Story Insights

Matilda by Roald Dahl. What more can be said about this timeless classic? I will admit I kinda like the movie better than the book which is ironic because the material is kinda anti movie huh? It is funny how the book has some anti-American lines, but the movie is American. Danny DeVito and Mara Wilson were great in those. It was kinda neat how her powers manifested differently in the book though. That made for a quieter ending at the end though huh? What do you think? Did you read the book, watch the movie and watch the play?

read here: https://bookshop.org/p/books/matilda-roald-dahl/824a5772c165334f?ean=9780142410370&next=t 

Listen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vt6toNg3WmU 

Contact me: https://bookchatwithyou.podbean.com/p/contact-page/  

This is an archive in which I covered Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell. It is quite a brutal novel. I wouldn't have known it was a children's novel if not for doing a bit of research for the review. It is about a woman living on her for about twenty years after her tribe had been murder by seal hunters. Year after year her tribe had been given a poor deal in exchange for allowing a foreign sailors to seal hunt in their lands. Finally their tribe leader protests and rebels leading to the slaughter of their people. This leads our main character to live for years on her own without companion. This archive doesn't exactly follow the conversational tone I aim for. As of this writing I am studying for a post-graduates degree, but that is for me and perhaps for employment. As for books I feel conversations are more important than trying to slip in every piece of literary jargon possible. I mean, your opinion is more important than mine after-all.

Read here: https://bookshop.org/p/books/island-of-the-blue-dolphins-a-newbery-award-winner-scott-o-dell/1ea2d57e390a7fdd?ean=9780547328614&next=t 

Contact me: https://bookchatwithyou.podbean.com/p/contact-page/  

This is an archive I made many many many years ago of Space Station Rat by Michael J Daley. I don't remember this whole story other than I had a full cast audio of it I got from Humble Bundle. A boy everyone finds annoying (just a normal kid) befriends a stowaway genius rat that escapes to horrible experiments. I'm not even sure I read the book or just listened to it. Either way it was a fun kids book and you should check it out even if you're like grandparent aged and just want something fun to listen to.

Read here: https://bookshop.org/p/books/space-station-rat-michael-j-daley/6f33cbf8fd41a4bc?ean=9781497638174&next=t 

Listen here: https://fullcastaudio.com/space_station_rat/

Contact me: https://bookchatwithyou.podbean.com/p/contact-page/  

This is Book Chat with You. This is just a quick announcement. The next four episodes are archives from before. One from the stone age and a few a bit more recent, but I just never uploaded on here for several reasons. I should have done this a week ago when I had no time for this, but perhaps this will give me a bit of a buffer.

Contact me: https://bookchatwithyou.podbean.com/p/contact-page/  

In today's episode we look at Sensational Spider-Man 38 which is part of Back in Black that leads to Brand New Day. Sensational Spider-Man 38 is the second of a two part issue featuring Eddie Brock also known as Venom. This is a dark dark issue. There's some exposition explaining how Eddie Brock came to be without the symbiote that turns him into the anti-hero Venom. He is sick and dying of cancer alone in a hospital. The symbiote still talks to Eddie which is most likely Eddie losing grasp on reality. (There of course is a later retcon of this which turns Eddie into Anti-Venom but that's for another time.) Eddie does a dastardly deed to an innocent person and struggles within himself on whether or not he can do the same to Aunt May. Meanwhile Peter Parker, Mary Jane, Mary Jane's aunt and Madam Web are trying to communicate with Aunt May through a seance. 

watch or listen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTG3Czu_f2k&t=1050s  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0AUth1MCFo 

Read: https://www.amazon.com/Spider-Man-Black-J-Michael-Straczynski/dp/0785129049 

Contact me: https://bookchatwithyou.podbean.com/p/contact-page/  

In today's episode we look at Sensational Spider-Man 38 which is part of Back in Black that leads to Brand New Day. Sensational Spider-Man 38 is the first of a two part issue featuring Eddie Brock also known as Venom. This is a dark dark issue. There's some exposition explaining how Eddie Brock came to be without the symbiote that turns him into the anti-hero Venom. He is sick and dying of cancer alone in a hospital. The symbiote still talks to Eddie which is most likely Eddie losing grasp on reality. (There of course is a later retcon of this which turns Eddie into Anti-Venom but that's for another time.) Once Eddie hears of Aunt May being in the same hospital he considers murdering her in her sleep. Meanwhile Peter Parker rushes to Madam Web for help.

watch or listen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTG3Czu_f2k&t=1050s  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0AUth1MCFo 

Read: https://www.amazon.com/Spider-Man-Black-J-Michael-Straczynski/dp/0785129049 

Contact me: https://bookchatwithyou.podbean.com/p/contact-page/  

Hello. On this episode we discuss Carol Shields short story "Dolls, Dolls, Dolls, Dolls." This story doesn't have a conventional story arc. It weaves in and out through the main character's memories and thoughts mostly connecting to dolls. It starts with the main characters thoughts of a letter she received from her friend visiting Japan and going on a tour through doll factories and pivots to a time the main character and her friends gave up using dolls altogether in an attempt to tackle a traumatizing event. This was a difficult story to go over due to the narration style and just having returned to the USA something with a simpler linear prose may have been more welcome though, regardless, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this story.

Contact me: https://bookchatwithyou.podbean.com/p/contact-page/  

Learn more about the author and the book at: https://www.carol-shields.com/  https://bookshop.org/a/117636/9780060762049  

Hello Everyone,

This is Matthew Hernandez. I decided to try another monthly recap. In this episode I went over the various stories I read this month and ask you what you read, what you think about what you read, and if you read some of these stories. The stories I read and recapped are: "The Moths" by Helena Maria Viramontes, “The Second Coming” by Joe Gores, “Love So Fleeting, Love So Fine” by Carol Shields, “The Girls in Their Summer Dresses” by Irwin Shaw, “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver, Amazing Spider-Man #539 by J. Michael Straczynski.

I feel like I should type more here about which story stuck out to me most here, but I think I did enough of that in the episode. Enjoy!

Well I posted links to these episodes in the original episodes. 

Contact me: https://bookchatwithyou.podbean.com/p/contact-page/  

Join Matt Hernandez in discussing A Small Good Thing by Raymond Carver. This is a short moving story about parents dealing with tragedy. Though, in the background of it all is their own approaching loneliness which comes headfirst into the loneliness dealt with by a local baker. In short, Ann goes to a baker to order a cake for her son, Scott's, eighth birthday, though on Scott's birthday he is hit by a car and after some unknown complications dies in the hospital. During this time the baker kept calling them at first to remind them about the cake, but it became trolling from there. Ann mentions the loneliness they will feel and when they confront the baker he apologizes, but also mentions his own loneliness that he deals with. So, though it may not seem like it this story is just as much about loneliness as it is about loss.

Contact me: https://bookchatwithyou.podbean.com/p/contact-page/  

Read here: https://bookshop.org/p/books/cathedral-raymond-carver/e8d92534e3fc618a?ean=9780679723691&next=t or here https://www.sevanoland.com/uploads/1/1/8/0/118081022/a-small-good-thing.pdf 

Listen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KwHHfJBC2A 

Join me, Matthew Hernandez, in discussing Rocket’s Red: A Lady Astronaut Story By Mary Robinette Kowal. I had to read this for a class I'm taking online. I had to tell myself to give this a fair shot, but it was very easy to like this story. The PDF I had was about 7 pages and the author has this story for free on her website. This story is about Aaron Parkhill and his mother setting up a fireworks display on Mars. The technology featured is mostly from the 1950s so I guess that's like Ray Bradbury? Though, the story all takes place on Mars, that's the setting while all is about an aging mother help her son and her son seeing his mother was right about community all along.