The Wrath of Mulgarath by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi

The Wrath of Mulgarath by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Great end to the series. Especially love the family aspect of this one. And dragons! Made reading all 5 worth it.

View all my reviews

The Ironwood Tree by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi

The Ironwood Tree by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Guess it's getting a little repetitive now without delightful twists or turns to make it more entertaining for an adult. Aspects of Snow White in this one, but not a lot of fairy fun.

View all my reviews

Lucinda's Secret by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi

Lucinda's Secret by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This filled in a little background information about the childrens' aunt Lucinda and her father who made the Field Guide. While it progressed the narrative, nothing was really resolved in this one and the ending left a little still in the air. Definitely not a stand-alone book.

View all my reviews

The Seeing Stone by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi

The Seeing Stone by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This one is more exciting than the first one. Lots of action and adventure, and many magical creatures! More than a cat goes missing!

View all my reviews

The Field Guide by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi

The Field Guide by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I like that the characters are not the typical children's book characters. I like that the older sister Mallory is a tough girl without being the one that gets in trouble. It would be nice if she had interests besides fencing, but at least fencing is interesting. I like that the typically "nerdy" sibling Simon isn't actually nerdy but a vaguely obsessive animal-lover. Interested to see how Jared develops. Sounds like he might be interested in art.

The story itself is pretty cute though still maybe a little scary for little ones. This one is a little unresolved- it's more of an introduction to the characters and their situation in a house filled with magic.

View all my reviews

Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind by Shunryu Suzuki

Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice by Shunryu Suzuki
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I took a Buddhism class in college and this was part of our required reading. At the time, it made no sense to me. This is because this book did not explain how to meditate. Since then, I've read books about how to meditate, I've attempted meditation (hundreds of times at this point), and I've read about consciousness. So now it makes sense. Even so, it was a horrible choice for an introductory Buddhism course with no discussion of meditation. It's also a poor book if you haven't already learned about meditation and attempted it, especially because he doesn't give any explicit directions about meditation beyond sitting in the correct posture. Meditation itself is barely implied. You only know that what he's talking about if you already have a background in it.

There's no explanation of how Zen is a school of (East Asian) Mahayana Buddhism, or that there are even branches of Buddhism with different beliefs. Is zazen just another word for meditation or is there something unique about it? Meditation with no purpose? I can't really figure it out from the text. You will acquire something from this practice but you can't practice it in order to acquire something or it is not zazan? Ah, koans even where we don't expect them. "Intellectually my talk makes no sense." Well, I agree with that.

Despite the name, this is an intermediate or advanced meditation book, with an emphasis on zen practice specifically which like I said is just one kind. There are some interesting thoughts here worth considering. Some of it reminds me a lot of Christianity.

View all my reviews

Self-Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Self-Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

As for the first half of the essay: If you are an excellent person and follow the advice in this essay, then it's probably going to work out well. If you're a horrible person, or if you think you're an excellent person but you're really kind of a low-grade specimen, and follow this essay, it's a recipe to be a huge jerk.

I like the second half of the essay better. I appreciate it's anti-consumerist bent. Even it's anti-technology section has some good points.

View all my reviews

Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Takes place in the semi-wilderness of 1870s in Wisconsin, US. Takes us through a year in the life of a middle sister age 4 (celebrates her 5th birthday during the book). There are at least 4 stories just about bears in this book.

I think I like this book even better as an adult. It's like a survival guide for the zombie apocalypse or a pandemic.

View all my reviews

Beezus and Ramona by Beverly Cleary

Beezus and Ramona by Beverly Cleary
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I remember liking this a lot as a kid but it doesn't really survive well into adulthood. Beatrice (Beezuz) is the older sister, 9 years old, and Ramona is about 4. Ramona drives Beezus and everyone else crazy. At the time of my reread, I know kids that are 4, so I can relate to a lot of the bad behavior and frustrations, but Ramona is really a next level awful toddler.

Another thing that stands out so many years later is how much freedom the two girls have to wander the town. Beezus is in 5th grade and Ramona is a completely untrustworthy preschooler. They go to the library and playground on their own. Even when the police have to find Ramona (not a spoiler, it happens as a flashback from before the book), the police don't mind or arrest the parents. What a fun time to be a parent. Now we're required to hover constantly, buried under Common Core, and then judgmentally accused of being helicopter parents.

A few random notes about the book: The chapters aren't really that related but function more like short stories. I also learned that the Ramona Quimby series is originally a Henry Huggins spin-off though I've never actually heard of that series before. Henry makes a very brief appearance in this book, and he didn't make as much of an impression as his dog did.

View all my reviews

A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I love the first chapter, and I probably would have been happy to read a novel about just the first character. Still, I liked how the novel moved around a group of friends and acquaintances and their different perspectives on each other, music, and life as time passed. And since the first character was my favorite, I was glad to see how she'd changed with age in a subsequent chapter. Her transformation was totally believable.

As many other people have commented, this is pretty much a short story collection with overlapping characters and themes, but I love short story collections, so that definitely wasn't a problem for me.

View all my reviews