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Showing posts from June, 2018

Book Review: Hope Never Dies

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Hope Never Dies Author:  Andrew Shaffer Genre:  mystery  Publisher:  Quirk Books Publication Date:  July 10, 2018 Stars:  Four stars Description:  Vice President Joe Biden is fresh out of the Obama White House and feeling adrift when his favorite railroad conductor dies in a suspicious accident, leaving behind an ailing wife and a trail of clues. To unravel the mystery, “Amtrak Joe” re-teams with the only man he’s ever fully trusted—the 44th president of the United States. Together they’ll plumb the darkest corners of Delaware, traveling from cheap motels to biker bars and beyond, as they uncover the sinister forces advancing America’s opioid epidemic. Review: Is this book 100% Barack Obama and Joe Biden fanfic where they solve crimes together in a sweet-ass car? Yes, it is. I love Quirk Books as a publishing company because they publish the weird, quirky shit that other people wouldn't think of. Like who would have gone "oh he...

Children's Books ~ Mini reviews! Magic Words, Lily Pond, Watermelon Madness

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Magic Words From the Ancient Oral Tradition of the Inuit by Edward Field Pub Date 01 Sep 2013 Children's Fiction Magic Words is a modern translation (1965) of a very old Inuit creation story by nationally known poet Edward Field. As a poem it captures beautifully the intimate relationship this Arctic people have with their natural world. Magic Words describes a world where humans and animals share bodies and languages, where the world of the imagination mixes easily with the physical. It began as a story that told how the Inuit people came to be and became a legend passed from generation to generation. In translation it grew from myth to poem. The text comes from expedition notes recorded by Danish explorer Knud Rasmussen in 1921. Edward Field got a copy from the Harvard Library and translated it into English. Review: 4 stars The illustrations are gorgeous in this book. Absolutely beautiful. I wish the story wasn't so short - just when it feels like it's starti...

Oceans Month Books!

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I love June! Pride, summer solstice, the sun! All  good things! It's also Oceans Month! Yay! I live there! To commemorate the occasion, here are some of my recent ocean reads! Spineless by Juli Berwald  Isn't the cover pretty! I love it! This one is about jellies. Jellies are not fish, so jellyfish is not the right term anymore. Jellies are almost completely water, sort of like watermelons (that's a big SORT OF). Jellies are weird. Read a book about them! The Brilliant Deep: Rebuilding the World's Coral Reefs: The Story of Ken Nedimyer and the Coral Restoration Foundation by Kate Messner and ,   Matthew Forsythe Ah man, we are killing the oceans. That's a fact. Thankfully, people are trying to restore coral reefs by other means. This book gives us some hope where there is little. I do love a good non-fiction picture book about our oceans. The illustrations are gorgeous too! Shine!   by   Patrick McDonnell ,   Naoko...

WhaleSnark Recommends....Music in French

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Do you enjoy music? Right, yeah, that's a broad question...hmmm... Do you like French electro and pretty music?!?! Yeah? Okay! Have some recommendations from me, a well-versed-in-French-music whale shark. First, oh my goodness, Stromae, my absolute favourite French-speaking artist ever (besides Daft Punk, let's be real). Stromae is Belgian. He's an androgynous genius. He writes music that is just OH GOOD GOODNESS. So good. He's only released one song in the last five years, BUT in 2013 he released 'Racine CarrĂ©e', which is a highly enjoyable album. His other older album 'Cheese' is also super cool! I am a huge fan of synth and smooth voice, which Stromae has. He's pretty great.        OK, I listen to a lot of French music. I love the language. It has hidden syllables everywhere. You never know how they spell things and even when you do, you just kind of go, "welp, I bet that's a silent vowel", and you would be very correct mos...

Bookcover Snark with Peekaboo and Elley Otter

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In which Peekaboo and Elley look at some book covers and get snarky, and Elley ends up adding way too many books to her Kindle Unlimited TBR. /sigh WARNING: Swear words ahead. Not a lot of them, but the effin-heimer is dropped a few times. You’ve been warned. Peekaboo: His back looks like someone took a wrinkly old man back, and photoshopped muscles onto it. Elley: Also I think there might be a couple of babies trapped under there. Peekaboo: Dear god I think you're right. Elley: Is that… is that the actual book title? Them Back Dimples ? Peekaboo: What if the whole book is about her seeing what she can fit in/drink from those back dimples? Elley: I mean, what ELSE could it possibly be about? Peekaboo: The small furry animals attempting to escape from under his skin? IRL tho, he hires her to be his maid, and then refrains from wearing pants. Not at all sure what back dimples have to do with anything. Except that his are cavernous. Elley: I know we're ...