Book Barn

[rachelmanija]

I went to the Book Barn in Niantic, CT: three locations, two goats and three cats spotted (one of which licked and two of which bit me), and a very large book haul.



Click to enlarge.

Thoughts on any of the books?

Comments

[helen_keeble]

I've read In Great Waters! I really enjoyed it. Some excellent non-human perspectives. Her third book was also great, though I'm completely blanking on the title (it's based on British fairy folklore, with some really well-drawn ND human characters).

Her first book, Bareback, SHOULD have been right up my alley (AU where everyone is a werewolf apart from a small minority of the population; werewolves lose their human minds on the full moon - which is the only time they transform - so the few non-werewolves are all conscripted into the dangerous and thankless job of policing the cities on full moon nights; heroine is a "bareback" non shifter). Alas, it's INCREDIBLY slow, tedious, and has a painfully unsatisfying conclusion. I kinda suspect she originally wrote a very different book, and then had it ruthlessly mauled by an editor trying to make it fit into a standard urban fantasy shape (it was published at the tail of the big popular boom in that genre, IIRC). It's notable that the writing style is VERY different to her better works - first person present single POV rather than semi-omniscient third multi POV in the later books.

[ethelmay]

I have read Arctic Dreams for sure, but probably not in 25 years or so. I do remember enjoying it. Fairly sure I read Go and Catch a Flying Fish over 40 (!) years ago but remember nothing about it.

[jazzfish]

Ooh. I remember enjoying Friday The Rabbi Slept Late three decades ago, but nothing else about it. Which, based on my tastes from then, suggests that it's got good dialogue, a decent sense of place, an interesting mystery, and quite possibly a visit from the Racism/Sexism Fairy.

The other two Kemelman books are sequels, but you're missing a couple in between (Saturday and Sunday, naturally).

[telophase]

Barry Lopez Arctic Dreams was one of the assigned books in an intro ecology course I took in undergrad. I remember liking it, but nothing else about it.

[estara]

Oh Kat Kimbriel Kindred Rites. If you like t his the other two books are on Book View Cafe. Also, she has a space/planetary opera series there Fires of Nuala etc. Good fun!

[scioscribe]

Obviously you have all my opinions already, but aside from Demon Pig (I can't even contain my love for that book's cover/summary), I'm particularly looking forward to your thoughts on the Geoffrey Household book you haven't read yet.

I've already started the Caroline B. Cooney book I picked up!

[rachelmanija]

Excellent! Please report on it.

[philomytha]

I have not read any of them, but if I was picking what to read first just based on the title, it would be either one of the Rabbi books, or Go and Catch A Flying Fish.

[naomikritzer]

Oh, in addition to the one we discussed already, STATELESS is amazing and probably right up your alley. Have you read any of Wein's other books?

[rachelmanija]

Yes, Code Name Verity and the Arthurian/Aksum books, which I loved, Rose Under Fire, which I had mixed feelings on (a lot of really powerful scenes but making Rose the main character felt pandering), and Black Dove, White Raven, which I remember nothing about other than that I didn't find it memorable.

[coffeeandink]

In Great Waters is a complex, unsentimental, unsparing look at mermaids with elegant prose; I remember finding the ending somewhat anticlimactic, but the book still worth it.

Demon Pig! I have not read this or The Pig, the Prince, and the Unicorn in decades, and have no idea how they stand up, but I was very fond of the pair as a teen.

My mother had most of the Rabbi Small books and I read a bunch of them as a teen, but again, I don't know how well they'll stand up. They are probably a pretty decent representation of (religiously) Conservative and (politically) liberal American Jewish congregations of the time period, or at least they matched my experience pretty well.

I have read and liked other books by Erin Bow and Robert Newman, but not the particular ones you have.

[rachelmanija]

What were the other Erin Bow and Robert Newman books you liked?

[coffeeandink]

For Erin Bow, the duology The Scorpion Rules/The Swan Riders -- it has some fascinating looks at AI and ethics and political struggle, and I have read it recently enough to recommend it with confidence!

For Robert Newman, I was very fond of Merlin's Mistake when I was a kid -- it's a YA fantasy about a squire on an adventure, I think, but I don't remember the details.

[hippogriff13]

Was that the one about a kid--I think his name was Tertius--whom Merlin was trying to teach magic (or something) but somehow instead wound up accidentally imbuing with all kinds of twentieth-century scientific and technological knowledge, which was largely useless (at best) for the era he was actually living in? As I recall, the viewpoint character was a more "normal" Arthurian-era kid who becomes friends with Tertius while they're trying to find some way to use Tertius's anachronistic knowledge to deal with some current problem the Knights of the Round Table are attempting to solve.

[coffeeandink]

Yes, I think so. There's also a sequel called The Testing of Tertius, but I'm not sure I ever knew about it as a kid.

[skygiants]

I also loved every other Erin Bow book that I read but have not got round to this one yet, so I'm very stoked to hear your thoughts on it!

[wateroverstone]

To my surprise, none of these seem familiar but who could resist a book titled DemonPig?

[osprey_archer]

Elizabeth Wein has a new book I didn't know about?! Well, I have to put that on hold at the library stat!

I don't think I've read any of the books in either stack, but I am always interested in hearing about books by Mary Stolz or Caroline B. Cooney. (With tentacles on the cover no less!)

[starlady]

I quite liked In Great Waters lo these many years ago. A Scatter of Light is really great, a YA novel about coming out and coming to terms with who you are that lets complicated and messy things be complicated and messy.

[owlectomy]

A Rumour of Otters is my favorite title in the bunch.

I didn't read the whole Claidi series by Tanith Lee, but the books I read felt way less interesting than other books I've read by Lee - sort of by-the-numbers fantasy.

[ducened]

I read A Paramedic's Story many long years ago, and found it pretty good.

[ivy]

I used to read his blog, back when he had one, which I greatly enjoyed. The book was a pretty similar collection of stories... I liked it slightly less than the blog because I'd heard most of them already, but still I found it fun.

[rushthatspeaks]

In Great Waters is a fascinating historical AU and also a really good book about mermaids, and neither of those are things I encounter as often as I would like.

Yay owning a copy of Rogue Male. Curious about the other Household.

I DNFd My Sister the Serial Killer due to it absolutely failing to do anything I could not predict or have any angles I had not already expected. I was sad, as it came highly recommended, but I just don't get why.

[anna_wing]

Eliska Kimbriel is always good. Lawrence Block too. I remember Arctic Dreams as being enjoyable, but too much about Barry Lopez and not enough about the Arctic; but that was thirty-five years ago, so I might be doing him an injustice. But I remember that he was the one who solidified my preference for non-fiction about something/somewhere/someone, to be about the subject, rather than the author.

[carbonel]

Simon Sort of Says and Stateless are on my current TBR list, and friends have raved about both.

I recently did an audiobook reread of all eleven of the Rabbi Small books with plots (I DNF'd the "conversations with the rabbi" one that was only available as an ebook) and generally enjoyed them. My mini-review are all on Goodreads under my real name, which I think you have. The series finishes fairly strongly, so if you get tired of them, you could skip to the last one. Also, I remember enjoying the earlier Nicky Welt stories as puzzle stories. I recently bought the ebook of that collection, and it's working its way up my TBR stack.

The paramedic book sounds interesting, but my library doesn't have it. (It does have two other books with similar titles, which I have bookmarked for later, since I'm currently trying to deal with five other hard-copy library books.)

[skygiants]

I've not read the Rabbi Smalls books, but I remember hearing/reading somewhere that originally the author had simply wanted to write a book about a rabbi and his congregation. When he sent it to his agent, the agent responded that he could sell it if Kemelman would consider having the rabbi solve a murder, but otherwise there was no way. This story may be apocryphal but it does not stop me returning to it as a publishing parable.

(My uncle, who is a rabbi, has read them, and says there isn't enough rabbinical discourse in them, but that's just what I would expect him to say.)

I am also of course very excited to hear about any Isabelle Hollands!

[hippogriff13]

So he wanted to write something more like Herbert Tarr's "my wacky first congregation" (if that's the correct term) 1969 novel "Heaven Help Us!"? I think that actually sold pretty well at the time.

According to Amazon, the first Rabbi Smalls book, "Friday the Rabbi Slept Late," came out in 1964. So possibly the problem was that Kemelman's original idea was ahead of its time. Or maybe Kemelman's agent's insistence that the book needed something more than just slice of life had something to do with the fact that Herbert Tarr's book is much funnier than anything the Rabbi Smalls books suggest Harry Kemelman was capable of writing. Assuming Kemelman was even interested in writing anything more comedy-adjacent.

[kathmandu]

Oh, I remember the Book Barn fondly!

I haven't read any of your haul; I'll be interested to see what you think of them.

[illariy]

Wait, there is a bookshop with goats as well as cats? Very intriguing!

I have not read any of those books but based on the title, "The Paramedic's Story" sounds fascinating. :D Also, the Rabbi series.