As expected, May was a horrible month for reading. OK maybe not horrible, since I’ve certainly had worse, but it wasn’t good. How could it have been, with all of that travel and all of that stress? Whatever.. June’s going to be awesome!
I read six books, total.
Three were non-fiction (including one cookbook.)
Three were from the Cybils shortlist.
*One was written by a POC (male).
I didn’t plan to read Chip Gaines’ book, Capital Gaines. Heck, I haven’t even read the main Magnola book yet. But, it was just sitting on the shelf at the library and I didn’t have any books in my bag so what the heck, right?
Then, when I had finished a book a couple of days ago and this one was right next to me and I didn’t have to go downstairs to get a new book… it was fate.
It was also not a great book. I was enjoying it in the beginning, the very beginning. But about the time Chip had to get his ass back to Texas instead of staying in Mexico to learn Spanish is about the time I found myself bored and doing a lot of eyerolling. The best part of the book was the end, the extras, the sections written by Chip’s personal assistants. They should write a book and Chip should just stick to doing the stuff that he does that’s not writing.
Another middle grade fiction from the Cybils shortlist, Caleb and Kit wasn’t bad but it also wasn’t as good as I think it could have been. I wasn’t drawn to either Caleb or Kit, something was just missing. I think the CF information was good, certainly better than the other novels I’ve read with characters who have CF. I think the neglect and abuse issue was not well covered, and that was disappointing. This was really Caleb’s story and not Caleb’s and Kit’s together story, which was also disappointing.
Again, not a bad book but not great either.
TW asked me to reserve Power Plates at the library. Only problem with that was that it wasn’t at our library and it wasn’t on order at our library. So, I did what I always do, I suggested our library buy it. And they did.
Aside: It’s actually kind of cool to suggest a book for your library and have them take you up on that suggestion. You get to be the first one to read it and then any time you see it on the shelf, you get to say “Hey, I’m the one who suggested that book!” It’s really kind of cool. I’ve suggested four books since we moved back to this area and the Alachua County Headquarters branch has bought them all.
Back to the book… it’s the perfect vegan cookbook for our vegan foodie. Lots of different flavors, lots of different ingredients but not TOO MANY ingredients (not that too many ingredients ever stopped that kid.) It didn’t really make me happy because I don’t like things like fennel or kale or sweet potatoes for breakfast but I certainly saw recipes that interested me, particularly when the vegan kid is here for a visit. Definitely a cookbook worthy of the bookshelves at my library.
Power Plates: 100 Nutritionally Balanced, One Dish Vegan Meals Read More »
My first thought was “Oh look, another book about desegregating schools, but hey this one is in California and not the south, woot!” my next thought, 20 pages in, “Oh man, I love these kids!”
Armstrong and Charlie is a surprisingly good book. The characters are wonderful, the setting was spot on (being a child of the era, I found myself reminiscing about Clackers and Tootsie Pop Drops, and the SRA box, to mention just a few), and the book “told the truth.”
Armstrong and Charlie Read More »
OK I think Alice Paul and the Fight for Women’s Rights is the last non-fiction Cybil I’ll read this year. Probably. I’m kind of glad I finished on such a high note.
This was a pretty comprehensive history of Alice Paul’s life and work. It was a quick read but not a simple read. Well done, I highly recommend it to kids (or adults) who don’t know much about Alice Paul.
Alice Paul and the Fight for Women’s Rights Read More »
I think book two, The Supremes Sing the Happy Heartache Blues was better than the first book. The only thing I didn’t like is that five years had gone by between the first and second. Five years felt like it was a little too long.
The Supremes Sing the Happy Heartache Blues Read More »
Nine, hahaha. Oops. It was a long month with more TV watching than reading there at the end. Whatever.
Five were children’s picture/board books (lol)
Two were middle grade non-fiction (lol)
One was middle grade poetry (lol)
(That means I only read one adult novel in April and I didn’t even like the damn book. lol)
Six were Cybils (and they were mostly good Cybils, too!)
May probably won’t be much better for reading since we’ll be taking two trips (on top of the one I’m already on right now.)
*One was written by an Asian man.
I reserved I’m Just No Good at Rhyming because I thought it might be fun to play with while the boys were here. hahaha. As with many of our big ideas around kids and poetry, this didn’t happen. I, however, enjoyed it a good bit once the boys went home. I’m not a huge fan of extra-silly poetry so I was worried — but, it wasn’t too silly, just clever. (Mostly.)
I reserved the only two books that I was really interested in, from this year’s non-fiction shortlist, Motor Girls: How Women Took the Wheel and Drove Boldly Into the Twentieth Century and Queer, There, and Everywhere. As expected, I really enjoyed Motor Girls and have a love/hate/disappointed/frustrated thing going with Queer, There, and Everywhere.
Three from the Cybils Shortlist Read More »
I have no idea why I read The confusion of Languages. I should have just put it down a couple of weeks ago and called it done. It wasn’t a horrible book, I just didn’t care about it at all. The characters bored me, the setting bored me, the plot bored me. I finished it last night and was all… whatever.
The Confusion of Languages Read More »