denise

The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane

2018, Books in Bed, Fiction, Women /

It’s been awhile since we read a Lisa See novel and I’m glad TW mentioned Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane. It was a good story, as See’s books generally are, and its take on overseas adoptions by white parents of Chinese children was a far cry from other books that include this topic.

No coincidence = no story — that’s the theme here, and it’s an interesting one. Very useful in making the coincidences seem less like coincidences that you’d never believe and more like a life of coincidences. I bought it (most of it, ok a lot of it and what I didn’t buy, I forgave because the writing and the characters were wonderful.)

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The Inquisitor’s Tale: Or, The Three Magical Children and Their Holy Dog

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

The Inquistor’s Tale was on last year’s Cybils Shortlist in the audiobook category and I see why.

It was Canterbury Tale-like and there were some “ass” jokes, which kids would find very amusing. It was also a story with serious themes that were presented in some pretty kid-friendly ways without minimizing those serious issues. Well done.

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The Gender Game

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

Almost a year ago (?) I spotted a couple of interesting books on the new arrivals shelf at the library but I quickly realized they were books two and three of a series and I hate starting a series on anything other than the first book. So, I wandered back to the shelves looking for the first book, only to discover a whole bunch of books in the series but not the first one. So I took a photo of one of the covers and went home to reserve the first book.

Time passed and I wasn’t really moving up on the reserve list. More time passed and I started moving slowly up the list. Finally, it was ready to pick up — except I was out of town and I couldn’t get to the library in time to pick it up, so it went back to the stacks and I lost my hold.

I re-did the hold and was careful to always pause my holds when I went out of town after that and FINALLY The Gender Game arrived last week! Woot!

I enjoyed it but good grief, why is it so hard to get this book from the library? Also, why didn’t I realize I could have just grabbed the Kindle version for free and moved on to the other books that are much easier to get at the library? (Not that TW would have read it, because she hates e-books but this is about me, not her.)

Anyway Matrus and Patrus – post-apocalyptic fiction. I’ll read the next book and see how it goes from there.

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Alex, Approximately

2018, Books in Bed, Young Adult /

I liked Alex, Approximately but the whole situation with Mink’s mom just made no sense. NONE. Absolutely zero. And, that kind of ruined it all for me at the end. OK maybe not ruined but it was annoying.

Reading this one made me really want to watch old movies all day. TW said that happened to her in the beginning but stopped (I guess once Mink and Alex started talking so much and I’m guessing she didn’t read the movie quotes at the top of each chapter? I don’t know) but it happened for me all of the way through the book. I’m planning a movie marathon weekend for March!

(Also, the hardcover version’s cover has nothing to do with the book and that bugged me, too. The paperback cover is better.)

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Faith Volume 1: Hollywood and Vine

2018, Books in Bed, Comics & Graphic Novels, Cybil Challenge, Women, Young Adult /

Woot, a graphic novel! Faith Volume 1: Hollywood and Vine is from last year’s Cybil shortlist and I finally managed to get it added to my library hold list. (Another reminder to myself to get more graphic novels on my hold list in 2018.)

Faith is not one of those thin, sleek, gorgeous super-heroes. She’s an average sized woman who writes blog posts for an online media company (sorry, Faith — blogging was better 5-10 years ago) as her day job.

I liked Faith but I didn’t love her. I feel like the writers are trying a little too hard to make her a “real” woman. I am going to grab volume 2 and see if they’ve settled into her character a little more because I’d really like to love her.

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Why We March: Signs of Protest and Hope

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

Nope, we didn’t march yesterday but I did stumble across the Why We March: Signs of Protest and Hope book just sitting on the shelf at the library, so I checked it out and flipped through it last night.

It’s primarily photos from the last year’s Women’s March with the occasional quote from women sprinkled through.

I enjoyed looking back at last year’s signs while thinking about this year’s… same shit, different year. Keep resisting, keep fighting, keep marching.

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Ms. Bixby’s Last Day

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

Tearjerker. And a fun, well-written tearjerker, at that. Ms. Bixby’s Day Off is exactly the kind of Cybil shortlist book that I love.

Have you ever had a teacher that you’d go out of your way to do something really special for — like create her “last day” dream? I’ve had teachers like that. I hope every kid who reads this book has had a teacher like that.

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Rook

2018, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Favorites, Fiction, Young Adult /

Rook should not be confused with The Rook (which I did when I first spotted it on the library bookshelf.) It also should not be confused with the first Pink Carnation book (which I didn’t really do but it sure as heck reminds me of that.)

It’s middle-grade/YA and there are a lot of similarities between the Pink Carnation and Rook, in all the good ways. It started a little slowly and I wasn’t sure I wanted to keep reading — and it took for freaking ever to read, and I’m not sure why. Yes, it’s more than 400 pages but middle-grade/YA should not have taken that long. (TW suggested Yoga and work are to be blamed, I suspect it’s Disney Emoji Blitz and work.)

Anyway, it’s totally fun and if there was a sequel, I’d read it.

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The Edge of the Abyss

2018, Books in Bed, Favorites, Queer, Sci Fi and Fantasy /

Lesbian pirates and huge sea monsters made their return in The Edge of the Abyss.

I thought this was a series but it looks like it isn’t. Probably? I went through most of the book thinking this is just a typical book two, existing only to set up book three and then WHAM … the last 50ish pages tied everything up quickly and neatly and there’s a sad little “The End” when it’s all done.

Hmph.

I enjoyed this one, almost as much as the first one. I’d like it to be a series but if it’s not, I’ll be (mostly) ok with it. I guess.

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The Light Fantastic

2018, Books in Bed, Young Adult /

The Light Fantastic is on last year’s Cybil shortlist is NOT on last year’s Cybil shortlist (I just discovered this when I went to link it to last year’s list. I’m so annoyed that I read this for no good reason. haha.) and I started it at the very end of December. I almost quit it at the end of December, too — when I figured out this was going to be about school shootings and when I figured out there was a Mastermind who was attempting to mastermind a … thing. (No spoilers.)

Instead of quitting it, I put it down til after the new year and tried again. The writing is wonderful. The ties between characters and the use of “the light fantastic” works rather than feeling like a gimmick. What didn’t work was the rest of the darn book.

I didn’t hate this. I won’t tell you not to read it. But, I did not love it either.

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