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Currently Reading: Henry James, Portrait of a Lady (re-read); Susan Cooper, 'Silver on the Tree'; Kazuo Ishiguro, 'The Buried Giant', loan from a friend.

Recently Finished:
Land of the Seal People by Duncan Williamson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This was a really interesting little collection - mostly selkie stories, with a number of 'Jack' stories thrown in (Jack being the folklore character found in Jack and the Beanstalk, Jack Horner, etc, but in these stories he's Scottish or Irish). Duncan Williamson was a noted storyteller amongst the Scottish Travellers (not Romani - Highland travellers are an indigenous Scots group, who tend to be closely affiliated with the Gaelic speaking towns), and this is a posthumous expanded collection of one of his earlier publications. He attributes some tales to his own family, and many more to the crofters and fisherpeople he worked with and for during his years as a roving odd-job man. The source notes on some of the stories are fascinating, and the tales themselves are diverse - what struck me as most common to all of them is that all are set in small communities where most people get by on subsistence living, and you can tell that this is Williamson's own community, because there's no fuss made of it. I like that - the books must be intended for a wider audience, but the stories are told as if the audience is part of his community.
De la petite taupe qui voulait savoir qui lui avait fait sur la tête by Werner Holzwarth
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I did not immediately realise, when I picked up this book and started to read it to a small person, that it was a book about poop. It is a very good book about poop, though! Plus it's good pronunciation practice - my reading comprehension is far ahead of my ability to articulate words, so I keep falling over my own tongue.
Flight Behaviour by Barbara Kingsolver
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Hmm. I really enjoyed this book, after a slow start, and a few times where I had to put it down and cringe in fear of expected embarrassments. I was terribly afraid Dellarobia was going to make a fool of herself over Dr Byron, but that was handled *beautifully*.
I ended up loving it for the sensitivity to class, opportunity, and rural mindsets. The confrontation between Dellarobia and the environmental activist whose recommendations were either beyond her means (buying hybrid cars, say) or something she and everyone she knew already did *because they were poor* (eg, buying second-hand) - that was glorious. And I loved the passage where Dellarobia starts thinking in technical terms, because... well, that's why my phone can spell heteronormativity. I am a big fan of 'plain english', and yet.

Structurally, the ending of the book was rushed - there were threads left hanging, especially re: Hester, and questions unanswered, and I ended with a dismal presentiment that Dellarobia's new life as a community college student would probably be unsustainable, given the realities of single parenting, poverty, etc.
Up Next: IDEK

Recently Finished:

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This was a really interesting little collection - mostly selkie stories, with a number of 'Jack' stories thrown in (Jack being the folklore character found in Jack and the Beanstalk, Jack Horner, etc, but in these stories he's Scottish or Irish). Duncan Williamson was a noted storyteller amongst the Scottish Travellers (not Romani - Highland travellers are an indigenous Scots group, who tend to be closely affiliated with the Gaelic speaking towns), and this is a posthumous expanded collection of one of his earlier publications. He attributes some tales to his own family, and many more to the crofters and fisherpeople he worked with and for during his years as a roving odd-job man. The source notes on some of the stories are fascinating, and the tales themselves are diverse - what struck me as most common to all of them is that all are set in small communities where most people get by on subsistence living, and you can tell that this is Williamson's own community, because there's no fuss made of it. I like that - the books must be intended for a wider audience, but the stories are told as if the audience is part of his community.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I did not immediately realise, when I picked up this book and started to read it to a small person, that it was a book about poop. It is a very good book about poop, though! Plus it's good pronunciation practice - my reading comprehension is far ahead of my ability to articulate words, so I keep falling over my own tongue.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Hmm. I really enjoyed this book, after a slow start, and a few times where I had to put it down and cringe in fear of expected embarrassments. I was terribly afraid Dellarobia was going to make a fool of herself over Dr Byron, but that was handled *beautifully*.
I ended up loving it for the sensitivity to class, opportunity, and rural mindsets. The confrontation between Dellarobia and the environmental activist whose recommendations were either beyond her means (buying hybrid cars, say) or something she and everyone she knew already did *because they were poor* (eg, buying second-hand) - that was glorious. And I loved the passage where Dellarobia starts thinking in technical terms, because... well, that's why my phone can spell heteronormativity. I am a big fan of 'plain english', and yet.

Structurally, the ending of the book was rushed - there were threads left hanging, especially re: Hester, and questions unanswered, and I ended with a dismal presentiment that Dellarobia's new life as a community college student would probably be unsustainable, given the realities of single parenting, poverty, etc.
Up Next: IDEK