deeds...and uncovered a secret so wild it can’t possibly be real.
Shapeshifting supersoldiers on the run from their creators? A lab studying captive mythical creatures? It has to be some bored employee’s fantasy novel. Right?
Then the flying kitten turns up. And the assassins. And the gargoyles.
But just because Tirzah uses a wheelchair doesn’t mean she’s helpless. Okay, so some secret organization is gunning for her? She’s going to gun right back... and she knows exactly who can help her. If she can track him down...
Pete was once a Recon Marine. That was before he was abducted and turned into a monster. Now he's escaped his prison... but in his heart, he’s still in chains.
It’s not just his ferocious cave bear he has to hide. For the safety of everyone - his team of misfit shifters, his family, and especially his thirteen-year-old daughter - no one can discover what his captors did to him.
He can’t let himself get close to anyone.
Until the most gorgeous woman he’s ever seen hacks her way through all his defenses, to offer him a job he can’t refuse...
Defender Cave Bear (Protection, Inc: Defenders Book 1)[image error]
[image error] [image error]
Cover by Augusta Scarlett (aka
telophase
). comments
August 11, 2019
comments
August 9, 2019
Agnes and the Hitman, by Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer
Back from a trip, back to reviewing everything I read. Amnesty on stuff I read while I was away, though I read this one on the plane.
Agnes is a southern food writer with a history of whacking cheating boyfriends over the head with a frying pan. While preparing to host a wedding at her house, a dognapper invades her kitchen and gets whacked over the head with a frying pan. An incredibly tangled farrago of hijinks ensues, including but definitely not limited to a hot hitman named Shane, a lot of mobsters, a hidden bomb shelter, and a pair of flamingos.
I love Jennifer Crusie's solo romances, but had previously failed to get into her co-written books. I made a more determined attempt at this one, finished it, and realized that there was a reason I had failed to get into her co-written books.
This is kind of a strange book on its own, and a really strange book if you're familiar with Crusie's other work. A lot of it is really, really funny in the usual Crusie style, and she's often tended toward baroquely complicated plots with large ensemble casts and thriller elements. What Bob Mayer apparently added was a bunch of very standard-for-thriller action sequences, even more baroquely complicated plotting, a lot of gross male gazeyness which is the opposite of how Crusie normally writes, and off-putting graphic violence.
This produced a book that sometimes plays the violence seriously and is a pitch-black comedy, and sometimes doesn't and is a comedy with thriller aspects. It's also got a ton of "bitch" and "whore" and "slut," mostly played straight - again, not what I expect from Crusie. For me, the result was really off-putting and also was the first Crusie book I've ever read in which I didn't like the characters.
I see it has acquired the dreaded "a novel:"
Agnes and the Hitman: A Novel[image error]
[image error] [image error]
comments
Agnes is a southern food writer with a history of whacking cheating boyfriends over the head with a frying pan. While preparing to host a wedding at her house, a dognapper invades her kitchen and gets whacked over the head with a frying pan. An incredibly tangled farrago of hijinks ensues, including but definitely not limited to a hot hitman named Shane, a lot of mobsters, a hidden bomb shelter, and a pair of flamingos.
I love Jennifer Crusie's solo romances, but had previously failed to get into her co-written books. I made a more determined attempt at this one, finished it, and realized that there was a reason I had failed to get into her co-written books.
This is kind of a strange book on its own, and a really strange book if you're familiar with Crusie's other work. A lot of it is really, really funny in the usual Crusie style, and she's often tended toward baroquely complicated plots with large ensemble casts and thriller elements. What Bob Mayer apparently added was a bunch of very standard-for-thriller action sequences, even more baroquely complicated plotting, a lot of gross male gazeyness which is the opposite of how Crusie normally writes, and off-putting graphic violence.
This produced a book that sometimes plays the violence seriously and is a pitch-black comedy, and sometimes doesn't and is a comedy with thriller aspects. It's also got a ton of "bitch" and "whore" and "slut," mostly played straight - again, not what I expect from Crusie. For me, the result was really off-putting and also was the first Crusie book I've ever read in which I didn't like the characters.
I see it has acquired the dreaded "a novel:"
Agnes and the Hitman: A Novel[image error]
[image error] [image error]
comments
