Experimenting with this account as Bookwyrm-adjacent TBR with commentary. Main account is on Bookwyrm; both new as of mid-January 2024. #LearningCurve
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2% complete! TaxideaDaisy2 has read 1 of 40 books.
Fiction. Surrealist writer and painter Leonora Carrington (1917-2011) was a master of the macabre, of …
JAS posted an interesting Carrington work and I looked her up and now I want to read about her.
In 1937 Leonora Carrington—later to become one of the twentieth century’s great painters of the …
JAS posted an interesting Carrington work and I looked her up and now I want to read about her.
JAS posted an interesting Carrington work and I looked her up and now I want to read about her.
Carmilla is an 1872 Gothic novella by Irish author Sheridan Le Fanu and one of …
(found on Bookrastinating landing page)
A charming little companion to the Matthews' deck of the same name, accessible whether you are new to their brand of Celtic/Arthurian scholarship or not, although a grounding in the Arthurian traditions as well of course as in Tarot is recommended. There are newer editions available, which might be better if you don't already have a copy (probably bought this one in the early 90s; it's a 1990 edition) as they are active scholars and always updating their vision.
"The Masque of the Red Death" (originally published as "The Mask of the Red Death: …
Does it count if you read something so long ago that you don't remember it at all? Late 1970s, early 1980s, due for a reread for sure.
The United States government is given a warning by the pre-eminent biophysicists in the country: …
Read this one a long time ago... in the 1980s I think, so can't really review now. I liked it. Good SF thriller, fast read. Would I like it today? How well has it aged? Couldn't tell you.
A poignant tale told with astonishing detail & grace. I am at a loss for words, and plan to read more about Izgil. Highly recommended.
So about this book ... mixed feelings. Three and a half stars, rounded down at first but maybe we'll round up, because it's still a well-crafted volume, with a fabulous bibliography.
On the one hand, a good bit of it, especially in the first few chapters, reads like a middle-school pop magazine, except instead of talking up cute musicians she's rationalizing why this or that serial murderer wasn't really a bad person, but rather a victim of circumstance. If this one had access to anti-depressants, or if that one were independently wealthy, perhaps they'd not have been so desperate. I think especially now, when public violence seems to pop up everywhere, excusing murder because the murderer may have had a rough life is a dangerous game.
Otherwise we found it a fun and informative read. Perrin obviously did a lot of preparation for this work, and her illustrations are often …
So about this book ... mixed feelings. Three and a half stars, rounded down at first but maybe we'll round up, because it's still a well-crafted volume, with a fabulous bibliography.
On the one hand, a good bit of it, especially in the first few chapters, reads like a middle-school pop magazine, except instead of talking up cute musicians she's rationalizing why this or that serial murderer wasn't really a bad person, but rather a victim of circumstance. If this one had access to anti-depressants, or if that one were independently wealthy, perhaps they'd not have been so desperate. I think especially now, when public violence seems to pop up everywhere, excusing murder because the murderer may have had a rough life is a dangerous game.
Otherwise we found it a fun and informative read. Perrin obviously did a lot of preparation for this work, and her illustrations are often poignant.
We read The League of Lady Poisoners as a library ebook, via hoopla. That had its pros and cons; for example the Index has handy hotlinks, and some of the Sources entries do as well. We find it harder to flip around in ebooks than in hard copies though -- someone once likened them to scrolls (ebooks) and codices (physical books) and that really stayed with us.
We'd recommend the book for its trippy bios and fab sources. There's not as much science (bioscience, toxicology, botany, etc.) as we'd have liked, but it makes up for it with edutainment value as well. Some of the historical entries were stronger than others, too. It's not a main reference volume so much as a hook, or a quick survey, or even a refresher. And, as mentioned, valuable for the Sources, and charming illustrations.
Fun, sweet, ridiculous story that was just the sort of fluff I needed this week.
Follows the adventures of Minn, a three-legged snapping turtle, as she slowly makes her way …
Excellent and fun book, if dated in places. That too is educational, and can be good for discussion.
It took us a surprising length of time to get through as we'd picked it up as part of a snapping turtle reading project, and misplaced it once or twice. Really really enjoyed the detailed illustrations, made lots of notes. We started out with a library copy and ended up purchasing our own.
Naraku turns Sango against Inuyasha, who struggles along with his friends to avoid Naraku's traps …
These are awfully addictive!
light and sweet and entirely enjoyable.. looking forward to more
