Books in Bed

The Hate U Give

2017, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction, Young Adult /

I put The Hate U Give on my TBR list ages and ages ago. I reserved it at the library and then put the reservation on hold because I was traveling a lot and knew I wouldn’t be able to read it while traveling. I reactivated the hold and then completely cancelled it because you’ve seen my monthly reading counts – they’re abysmal! I knew I’d need a lot more time and energy to read this than I’ve had for most of the year.

So, September it was. Not an ideal month for this book but I really, really wanted to read it and I was tired of putting it off. I’m so glad I finally read it.

It was just as good as you’ve heard it was. Just as painful. Just as anger-inducing. Everyone should read this. Everyone should talk about it.

#BLACKLIVESMATTER

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Two Middle Grade Cybils

2017, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Sci Fi and Fantasy /

Look at me reading all of the Cybils. (Well not all of them, obviously.) These two were good!

I started off kind of grouchy because the main characters in The Evil Wizard Smallbone are all male. All of them. Oh sure, we have a few solid female supporting characters (four, I think) but, bah humbug. Women and girls can be “evil wizards,” too. Whatever. The story was fun and I did like every single character, even if most of them were male. I loved the bookstore and the seals and wolves and the coyotes. Also loved the ending.

I loved everything about The Firefly Code except the ending — and that’s only because I am way too invested in these characters lives and I want to know what happens to them next! (The second book just came out but I can’t reserve it at my library yet and I’m grouchy about that.) This is the story of what happens when you start engineering your kids… the good, the bad, and the downright painful. Science is amazing. Technology is amazing. We can do a lot of good things with both — where you draw the line though, that’s the kicker, isn’t it?

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Hotel Ruby

2017, Books in Bed, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

I picked up Hotel Ruby when we wandered around the YA section of the library last month. The title and description sounded appealing — and I like horror but haven’t read a lot of it lately.

This wasn’t great, but it wasn’t horrible, either. I can’t decided if I liked the ending or not, at least it wasn’t an altogether happy ending. Heck, I’m not sure I liked the premise or not.

And, interestingly — it looks like this book got a new name in the paperback version, it’s Hotel for the Lost? (or maybe it’s a US vs Canadian version thing? I’m not sure but it’s interesting… the new name is possibly a better name for the book. I just hope people who read one version don’t buy the other version thinking it’s a sequel or a different book. I assumed it was a sequel at first.)

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Run

2017, Books in Bed, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Fiction, Queer, Young Adult /

Woot! A Cybil I loved, loved, LOVED. Run was excellent. Both Agnes and Bo felt like real people. I especially liked the ending — Agnes’s parents behaved true to character rather than tying things up in the perfect happily ever after. (And, I admit I might have shed a tear or two there towards the end.)

PS. Four books in the first four days of the month. How long has it been since I could say that?

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Three YA! Yes, THREE!

2017, Books in Bed, Favorites, Feminism, Fiction, Young Adult /

Considering I read a whopping five books total in August, September is off to an amazing start! Three books down (all YA) and it’s 8amish on 9/4! How awesome is that? (And, today’s a holiday so I should be able to get some more reading in — even though we need to run into a city of some sort where there is a Lowes… anyway, back to the books…)

I read the next two books in the Stranje House series. (Refuge for Masterminds and Exile for Dreamers.) Both were just as good as the first one. Now, how long will it be before we get the next two books in the series?

After that, I read The One Memory of Flora Banks was difficult. I think it’s the mom part of me that read this and just shuddered all the way through it. I kept trying to figure out how I would parent a child who had no short-term memory. (I also wonder how kids feel about this story. I might have to go track down some kid reviews to find out.)

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The Goblin’s Puzzle: Being the Adventures of …etc.

2017, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Don't Read This /

I finally read a book from the Cybils shortlist! Can you believe it? We’re almost nine months into 2017 and I think it’s my first. Ugh. Oy. I miss YA, middle grade, and children’s fiction. Sigh.

Worse yet, I did not love The Goblin’s Puzzle: Being the Adventures of a Boy with No Name and Two Girls Called Alice. In fact, I came close to saying I hated it. TW read it first and when I asked her how it was, she said it was “OK” but she made that face that means she didn’t/doesn’t like something. I see now why she felt that way.

I wanted to love it. It’s a CYBIL for goodness sake. I liked the kids, I liked the dragon and the goblin and even the ogre. The bad guys were well-written bad guys. But… the slavery storyline.

I understand why the author decided to write this (sort of) but I just kept picturing some middle school or late elementary school kid reading this and I do not think it was the right story. It certainly wasn’t the right ending. I mean do we really want to teach kids that the white powerful man only abolishes slavery because it won’t have any negative effect on his wallet or his kingdom because his kingdom doesn’t really have slaves anyway? (Yes, I know this is actually fairly true but the way it was told in the story actually celebrated the King’s decision without pointing out the problems with his decision. It’s a very shallow dive into this very complex issue.)

Also, the whole part of the story where the progressive white girl and the goblin (ugh) had to explain to the slave boy why slavery was bad and convince him (trick him?) into believing he shouldn’t be a slave boy. Really? We really need to perpetuate the idea that slaves liked being slaves and without the benevolent white folks dragging them out of slavery they’d still be there?

OK I didn’t mean to write all of this… clearly, since it’s a jumble. I could write more but I won’t because … whatever.

The adventure was fun. The kids, the dragon, the goblin, (and even the ogre) were fun. If you could strip out the underlying badly told aspects about slavery it would be a terrific book.

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