Darkly She Goes
Another adult fairy tale. And this one is dark. Not in an unpleasant way, though. And while there is some nudity and sex, it isn’t gratuitous. Two misunderstood characters, each with their own (though very different) dark past, come together unexpectedly. The man Arzhur was once a knight, but now simply a hired sword, struggling […]
Animal Sidekicks
We all know about some beneficial symbiotic relationships between species: the bees that feed from flowers and pollinate them, the clownfish that lives in a sea anemone, the birds that pick a crocodile’s teeth clean. The meerkats that eat parasites off a warthog’s skin. This book has far more examples, some of them I’d never […]
Twilight in Amsterdam
Artist: Evgeny LushpinMaker and Year: Sure-Lox, 2014Count: 750 piecesFinal size: 22.5 x 15″Piece Type/Variety: Ribbon cut, one shapePiece quality: PoorSkin irritation: Yes, minor If you’ve been reading my blog you probably know that puzzles of scenes with lots of buildings are not my favorite. Cityscapes, etc. And yet I found myself getting “into the zone” […]
Beautiful
Much like Wild Animals of the World, this book showcases different wildlife species, with short write-ups on facts and physiology. It is in particular, about those animals that we typically think of as less attractive, or downright ugly and distasteful. Hyenas, warthogs, naked mole rates, horseshoe crabs, the shoebill (a large predatory bird, pictured on […]
Even More Lesser Spotted Animals
Sequel, another book about practically unknown animals. Some because they are rare, others because they are just hard to find and rarely seen (even if quite comfortable in numbers). This one shoves aside the tigers, lions, giraffes and blue whales to feature instead the dibatag, black and rufous sengi, forest musk deer, dingiso ( a […]
Lesser Spotted Animals
Well, I’ve heard of some of them. I already knew a bit about the black-footed ferret, sand cat, onager and numbat. I’d never heard of Speke’s pectinator, the Russian desman, the long-tailed dunnart or the hirola. The pages about these lesser-known animals that very much deserve the same kind of attention that koalas, cheetahs and […]
Wild Animals of the World
Children’s nonfiction book about wildlife. I loved this one for the illustrations- they have a spare, graphic style with painterly texture. The panda on the cover not the best example, though it does grab your eye for being so familiar. Some of the illustrations are accompanied by short text blocks of interesting facts or traits. […]
Dalí
Same artist graphic novel series as the van Gogh and Gauguin ones. But this one did not sit well with me. I think because I do not really appreciate this artist- I was willing to give the book a try though, and learn more about him. I mostly recognize the surreal, dreamlike paintings (melting clocks), […]
Country Road
Artist: Kevin DanielMaker and Year: Sure-Lox, 2014Count: 500 piecesFinal size: 18 x 11″Piece Type/Variety: Ribbon cut, one shapePiece quality: PoorSkin irritation: Yes More puzzling at the library. Background switches halfway through because I did this one over two days, so then it was on sheets of paper. The cut was off, but had one missing […]
Vincent Van Gogh
This series has the same name as the graphic novel ones I’ve been reading: Art Masters. But it’s a completely different series, and not a graphic novel. I didn’t realize until I had it in hand after requesting from the library, and it looked like an easy enough read- not too dense- so I gave […]