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May 2020
6:48pm, 25 May 2020
10,651 posts
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mrs shanksi
😀 westmoors. I recommend you read the HP books and would be interested in whether you like them or not.
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May 2020
6:52am, 26 May 2020
120,112 posts
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GregP
I’m two thirds of the way through American Gods on the bounce from this. It remains very odd.
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May 2020
4:17pm, 27 May 2020
2,824 posts
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phal
I really enjoyed American Gods. The follow up book, The Anansi Boys, is excellent too.
We both loved Neverwhere. The Ocean at the End of the Lane is also fab.
The only one of Gaiman’s I’ve read so far which I didn’t enjoy as much was Norse Mythology - which is his retellings.
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May 2020
5:50pm, 27 May 2020
120,116 posts
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GregP
I loved Neverwhere. TOATEOTL is on my TBR pile. Thanks for the Anansi recommendation:)
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May 2020
6:01pm, 27 May 2020
4,925 posts
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The Scribbler
Anansi boys is excellent - although if you can get hold of the audio book narrated by Lenny Henry I’m almost tempted to recommend listening rather than reading it.
Ocean has the most terrifying villainous threat ever in a book and disturbed me for weeks after reading it.
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May 2020
6:27pm, 27 May 2020
2,825 posts
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phal
It is disturbing Scribbler. Even more so is one of his books of short stories, I’ll see if I can find out which book it was; some of those come back as soon as I think about them - really vivid images😬
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May 2020
6:34pm, 27 May 2020
2,826 posts
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phal
I think the collection was called ‘Fragile Things’.
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May 2020
5:58am, 28 May 2020
120,119 posts
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GregP
I’ve got five credits on my Audible account Scribs you brilliant person 
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May 2020
11:16am, 30 May 2020
609 posts
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Peregrinator
The Graveyard Book
So, if it takes a village to raise a child, how about a graveyard?
Turns out, with a bit of assistance from the undead, and some glossing over (where does Bod wash, either himself, or his clothes? How does food and drink get supplied or cooked), a corps of corpses can do quite a good job in bringing up a young person.
I enjoyed this far more than The Dark is Rising, which has similar themes of growing up and the people's lives spanning the interface between normal and paranormal worlds. I think because it aimed to be a lighter book. Which is odd as it starts with the murder of three members of a family, and ends with at least four, admittedly not very innocent, people being consigned to various fates. But everything hangs together by its own logic and key things, such as the Sleer, are introduced ahead of time, so that they don't feel like a mechanism to solve a plot problem. I could imagine reading this with a child, though perhaps not just before they go to sleep. Although I’d have a physical copy as the Kindle version lost some of the effect of the illustrations, which had a matching cobwebby feel. There have been plans to film this and it would be interesting to see where the line on violence, particularly towards Bod's family, would be drawn. It certainly can't be removed as the underlying vein of threat to Bod's life has to be real to carry the story and make the ending work.
I fell to wondering how the Fetch website would do bringing up a young child. For food and drink, there's lots of cake and chocolate, and coffee; but some healthier meals too. Sport is a given, and from the threads PSHE should be ok. Geography is probably well covered by accounts of races all over the place, history perhaps less so. Maths would be figures and statistics, maybe using geometry and algebra to calculate speeds, distances and elevations. Languages seem mainly focussed on Duolingo: any native Mandarin speakers? Based on the accounts of DIY, we can probably cover most practical skills, including hairdressing.
What do we think, shall we adopt Atalanta?
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May 2020
12:57pm, 30 May 2020
37,231 posts
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LindsD
I can teach languages JenL is also a linguist, I think. And we have speakers of other languages. NE and Glenn speak Russian, Rae speaks Dutch, ITG speaks millions of languages.
Silas gets food - we are told that. And I think Mrs Owens (was that her name?) cooks it. Washing and toilet - no idea....
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