denise

Five Children’s Books

2018, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Fiction /

While the boys were here for Grandma Camp, we read some books – obviously. Here’s what we read:

Hiding Phil — we bought this at the Wild Iris closing (sniff). It was cute, if you like elephants and hide-and-seek (which Squishy does.)

Circle Triangle Elephant is a board book (from the Cybils shortlist) and Squishy liked it because elephants and boats and BLUE (he likes blue!)

The Book of Mistakes is also a Cybils shortlist book and I LOVED IT. I’m not sure how the boys felt about it but this is about me and I LOVED IT. It’s all about how a “mistake” in a drawing can turn into something amazing. LOVED, LOVED, LOVED IT.

Another Cybils shortlist book, Peek-a-Moo was a hit. Turns out they own another book in the series, Peek-a-Who, and it’s a favorite. Also turns out Jenn didn’t know it was a series at all so Grandma had to buy them all. Had to!

And because they are moving, and Pippin is a bit sad about it, I had to pull out an old favorite from the days when my kids moved (and moved and moved), Mitchell is Moving. Pippin liked it and he was thrilled when I told him that I’d bought that for him and he could take it home with him.

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The 5-Ingredient College Cookbook

2018, Books in Bed, cookbooks /

I’m a sucker for 5-ingredient cookbooks, which explains why I picked up The 5-Ingredient College Cookbook from the new arrivals shelf at the library. It was a bit of a disappointment because it’s a 5 FRESH ingredient cookbook, not just 5 ingredients. Hmph. It was also what you’d expect from a cookbook for college students. Pretty basic. That’s not a bad thing but I didn’t see anything that really grabbed me. (The Oberlin kid was here and flipped through it and found a recipe for a vegan… enchilada (I think that’s what it was) that sounded good, though.)

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The Sunshine Sisters

2018, Books in Bed, Chick Lit /

I don’t know why I read The Sunshine Sisters except that I was downstairs and my book was upstairs and I just needed something light to read while I was having my lunch. Also, one of the kids was home and it seemed like too much extra work to read something that wasn’t light and fluffy.

This one was the best and the worst of chicklit, all wrapped up in one predictable, stereotypical tale. I liked it except when it got to be too predictable and too stereotypical and then I rolled my eyes a lot.

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The Keeper of the Mist

2018, Books in Bed, Cybil Challenge, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

Hah, another 2016 Cybils book. I think this is (maybe) the last book from that list that I’ve had on hold at the library. Maybe. I can’t remember. There might be another. Whatever.

The Keeper of the Mist was pretty good. I was a little frustrated with Keri, particularly in the beginning. She spent far too long thinking other people could do things better than she. Imposter syndrome, too much imposter syndrome. This is why our girls grow up to be women who feel this way. Sure Keri mostly fixed it all in the end but after you’ve spent 100 pages telling girls that the heroine doesn’t think she can do shit, it’s not so much comforting as it is conditioning. Stop it with the imposter syndrome story line for girls.

Anyway, yea. The book was pretty good. I thought it was a series but so far, it seems as though it is not. Too bad, I’d have liked to learn more about what happened to the Bookkeeper.

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The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat

2018, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction, Women /

Last week, the second book in this series was on the new arrivals shelf at the library and instead of grabbing it, I went back to the stacks to find the first one. I’m so glad I did. I absolutely loved The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat. I laughed and laughed and I might have maybe been close to tearing up there at the end. I really hope the second book is still on the shelf when we go back to the library — if not, I’ll be reserving it.

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The Library of Light and Shadow

2017, Books in Bed, Fiction, Women /

Huh. Y’all know how I feel about reading series out of order … so why did I read the second book in the Daughters of La Lune series and not come back and read the rest? So weird. And now I’ve done it again with book 3, The Library of Light and Shadow. (Oh, I see why. I liked it but didn’t love it and wasn’t in dire need of reading the first one. Whatever.)

I feel pretty much the same way about this book. I liked it. I didn’t love it. Part of my problem was trying to remember more about the earlier book (about the sister whose power is tied to stones.) I also always seem to find myself being more interested in the secondary characters than in the main characters. Let’s see if that happens when I read the others.

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Inferior: How Science Got Women Wrong — and the New Research That’s Rewriting the Story

2018, Books in Bed, Non-Fiction, Women /

So, Happy IWD2018? Happy coincidence that I’m writing about Inferior today… and I’ll take all of the happy coincidences I can get right now because HMPH about all the things. Anyway.

This was an interesting book. Interesting to get a look at all of the different studies that have led us to where we are now. All of the ways women were left out of research, all of the ways (mostly) male researchers got it wrong, and to ponder the reasons why the (mostly) male researchers got it wrong. (And, why they are still getting it wrong more often than they should be right now.)

It was also interesting to read about some of the primate studies and insights into various tribes and groups of people in other regions. (The Agta in the Philippines, the Hadza in Africa, etc.)

I’m not really sure that new research is rewriting the story, but some researchers are certainly trying.

(PS. I’m on the side of the “grandmother theory” to explain evolution/life expectancy/menopause, how about you?)

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