Category Archives: pigeons

Terrier by Tamora Pierce

I had just finished this book and was trying to explain to John a why I liked it and this is what came out:

“It’s a book that had it been a movie I would have loved it but because I liked the book I’d never see the movie, but do you know what I mean?”

Fortunately he did know what I meant.

Here is a translation for the rest of you. The book involved a lot of beating the bad guys up with big sticks, funny quippy sort of comments from the good guys, who weren’t all guys and weren’t an angelic type of good. The main character is a girl who’s quite adept at beating people up herself, and she has an interesting purple eyed cat.

As it turns out my favorite movies are the ones where good guys aren’t really that great and they make lots of quippy comments while they are running around blowing things up, which is always good because there is significantly less gore and guts.

I’m not a fan of gore and guts.

Or I like romantic comedy’s.

What I really don’t like, and have just stopped watching altogether are movies based on books that I liked. My reasons are as follows:

1)They are never as good as the books.

2)My mind is then poisoned with movie images that I can never shake which is extra lame because of the first reason.

3)I don’t actually read a ton of books where stuff gets blown up, so I don’t really have to worry about overlap there.

4)I do read books full of suspense. Suspense in books is fine, I just read faster, I like it. Suspense in movies irritates me and I ALWAYS jump. I hate jumping.

5) I also hate nightmares. It takes a bit in books to give me nightmares, Steven King gives me nightmares. When it comes to movies I could probably manage a nightmare after watching the Sandlot. Therefore half the books I read are movies I would never see for fear of nightmares.

6)If I want to have deep thoughts about something I’ll read a book. movies are in my opinion for open mouthed, drooling, mindless, entertainment. Therefore if I’ve read a book that requires any sort of brain power I’m not interested in seeing it on the screen.

When in comes to movies I didn’t love Seven Pounds (way too much thinking) I won’t be watching the Time Travelers Wife, or Inkheart (because making a movie about a book like that is just wrong) and don’t even get me started on Harry Potter…

But I did really like this book. So much so that if it becomes a movie I’ll never, ever watch it.

Would I recommend it? Yes

Dragon Haven by Robin Hobb

Usually  I like to snap a photo of the book I read because personally if I’m browsing at a book store a cover I have seen is far more likely to catch my eye than a title. I can’t remember authors to save my life (that was never my job in the Battle of the Books) and I’m iffy on names, but I can usually spot a familiar cover. Hopefully it’ll help someone else out one day as well.

But today I’m refusing to share.

I think I’ve mentioned this before so forgive me - but seriously. Do the cover artists even READ the books?

Would I recommend it? Yes, but with the same spiel (which I thought you spelled schpeil until tonight, who knew?) as last time, so I won’t get into it again!

P.S. Usually when I read before bed I get sleepy after a few chapters and go to sleep. All of Robin Hobbs books have had the opposite effect on me. This has resulted in much less sleep than planned on. It’s dangerous, just thought I should warn you!

Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown and Felicia Bond

“By the big red barn in the great green field, there was a pink pig who was learning to squeal…”

Sorry, I see the book and the words just start rolling off my tongue, I can’t help it!

Ivy loved it as a baby and I read it so many times I accidentally memorized it. Then when Clara started reading books we pulled it out with the rest of the board books and it took about two times through before I had all the words back again.

Someone tell me why I was never able to master my times tables but I can memorize kids books on accident!

Regardless* of my math ineptitude this book has my favorite sort of sing song rhythm to it, making it easy to memorize (if you are into that sort of thing) and fun to read out loud.  As if that wasn’t enough to make one little book lovely the girls seem to really enjoy the super detailed illustrations (can you see the hose on the barn in the picture?).

Would I recommend it? Yes, both the kids and I agree on this one. Besides, I have it memorized and I don’t hate it, it’s got to be good.

*I was going to use irregardless in this sentence but thought I’d better look it up to see if it meant what I thought it meant. My dictionary had this to say about it:

…”The most frequently repeated remark about it is that “there is no such word.” There is such a word, however.” … “Its reputation has not risen over the years, and it is still a long way from general acceptance. Use regardless instead.”

So I did…

…but every time I’ve read though my draft I say irregardless in my head.

Birdology by Sy Montgomery

The chronicles of this lady’s “adventures with a pack of hens, a peck of pigeons, cantankerous crows, fierce falcons, hip hop parrots, baby hummingbirds, and one murderously big living dinosaur” are full of facts and information, unfortunately they are also full of Sy Montgomery. Sy Montgomery is a bit too, for lack of a better term, woo woo for me. I’m glad that birds fill her heart with awe and wonder and make her spirit soar. But when I read things like “My whole soul feels like a yawning hole that only this bird can fill.” I throw up a bit in my mouth as I roll my eyes.

Would I recommend it? No Parts of it, particularly the parts about the cassowary, I found pretty interesting but I have very little tolerance for woo woo mixed in with fact. It made my head hurt from all the unintentional eye rolling and I wouldn’t want to subject anyone else to such pain.