Book Post: Steinbeck, Weinersmith, Tesh, DiCamillo, Clark
I spent most of August reading "The First Man in Rome" by Colleen McCullough, which is a giant historical fiction book and which I was supposed to finish at the end of August but alas family illness and lack of commute intervened, so it will be in the September book post. Since it was such a big book, I did break it up with some novellas and children's books so those are mostly the books for this post.
Cannery Row by John Steinbeck, 138pp
Ever since I finally read "The Grapes of Wrath" a few years ago and loved it, I was trying to read more Steinbeck, and this was on my list for this year. It is short and good overall, but I do think his books have very similar themes so it sort of loses its luster. "Grapes of Wrath" is still my favorite of his but I liked this one more than "East of Eden". This book is set on Monterey California, and I did really like his descriptions of various sea creatures. He certainly does evoke a feeling of living on that street. His people feel like real people in all their sophistication, which I also liked. I think he is very good at capturing the mood which matters a bit more than the plot. It was good but I'm also done with Steinbeck for now.
Bea Wolf by Zach Weinersmith, 183pp
This book is a graphic novel of the first third of Beowulf but for children. Set in the modern world, an uptight grown up Grindle is threatening a bunch of roudy kids in their Treehouse led by a kid king who is bountiful in providing toys and sugar to his followers. Grindle can turn the kids into teenagers and grown up with his finger, so treehouse is devastated by his invasion. (To be fair, the Treehouse hangs over his property and is full of kids being loud and obnoxious, so one does feel sympathy there). Bea Wolf comes from the neighboring kid king to fight Grindle and to save Treeheart treehouse. This version has wonderful illustrations that both my kids were fascinated with and a lot of alliteration and it really just sounds like Beowulf. Plus it has an afterword that explains the original story and its provenance in kid friendly language that my 9 year old appreciated. This was a big hit in my house. Very very clever book and I hope there will be a sequel with Grindle's mother, who does appear at the end of the book. Highly recommend.
Silver in the Wood by Emily Tesh, 105pp
A novella recommended to me by a friend. There is a sequel as well but I haven't read that one yet. This is set in the 19th century, it feels. It is a story of a Wild Man who lives in the woods called the Greenhallow, who lived there for centuries and who tries to protect the woods and people. He lives in a cottage than not all can find with a cat and dryads. One day Henry Silver, a new owner of a Hall nearby, stumbles upon the wood and things change. There are hunters in the novel of many evil things, fae, and wood magic. What stands out to me is the writing - it makes you feel like you are in the wood. The writer also slowly builds on the history and slowly divulges information. There is no rush but there is feelings. And there is also an underlying romance although that wasn't as front and center. It is a fairytale with some monster hunting and it is just a lovely way to spend your time.
Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo, 182pp
I came across it at a library sale before summer started and grabbed it for my oldest since it was a $1. I knew about the book but I never read it. Tanya read it for her summer reading and really liked it so she wanted me to read it too. There is also a movie that they enjoyed watching, even though the movie didn't always follow the plot apparently. The book protagonist is a 10 year old girl Opal, who just moved to a new town with her dad, who is a preacher. Her Mom abandoned the family long ago due to her alcoholism so Opal is still dealing with that as well as leaving all familiar things behind. She finds a stray dog and claims him, calling him Winn-Dixie after a grocery story where she finds him, and through the dog meets various people and bring them together and gains friends. And also a better understanding of her father and other people in general. I thought it was a nice kid's book - it is certainly for kids but I did enjoy reading it and seeing her discover people. The perspective felt like a kid perspective, which is not easy to pull off. I'm sure I got a lot more subtlety than my kid did, there is a lot of complicated things in the story but she did say she really liked the book. I do feel like I'm catching up on essential kid books that most people know.
A Dead Djinn in Cairo by P. Djeli Clark, 43pp
This was the first novella, I believe, and I sort of read this series backward. I read the novel, then the second novella and finally this one. I knew some of this plot since it was referenced in the novel and I was very familiar with world building, which I think helped a lot. Fatma and Siti first meet in this book, and that was most interesting part for me, since I already knew these characters and where they were going. The plot itself is a bit simple since it is not a long book, so it is solved pretty quickly. But I can see where the set up here led to the novel. Plotting is not exactly Clark's strength - my favorite thing is world building here.