How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix
Welcome to Talking Time's third iteration! If you would like to register for an account, or have already registered but have not yet been confirmed, please read the following:
Once you have completed these steps, Moderation Staff will be able to get your account approved.
I was not a fan, but, with the exception of some short story collections, I am done with his back list (unless I do want to read Rose Madder in the future). Moving on, Murder Your Employer by Rupert Holmes looks like it could be funThe Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King
I was lucky to get this from the library right when it came out and really loved it.Yesterday I finished Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands , Kate Beaton's graphic novel memoir of her time working in the Alberta oil industry. Many of you might know Beaton as the author of the webcomic Hark! A Vagrant. This is her first full-length adult work and it's a really beautiful and melancholy look at the human toll that a terrible industry - and the terrible economic conditions that enable it - takes on its workers
Highly recommend, and it's a fairly quick read. Much darker than her other work, although it still finds moments for humour. Content warning for sexual assault though
I'm on the second book in the series now (A Closed and Common Orbit). While I'm a little upset that it doesn't seem like we'll be spending more time withJust read Becky Chambers' The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet and really enjoyed it. There isn't so much of a plot as a whole book of character development and worldbuilding, which it turns out I was fine with! And there's so much friggin' heart in this book. I'm really glad there are two more books that follow this one, because I want to spend more time in this universe.
Have you read Iron Widow yet? That's my go to "less heavy" recommendation and has been for a year or two. It's so good.Finally finished The Wind Won't Know Me, a really hard and depressing read about the land battles between the Navajo and Hopi nations about their reservations. Hoping to read something less heavy next.
"Everything meant something, still, some meanings were revealed sooner than others. And that some were seemingly never revealed in no way disproved the fact."
The moment March Wildspring spotted the corpses, he launched himself across the mortuary chamber. He had aimed for the first, but with suit jets wide open he missed it and caught the third, flattening himself against it and rolling over with it so that it lay upon him.
Bullets would have gotten him; but this was a serrated blade pivoting from a crevice in the wall. Had it hit, it would have shredded his suit somewhere near the waist.
He would have suffocated before he froze. The thought failed to comfort him as he huddled under the freeze-dried corpse and strove not to look into its eyes.
“His stories were what frightened people worst of all. Dreadful stories they were--about hanging, and walking the plank, and storms at sea, and the Dry Tortugas, and wild deeds and places on the Spanish Main. By his own account he must have lived his life among some of the wickedest men that God ever allowed upon the sea, and the language in which he told these stories shocked our plain country people almost as much as the crimes that he described. My father was always saying the inn would be ruined, for people would soon cease coming there to be tyrannized over and put down, and sent shivering to their beds; but I really believe his presence did us good. People were frightened at the time, but on looking back they rather liked it; it was a fine excitement in a quiet country life, and there was even a party of the younger men who pretended to admire him, calling him a "true sea-dog" and a "real old salt" and such like names, and saying there was the sort of man that made England terrible at sea.”
I was right! It left me wanting more. Definitely enjoyed the book, wish I'd gotten to spend more time in its world. If they made a sequel I wouldn't be mad!Started the new graphic novel Danger and Other Unknown Risks from Ryan North and Erica Henderson last night. Very good so far! I can already tell it's going to leave me wanting more.
My son and I have been on a Roald Dahl kick lately, reading through George's Marvelous Medicine, James and the Giant Peach and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory back-to-back. One the one hand, it has been a super fun experience, since he's at the right age to be delighted by the incredible humor and imagination in Dahl's writing. On the other, as a parent, I've had to take a few breaks to explain some of the more problematic stuff, which so far has mostly been centered on Dahl's raging fatphobia. I know he was pretty racist in real life, and thankfully that doesn't always come through in the text (at least not on a surface level), but holy shit does the man hate fat people. The stories are also a little meaner than contemporary kids' fiction - James' cruel aunts get crushed to death by the peach and everyone cheers - but I can't say I totally mind that part. Kids can be mean, and adults can be mean, and I think it's OK to show that in fiction sometimes. But I've heard Witches is among the more anti-semetic of his books, so I'm curious to know if that was blatant enough for your daughter to notice.Oh, and I finished up Dahl's The Witches, reading to our daughter at bedtime. Was fun doing voices for the grandma & the Grand High Witch, and I like that it ends on a bittersweet note.
There was definitely some fatphobia with the treatment of the other boy, but I didn't catch blatant antisemitism with the Witches themselves. I thought the witches had more Romani traits than Jewish, but I'm neither so can't speak for experience. I've seen people compare the witches' crusade to Blood Libel accusations, but many of the other allegations are just based on the movies' interpretations.My son and I have been on a Roald Dahl kick lately, reading through George's Marvelous Medicine, James and the Giant Peach and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory back-to-back. One the one hand, it has been a super fun experience, since he's at the right age to be delighted by the incredible humor and imagination in Dahl's writing. On the other, as a parent, I've had to take a few breaks to explain some of the more problematic stuff, which so far has mostly been centered on Dahl's raging fatphobia. I know he was pretty racist in real life, and thankfully that doesn't always come through in the text (at least not on a surface level), but holy shit does the man hate fat people. The stories are also a little meaner than contemporary kids' fiction - James' cruel aunts get crushed to death by the peach and everyone cheers - but I can't say I totally mind that part. Kids can be mean, and adults can be mean, and I think it's OK to show that in fiction sometimes. But I've heard Witches is among the more anti-semetic of his books, so I'm curious to know if that was blatant enough for your daughter to notice.
The Alloy of Law was great. Will definitely keep reading the series. I DNFed the Spielberg, because I'll wait until he's passed on for a more complete story. Now, reading Cinema Speculation by Quentin Tarantino and The Master and Margarita by Mikhail BulgakovAnnihilation was great, my favorite Star Wars EU book so far. Now reading The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson and Steven Spielberg: A Biography by Joseph McBride
But I've heard Witches is among the more anti-semetic of his books, so I'm curious to know if that was blatant enough for your daughter to notice.
It's been a while but I don't remember anything antisemitic in the book. I'm glad to see there's nothing about that in the edits. This of course doesn't mean there would be something but I will note that it doesn't seem like anything is blatant.I looked at some of the proposed changes, and at least as far as The Witches was concerned, it wasn't a major change in my opinion.
The nine-year-old boy was seated before an enormous television set, with his eyes glued to the screen, and he was watching a film in which one bunch of gangsters was shooting up another bunch of gangsters with machine guns. Mike Teavee himself had no less than eighteen toy pistols of various sizes hanging from belts around his body, and every now and again he would leap up into the air and fire off half a dozen rounds from one or another of these weapons.
to
The nine-year-old boy was seated before an enormous television set, with his eyes glued to the screen, and he was watching a film in which one bunch of gangsters was shooting up another bunch of gangsters.
I think they just don't want to glorify a child shooting guns in the air like it's a fun activity, even if they're just toys. I imagine that when he wrote that in the early 60's, British kids didn't have access to actual guns, whereas even though there's still gun control prohibiting access to handguns, it's probably much easier for them to find.There are a bunch in there I don't quite get, but I'm really confused by this one. The whole point is he's a violent kid from watching too much TV, taking that last sentence out is removing a line that gives you a lot more detail about the character. I would have thought it was editing out all the gun violence but they left that in? What am I missing here?
Aw, this isn't at my library yet. Sounds really fun though, I filled out the suggested purchase form for it.I was right! It left me wanting more. Definitely enjoyed the book, wish I'd gotten to spend more time in its world. If they made a sequel I wouldn't be mad!
Ooh, yeah that makes sense.I think they just don't want to glorify a child shooting guns in the air like it's a fun activity, even if they're just toys. I imagine that when he wrote that in the early 60's, British kids didn't have access to actual guns, whereas even though there's still gun control prohibiting access to handguns, it's probably much easier for them to find.
Tender Land was a bit better, but this got me in the mood to revisit one of my favorite coming of age stories, which I haven't read in over 20 years: Boys Life by Robert McCammon. Also, reading The Making of The Empire Strikes Back by J.W. RinzlerOrdinary Grace by William Kent Krueger. I loved his This Tender Land back in '21.
Started the third of these, Record of a Spaceborn Few, a couple nights ago. So far so good!I'm on the second book in the series now (A Closed and Common Orbit). While I'm a little upset that it doesn't seem like we'll be spending more time withDoctor Chefthe whole original crew, I'm looking forward to more regardless.