soph (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sophia_sol) wrote2014-02-27 09:36 pm
sophia_sol) wrote2014-02-27 09:36 pm
Entry tags:
- anent: book thoughts 1,
- author: emily carr,
- author: mary roach,
- author: morgan keyes,
- book theme: canada,
- book theme: fantasy,
- book theme: historical nonfiction,
- book theme: history (modernish when writ,
- book theme: kidlit,
- book theme: memoir,
- book theme: nonfiction,
- book theme: short stories,
- pub date: 1941,
- pub date: 2010,
- pub date: 2012,
- rating: **,
- rating: *****
more books! from the library this time!
YOU GUYS I WENT TO THE LIBRARY AND GOT OUT BOOKS. This...should not be as unusual as it is. For the past I don't even want to know how long, I've been almost exclusively reading either a) books off my bookshelf, b) books off my sister's bookshelf, c) books my sister got out of the library for herself, or d) books I borrowed from other people. NO MORE. I HAVE THE POWER TO SEEK OUT NEW BOOKS ON MY OWN. Once upon a time I was at the library every single week......... those days are long past but maybe a new era is dawning? Where I go to the library maybe once every couple months? That seems reasonable.
Here are some of the books I got out and proceeded to read!
Darkbeast, by Morgan Keyes
Alas this was not as good as I was hoping. Oh, it's written competently enough and has some interesting ideas, but... the overall theme of the novel is not, I think, quite what the author was intending.
The central conceit of this book is that all children are bound at birth to their "darkbeast" - some sort of animal with which they can telepathically communicate, and whose role is to take away their negative feelings and behaviours. So for example if a little girl gets angry her parent would tell her to "take it to your darkbeast" and she'd tell her darkbeast about what had happened and the darkbeast replies "I take your anger. It is mine." And the darkbeast magic that happens when it says this means girl gets a lovely floaty happy feeling.
But then when you're 12 years old you are expected to kill your darkbeast (leaving behind your childhood flaws!) and then you are an adult. And the main character of the book refuses to kill her darkbeast.
I think the point the book is trying to make is one about the strong emotional connection and understanding between a child and their darkbeast, and how the darkbeast is a living, thinking being that doesn't deserve to be killed? But there's some weird emphasis in the key scenes of how good that feeling is that you get when your darkbeast takes your negative behaviour. And so it ends up coming across like the people who choose not to kill their darkbeasts are doing it because they're...basically drug addicts or something. That it's because they want that feeling, not because of any emotional connection or higher moral reasoning. And that kind of disturbs me, since the book is clearly on the side of not killing one's darkbeast!
(also I gotta say that although the main character said Vala was her friend, I certainly never got much of that feeling. And also ugh a book that ends in a way that does nothing but set up a sequel instead of having a satisfying conclusion of its own is ANNOYING.)
Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void, by Mary Roach
Hilarious and informative! And also gosh I never ever want to be an astronaut. Thankfully I didn't as a kid either so I'm not crushing any childhood dreams for myself. :P
My favourite thing about this book was the way it brought to light all sorts of tiny details you wouldn't think of as being an issue when in space - like not being able to tell when you need to pee! And also hilarious historical details like how in the 1960s they were concerned with figuring out what animals to take to space with you for food because obviously your diet needs to include a large quantity of fresh meat.
(it still astonishes me that humanity was able to successfully travel to the moon and back with SIXTIES TECHNOLOGY. How????)
Klee Wyck, by Emily Carr
Emily Carr is a relatively well-known Canadian painter who was from the same era as the Group of Seven (and was actually connected with them). Carr painted wonderfully evocative paintings, and it's a delight to discover that she also writes wonderfully evocatively. She has a good feel for what details will really bring a scene to life, and her use of language backs it up well.
This book is a series of "sketches" from her life on the west coast of Canada, not in any particular order, chronological or otherwise. Each sketch stands on its own but they build together into a bigger picture. She doesn't bother to give you background details about the general shape of her life or anything like that - she just tells you what's relevant for the particular sketch in question. It's an unusual way of writing a memoir, but I really like it. At the end of the book I had something like an idea of what was important to her in her life and frankly that's what matters.
Klee Wyck is also interesting because it's pretty much entirely a book about her interactions with the first nations peoples of the west coast - and occasionally some implicit or explicit disapproval of the way the missionaries and other white people think about them and treat them.
All in all a great book. I'm glad I got around to picking it up!
Here are some of the books I got out and proceeded to read!
Darkbeast, by Morgan Keyes
Alas this was not as good as I was hoping. Oh, it's written competently enough and has some interesting ideas, but... the overall theme of the novel is not, I think, quite what the author was intending.
The central conceit of this book is that all children are bound at birth to their "darkbeast" - some sort of animal with which they can telepathically communicate, and whose role is to take away their negative feelings and behaviours. So for example if a little girl gets angry her parent would tell her to "take it to your darkbeast" and she'd tell her darkbeast about what had happened and the darkbeast replies "I take your anger. It is mine." And the darkbeast magic that happens when it says this means girl gets a lovely floaty happy feeling.
But then when you're 12 years old you are expected to kill your darkbeast (leaving behind your childhood flaws!) and then you are an adult. And the main character of the book refuses to kill her darkbeast.
I think the point the book is trying to make is one about the strong emotional connection and understanding between a child and their darkbeast, and how the darkbeast is a living, thinking being that doesn't deserve to be killed? But there's some weird emphasis in the key scenes of how good that feeling is that you get when your darkbeast takes your negative behaviour. And so it ends up coming across like the people who choose not to kill their darkbeasts are doing it because they're...basically drug addicts or something. That it's because they want that feeling, not because of any emotional connection or higher moral reasoning. And that kind of disturbs me, since the book is clearly on the side of not killing one's darkbeast!
(also I gotta say that although the main character said Vala was her friend, I certainly never got much of that feeling. And also ugh a book that ends in a way that does nothing but set up a sequel instead of having a satisfying conclusion of its own is ANNOYING.)
Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void, by Mary Roach
Hilarious and informative! And also gosh I never ever want to be an astronaut. Thankfully I didn't as a kid either so I'm not crushing any childhood dreams for myself. :P
My favourite thing about this book was the way it brought to light all sorts of tiny details you wouldn't think of as being an issue when in space - like not being able to tell when you need to pee! And also hilarious historical details like how in the 1960s they were concerned with figuring out what animals to take to space with you for food because obviously your diet needs to include a large quantity of fresh meat.
(it still astonishes me that humanity was able to successfully travel to the moon and back with SIXTIES TECHNOLOGY. How????)
Klee Wyck, by Emily Carr
Emily Carr is a relatively well-known Canadian painter who was from the same era as the Group of Seven (and was actually connected with them). Carr painted wonderfully evocative paintings, and it's a delight to discover that she also writes wonderfully evocatively. She has a good feel for what details will really bring a scene to life, and her use of language backs it up well.
This book is a series of "sketches" from her life on the west coast of Canada, not in any particular order, chronological or otherwise. Each sketch stands on its own but they build together into a bigger picture. She doesn't bother to give you background details about the general shape of her life or anything like that - she just tells you what's relevant for the particular sketch in question. It's an unusual way of writing a memoir, but I really like it. At the end of the book I had something like an idea of what was important to her in her life and frankly that's what matters.
Klee Wyck is also interesting because it's pretty much entirely a book about her interactions with the first nations peoples of the west coast - and occasionally some implicit or explicit disapproval of the way the missionaries and other white people think about them and treat them.
All in all a great book. I'm glad I got around to picking it up!
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