The Planet

Bee wrote: ↑

Thu 11 Nov, 2021, 9:37 pm

Stop whatever you're doing and go read Agatha Christie's The Secret Adversary thanks

Just finished it, absolutely delightful

Wrapped up this year's reading with THE PSYCHOLOGY OF TIME TRAVEL, by Kate Mascarenhas.

5/5, will read again and again

This isn't a recommendation so much as a request for recommendations, although I don't have much hope of getting anything... <.<

Elder Child has expressed a preference for "books that are like real life", because she likes to imagine actually being in the places in the book. Unfortunately, all of the kidlit books I know of and/or enjoyed which aren't fantasy or scifi are extremely dated to the point of being historical (or, not much different from fantasy, for her perspective).

Does anyone have any suggestions for books for kids? I think books about travelling or moving to a new place would be particularly good.

Her current favorite books are the Kudo Kids series, if that helps. She went through every single Oz book that we have and read them multiple times and was really interested in them but then she went back to the Kudo Kids and told me she likes "real life" books better than fantasy, so.

Kieran wrote: ↑

Mon 10 Jan, 2022, 5:40 pm

This isn't a recommendation so much as a request for recommendations, although I don't have much hope of getting anything... <.<

Elder Child has expressed a preference for "books that are like real life", because she likes to imagine actually being in the places in the book. Unfortunately, all of the kidlit books I know of and/or enjoyed which aren't fantasy or scifi are extremely dated to the point of being historical (or, not much different from fantasy, for her perspective).

Does anyone have any suggestions for books for kids? I think books about travelling or moving to a new place would be particularly good.

Her current favorite books are the Kudo Kids series, if that helps. She went through every single Oz book that we have and read them multiple times and was really interested in them but then she went back to the Kudo Kids and told me she likes "real life" books better than fantasy, so.

so she's the OTHER kind of nerd?? I see, I see

I'm guessing books like Little Princess or Secret Garden don't fit her taste, then? Man, this is going to be tough

Bee wrote: ↑

Mon 10 Jan, 2022, 5:48 pm

Kieran wrote: ↑

Mon 10 Jan, 2022, 5:40 pm

This isn't a recommendation so much as a request for recommendations, although I don't have much hope of getting anything... <.<

Elder Child has expressed a preference for "books that are like real life", because she likes to imagine actually being in the places in the book. Unfortunately, all of the kidlit books I know of and/or enjoyed which aren't fantasy or scifi are extremely dated to the point of being historical (or, not much different from fantasy, for her perspective).

Does anyone have any suggestions for books for kids? I think books about travelling or moving to a new place would be particularly good.

Her current favorite books are the Kudo Kids series, if that helps. She went through every single Oz book that we have and read them multiple times and was really interested in them but then she went back to the Kudo Kids and told me she likes "real life" books better than fantasy, so.

so she's the OTHER kind of nerd?? I see, I see

I'm guessing books like Little Princess or Secret Garden don't fit her taste, then? Man, this is going to be tough

lmao

no lie i almost feel like it's because she's exposed to so much scifi/fantasy through us so it's like, Normal Life stories are a refreshing change? idk it's kinda funny tho

Bee wrote: ↑

Mon 10 Jan, 2022, 5:48 pm

Kieran wrote: ↑

Mon 10 Jan, 2022, 5:40 pm

This isn't a recommendation so much as a request for recommendations, although I don't have much hope of getting anything... <.<

Elder Child has expressed a preference for "books that are like real life", because she likes to imagine actually being in the places in the book. Unfortunately, all of the kidlit books I know of and/or enjoyed which aren't fantasy or scifi are extremely dated to the point of being historical (or, not much different from fantasy, for her perspective).

Does anyone have any suggestions for books for kids? I think books about travelling or moving to a new place would be particularly good.

Her current favorite books are the Kudo Kids series, if that helps. She went through every single Oz book that we have and read them multiple times and was really interested in them but then she went back to the Kudo Kids and told me she likes "real life" books better than fantasy, so.

so she's the OTHER kind of nerd?? I see, I see

I'm guessing books like Little Princess or Secret Garden don't fit her taste, then? Man, this is going to be tough

Yeah, probably not. She might find The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler enjoyable, since the museum hasn't changed that much since the book was written, but yeah. Since it's real life and technology and stuff have changed so much in the past ten, fifteen years, it really needs to be something written in the past couple decades, I think - and most of the kidlit coming out in the past couple decades I feel is fantasy? But that might just be my own bias filter.

InspectorCaracal wrote: ↑

Mon 10 Jan, 2022, 6:20 pm

Bee wrote: ↑

Mon 10 Jan, 2022, 5:48 pm

Kieran wrote: ↑

Mon 10 Jan, 2022, 5:40 pm

This isn't a recommendation so much as a request for recommendations, although I don't have much hope of getting anything... <.<

Elder Child has expressed a preference for "books that are like real life", because she likes to imagine actually being in the places in the book. Unfortunately, all of the kidlit books I know of and/or enjoyed which aren't fantasy or scifi are extremely dated to the point of being historical (or, not much different from fantasy, for her perspective).

Does anyone have any suggestions for books for kids? I think books about travelling or moving to a new place would be particularly good.

Her current favorite books are the Kudo Kids series, if that helps. She went through every single Oz book that we have and read them multiple times and was really interested in them but then she went back to the Kudo Kids and told me she likes "real life" books better than fantasy, so.

so she's the OTHER kind of nerd?? I see, I see

I'm guessing books like Little Princess or Secret Garden don't fit her taste, then? Man, this is going to be tough

lmao

no lie i almost feel like it's because she's exposed to so much scifi/fantasy through us so it's like, Normal Life stories are a refreshing change? idk it's kinda funny tho

real life was the true escapism all along

Kieran wrote: ↑

Mon 10 Jan, 2022, 6:24 pm

Bee wrote: ↑

Mon 10 Jan, 2022, 5:48 pm

Kieran wrote: ↑

Mon 10 Jan, 2022, 5:40 pm

This isn't a recommendation so much as a request for recommendations, although I don't have much hope of getting anything... <.<

Elder Child has expressed a preference for "books that are like real life", because she likes to imagine actually being in the places in the book. Unfortunately, all of the kidlit books I know of and/or enjoyed which aren't fantasy or scifi are extremely dated to the point of being historical (or, not much different from fantasy, for her perspective).

Does anyone have any suggestions for books for kids? I think books about travelling or moving to a new place would be particularly good.

Her current favorite books are the Kudo Kids series, if that helps. She went through every single Oz book that we have and read them multiple times and was really interested in them but then she went back to the Kudo Kids and told me she likes "real life" books better than fantasy, so.

so she's the OTHER kind of nerd?? I see, I see

I'm guessing books like Little Princess or Secret Garden don't fit her taste, then? Man, this is going to be tough

Yeah, probably not. She might find The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler enjoyable, since the museum hasn't changed that much since the book was written, but yeah. Since it's real life and technology and stuff have changed so much in the past ten, fifteen years, it really needs to be something written in the past couple decades, I think - and most of the kidlit coming out in the past couple decades I feel is fantasy? But that might just be my own bias filter.

lol that was the first book that came to mind, yeah xD Anyway, I've found some leads, will investigate further and report back!

This is half a recommendation and half a request for recommendations/advice.

So I have been reading this book, haven't finished it yet though, called The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas by Machado De Assis (the recent Penguin translation by Flora Thomson-DeVeaux) and I like it quite a bit.

I read it because I heard someone praise it very highly and the basic premise of it seemed fun, basically it's a memoir written from beyond the grave and the narrator is very irreverent and unapologetic since he doesn't have to worry about his reputation being dead and all. And the dedication at the front of the book amused me:

To the worm that first gnawed at the cold flesh of my cadaver I dedicate as a fond rememberance these posthumous memoirs

And I do like it, I like the narrator a lot, well I like his voice, he's not always the most likeable guy, he's witty, he's self-refential, it plays with the form and sometimes he just takes time away from telling the story to berate the reader, which is something I always like.

For example:

Chapter LXXI The Flaw in the Book

I am beginning to regret that I ever took to writing this book. Not that it tires me; I have nothing else to do, and dispatching a few meager chapters into the other world is invariably a bit of a distraction from eternity. But the book is tedious, it reeks of the grave, it bears a cadaveric grimace; this is a grave defect, and yet a minor one on the whole, for this book's greates flaw is you, reader.

You are in a hurry to grow old, and the book moves slowly; you love direct, robust naration and a smooth and regular style, and this book and my style are like drunkards, they veer right and left, stop and go, grumble bellow, cackle, threaten the skies, slip and fall...

So I would definitely recommend it on the basis of that.

But the thing is, the actual story, which is a romance, kind of, maybe, is not really the kind of thing I would usually read, so I want to check out more from this writer, but I don't know if without this element of the narrator if I would still like his other work. He's usually described as part of the realism movement, which is not really my thing I think.

So I don't know if his other stuff would be funny too. Has anyone read anything by him?

thiskurt wrote: ↑

Mon 24 Jan, 2022, 11:13 am

So I don't know if his other stuff would be funny too. Has anyone read anything by him?

So I went to check with my mom (who taught Brazilian lit for years) to confirm my gut instinct and uh... Machado's extremely dry sense of humor usually appears in his works, but many of the elements you've most enjoyed are specific to Brás Cubas. I'd recommend avoiding his early Romantic phase (I can't imagine you enjoying those works at all, and honestly, they're less than great), but you might enjoy Dom Casmurro? If nothing else, you'll be able to say you've joined in what's arguably the biggest debate in Brazilian literature (did Capitu cheat on Bentinho, or was Bentinho just a jealous paranoid jacakass? the longest thread blah blah blah). O Alienista (The Psychiatrist/the Alienist) might also interest you.

Of course, I've no idea how enjoyable most of Machado's works are to someone with no background in Brazilian culture, much less late Imperial Brazilian culture and history, but those three books should be reasonably accessible regardless.