Hi! I'm Olive Fellows. I talk about books here on RU-vid and write about them in freelance book reviews. I enjoy reading nonfiction, literary fiction, and the occasional genre fiction book.
At this time, I'm only considering traditionally published (i.e. not self-published) books for review.
If the book starts with so much detail and little meat of the story in the first three pages, I put it back. Authors, cut to the chase. Don’t need: “It was a little red house with a white picket fence covered in tiny purple flowers with yellow centers that filled the air….” Back on the shelf it goes.
I don't blame you! I think it's a lot more fun to be dropped into the action at the start of a book. Authors can save the descriptive language for later (if they use it sparingly).
11:50 Actually, Ichabod Crane MUST have survived the encounter with the Headless Horseman, if he was able to tell Washington Irving about it. :D :P P.S. Oh, I tell you --- that always bothers me about an "impossible" story --- i.e., one that includes details that the author presumably could have had no way of knowing, such as where a person dies alone and thus he could not have told his tale of his final hours, or dies immediately after having a dream, and so he couldn't have told anyone the details about his dream. Even if we know that the tale is merely a made-up fantasy, it still always feels awkward and unsatisfying, since it contains that glaringly-obvious element of impossibility. For a story to be enjoyable, it has to have at least a practical or logical aspect --- i.e., we would want to think that it might indeed have happened, and that it was verbally related to the author to put down on paper --- especially if it has a sad or violent ending; otherwise, it's almost as if the author had WANTED to just make you feel sad or upset unnecessarily by writing a tragic story that he would have had to merely make up in his own head.
I think that this was my favorite of all the "Wishbone" episodes. I especially liked the delightfully-spine-tingling scene where Joe is telling about his first run-in with the black cat at the old Murphy place, and the use of reverb-echoing speech for Joe during his voice-over, and the wonderful organ-tones/chords used along with it to pleasantly heighten the drama, something like how they use thrilling organ-chords crescendos during the triumphant "11th-hour snatching victory from the jaws of defeat" scene at the end of "A Fleabitten Bargain", where Faust gets to go to Heaven with the angel Care after all, when it had seemed certain that he would have to honor his "deal with the devil" and allow said demonic entity to claim his immortal soul for all eternity. :D
7:36 David (hearing a loud clunk from upstairs in the old Murphy place): "What was that?!" Samantha (disgustedly) "Damont!" Wishbone: "Oh, really?! All right, DAMONTSTER --- I'm ready for you! Try and scare MY boy, will you?! Ready or not, I'm COMIN' UP THERE!"
4:33 Decades ago, I figured out all about black cats and what's up with their "bad luck" reputation --- they only bring you bad luck if you avoid them and make them feel shunned or unwelcome. And I saw it first-hand, too --- I petted THREE black cats in one day, and I had very GOOD luck that same day. So that PROVES it!!! :P :D
5:28 LOL --- I love how you "lip-synched" your own words with the actress's speech, i.e., where she was "mouthing the same words" that you're saying. :D :P ;)
The fact that Miss Malloy used the reverse side of Joe's praise-note for an extra-credit sheet indicates that she been pleased and touched by what Joe had written about her, and thus she'd wanted to keep his note around for a while. Let's hope that Joe gave her back the note afterwards, so that she could save it in her collection of other treasured classroom memories. :D
I especially liked two parts of this episode --- one, Miss Malloy's warm-hearted interaction with Joe at the end (and offering to let him help her carry some boxes so that he could pleasantly interact with her for a few moments before he had to leave school for the day), and two, the wheelchair-bound girl's kindly hiding Wishbone --- obviously she likes him a lot, presumably because he has spent time with her and cheered her up in the past.
5:45 Obvious reference to a previous Wishbone episode, "A Fleabitten Bargain" --- after the book "Faust" --- which also involves a lady named "Gretchen" who is the love-interest on the book's main character.
I wonder if the "Adventure of the Second Stain" is sort of a plagiarism by Doyle of Poe's "Purloined Letter" story, since they both involve The Great Detective's recovering a super-valuable-and-controversial letter that nobody else could find...?
6:02 Olive sounds like Ian Malcolm from "Jurassic Park" there --- "Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they COULD replicate dinosaurs that they didn't stop to think if they SHOULD."
Just saw you wishbone series you did . Did you know wishbone had two book series one based on the show . And then a spin series called wishbone mysteries . I just thought I’d let you know also what was your favorite wishbone episode?
This was one of my favorite Wishbone episodes. I especially got a kick out of Wishbone's saying, "Ya know --- somehow I just KNEW we'd be coming back here!", just as all of the audience members would have been thinking after seeing Samantha's eager determination to get the horseshoe before the barn was torn down. :D
Fun fact: This Wishbone episode mentions a children's book authored by a man referred to as "Mr. Trumbull", and entitled, "Blackbeard's Ghost". Though this book does not exist in real life, there was indeed a movie made in 1968 with this same name, and it was directed by a man named "Robert Stevenson", like the author of "Treasure Island", the famous novel that this episode is based upon. This movie-director's middle name was "Edward", however, not "Louis".
Hey Olive! I can see your points on this production, but actually, I really liked this episode --- it was one of my favorites among all of the Wishbone stories, in fact. The "good guy" characters really present a heartwarming and satisfying persona. I especially got a kick out of the final "Faust goes to Heaven" scene, where they play a rousing triumphant "last-minute snatching of victory from the jaws of defeat" organ-crescendo, accompanied by Mephisto's apparently being consumed by his own wrathful flames. :D
6:55 My own old man was like this --- he was hard and bitter due to his past misfortunes, and so he not only separated himself from society, but he also isolated his family, as well; I am still suffering the aftereffects of that mistreatment and extreme loneliness.
Pause the video at precisely 6:17 and you will see that the books are all Russian. ( or at least in a language using Cyrillic script ). Not important, just kind of interesting.
Fanny has a moral compass of steel ...She is one of my favorite people in all of Austen's world ..I have a hard time with Emma ..Jane has a wonderful sence of humor and an incredably strong capacity to forgive ...
Fanny IS a heroine! We watch her come unto herself after a drama filled life. Being given away by her mother, severed from every relationship she had ever known. Living with the insults, and treated as a servant. Fanny was not insipid she was still that crushed child. We watch her blossom into bravery and get the ending she deserved! Read it again, not judging it against Austen's other works but on it's own merit
I just finished reading this because of you and now it will be my bible. I will reread a page everyday of this to remind me of my daily decisions. Great book!
I read this book for school and it kinda infuriated me. The book is supposed to be an adult romance like you said however, much of the romance is very childish in its nature. Casiopea has no experience with love, so she questions her feelings about boys and emotion a lot (I'm talking every second chapter after meeting Hun-kme). I've seen more mature romances with better developed feelings and care within even children stories. Additionally, thats all this story really has. Its pestering, skippable description of the setting is wasted on a shallow childish romance. Rarely in the story does Martin or her make a decision on their own because everything is guided by the threat of godly death. Without decisions, I'm reading two people forced at gunpoint to behave and it's not fun. Idk, kinda wasted my time
We all wish we were Elizabeth, but most of us have to live like Fanny. We live with unfair disadvantage and nasty people who we can’t talk back to-or else! Fanny shows how to still live with dignity and act with honor in these circumstances.
I loved Mansfield Park. Yes, it's long and can be slow in parts, but overall, I really liked it. I wish they'd come out with a really good movie. The two out there are a huge miss (IMHO).
As a non-native speaker, I've been trying to read many good English books to improve on my expression skills. I knew Bill Bryson was a great writer, but it seemed to me that his famous books like Down Under are too old in 2024. So I grabbed The Body, which was relatively recent compared to his other books and hoped I would get more 'modern' aspects. I enjoyed reading up to one third of the book. It was amazing to see how he can explain complex concept in simple sentences while adding humors and play on words. But, by the halfway of the book, it was exhausting to go through the same pattern over and over again. It's always his general explanation first, then history, what the experts are saying, statistics, and his closing remarks. Took me 3 months to finish the book and now I am too scared to read his generalist take on things in his other books.
I agree that Austen was unfair to Marianne. When I first read the book, I found it mean-spirited. I eventually concluded that this was Austen moralizing to her own self to try to reconcile herself to her own lost love, so I could forgive it. (I didn't consider the possibility that she could do this because her own experience was less intense than limerance. Not sure whether I agree with that. It's possible, but I think the fact that she needed to write the book suggests that her feelings were originally very strong.) I think that Emma Thompson very much improved the story in her screenplay, putting in some layers and moments that Austen denied the reader and making Marianne's fate less bleak (by improving Brandon and making him a better match from Marianne's point of view). She also deepened the relationship between the sisters, putting in some of Jane and Cassandra's. I adore the movie, but I've only read the book twice, and it's definitely not my favorite.
Someone recommended your channel on Reddit for a poster who wanted a non-fiction book tuber, so I ended up here. I'm so happy to know that your favorite subgenre is science memoirs, because I became more and more interested in nonfiction after reading a lot of biographies and autobiographies of scientists (Andre Weil, Stan Ulam, George Gamow, John Nash, Oppenheimer, etc.). I've also been told that your reading taste is quite diverse too, which makes things even more interesting for me.
