October 2016 books

The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I read this to vet it for Miriam and I think it could be five stars for her. Tremendously clever and especially relatable for anyone with a baby brother.

That said, freaky dream sequence things are not my favorite in books, and this one has a few.

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Scarlet by A.C. Gaughen
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This book relies too heavily on what we already know about (and our existing, already built-up affection for) Robin Hood and his men from countless other iterations of this story. There is very little character development here, with the exception of Scarlet herself and her admittedly interesting backstory. Otherwise, we just have Robin the Mysterious Loner Dude and Guy the unredeemable greasy bad...guy. Move along: there's nothing to see here.

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Reckless by Cornelia Funke
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I think Miriam is going to love this book. [Edited to add: she totally did! She finished this book in two days.] I only just liked it. I'm willing to forgive some of its oddities because it was originally published in German. It's been translated very skilfully, but it still comes off as "other." It's brusque and abrupt and sometimes depends on fairy tale traditions that are not quite universally known in American culture. But it was fun to read and the lost-in-translation aspect added a layer of depth to the story.

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