Embarking on my Moominread.
Some time back I read a book of short bios of kick-ass women, that included Jansson. And then, the moomins are so freaking cute. Plus Jansson lived in Finland which is present in my mind since getting hooked on the ice hockey. so, I decided to do some further exploration before I wrote the books off as not for me.
I like the eccentric family of bohemians and their madcap adventures, sort of. I love that there are all these different-looking creatures and that Moomin seems to accept them as relatives or just as people without question. And the moomins are hella cute.
But the story-lines are predictable, and the dialogue isn't especially funny, and the convention of making every noun Moominnoun wearies me. So while I can recognize the need for cuteness after horror, and for acceptance after exclusion, I'm still not a fan. I have two of the novels in the queue, so we'll see if those work better for me.
If not I suppose I will stick with the coloring book. Or go back to Calvin and Hobbes which I am appreciating more at the moment.

And with that I am caught up with reviewing my holiday reading. Now I'm behind on everyone else's reviews, which makes a nice change.

Library copy

I liked this, but didn't love it. Sorry, B.T. Because I write in a completely different style to the one used here I sometimes find books that indulge in a heavy-handed approach to description a little slow. I loved the relationship between the grandmother and Sophia, those were my favourite bits. I only wish there'd been more of them. Sophia was such a precocious child with a hilarious temperament I longed for more from her. Perhaps if the book had been longer I may have got my wish. It was a mere 120 pages. While the descriptive prose were lovely, I felt there were too many of them and the relationship between Sophia and her grandmother was neglected a tad. The descriptive passages did, however, mean that the book was full of excellent imagery. I felt like I could see the island and breath the air. I would definitely recommend it.

I've been reading a few other things for the past few days (and still am), but decided to roll again anyway because I absolutely love it! I rolled 7 which took me to this space:

I've been meaning to read The Summer Book by Tove Jansson ever since BT gave it a glowing recommendation.

This is how my board looks now:

“… una pianta la si sposta dove può stare meglio, per una settimana ce la fa a sopravvivere sulla veranda. Se si sta via più a lungo, la si affida a qualcuno che la bagni, e può essere un po’ complicato.
Perfino le piante diventano una responsabilità, come tutto quello di cui si ha cura e che non è in grado di decidere da sé.”