[Kiddalee]'s BBC Overflow #1

(back to BBC of Kidda)

March 2006 - February 2005

Akira #1 by Katsuhiro Otomo, 359 pages
This is a great graphic novel. The artist did a wonderful job of making the action scenes seem real, and creating interesting characters. Unfortunately, someone stole volume 2 of the 6 from the library, so I won't be finishing this series for a while. From a library! What's wrong with people?

Hikaru no Go #3 by Yumi Hotta, et al (see #14), 203 pages
It is so odd how the folks who made this comic managed to make the board game of Go seem so exciting and passionate. They even caused me to have an interest in learning it. Unfortunately, it's not very popular in this region of Ontario. :( (Of course I've read the earlier two volumes, but I'd have the same thing to say about them.)

Aliens Ate My Homework by Bruce Coville, 179 pages
Fun.

Stranded by Ben Mikaelsen, 247 pages
The girl seems unrealistically brave, but other than that, it's a good story for kids and maybe youth.

Big Al by Andrew Clements and Yoshi, 24 pages
The illustrations for this book are absolutely amazing. If for nothing else, at least read it for the pictures. I don't think you should turn down any book just because it's for kids, though. It does remind us of the value of each person.

Oddly Enough by Bruce Coville, 163 pages
An anthology of short stories, mostly fantasy, which portray the broad spectrum of plots and moods Coville is capable of rendering. This is one proof that he is overlooked as a writer. More at RR.Oddly Enough.

The Music of Dolphins by Karen Hesse, 181 pages
The journal entries of a girl who was raised by dolphins until her early teen years, and then found and educated by doctors. This used to be a keeper for me, but last time I read it, I wasn't so sure any more. It seems to lean too far to the side of, "Humanity sucks because of society, don't you wish we could all be feral?" Maybe the author had to do that because of Mila's (the main character) point of view. One hopes it's that, though it sounds like an essay in disguise.

Mugging The Muse: Writing Fiction For Love AND Money by Holly Lisle, 209 pages (ebook available at http://www.hollylisle.com/fm )
Yes, I read books on writing. However, I do make sure not to doctrinally follow one author, or believe everything these books say. And this was an awesome book. It made me want to buy one of her fiction books to repay her.

Stuart Little by EB White, 131 pages
This is not all it's cracked up to be. The mouse's lifestyle wasn't believable (if you want a better human mouse, read Roald Dahl's The Witches), the plot was weak and the ending sucked.

Animorphs: The Hork-Bajir Chronicles by KA Applegate, 212 pages
A bit darker and slower to read than The Andalite Chronicles, but interesting and a bit more realistic.

Animorphs: The Andalite Chronicles by KA Applegate, 329 pages
This goes by fairly quickly, and is a fun adventure story. Though I admit I would like the Animorphs series better if Applegate had worked out a few more holes in the societies of the aliens, I still enjoy its epic quality.

Jesus Among Other Gods (Youth Edition) by Ravi Zacharias, 142 pages
I guess the apologetics were interesting, but I couldn't truly enjoy it, because I was reading it with a church's College & Careers group, and 2 of the members were too proud to learn anything from it. Not to mention that I would have preferred the full edition, but the elder in charge, well, forgot that we were adults. Yep...

I Kissed Dating Goodbye by Joshua Harris, 235 pages
The basic gist of this book is asking how Christians can maintain sexual purity by setting themselves up for failure in the dating world. It also notes the difference between purity and "purity" (or legalism). The authorial voice is nice, and I find that the arguments are sound, though note that the whole thing is from a Biblical perspective.

California Diaries, #5: Ducky by Ann M Martin, 103 pages
I like Ducky. He is very funny. It's hard to fit a strong plot into a realistic journal, but Martin manages to make the books of this series more intense at the time when one would expect a climax.

The Essential Spiderman, Volume 2 by Stan Lee et al, 528 pages
One thing I love about older sci-fi is the way it is closer to fantasy than the newer stuff. This is especially apparent in that it uses science that we have since proven unrealistic. Take this equation, for example: Superpowered person = anything + human + radioactivity XD As for the comic itself, it kept my heart beating and my eyes on the page. It was fun (there were a few instances in which Spidey just picked a stupid fight because there were a bunch of little boys reading, but I learned to appreciate that). Luckily, Mary Jane didn't show up until the end of this anthology (I find her so annoying), though I wish I could find #3 to follow Peter through college.

California Diaries, #2: Sunny by Ann M Martin, 136 pages
Oh, the angst! Oh! This was worth it, though.

The Christian Home School by Gregg Harris, 169 pages

The Magician's Trap by Eileen Piper, 60 pages
This is horrible! It's pure clichée. Only look at it for the illustrations (hmm, I should have taken down the name of the illustrator of that edition). They are quite nice.

Oedipus Rex by Sophocles (translator unknown), 44 pages
Sad, and dark, and I like it, but I read it so long ago I barely remember it now.

The Fall Of A City by Alden Nowlan (short story)

Forrest Gump by Winston Groom, 256 pages
This book is nothing like the movie. It's episodic, crazy, offensive, and hilarious. Forrest does so much, but all the characters are extremely different and it's not as much about lessons learned as the movie. Actually, the movie is more intelligent, and has a stronger plot, but there's no way I can say that it's better because their purposes are so different, they can't be compared. So if you experience both, you won't feel like you're doing the same thing twice.

The White Stag by Kate Seredy, 95 pages
An ancient Hungarian legend, poetically written. It may be too poetic (wishy washy) for some, but I favour such fluid language. Anyways, the legend is beautiful and interesting. It's also a very short read. Half of the page count is illustrations.

The Entire Harry Potter series up to #6, by JK Rowling, 2800 pages total
I read the whole series over the summer, and the growing intensity left me weak and hypervigilant. Besides that, you've heard enough surface reviews about this series. I'm willing to talk about specific aspects, though.

The Narrow Road: Stories of Those Who Walk This Road Together by Brother Andrew et al, 333 pages
This is basically a republication of God's Smuggler, a book written in the '60s (somewhere around that time) containing the autobiography of a guy who grew to smuggling Bibles across the Iron Curtain, but there are some modern special features added. The man's story is interesting. Unfortunately, the modern publication of the book causes one to forget that it was written long ago, which causes some confusion for the reader (like saying that China is one way that it actually was at the time of the writing but isn't any more). The added features are interesting, too. Just little 1-page stories about people in areas where Christianity is highly persecuted.

Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams

5th Business by Robertson Davies

A few of Margaret Atwood's short stories, some of which drove me insane (why is she punishing her readers for giving her work the time of day?). I wrote an essay on Hairball, which is entertaining, but made me feel skinned and raped, in that order, and really did drive me nuts.

Hamlet by William Shakespeare

Here we get to February 2005 ^^^

Note:The following are books that I find memorable enough to talk about even though I read them long ago, so there will be inconsistent and sometimes huge spaces of time in between them.

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King
Even if you don't like books about writing, at least read the biography. It's worth it.

The BFG by Roald Dahl
Love it. Every kid should read Roald Dahl. I especially like how he has a way of explaining to little children wisdom that even adults have trouble understanding.

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
I couldn't put this one down. I liked it much better than the short stories I've read by her.

Out of the Silent Planet by CS Lewis
Book 1 of The Cosmic Trilogy. I want to finish the trilogy, but just haven't gotten around to it.

The Mammy by Brendan O'Carroll
Very effective and touching. One part made me cry. I would have read the rest of the series, but couldn't due to cicrumstances beyond my control (see forum post [4290]).

The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington
I loved this book. It got me out of a "reader's block" of sorts that I'd been in since the beginning of high school. More at RR.Magnificent Ambersons, The.

Macbeth by William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare

The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkein

The Narnia series by CS Lewis

The Hobbit by JRR Tolkein

Various works of Robert Munsch (awesome children's author!)

Various works of Dr. Seuss
I still read the Munsch and Seuss books, but they're so short it's hard to keep track of which novels they came in between.