My child is a genius
Jun. 17th, 2024 05:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lunabee341. Fiona placed fifth in the nation for extemporaneous poetry composition at the National Beta Club Convention Elementary Division. We are so proud of her!!!
2. I have already started to get glorious birthday presents. My SIL got me some elegant stationery from a shop in her hometown,amejisuto got me a gorgeous purple quill with ink stand and a journal to record the books I've read, and misbegotten sent me an Etsy gift card which I have used to buy some earrings. Our honeymoon was a cruise that left out of New Orleans, and Josh bought me a gorgeous garnet bead necklace and earrings set at the Riverwalk while we were waiting to board. But somewhere along the way, I lost one of the earrings, so I got some beaded hoops that are a perfect match! Thanks to everyone!
3. I've been rereading some books I've kept since childhood that Fiona has outgrown so that I can say goodbye to them.
The Boggart by Susan Cooper
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I enjoyed this. I like the depiction of the Boggart as very inhuman and hedonistic while not being malicious. I also really enjoyed the depictions of late eighties/very early nineties gamer culture.
View all my reviews
The Prince's Players by Debra Doyle
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is a book from the middle of a series; I acquired it in childhood (probably as part of the Reading Is Fun program in elementary school) and never read any of the other books in the series. So, there's context that is missing, but it reads fine as a standalone, and I would definitely have enjoyed reading more books in this series as a kid.
View all my reviews
The White Stag by Kate Seredy
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
The illustrations in this are exquisite. I remember being particularly struck as a kid by the illustration of the moon maidens.
I have no idea of the historical accuracy of this narrative; I suspect not very as Seredy says as much in her introduction.
View all my reviews
Sword of Egypt by Bert Williams
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I really enjoyed this as a kid--preteen saving the day when grown ups can't was little me's jam. I also really enjoyed reading about ancient cultures as a kid (and still do!).
View all my reviews
The New Poetic by C.K. Stead
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I know very little about W.B. Yeats and T.S. Eliot and very little about modernism, so this was very informative for me. I also like the author's writing style; for a book of literary criticism written in the 60s, it's very readable with clearly cited sources.
And then the author loses me in the last two chapters where he explains in-depth Eliot's theory of writing poetry and whether or not he thinks Eliot accomplishes it in specific poems. Some of it is just that I don't like Eliot, and some of it is that his ideas about the poetry writing process are incredibly opaque and bizarre to me.
View all my reviews
Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This book is so good. Atwood captures the cruelties of adolescence in disturbing and moving ways.
I think that what I enjoy the most about this novel (besides Atwood's always beautiful prose) is that the narrator always feels herself separate from other girls and then women; she feels more comfortable with boys and then men and feels contemptuous of many women. Throughout the course of the novel, though, she comes to realize that many, if not most, of her assumptions about about the other women she's known in her life have been flawed.
View all my reviews
2. I have already started to get glorious birthday presents. My SIL got me some elegant stationery from a shop in her hometown,
amejisuto got me a gorgeous purple quill with ink stand and a journal to record the books I've read, and misbegotten sent me an Etsy gift card which I have used to buy some earrings. Our honeymoon was a cruise that left out of New Orleans, and Josh bought me a gorgeous garnet bead necklace and earrings set at the Riverwalk while we were waiting to board. But somewhere along the way, I lost one of the earrings, so I got some beaded hoops that are a perfect match! Thanks to everyone!3. I've been rereading some books I've kept since childhood that Fiona has outgrown so that I can say goodbye to them.
The Boggart by Susan CooperMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
I enjoyed this. I like the depiction of the Boggart as very inhuman and hedonistic while not being malicious. I also really enjoyed the depictions of late eighties/very early nineties gamer culture.
View all my reviews
The Prince's Players by Debra DoyleMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is a book from the middle of a series; I acquired it in childhood (probably as part of the Reading Is Fun program in elementary school) and never read any of the other books in the series. So, there's context that is missing, but it reads fine as a standalone, and I would definitely have enjoyed reading more books in this series as a kid.
View all my reviews
The White Stag by Kate SeredyMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
The illustrations in this are exquisite. I remember being particularly struck as a kid by the illustration of the moon maidens.
I have no idea of the historical accuracy of this narrative; I suspect not very as Seredy says as much in her introduction.
View all my reviews
Sword of Egypt by Bert WilliamsMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
I really enjoyed this as a kid--preteen saving the day when grown ups can't was little me's jam. I also really enjoyed reading about ancient cultures as a kid (and still do!).
View all my reviews
The New Poetic by C.K. SteadMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I know very little about W.B. Yeats and T.S. Eliot and very little about modernism, so this was very informative for me. I also like the author's writing style; for a book of literary criticism written in the 60s, it's very readable with clearly cited sources.
And then the author loses me in the last two chapters where he explains in-depth Eliot's theory of writing poetry and whether or not he thinks Eliot accomplishes it in specific poems. Some of it is just that I don't like Eliot, and some of it is that his ideas about the poetry writing process are incredibly opaque and bizarre to me.
View all my reviews
Cat's Eye by Margaret AtwoodMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
This book is so good. Atwood captures the cruelties of adolescence in disturbing and moving ways.
I think that what I enjoy the most about this novel (besides Atwood's always beautiful prose) is that the narrator always feels herself separate from other girls and then women; she feels more comfortable with boys and then men and feels contemptuous of many women. Throughout the course of the novel, though, she comes to realize that many, if not most, of her assumptions about about the other women she's known in her life have been flawed.
View all my reviews
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Date: 2024-06-17 11:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-06-19 08:40 am (UTC)