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carriagelamp · 1 year ago

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A combined May and June book list because work was too busy for me to have any extra time or energy for reading. Now that things have slackened a bit though I've been able to start picking up more things! It feels so good to sit down with a book again and just read for the pure joy of it. Still, despite a lack of time I did read a few really cute books over the past couple months.

Doctor Who: 13 Doctors 13 Stories

A collection of Doctor Who short stories that was honestly just a lot of fun. Each story features a different Doctor, so by the end you’ve had one story for each of the Doctors that there’s been so far. Since I’m primarily familiar with NuWho and only have only seen/read a handful of Classic Who stories, this was a fun way to get to know them and their companions a bit better. I don’t think there was a single story I disliked! Though the one that amused me the most (even if it wasn’t necessarily the “best” in the collection) was probably “The Nameless City” because the idea of a Doctor Who / Cthuhlu crossover is way too funny. The Doctor throwing the Necronomicon across the Tardis? Outstanding, no notes.

Charlotte’s Web

A classic that I feel the need to reread every few years. It really is the perfect spring novel, and it made a very comforting read this May. Now that I’ve read E B White’s other children’s novels, I can now say without a doubt that Charlotte’s Web is the best of the lot. It feels like a more tightly written, cohesive and compelling story than either Stuart Little or The Trumpet of the Swan. White's writing just draws your right in, his descriptions, the way he'll wind you through these leisurely lists of details, the way every thing feels new and special and comfortable... it's impossible not to feel content while reading.

For those who have never read Charlotte’s Web, it’s a story about a pig called Wilbur, who is saved from being killed as the runt of the litter by Fern. Her parents allow Fern to raise the pig, and eventually Wilbur goes to live in her uncle’s barn. After he learns that he will most certainly be killed for meat in the autumn, his animal friends — particularly the clever and beautiful spider called Charlotte — start hatching a plan to save Wilbur’s life.

Enemies

I’ve read the other Berrybrook Middle School books written by Svetlana Chmakova and by and large I've enjoyed them, but I have to admit they’re wearing a bit thin for me (Brave was definitely the peak of the series for me). Which isn’t the fault of Chmakova! She draws nice stories that have good themes and morals for that age group, they tackle very relevant social problems kid that age might go through. But as an adult, this one in particular felt profoundly middle school.

In this book, Felicity is struggling with the fact that she never seems to “finish” anything while her sister seems to be good at everything and impresses everyone. Felicity is struggling to learn how to balance the importance of going at your own pace versus sticking with something to meet obligations versus asking for help when you need it. During all this Felicity struggles with friendships that have faded and may even be getting worse — how easy is it to make enemies and how does one fix that?

The Innocence of Father Brown

I’ve been wanting a good cosy murder mystery and I’ve always heard good things about Father Brown so I decided to give the first collection a try. It was pretty darn good! Father Brown is an unassuming little Catholic priest who appears to bumble his way good-naturedly through life. However between his keen ability to observe and appreciate every day life mixed with the fact that a man who hears Confessions gets exposed to the way of the criminal mind, me makes an astounding detective. No one expects anything of him until he absolutely dazzles with his observations and connections. His nemesis-cum-bestie Flambeau is stupendous and I love him.

The religious fervor / aggression / intolerance of any slight deviations is a bit trying though and definitely dates the stories… I would be interested in trying another book to see if that’s toned down. Or maybe even watching one of the modern adaptations since I suspect they would chill out that a little on the blatant xenophobia. Makes me long for good old Father Mulcahy.

The Hardy Boys: The House on the Cliff

I never read The Hardy Boys as a kid but I feel in my heart that I would have loved them. This book was a fun detective story about the Hardy brothers initially attempting to stake out a group of smugglers, only to stumble across a seemingly haunted house and the sudden kidnapping of their father. The peril mounts and they need to rely on their friends to foil the plot. My only complaint is that it lays the whole "wholesome 1950s" schtick on pretty thick. I would really like to try reading the original 1930s version before it was toned down… except it’s damnably hard to find. I think if I had gotten this as a kid it would have scratched a similar itch to Tintin.

Hazel’s Shadow

A thrilling YA survival horror! It combines some neat, unexpected elements to make a really intriguing, fast-paced horror story that is part haunted house and part zombie plague survival.

Hazel has always been able to see ghosts, every since she was a child, and they don’t particularly worry her... they don't except for one creature — a horrible, black shadow — that lurks in her grandmother’s house and seems to haunt her every step, leering and waiting as her grandmother gradually grows sicker and sicker. Hazel would have thought that this would be her biggest concern until what starts as a localized fear suddenly seems to spread, turning the recently deceased into mindless, unfeeling monsters, hellbent on destroying any living person they can get, to kill them and turn them into one of them. Hazel and a small group of fellow classmates are at school when this happens, and find themselves — and a pair of ghosts — needed to band together to survive and possibly to face the horror that’s been haunting Hazel.

American Girls: Kit Saves The Day

I’ve often heard that these American Girl books are actually really good so I grabbed one from the library. And dang, people weren’t kidding, I was really impressed at how much nuance they fit into such a short book written for such a young audience. Kit Saves The Day is about a girl whose family is living through the Great Depression. It shows the life she has to live in order to help make ends meet and how its different from the life she once knew. Her understanding is expanded when she meets a young “hobo” who rides the rails and is invited to help with the family's gardening in exchange for food.

My Dress-Up Darling v2

A ridiculous series that’s just a little addictive. It's about a student, Wakana, who is trying to follow in his grandfather’s footsteps of becoming a doll maker, and is passionate and skilled at creating the costumes and accessories that goes with them. When popular, trendy Marin catches him at it, he’s sure he’s going to be humiliated… until he finds out that she’s passionate about cosplay and really wants to try cosplaying her favourite character but doesn’t have the skill to make the costume. The two end up teaming up to bring that dream to life. It’s charming and pretty and just the right amount of fanservice-y mixed with more technical aspects that keep it interesting.

Torchwood Tales

Short stories have been great for me lately — I’ve been so busy at work that they let me sample a bunch of different adventures without demanding too much time or attention — and this audio collection was a godsend. Like the Doctor Who collection, this one features a variety of exciting stories set in the Torchwood universe. I really enjoyed the first half of the stories, but honestly the second half didn’t quite do it for me. My favourite thing about Torchwood is the team dynamics, and the last four stories were set late enough in the series that they were mostly down to only Gwen or Jack… who I love in tandem with the other characters but am less interested in as solo agents. “Everyone Says Hello”, “Department X” and “Ghost Train” were probably my favourites because it really let a group of character bounce of each other in funny ways as they try to solve whatever absolute weirdness is going down. Rhys getting to the be the "most important man on Earth" for a story was such a pure delight!

Up To No Gouda // Cheddar Late Than Dead

Wow. This series. Was a disappointment. As I said with Father Brown, I was in the mood for some “cosy murder mysteries” and stumbled across this completely by accident. The concept of grilled-cheese-themed murder mysteries paired with the hilarious awful puns made me certain that this was going to be a fun series. It must, I naively told myself, be at least somewhat self-aware and probably have a humour/parody bend to it. I could not have been more wrong. This may have a negative amount of humour. I think every time it tried to be funny is actively sucked mirth and enjoyment out of the air.

This series is about the whitest woman in existence, who is so blandly pleasant that it made the 1950s Hardy Boys edgy in comparison, who goes through life running her grilled cheese restaurant, banally making uninteresting conversation with everyone (who apparently feels compelled to answer her incredibly dumb, probing questions), and brownnosing the cops so hard I might almost call it indecent if it were for the fact that this book even censored the term “that sucks” in reference to something being disappointing.

Nothing happens. Midsomer Murders is the perfect example of how I want this sort of small town murder mystery to go: it should have an at least somewhat interesting detective character, completely fucking mental background characters who make things more difficult than they should be, and an absolute pile of dead bodies by the end. I want the first corpse in the first five minutes and a steady bodycount from then out. It took an hour before the book’s one single death and I had to listen to this woman talk about cheese until then. The deaths weren’t even gruesome.

Why did I read two of these dumb books? Because I started with the third in the series (Cheddar Late Than Dead) and it was juuuuust interesting enough that I thought that maybe the author had run out of steam by this point and that the debut might be better. It was somehow the inverse and the first was EVEN MORE BORING.

I can’t emphasize enough how much she doesn’t do anything. It does not feel like anyone is investigating anything. Most of the story is absolutely unrelated small town nonsense that doesn’t even manage to be properly charming. Most boring murder imaginable. This is a Hallmark murder mystery. Do not read these. They're not even bad enough to be funny.

Wind Rider: Rescue on Turtle Beach

A charming little introductory book to a new series. Wind Rider is about a pair of kids who find a small, abandoned ship wrecked on the shore… but which suddenly transports them across the world and becomes not only whole and seaworthy, but also capable of sailing itself. The kids go on an adventure to Hawaii where they help save some endangered sea turtles. Reading it as an adult it was fairly dull, but I can see how it would appeal to the intended age group. It had nice art and decent facts about endangered animals. It feels like it’s trying to be a new, nature-conservation-themed Magic Tree House. ...Which might be one of the reasons I wasn't that into it, I felt like I could have gone to read Magic Tree House and had a better time of it.

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