The Family Romanov was the book I was probably least interested in reading, from the Cybils shortlist, and it turned out to be excellent.
What a mess the Romanovs were. And Russia. And, ugh. The whole horrible mess.
Super interesting read. I highly recommend it.
The Family Romanov Read More »
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.
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.
3 Non-Fiction Cybils Read More »
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.)
Not bad, considering it was birthday month and a really weird work month. I made a lot of Cybils progress and even read one from my stacks. Yay.
22 Total
1 from my stacks
13 were from the Cybils shortlist
3 were audio
4 were non-fiction
I need another 20+ book month to take me into October (when it will be #readathon month!)
The Swallow was an awesome ghost story and I admit that I didn’t see that ending coming. Not at all. I knew something had to happen but I couldn’t figure out what because obviously the ghost girl wasn’t a ghost… that would have been too, well, obvious.
Side note: When I went to amazon to grab the url for the book, only the kindle edition is available. I wonder why. I got my copy at the library… print, not ebook. Oh, maybe because it’s a Canadian press? Still… very unusual.
The Luck Uglies is on the Cybils short list and we listened to it on audio. It started a little slowly but picked up quickly and I really enjoyed it. I particularly loved the ‘gloaming beast’ there at the end. Heh. That was awesome. Surely there’s a sequel? There must be… I hope. Oh, there is! Yippee!
I was worried. The last book in a fabulous series… I was going to love it or hate it, there would be no in between. I loved The Lure of the Moonflower. Which makes it even harder to deal with the fact that this is the end of the series.
I’m tempted to read them all over again… seriously.
The Lure of the Moonflower Read More »
Death Sworn was… not bad. Not my favorite, but not bad. I liked Ileni and I am kind of looking forward to the next book (which is on my library cart now.)
I loved, loved, loved, loved, loved Death By Toilet Paper and didn’t expect to. That darn kid broke my heart over and over again. You don’t realize just how good your toilet paper was until your family can’t afford to buy it any more. *sniff* Also, professional sweepstakes folks, haha. I love those people.
Two from the Cybils Read More »
Oh dear, I’m way behind on tracking my books here. I’d be even further behind if I’d actually been reading as much as I normally do. Silver linings?
The library cart was mostly empty so I turned to my shelves … and had trouble figuring out what to read because when we Kondoed our books, my little shelf of mixed TBR was integrated into the full library. Oops. Blue was easy to get to so I started there and decided a little pulp fiction was in order.
Now, Voyager was awesome, as most old pulp fiction is. I’m glad I read it. I also kind of want to watch the movie again. It’s been a zillion years since I’ve seen it.