Reviews and Comments

nerd teacher [books]

whatanerd@bookwyrm.social

Joined 2 years, 7 months ago

Anarchist educator who can be found at nerdteacher.com where I muse about school and education-related things, and all my links are here. My non-book posts are mostly at @whatanerd@treehouse.systems, occasionally I hide on @whatanerd@eldritch.cafe, or you can email me at n@nerdteacher.com. [they/them]

I was a secondary literature and humanities teacher who has swapped to being a tutor, so it's best to expect a ridiculously huge range of books.

And yes, I do spend a lot of time making sure book entries are as complete as I can make them. Please send help.

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Mur Lafferty: Station Eternity (Paperback, 2022, Penguin Publishing Group) 4 stars

Amateur detective Mallory Viridian’s talent for solving murders ruined her life on Earth and drove …

Content warning In which I'm still annoyed by this book.

Mur Lafferty: Station Eternity (Paperback, 2022, Penguin Publishing Group) 4 stars

Amateur detective Mallory Viridian’s talent for solving murders ruined her life on Earth and drove …

Content warning Could spoil characters and plot, but... you can't?

Mur Lafferty: Station Eternity (Paperback, 2022, Penguin Publishing Group) 4 stars

Amateur detective Mallory Viridian’s talent for solving murders ruined her life on Earth and drove …

Content warning The writing is weird.

Mur Lafferty: Station Eternity (Paperback, 2022, Penguin Publishing Group) 4 stars

Amateur detective Mallory Viridian’s talent for solving murders ruined her life on Earth and drove …

Content warning Potential character "development" spoilers. Mostly notes for myself.

Mur Lafferty: Station Eternity (Paperback, 2022, Penguin Publishing Group) 4 stars

Amateur detective Mallory Viridian’s talent for solving murders ruined her life on Earth and drove …

Content warning May spoil characters? But they all suck so far.

Seishi Yokomizo: The Inugami Curse (Paperback, 2020, Pushkin Vertigo) 4 stars

In 1940s Japan, the wealthy head of the Inugami Clan dies, and his family eagerly …

Quite Enjoyable

4 stars

The thing I have to focus on is that I very much liked the character of Kindaichi Kosuke, and it's particularly because he reminded me of Columbo (so it's also quite adorable to me that both characters have existing statues in the world). I know that Columbo came after him, but they both have the kind of unique charm of an incredibly observant person who appears a little haphazardly bumbling at times. I don't know why, but this kind of detective is far more engaging to me. Perhaps because it makes the detective feel more relatable and like it's just that they happen to see the world through a different lens which helps them make connections that others can't.

I really enjoy the mystery and the structure. While there are a couple red herrings, the primary thing that seems to be utilised are a lot of well-placed Chekhov's guns... Except …

Yukito Ayatsuji: The Decagon House Murders (Paperback, 2021, Pushkin Vertigo) No rating

The lonely, rockbound island of Tsunojima is notorious as the site of a series of …

Concept is interesting, execution isn't great.

2 stars

Content warning May spoil the solution of the crime.

Akimitsu Takagi: The Tattoo Murder (2022, Pushkin Press, Limited) 3 stars

Tokyo, 1947. At the first post-war meeting of the Edo Tattoo Society, Kinue Nomura reveals …

Annoyingly Engaging

3 stars

I call it 'annoying' because I honestly didn't want to put it down most of the time when I was reading it, opting to walk around the city reading it.

I wish I could comment on whether or not the translator's work held a quality that was inline with the original, but I don't read or speak Japanese with any degree of fluency. However, the translator's work was really well done and still made the characters quite endearing in their own way.

Though the description for the book mentions Kyosuke Kamizu as the detective, he doesn't show up until somewhere after the middle of the novel, in chapter 43. It was a bit surprising because I kept expecting him to pop up somewhere along the way much earlier, but that doesn't detract from the story. It's rather well-constructed and quite interesting, and the clues provided (along with the red herrings) …

Rumiko Takahashi: InuYasha, Vol. 6 (2003, VIZ Media) 4 stars

Through magic, Kikyou, the priestess who originally killed Inu-Yasha, has taken over Kagome's body. Is …

The Same Character is the Best and Worst Part of this Volume

3 stars

I do like Miroku, particularly when they let him be a sincere character. His lecherous behaviour is often played for a joke, and it gets tiresome after a while. Even with other characters commenting on it (mostly being annoyed about it), it often is played for laughs or used as a means to drum up the perpetual jealousy in the unspecified relationship between Kagome and InuYasha.

Though the story is still fun, these things have definitely grown more infuriating and boring as I've gotten older.

C.S. Fritz: A Fig for All the Devils (Paperback, 2021, Albatross Book Co.) 3 stars

An abused, grief-stricken, and impoverished Sonny has all but given up on life. That is, …

Liked what it attempted to do, but don't feel it actually succeeded in doing it well.

2 stars

I feel like this book failed to actually hit the notes it was attempting to hit. It wanted to work through abuse, death, and grief but really felt like it was forcing the wrong characters to learn lessons when they were meant to be the narrative devices through which the protagonist Sonny (and his family) were meant to learn.

Much of the exploration felt incredibly superficial, with Sonny just moving on through processing the abuses he endured. This isn't to say that there's one right way to process and deal with abuse, but there was nothing that actually made Sonny engage with what he experienced. In a good chunk of the novel, it was very much "tell don't show" or "show but gloss over."

Overall, it's an interesting attempt, but I left it feeling very unsatisfied. I was even left frustrated by the ending, which I think should've had consequences …

Agatha Christie: And Then There Were None (2015, HarperCollins) 3 stars

And Then There Were None is a mystery novel by the English writer Agatha Christie, …

Still Interesting

3 stars

It's been a long time since I last read this book, and I remembered liking it. I don't think I caught all the ways in which the movie Clue either references it or uses it as a guide for their detective spoof before, and that was partially the reason for why I wanted to read it again.

I still very much like the idea that the point of the book is to target those who cannot be touched by the law or who haven't done something that can be considered "criminal." It really feels, particularly in an age where so many people in specific positions view themselves as untouchable because they're either "not doing something illegal" or the law refuses to do anything about them, like a concept we should be revisiting in our narrative fiction.

This novel is enough to bring me back to detective works, something which I've …

Eric Litwin: Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons (2012, Harper) 2 stars

Pete the Cat loves the buttons on his shirt so much that he makes up …

Too Much Like Leveled Readers

2 stars

Leveled readers are books that are generally designed for new readers and English learners, which supposedly build language skills by making sure a book 'fits' a level. Personally, I find these leveled readers suspect, as they don't so much build independent readers but create stories that are generally dull for the sake of "being easy" and "using appropriate vocabulary."

This book reads like that, though it doesn't look like a traditional leveled reader because of the art. I've tried using this book with a range of young students, and they all say things that indicate to me that the book is 'speaking down' to them rather than treating them like actual readers. For example, a few kids who like repetition in books (and think it's fun because they can sing it like a song) find the repetition of asking them to do simple maths problems (4-1, 3-1, 2-1, 1-1) to …

Lauren Child: I Will Never Not Ever Eat a Tomato (Paperback, 2003, Candlewick) 2 stars

Lola is a fussy eater. A very fussy eater. She won’t eat her carrots (until …

I find it a bit troublesome.

1 star

I'm just going to focus on the thing that I find obnoxious: I don't like when people trick others into eating foods they openly state that they don't like. I actually think that indicates a form of abuse that we see as being acceptable, and I label it as abuse because it's explicitly ignoring the body autonomy that we should all have. Children, like all people, should have a right to determine what they eat and do not eat. Tricking them into eating things because you call them by another name is just... I'm not a fan.

There are numerous reasons a person would choose to not eat something. Some people find certain textures appalling, while others can't handle certain tastes. Others just aren't ready to try certain foods, opting not to eat them at that moment. And those aren't even all the reasons that people don't like and choose …

Women around the world have long dreamed big, even when they've been told their dreams …

Constant Rehashing

1 star

Every single book I've read includes the same few women, even as they're telling us to learn about more women. It's a bizarre pattern to notice when we're being told to diversify and expand our knowledge, and Chelsea's book doesn't help it.

Expand only as far as you're allowed, I guess.

On top of everything, JK Rowling is featured in this book as an amazing woman. This book was published in 2018. We knew then, as we know now, that she was not an amazing person of any kind. I think we're fine without her persistence. In fact, we could use less of it.