How many thoughts you awake in my head
Feb. 2nd, 2019 04:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
todayiamadaisyJanuary books read
* Managing to Change the World: The Nonprofit Manager's Guide to Getting Results - Alison Green & Jerry Hauser (2012) ★ ★ ★ ★
I've spent most of my working life in nonprofits, so I was interested to see a book dedicated to working within one. Despite occasional things not relevant to a non-US reader, I found it full of practical, commonsense advice about managing employees, time and oneself. I would have benefitted from it enormously as a a new manager; even with a bit more experience, I still found it useful.
* The Last Council (Amulet #4) - Kazu Kibuishi (2011) ★ ★ ★
I picked this up at random from the "just returned" trolley at the library, just because I liked the cover. That may have done myself (and the book) a disservice; I suspect if I'd read the previous three, this one may have gone up a star. As it was, the story itself was easy enough to pick up, but I didn't know enough about the characters to care very much about them in anything more than a generic "well, they seem good, so I hope they're okay" sort of way.
This is a graphic novel — the artwork is really lovely — about a girl called Emily, who is a Stonekeeper (meaning she has a magic amulet). In this instalment, she and her ragtag group of friends (her mother and little brother; another boy Stonekeeper; two human-sized, upright-walking, talking cats; another one that might be a talking cat or talking fox; two elves) go to a city called Cielis to... find out more about the stones? Once there, they find the city is under authoritarian rule; the group is split up and the Stonekeepers are forced into a sort of Stonekeeper Hunger Games. Meanwhile, somewhere else, their other friends, a pink rabbit and a droid, meet up with an old Stonekeeper, another droid and a baby dragon. So there's a lot happening, and maybe one day I'll read the earlier books to find out why.
* Thin Air - Michelle Paver (2016) ★ ★ ★ ★
This is a ghost story of the old-fashioned Ripping Yarn variety: it's 1935 and a group of British explorers are attempting to climb Kangchenjunga, the third-highest mountain in the world, following the footsteps of a doomed expedition thirty years earlier... but ice and rocks aren't the only things they find up there.
The continuous present tense was annoying — I kept thinking, but who are you telling this to as it's happening? — and I wondered if I would have enjoyed it more framed as the narrator's memoir of what happened on the mountain. Also, I found it ended very abruptly, as if the author wrote two hundred pages then thought it was time to wrap up. I spent a lot of time worrying about the expedition's dog (shameless spoiler: it's okay). Those things aside, it was an enjoyable read that I galloped through.
* Hilda and the Troll - Luke Pearson (2010) ★ ★ ★ ★
* Hilda and the Midnight Giant - Luke Pearson (2011) ★ ★ ★
These were a delight. I picked them up at the library with The Last Council; these are from the junior graphic novel section, two short tales about Hilda, a girl who lives in the forest with her mother and their pet fox, and who has mild, quirky adventures with trolls and giants. There are three more, apparently, and I will seek them out next time I want a quick, fun read.
* Hilda and the Bird Parade - Luke Pearson (2013) ★ ★ ★ ★
* Hilda and the Black Hound - Luke Pearson (2014) ★ ★ ★ ★
* Hilda and the Stone Forest - Luke Pearson (2016) ★ ★ ★ ★
And I did pick them up next time I went to the library. Still a lot of fun, and becoming more developed and complex. The last one even ends on a cliff-hanger, which will apparently be resolved later this year. So there's something to look forward to.
* Managing to Change the World: The Nonprofit Manager's Guide to Getting Results - Alison Green & Jerry Hauser (2012) ★ ★ ★ ★
I've spent most of my working life in nonprofits, so I was interested to see a book dedicated to working within one. Despite occasional things not relevant to a non-US reader, I found it full of practical, commonsense advice about managing employees, time and oneself. I would have benefitted from it enormously as a a new manager; even with a bit more experience, I still found it useful.
* The Last Council (Amulet #4) - Kazu Kibuishi (2011) ★ ★ ★
I picked this up at random from the "just returned" trolley at the library, just because I liked the cover. That may have done myself (and the book) a disservice; I suspect if I'd read the previous three, this one may have gone up a star. As it was, the story itself was easy enough to pick up, but I didn't know enough about the characters to care very much about them in anything more than a generic "well, they seem good, so I hope they're okay" sort of way.
This is a graphic novel — the artwork is really lovely — about a girl called Emily, who is a Stonekeeper (meaning she has a magic amulet). In this instalment, she and her ragtag group of friends (her mother and little brother; another boy Stonekeeper; two human-sized, upright-walking, talking cats; another one that might be a talking cat or talking fox; two elves) go to a city called Cielis to... find out more about the stones? Once there, they find the city is under authoritarian rule; the group is split up and the Stonekeepers are forced into a sort of Stonekeeper Hunger Games. Meanwhile, somewhere else, their other friends, a pink rabbit and a droid, meet up with an old Stonekeeper, another droid and a baby dragon. So there's a lot happening, and maybe one day I'll read the earlier books to find out why.
* Thin Air - Michelle Paver (2016) ★ ★ ★ ★
This is a ghost story of the old-fashioned Ripping Yarn variety: it's 1935 and a group of British explorers are attempting to climb Kangchenjunga, the third-highest mountain in the world, following the footsteps of a doomed expedition thirty years earlier... but ice and rocks aren't the only things they find up there.
The continuous present tense was annoying — I kept thinking, but who are you telling this to as it's happening? — and I wondered if I would have enjoyed it more framed as the narrator's memoir of what happened on the mountain. Also, I found it ended very abruptly, as if the author wrote two hundred pages then thought it was time to wrap up. I spent a lot of time worrying about the expedition's dog (shameless spoiler: it's okay). Those things aside, it was an enjoyable read that I galloped through.
* Hilda and the Troll - Luke Pearson (2010) ★ ★ ★ ★
* Hilda and the Midnight Giant - Luke Pearson (2011) ★ ★ ★
These were a delight. I picked them up at the library with The Last Council; these are from the junior graphic novel section, two short tales about Hilda, a girl who lives in the forest with her mother and their pet fox, and who has mild, quirky adventures with trolls and giants. There are three more, apparently, and I will seek them out next time I want a quick, fun read.
* Hilda and the Bird Parade - Luke Pearson (2013) ★ ★ ★ ★
* Hilda and the Black Hound - Luke Pearson (2014) ★ ★ ★ ★
* Hilda and the Stone Forest - Luke Pearson (2016) ★ ★ ★ ★
And I did pick them up next time I went to the library. Still a lot of fun, and becoming more developed and complex. The last one even ends on a cliff-hanger, which will apparently be resolved later this year. So there's something to look forward to.