denise

A Ton of Children’s Books

1 Comment / Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Fiction, Non-Fiction /

I read a bunch of these in September when I visited JMP but never got a chance to talk about them. So… here’s a combined Sept/Oct list:

Cybils (12):

– Angel Island: Gateway to Gold Mountain was pretty good. Not the best Angel Island book but not bad.
– Chasing Cheetahs was fantastic. I loved it.
– Feathers: Not Just For Flying was a nice book. The illustrations were especially nice.
– Handle with Care: An Unusual Butterfly Journey was fine. Not great, not horrible.
– Separate Is Never Equal was wonderful! Best book of the bunch.
– The Case of the Vanishing Little Brown Bats was interesting.
– When Lunch Fights Back was a lot of fun. I enjoyed it.
– Brimsby’s Hats was a nice book. JMP was interested in it, mostly because of the snow and the “friends”.
– Maple was beautiful and I loved it. JMP was not really that into it. Probably because he hasn’t grokked the idea of maple treas and willow trees and such.
– Shhhh! We Have a Plan made me roll my eyes and I mostly hated it. JMP, however, liked it.
– The Girl and the Bicycle was a nice story. The underlying idea seemed lost on JMP, lol, he just wanted to talk about the bikes.
– This is a Moose was another one that made me roll my eyes and JMP didn’t get it at all. (Because, duh, of course he didn’t.) We stopped with the ridiculous story mid-way and just talked about the illustrations and that was good.

Non-Cybils (8):
– Seven Orange Pumpkins was cute (and it’s a counting backwards book, which is good)
– Max the Brave, I loved it. JMP isn’t sure about it but I think he’ll come around.
– Duck & Goose Find a Pumpkin was cute. JMP wouldn’t let me read it to him, he wanted MAMA to read it. And she did. I think he liked it.
– Otis and the Puppy is a really cute story. JMP read it twice, once with me and once with MAMA. He liked it but he wasn’t sure Otis is really a tractor, lol.
– Bad Kitty’s Tasty Treats is a cute alphabet board book with just the quirkiness you’d expect from a Bad Kitty book.
– Scholastic Discover More: Rocks and Minerals… I love this book. JMP loves this book. I hope he loves it for many years to come. Also, he wants a green egg rock and I’m pretty sure he’s going to get a green egg rock.
– The Moon Is Going to Addy’s House is a beautiful, beautiful book.
– Thesaurus Rex is amusing. Really.

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Zombie Cows, Sort Of

2015, Books in Bed, Fiction, Sci Fi and Fantasy /

Texasebeth recommended Apocalypse Cow and I put it on my TBR list. Then some other people mentioned it in threads about books so I moved it up the list and reserved it. While I was at it, I reserved World War Moo. I figured what the heck, right?

I liked Apocalypse Cow pretty well but I didn’t love it, love it. I liked it enough to read the second one which I ended up liking better (that never happens!) If there’s a third one, I’d read that, too.

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Reading In September

2015, Books in Bed, Reading /

It was a bad month for reading. It was a bad month for everything. Whatever. Actually, it wasn’t quite as bad as it’s going to look in this post. I did read some more things, I just didn’t track them on my blog, for a lot of reasons. I’ll catch up this weekend and just count them for October. Which will make October a very, very good month for reading. Whatevs.

Total: 10

Audio: 1
Cybils: 5
YA: 6
Non-Fiction: 4

Oh boy.

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The Book of Speculation

1 Comment / 2015, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction /

I absolutely loved The Book of Speculation. Loved it. Everything about it. The book. The cards. All of the characters. I’m so glad I read this one and didn’t skip it like I’d planned. Hah. I also kind of want to go to a carnival. See the sideshow. Have my fortune told. Visit a spellcaster… (that’s an inside joke for Sassymonkey or anyone who deals with spellcaster spam … which I’ve probably just lured into my own comment stream. Oops.)

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Shirley, I Jest

2015, Books in Bed, Non-Fiction, Women /

When I saw Shirley, I Jest on the shelf at the library, I figured what the heck? It’s short, I liked Laverne & Shirley, and I don’t know all that darn much about Cindy Williams, really.

And, it wasn’t a bad book. It wasn’t a great book, either. I feel like I still don’t know all that much about Cindy Williams… really.

She talked briefly about her early childhood with an alcoholic father but she didn’t really dig into the emotional issues around that. Or the emotional issues around anything. Like how she left Laverne & Shirley (she was pregnant and the studio wouldn’t write the show so that she’d have time off to deliver a baby… that had to be horrendous but we got about three lines about it and that was that.)

It could have been better but it was fine, for what it was.

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3 Non-Fiction Cybils

2015, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Non-Fiction, Young Adult /

Popular was fun. A lot of fun. I loved it. I love both Maya and Betty. Heh.

The Port Chicago 50 was excellent. I can’t believe I didn’t actually know anything about this until reading the book. Read it!

Be a Changemaker was good but I didn’t like the format of the book so that bugged me all the way through it. The info was good, this is stuff kids don’t generally learn about and they should — whether they’re planning to start their own company/venture or not.

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Death Marked

2015, Books in Bed, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

I decided to go ahead and read Death Marked (the sequel to Death Sworn) since it’s a two book series and I could just read it quickly and be done with it. Heh.

I actually kind of liked this one LESS than the first one. The whole “he’ll kill you if I tell him to” thing really bugged me. Ileana should not have been THAT type of character. It just felt wrong and stupid and it just didn’t seem right at all.

Whatevs. It was fine. Not great, not horrible. There were moments when I really liked the story (and the characters.)

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