the golden fish summer reading list (pt. 5)

i spent a lovely day gardening, reading, lifeguarding, bicycling, and seed planting. it was another picture-perfect summer day with the house hopping with neighbourhood kids! here are some more of the summer reading books. oh, and yesterday i finished another one of the books on the list - michael morpurgo's "war horse". "war horse" is not a typical horse story. written alternately from the horse's perspective and then the various masters that the horse enjoys (or not). the narrative has some inevitability about it in places but what's endearing about the book is that despite its predictability the writer makes the journey worthwhile through his careful painting of detail and most especially his careful depiction of emotion both human and equine, without stopping too closely to that time-honoured trick of turning the horse into a surrogate human.

21. the invention of hugo calbret a massive tome weighing in at 533 pages with 300 pages of pictures, time and attention will be required to fully enjoy this book. it comes with tons of good press. the author describes it as "not exactly a novel, not quite a picture book, not really a graphic novel, or a flip book or a movie, but a combination of all these things." ooooh i can’t wait!!

22. spook country i have read everything william gibson has published beginning with the groundbreaking and (in some views) world redefining novel neuromancer. spook country picks up where his previous novel, pattern recognition left off. while i acknowledge that i likely suspend my critical judgement when reading gibson’s books, i have not read a bad book by him yet and anticipate spectacular and challenging writing in “spook country”.

23. birdwing
picking up where grimm’s classic fable “the six swans” leaves off, birdwing tells the story of a boy torn between his life as a prince and his wish to fly. a metaphor that many can connect to.

24. the arrival i’m developing an interest in graphic novels, in part because my boys (the ones i teach) love them, and then also to reconnect with my childhood comic obsession. the slew of stunningly illustrated and well-written graphic novels that is currently emerging includes this absolute stonker of a book that i have had in my living room for almost a year now but which has been waiting for my undivided attention. you might like to read what the new york times says.

25. the faceless fiend
it's way back in the autumn of 1894 at eccentric aunt lucy's house in yorkshire, england. emmaline, rubberbones and princess purnah are merrily jumping off the roof at the request of their new tutor, the nutty american inventor professor bellbuckle. but trouble is on the horizen for this crew, as st. grimelda's wants the princess back, the government wants her to return to the school and worst of all, a terrifying master criminal known as the faceless fiend wants to kidnap her. oooh the plot is lovely sounding and the location - well even though yorkshire was on the other side of the war of roses (i was on the lancastrian side by birth) i have a special place in my heart for all things yorkshire!

the golden fish summer reading list part 1 can be viewed here.
the golden fish summer reading list part 2 can be viewed here.
the golden fish summer reading list part 3 can be viewed here.
the golden fish summer reading list part 4 can be viewed here.