Secrets of the Heart: Poems and Meditations by Kahlil Gibran

Secrets of the Heart: Poems and Meditations by Kahlil Gibran
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Allegories and poems about philosophy and religion. They vary in quality and interest. Mostly I liked the misanthropic hermit at the beginning. He's like a jerky Buddhist. I also liked "John the Madman" about the difference between real Christianity and false Christianity. There's a story about saving Satan and mermaids judging mankind. A lot of the mostly Christian philosophy (but also Muslim and Buddhist philosophy) resonated with me, but I didn't feel like I gained any new insights.

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Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke

Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I thought this had interesting concepts about an alien invasion and I even liked the inversion of time, memory, and religion, but I didn't think it was executed all that well.

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The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill

The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I loved this story, just loved the magic and the sorrow and the hope-- it's strangely very 2020 despite being written some years ago. Beautiful writing about love. I recommend it for adults and children alike. And high praise- the story reminds me a bit of Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea series.

But (I am so harsh but) so much of the story depended on the old- no one told anyone anything trope.

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The Memory Painter by Gwendolyn Womack

The Memory Painter by Gwendolyn Womack
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Because my book tastes have been adapting to the ridiculous number of books I consume, these days I'm surprised whenever I like a book that isn't literary. I liked it! It was fun! It was decently written! There were no ridiculous plot holes! It's even a book that might continue to interest me in a reread. This is a good start from Womack.

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Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Thoroughly entertaining romance and adventure fantasy book. Even though it’s long, it’s a pleasure that it’s long. It only took me 2 weeks to read it because I enjoyed it enough to keep coming back to it. Some disturbing things happen towards the end though and it does make me nervous to continue with the series.

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Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami

Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I really did not like the beginning but the two woven narratives grew on me. Interesting but not great.

This is my 9th Murakami book and I think my favorite is still Norwegian Wood (honorable mentions to Wind-up Bird and After Dark).

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Charlotte's Web by E.B. White

Charlotte's Web by E.B. White
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

My first grade teacher, Mrs. Doscher, read this out loud to us in class, and I think it was the first time anyone read out loud to me as a kid. In my memory, it took us a few months to read it, chapter by slow chapter. I don't remember crying in class, but this book is still one of the saddest books for me.

As an adult though, it doesn't make a lot of sense. Why would the people in the book assume a pig was writing on a spiderweb? Wouldn't they rightfully assume it was the spider doing it?

Update from 2020: I'm rereading this to my kids and I realized I'm such a dummy! The farmer characters in the book thought God wrote in the Spiderweb! It totally took me 35 to get that. Maybe because I never really thought about the literature of miracles when I was younger. I have been humbled by my own stupidity. Haha.

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Dragons and Marshmallows by Asia Citro

Dragons and Marshmallows (Zoey and Sassafras, #1) by Asia Citro
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Mrs. Srb has been reading this virtually to Miranda these last two weeks and I've been listening too. Fantastic book for Kindergarteners and 1st graders. It's magical but also teaches scientific concepts and age-appropriate emotional lessons. Loved it! Read this instead of that treehouse junk.

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Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl

Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

3/10: I liked it. Didn't rock my world though and there were definitely a bunch of animals getting drunk on cider. 3/15: I reread it and now that I'm on coronavirus quarantine, it appears to be all about thriving under quarantine now... adding a star.



Here's my 8-year-old son's review which was obviously my review of what he thought:

James's review

Mar 10, 2020

really liked it

bookshelves: 1970s, 3rd-grade, childrens, fantasy, fiction, own

I like how Mr. Fox has to find ways to beat Mr. Bean, Boggis, Bunce. There was nothing I didn't like about the book.

Mom: What did you think about the stealing?
Me: I thought it was an interesting way to live.
Mom: You didn't think it was wrong?
Me: I don't know, they had to survive somehow, plus they had to get the farmer back for trying to kill them.
Mom: Ummmm.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3226090543 

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The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed the interplay between Vasia, her stepmother, and the priest, and I liked the fairy tale vibe. I didn't like how SLOW the beginning was... and how many useless characters (siblings mostly) there were at the beginning. It took me forever to get invested, but I was glad things were finally happening to characters I was interested in by the end.

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Wishtree by Katherine Applegate

Wishtree by Katherine Applegate
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Sweet and funny children's book about inclusion, friendship, environmentalism, and best of all- a busybody tree. Highly recommend.

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The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this book even though it was sad because it's fundamentally a very hopeful book: a fantasy about the rules of life after death and a fantasy about the rules of life on earth. There were some insightful lines about grief. Overall, it dragged on beyond the point where it was creating value, and the main character is an underdeveloped everygirl.

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The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the 8th Murakami book I've read and definitely in the top three for me along with Norwegian Wood and After Dark. The short of it is that Toru Okada is having some angst after leaving his legal job (I relate to that!) when things get very magically weird and his wife leaves him in mysterious circumstances. Interwoven with that is a bunch of truly horrific World War II stories from the perspective of Japanese soldiers in Mongolia, China, and Russia.

Beyond that, it's really difficult to explain what I think the book's deeper meaning is about. It's pretty complex; to give you a rough idea, it's very long and I can't actually think of any scenes that could have been cut. I pretty much always think editors should have slashed down long books. Unlike many Murakami novels, it actually mostly made sense even though it was full of literal magic. I wasn't prepared for such an in-depth exploration of violence, and I think this fantasy book also deserves a horror classification.


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Pirates Past Noon by Mary Pope Osborne

Pirates Past Noon by Mary Pope Osborne
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The true story of the Magic Tree House is revealed in this one. I think I'm good to go with the series now. I won't be reading or buying any more unless my daughter falls in love with the first 4 and demands them or something. My son isn't impressed either but he's already 8 and he's a pretty strong reader.

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Mummies in the Morning by Mary Pope Osborne

Mummies in the Morning by Mary Pope Osborne
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I am not feeling the ghosts. Time hopping to see real things is one thing. Time hopping to see fake things is another.

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Red Rising by Pierce Brown

Red Rising by Pierce Brown
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I appreciate that this book tried to combine philosophy with the action-adventure dystopian genre that can be so fun but I just never got invested in the characters or the plot. I won’t be continuing the series.

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My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry by Fredrik Backman

My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry by Fredrik Backman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is on the boundaries of fantasy because there is a very realistic reading of the book, but if you give in to the 7-year-old narrator, Elsa's point of view, which admittedly I did, then it's very much a fantasy book. It's just fun fantasy romp, and if it weren't for the somewhat silly drama at the end, it might be appropriate for kids as well, but what's silly to an adult, is unfortunately probably scary to a young reader.

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The Diviners by Libba Bray

The Diviners by Libba Bray
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

While I enjoyed the character of Evie, the plot was pretty played out and boring.

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Number9Dream by David Mitchell

Number9Dream by David Mitchell
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I reserve “1 star” for books that are a net negative to the world. But I thought this book was a hot mess. I didn’t enjoy it at all, I thought it was unnecessarily confusing, meandering, and pointless.

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The Eye of the Heron by Ursula K. Le Guin

The Eye of the Heron by Ursula K. Le Guin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A book about oppression, freedom, immigration, non-violence, and violence disguised as an easy-to-read YA fantasy book. The writing is really lovely.

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