Picture This: Weasels

Weasels by Elys Dolan

You might think that weasels busy themselves eating, fighting with squirrels, and hiding in their weasel holes, but you would be wrong. "What they really do is...plot world domination!"

Do you really need to know any more than that? This book by English author illustrator Elys Dolan is hilarious. From the main plot of world domination foiled by technical difficulties ("Machine status: It's broken"), to the running gag of weasels drinking coffee and one particular weasel and his attachment to his drill, this is one fun read. The pages are filled with humor and fun details. Their leader even has a monocle!

And when they figure out what went wrong, you can go back and see it as it happens. It was there all along, you just didn't notice. Do they succeed in their goal? One need only look at the fantastic endpages to find out. Loved this one.

Did you see it yet?

♥

Loved it. Satisfying. Very faithful, great casting, entertaining,

Rollin Meerkats

watch the others

Recent Read: To All the Boys I've Loved Before

To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han

Each time Lara Jeans falls in love, she writes the boy a letter to say goodbye. Then she tucks it away in a hatbox, never to be sent. But then the boys start receiving their letters.

Great premise, but it wasn't really what I expected. This little description doesn’t really provide a picture of what the story actually is. Lara Jean’s older sister, Margot leaves for college in Scotland as the book begins. Before leaving she breaks up with her long-time boyfriend, Josh—a boy that Lara Jean loved (and realizes she still does). So when he gets his letter, Lara Jean makes up a boyfriend to save face. She no longer has any interest in the fake boyfriend, (Peter, who also got a letter she had written in middle school), but they decide to keep the charade going for the sake of Josh and Peter’s new ex.

So that’s the set up. And I loved it…until the end. One of the best teen romances I’ve read…until the end. When it comes to romance, YA has a lot of passion, drama, sensitivity, and physical intimacy of different kinds. Jenny Han brings something to this story that I rarely see: humor and playfulness. It was a joy to read this. I felt like I was giggling and blushing along with the protagonist. They tease each other and make each other laugh and enjoy spending time together. It’s a bunch of little things that collect over time. It was nice to read something that felt so natural and fun.

Unfortunately, it was not without its problems. The voice was the first thing I noticed. She sounded 13, but she’s 16. She wasn’t especially emotional, which I found strange.

(spoiler-ish things ahead)
Then there's the biggest problem of all: right at the end something sours things for Lara Jean and _____. And they don’t really get resolved. On the final page we see Lara Jean intending to resolve things. But we don’t really get to see them together as a happy couple. I wanted to see that! I don’t want to rely on my own imagination! The ending was focused more on the sisters than the couple. And truth be told, I was a little unsatisfied with what happens between the sisters, too. I can’t imagine letting go of the things they did to each other that quickly and did Margot ever really get what Lara Jean was going through? I dunno. I’ve never had a sister, so maybe I can’t understand. I kept trying to change the story or resolve it in my head after I finished the book. All this build up and then…blah. Not only did the book feel unsettled, it made me feel unsettled, which I did not appreciate. (Though obviously if I had this kind of reaction, she succeeded very much in getting me involved and caring about the characters.)

Recent Read: The Winner's Curse

The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski

Kestrel’s father, a famed general in the empire of Valoria, has given her a choice: marriage or the military. She possesses a strategic prowess desirable in the military, and her best friend’s brother would marry her in a heartbeat. But in truth, she wants neither option. Instead, she finds herself drawn to her slave, Arin. As her feelings for him grow, she talks with him, confides in him, unaware that he is planning to overthrow her people and reclaim what once belonged to him and his people.

This was an interesting read—in part because I was on the fence for at least half of it. It takes a while to get going. There are some inconsistencies in the world-building that irritated me, some characters’ decisions and behavior didn’t totally make sense. But by the end I was more or less sold. Once it did get going, I was hooked. There was enough originality in it to feel new. And the ending leaves the characters in quite a state. It sets up the rest of the trilogy for lots of tension and difficult decisions. I’m very interested to see what happens next.

The idea of the winner’s curse and how Rutkoski used it in the story was great. It’s first used when Kestrel bids an exorbitant amount of money in order to win the slave she can’t resist. But it comes into play more than once later in the story in heart-wrenching ways. Yet (surprisingly) it never felt contrived.

Johnny Express

JohnnyExpress from AlfredImageworks on Vimeo.

Photographer Spotlight: Martin Schoeller

Martin Schoeller is a master portraitist. He has photographer everyone from the homeless to the famous to the politically important (such a lovely photo of the first family). He took that famous photo of the breastfeeding 3-year-old on the cover of Time. He specializes in portraits taken in exactly the same style, pose, setting, and lighting. They're up close and personal.

Members of the Hadza tribe of Tanzania. Photos by Martin Schoeller.

But two of the most fascinating projects he did: identical twins and multiracial people.

See more twins in his book, Identical: Portraits of Twins, and on here (online slideshow).

Schoeller's images of people with mixed race backgrounds was featured in an article called "The Changing Face of America."

LEFT: Yoel Chac Bautista, 7, Castaic, California | Self-ID: black/Mexican/”Blaxican”| Census box checked: black. RIGHT: Tayden Burrell, 5, Sarasota, Florida | Self-ID: black and white/biracial | Census box checked: white/black

LEFT: Julie Weiss, 33, Hollywood, California | Self-ID: Filipino, Chinese, Spanish, Indian, Hungarian, and German Jew | Census boxes checked: white/Asian Indian/Chinese/Filipino RIGHT: Maximillian Sugiura, 29, Brooklyn, New York | Self-ID: Japanese, Jewish, and Ukrainian | Census boxes checked: white/Japanese

LEFT: Jordan Spencer, 18, Grand Prairie, Texas | Self-ID: black/biracial | Census box checked: black. RIGHT: Celeste Seda, 26, Brooklyn, New York | Self-ID: Dominican and Korean | Census boxes checked: Asian/some other race

Read more about this here. See more photos here and in the October 2013 issue of National Geographic.

I love his photography.