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Archive for the ‘Conceptual level’ Category
Book review: The Elegance of the Hedgehog
Monday, April 26th, 2010 | Tweet |
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| Author: | Muriel Barbery |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | Sophisticated readers |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | Children 12 and up |
| Genre: | fiction |
This book is remarkable, in that with every page I read, I was more captivated. For one thing, the author tells the story in a very interesting way: The story is narrated by two very different, but also very similar, characters. One is a 12 year old genius and the other is a 50-something year old concierge in the fancy hotel she lives in. So that's cool, but the writing style is what really got to me. Barbery gets very deep into some philosophical questions, that at many points I found confusing at first, but once I got into my "elegance of the hedgehog mood", I really enjoyed it. | |
The way she uses language is just so PRETTY that I easily got sucked in. My only warning is that the ending is super surprising, although very satisfying nonetheless. I had to wait awhile to write my review because a) I didn't know what to say, and b) The ending got me pretty emotional, because the characters were so believable (I was almost crying on the bus when I finished it). -- Fizzy | |
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Book review: Makers
Friday, February 5th, 2010 | Tweet |
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| Author: | Cory Doctorow |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | For grown-ups |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | For grown-ups |
| Genre: | fiction, cyberpunk |
| Year of publication: | 2009 |
Let me start by saying that I would like at least one of every invention described in Makers. I am particularly taken by the RFID/GPS/labeling/cataloging system that allows a person to locate any item they have tagged by typing in its name. But I would be happy to ride The Ride, or own any one or all of the tiny robots, the Super Marios, well, truly, any and all of them. Doctorow also puts forward an interesting business model - the 6 months and you're out theory of manufacturing anything. Seems exhausting, but true to life. And may very well be the only viable model for hardware manufacturing in the future. That said, Makers is the book that Ayn Rand would have written instead of The Fountainhead if she'd lived a few years later and chosen engineering rather than architecture as her metaphor. In the Makers world, anyone with a moderate-to-high IQ is not only smart, but sensitive, creative, well-intentioned, and deep-down-to-the-core good (although sometimes that is not immediately apparent). Sure smart guys (and they are mostly guys, of course) may occasionally take actions that send others to the hospital for months at a time, but they do eventually realize the error(s) of their ways and take steps to correct them.Women in the Makers world are very, very bright, attracted to Makers, attractive, moral, tolerant, thrifty, ... well, you know, they are pretty much not very reality-based. Oh, and then there are the policemen. Seems that policemen (and lawyers) were pretty much put on this earth to physically and/or psychically destroy smart people. | |
Anyway, the plot moves along at an involving pace. And you like and approve of and root for all the smart people who are constantly inventing all kinds of very cool things. And then appears the very horrific random outburst of violence or kind of overly long sex scene (but then, I am probably not the target audience of this book; maybe the Powers That Be thought these were necessary). So, anyway, I'm very glad I read this book. But I did feel that Death Waits was treated overly harshly. He is a very young smart person, no doubt, but he IS a smart person, if not an engineer. It's good that in some fictional universes, smart people are not the enemies. Now, in addition, I'd really like to visit a fictional universe in which smart women are people too.-- Emily Berk | |
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Book review: The Children’s Book
Thursday, February 4th, 2010 | Tweet |
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| Author: | A.S. Byatt |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | For grown-ups |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | For grown-ups |
| Genre: | fiction |
| Year of publication: | 2009 |
There are so many intertwining, involving stories in The Children's Book that it was sometimes hard to slow down and remember that great novels are not entirely about what they are about. Set in the time leading up to World War I and before women's sufferage, the plot tells of a group of families and their associates and friends. There is a destitute young boy who is nurtured to become the artist he deserves to be. There are the young women who, lacking the vote and receiving conflicting messages about how to behave socially and politically, pay terrible prices. The subplots about how various characters resolve their needs to express themselves politically, even when expressing their opinions may adversely affect those they love should be required reading for anyone thinking of a career in politics. | |
This is not an easy book to read, but it is also not an easy book to put down. It's as if Byatt is leading us through a magical party. She continually blows up the most beautiful balloons and then, once you've become entranced by one, she wanders back to burst it. -- Emily | |
If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Children's Book, The | |
Book review: Among Schoolchildren
Monday, January 18th, 2010 | Tweet |
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| Author: | Tracy Kidder |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | Sophisticated readers |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | Children 12 and up |
| Genre: | Non-fiction |
| Year of publication: | 1990 |
My first comment on this book read: "So far I am really captivated by this book, which is interesting because I didn't really expect to like it so much..." This feeling lasted for the entire book. The writing style pulled me in so much that the story didn't even matter, although it is really cool as well. Kidder basically shadowed a fifth grade class in a poor, rundown, public school for an entire school year and wrote about the experience. | |
He really got to know the teacher (Mrs. Zajac) and her students and so the reader really knows them by the end too. The difficulties that Mrs. Zajac encounters with teaching the kids range from students three years behind, to shyness, to racism. Great book, I recommend it for anyone. (5 stars) --Fizzy | |
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Book review: Feed
Sunday, January 10th, 2010 | Tweet |
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| Author: | M.T. Anderson |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | Sophisticated readers |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | Children 12 and up |
| Genre: | fiction-dystopian |
This review seems like a spoiler, but it really gives nothing away, at all... This book really got me worried about how horrible human beings are and what we're going to do to the world... It gave me a very depressing feeling while and after reading. It is set in the (near??) future, and most people are basically controlled by their "feeds" implanted directly in their brains, which are used mostly as an excuse to constantly show them thousands of advertisements. I guess the ending is supposed to be a little hopeful, in that the main character is considering fighting the feed, when he sees its awful power over humanity, but... I think hopeful is not a word that anyone can truthfully apply to this book. | |
The writing style was very distracting at first, because it is VERY informal. I will explain with a quote: "I was like trying to sleep for the last few minutes of the flight, because... when we're goin hard i get real sleepy real easy, and I didn't want to be null for the unettes on the moon, at the hotel, if any of them were youch." SO: Interesting. Very cool. Spooky. Makes you think. But definitely not cheerful. At all. --Fizzy | |
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Book review: A Step From Heaven
Saturday, January 2nd, 2010 | Tweet |
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| Author: | An Na |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | Sophisticated readers |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | Children 12 and up |
| Genre: | fiction |
| Year of publication: | 2003 |
I'm not sure how to rate this book, because the narration ranges from a five-year-old's perspective to that of an 18-year-old one. This is really interesting, but leaves most of the book as a very easy, lower-level read. However, this story about abuse and immigration is intense and scary. | |
Yung and her family emigrated from Korea when she was five to find a better life. But her dad ended up drinking and life got very hard trying to keep their heritage while living in America... --Fizzy | |
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Book review: Graceling
Friday, January 1st, 2010 | Tweet |
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| Author: | Kristin Cashore |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | Sophisticated readers |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | Children 12 and up |
| Genre: | fiction |
| Year of publication: | 2009 |
This is a super fast-paced, easy read, which was great since that was what I had expected. The book is about a girl, Katsa, who is "graced", gifted with a special talent that no-one else has... She basically has to save the world, and on the way lots of other exciting things happen too. | |
I was very satisfied by this book, it was a fun read, and best of all, it's a stand-alone book, so I don't HAVE to go finish the series. Note: There are some very explicit sex scenes in this book, even though the book is labeled "young readers". -- Fizzy | |
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Book review: The Island of the Colorblind
Saturday, December 19th, 2009 | Tweet |
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| Author: | Oliver Sacks |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | Sophisticated readers |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | Sophisticated readers |
| Genre: | Non-fiction: Science |
| Year of publication: | 1998 |
My daughter and I listened to Dr. Sacks' narration of this book on audio tape. Listening to his quirky voice and sophisticated vocabulary requires intense concentration, but is well worth it. My daughter was engrossed by the topics discussed, and inspired by the author himself. At one point, Sacks riffs on the wonders of the Paleozoic cycad forests, and my daughter, with love and admiration, exclaimed, "My but aren't WE a nerd?" (Acknowledging in the intonation of that sentence that she is one too.) Here is her rather informally written review: | |
The title of this book is a little misleading, because it doesn't only discuss colorblindness. The book is really a collection of three adventures that Oliver Sacks has had. It is pretty cool, to me at least, because he discusses different islands that have not yet been modernized and upon which plants have been allowed to keep evolving at their own pace. Sacks uses many science-y words, and I think I would have been a little bit overwhelmed by them all if I hadn't been listening to his stories as an audiobook, but the big words aren't really the point...Anyways, super cool, with descriptions of really enchanting, science-y, yet mysterious places. | |
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Book review: My Sister’s Keeper
Tuesday, December 1st, 2009 | Tweet |
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| Author: | Jodi Picoult |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | Sophisticated readers |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | Children 12 and up |
| Genre: | fiction |
| Year of publication: | 2004 |
I am not very satisfied with the ending to this book. The whole thing is very sad, and Picoult just HAD to add one more horrible twist... ANYway, this book is good, but as I said, horribly depressing, as you may expect from a book about cancer. The idea is that 13-year-old Anna has always been just a vessel of bodyparts to contribute to her leukemic sister for various surgeries, and she decides to sue her parents so she doesn't have to donate a kidney. | |
The book is narrated by different people, including Anna and her parents, so it gives the reader a nice mix of perspectives. It gets a little bit mushy at times, and is full of tears and yelling and stress, but I really couldn't put it down to finish my math homework til I was done. Note: Definitely a "mature" book, couple brief sex scenes, swearing... -- Fizzy | |
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