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larryhammerReading, Wednesday, sometimes those go together:
Finished:
Ivy + Bean Take the Case, Ivy + Bean book 10, Annie Barrows, which ends even more oddly than typical for this series. It also, in various ways, contradicts details set up early on. Still excellent. Am looking forward to the publication in a few weeks, after a few years' gap, of book 11.
Dory Fantasmagory books 1-3, words and pictures by Abby Hanlon -- Also read aloud to TBD after listening to the audiobooks, and THIS series really gains by having the illustrations as the story segues in and out of cartoon format (with clever background details to track). Six-year-old Dory is the youngest of three children, is a little on the young side emotionally, and has an imagination on overdrive. Funny stuff, and I have sympathy both for Dory wanting more attention and the family who finds her a pain to deal with. Her monster friends are great, and the wonderfully named Mrs. Gobble Gracker is a worthy nemesis. Significantly, requests for bedtime stories featuring Dory & Co. ramped up QUICKLY. There is a book 4 out, a tooth-fairy adventure, but the library inexplicably only has the audiobook.
Harriet the Invincible, Hamster Princess book 1, Ursula Vernon -- Earlier this year, I read aloud the first one and a third of Vernon's Danny Dragonbreath books, but TBD didn't really take to them, and given her style here is more knowing than Ivy + Bean or Dory (and requires genre-savvy readers), I was surpised that TBD was eager to finish this and wants the next book. Entertaining for me, regardless, and I like that the narrative does call out Harriet's both good and bad traits.
In progress:
The Avalon of Five Elements, Fang Xiang -- Bound, bound, bounding along, and every so often the story takes a slingshot curve I just didn't expect. I'd like it if the protagonist was a little more serious about the teacher-student relationship, especially after his relationship with his own teacher. Up to chapter 358 or so.
On hold:
Princess Weiyang (translated under the title of its drama adaptation, the original title being 庶女有毒 "Poisonous Concubine's Daughter"), Qin Jian (秦简) -- A historical novel (as in actual-historical, set in the Northern Wei kingdom, and initially appearing in print) with a protagonist who, after being horribly killed, is transmigrated into her early teenage self and so given a life do-over. She has two new life goals: 1) never ever become Empress ever again and 2) REVENGE!!! against everyone who done/is redoing her wrong -- and since she spent almost a decade as Princess and Empress in her first go round, before being deposed in favor of her half-sister, she has both Imperial-Palace-level revenging skills and a lot of people to take down. Weiyang does not have much personality -- but then, neither does Edmond Dantès -- plus I have a little trouble believing that her father is quite this stupidly inflexible, given he's survived several years as Prime Minister. Otherwise, the scheming is quite entertaining. Caught up with the translation at chapter 101 (out of 293), and at this point I'm guessing the climax will make the results of the succession disputes of 452 C.E. line up with our history, unlike as in Weiyang's first lifetime.
Looking through NovelUpdates, I see several similarly sized books with similar premises, some with translations almost complete. Game on!
DNF:
Into the World of Medicine (穿越之医倾天下, later retitled Divine Doctor Noble Lady: Evil Emperor, Stop Pestering Me (神医贵女:邪皇, 勾勾缠)) by Xia Ri Fenmo (夏日粉末, "summertime powder") -- This would be a yet another mid-level xianxia adventure if it didn't have 1) a female protagonist who 2) transmigrated from our world, where she was 3) a skilled doctor AND 4) a mercenary AND 5) was killed by her family for 6) an inheritance she didn't have -- set the genre blender on Puree. Said MC is also ridiculously lucky beyond even usual for the genre (luck is, notoriously, a major component of cultivation practices) and the author can't decide whether she's committed to revenge against the family who mistreated the body she took over or is truly above them all. So instead, it's bizarre mashup of a mid-level xianxia adventure. I caught up with the translation at chapter 94 and have no reason to suspect I'll continue on when there's more.
---L.
Subject quote from Her Guitar, Frank Dempster Sherman.
Finished:
Ivy + Bean Take the Case, Ivy + Bean book 10, Annie Barrows, which ends even more oddly than typical for this series. It also, in various ways, contradicts details set up early on. Still excellent. Am looking forward to the publication in a few weeks, after a few years' gap, of book 11.
Dory Fantasmagory books 1-3, words and pictures by Abby Hanlon -- Also read aloud to TBD after listening to the audiobooks, and THIS series really gains by having the illustrations as the story segues in and out of cartoon format (with clever background details to track). Six-year-old Dory is the youngest of three children, is a little on the young side emotionally, and has an imagination on overdrive. Funny stuff, and I have sympathy both for Dory wanting more attention and the family who finds her a pain to deal with. Her monster friends are great, and the wonderfully named Mrs. Gobble Gracker is a worthy nemesis. Significantly, requests for bedtime stories featuring Dory & Co. ramped up QUICKLY. There is a book 4 out, a tooth-fairy adventure, but the library inexplicably only has the audiobook.
Harriet the Invincible, Hamster Princess book 1, Ursula Vernon -- Earlier this year, I read aloud the first one and a third of Vernon's Danny Dragonbreath books, but TBD didn't really take to them, and given her style here is more knowing than Ivy + Bean or Dory (and requires genre-savvy readers), I was surpised that TBD was eager to finish this and wants the next book. Entertaining for me, regardless, and I like that the narrative does call out Harriet's both good and bad traits.
In progress:
The Avalon of Five Elements, Fang Xiang -- Bound, bound, bounding along, and every so often the story takes a slingshot curve I just didn't expect. I'd like it if the protagonist was a little more serious about the teacher-student relationship, especially after his relationship with his own teacher. Up to chapter 358 or so.
On hold:
Princess Weiyang (translated under the title of its drama adaptation, the original title being 庶女有毒 "Poisonous Concubine's Daughter"), Qin Jian (秦简) -- A historical novel (as in actual-historical, set in the Northern Wei kingdom, and initially appearing in print) with a protagonist who, after being horribly killed, is transmigrated into her early teenage self and so given a life do-over. She has two new life goals: 1) never ever become Empress ever again and 2) REVENGE!!! against everyone who done/is redoing her wrong -- and since she spent almost a decade as Princess and Empress in her first go round, before being deposed in favor of her half-sister, she has both Imperial-Palace-level revenging skills and a lot of people to take down. Weiyang does not have much personality -- but then, neither does Edmond Dantès -- plus I have a little trouble believing that her father is quite this stupidly inflexible, given he's survived several years as Prime Minister. Otherwise, the scheming is quite entertaining. Caught up with the translation at chapter 101 (out of 293), and at this point I'm guessing the climax will make the results of the succession disputes of 452 C.E. line up with our history, unlike as in Weiyang's first lifetime.
Looking through NovelUpdates, I see several similarly sized books with similar premises, some with translations almost complete. Game on!
DNF:
Into the World of Medicine (穿越之医倾天下, later retitled Divine Doctor Noble Lady: Evil Emperor, Stop Pestering Me (神医贵女:邪皇, 勾勾缠)) by Xia Ri Fenmo (夏日粉末, "summertime powder") -- This would be a yet another mid-level xianxia adventure if it didn't have 1) a female protagonist who 2) transmigrated from our world, where she was 3) a skilled doctor AND 4) a mercenary AND 5) was killed by her family for 6) an inheritance she didn't have -- set the genre blender on Puree. Said MC is also ridiculously lucky beyond even usual for the genre (luck is, notoriously, a major component of cultivation practices) and the author can't decide whether she's committed to revenge against the family who mistreated the body she took over or is truly above them all. So instead, it's bizarre mashup of a mid-level xianxia adventure. I caught up with the translation at chapter 94 and have no reason to suspect I'll continue on when there's more.
---L.
Subject quote from Her Guitar, Frank Dempster Sherman.