Children’s book: Goodnight, Gorilla by Peggy Rathmann

I bought this book since it received some very good ratings in Amazon.  The illustrations are really adorable.  But that’s all the book is!  When I read books with Mi-Ah who’s 3, she needs to hear a decent plot.  The illustrations do tell a simple story, of course, but I had to make mine own up as we went along.  It’s not too difficult with such great pictures, but I expected a few more words than just “Goodnight” sprinkled here & there.  After all, you can’t just flip pages and let them look at the picture themself so some help with some actual words on a page would have been appreciated!  After a long day at work, the less thinking for me the better!  I already have to come up with new Princess Mi-Ah stories all the time as it is!  ;O)

Give it a 6 out of 10.  Sorry, I’m not in alignment with all the hype on this book.  Maybe all the hype raised my expectations too high….?

AIR by Geoff Ryman

This book was a very unexpected surprise.  Lately I’ve gotten some real duds in the scifi area, but this one is a definite winner and I would like to even read it again.  Something I rarely do.

It’s in a completely fictional setting, but seemingly very realistic.  In a very small rural village in Karzistan (kept thinking of Khazakstan when reading.)  It’s a mix of cultures/races/religions – Chinese ethnic, Muslim, and an indiginous group called the Eloi.  The real and current day is woven in with the imaginary, making it seem a plausible place.

The general plot concerns the roll-out of the ultimate internet in that it is transmitted via the networks of everyone’s minds instead of computers.  Everyone can share everything simulateneously.  In a major cosmopolitan city the transition is relatively easy as everyone is already moving with the fast pace of technology.  But in this very small isolated area, the change is devastating and frightening and resisted. 

The story is narrated from the view of Mae, local self-made fashion expert.  She is not well-educated (she cannot read nor write), but very intelligent and capable nonetheless and is the first to embrace the new technology and realises its potential.  The story is told from her simple view, not someone who is completely familiar with technology, which makes it so interesting to read.

Give this one 9 out of 10.

Children’s stories that teach – Princess Poppy books

In addition to the I Love You, Little Monkey book, I (and Mi-Ah) love the Princess Poppy books by Janey Jones & Janey Louise Jones. They’re also really beautifully illustrated. It may be a bit too ‘Brit’ for some Americans, but nothing too strange. Things like saying ‘Mum’ instead of ‘Mom’ or ‘Mommy’, for example. And it’s easy enough to replace certain words your child is more familiar with, if needed.

What I like about these stories that they try to teach your child a certain lesson in each story. For example, we have the Ballet Shoes one where Poppy has to learn to deal with jealousy. They also have this really cute mini envelope glued to the front of the book with a tiny letter inside with another little extra message. Mi-Ah loves to pull out this letter every time we read the book.

Since Mi-Ah is really into princesses (hence all of the Princess Mi-Ah stories I’ve been trying to come up with), these books really appeal to her. Even her brother!

Foreigner (Foreigner Universe Books) by C. J. Cherryh

Kindly go to Amazon to get a summary of the plot – and sadly enough the plot you read on Amazon is much more exciting than the book itself!  This book is just so painfully boring.  The first chapter seemed  promising.  A human has a first encounter with an alien – they don’t understand each other, they look totally different from each other, but they want to get to know each other better and even help each other in their own way - great excitement and tension.  I was initially hooked and interested to find out how this relationship would develop.  Then immediately downhill from there.  While it’s supposed to be in an alien world, it is more about the political aspects life of a diplomant.  Oh, and on a world that happens to be alien, which was secondary.

After reading some great reviews on Amazon about this series, I mistakenly took the plunge and bought the whole series.  Big mistake.  I simply do not see what everyone raves about here!  I just don’t!  And I am determined to read them ALL because I spent the damn money on it!  I know, just plain stubborn and dumb, right?

To make things even more annoying for me I just did a search on what other books she had written.  Because her name did, in fact, seem familiar, but I couldn’t place which book of hers I had read.  Turns out she is also author of Downbelow Station - another book I despised!  Aaaaaaggh!  Wanted to knock my head on the PC monitor when I saw this.

Don’t by this one!  Horrible!