Why does that always happen? I read one book set in the lowcountry and the next thing you know, everything I read is set in the lowcountry.
I enjoyed Sweetgrass. It wasn’t great but it wasn’t horrible. I liked the ghost and the cemetery — good solution for all of the issues and I think it ended as it should have ended.
Also, towards the end, one character talks about the old Grace Bridge and the new (stupid) bridge. That probably made the entire book worth reading for me, lol.
Lowcountry Bombshell was amusing. Very amusing. It made me want to read Marilyn Monroe biographies and watch Marilyn Monroe movies.
And now that I’m caught up on the Liz Talbot series, I hope another one comes out soon. Totally fun.
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The first part of While We Run was confusing. When we left Abdi and Tegan, they were casting the info about The Ark project and when we pick up, Abdi and Tegan are spouting all sorts of pro Ark project madness.
I’m not sure I liked this one as much as the first book — I liked Tegan quite a bit less and I liked all of the supporting characters more. It all worked out, (mostly), though.
Is there supposed to be another book? I’m not dying to read another but I’ll probably give it a try if there is one.
Oh boy. Pointe was a problem book with all the problems. ALL OF THEM. TOO MANY PROBLEMS.
But, errr, I didn’t put it down once I got past the second chapter. It was compelling — trying to figure out how all of this mess was going to come together to make an ending to the mess. Sheesh.
Yay for diversity in YA but boo because another ballerina with anorexia? Really? Along with the sexual abuse and the over-privileged drug use and it turned out to be just another typical YA novel, really.
I didn’t hate it but I didn’t love it, either.
God Help the Child was a surprisingly quick read. I don’t think “quick read” when I think of Toni Morrison. I mean it was really fast. I finished it in a day.
It was also… very Toni Morrison-like but, not enough Toni Morrison-like. It was beautifully written. There were moments of pure brilliance. But overall, it was just… not amazing.
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Yep, I finally read Brown Girl Dreaming and it was awesome. It also made me kind of homesick.
Definitely the best of the bunch in the cybils shortlist for poetry.
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TW looked at Scratching the Woodchuck: Nature On An Amish Farm and asked why I had gotten it. Weird. I would have thought that would be obvious since I spend a considerable amount of my life daydreaming about a few acres in the country.
I wasn’t really sure I was going to read this. It’s been sitting on the library cart for weeks and has to go back on Monday. I even put it in the library bag to go back — and then retrieved it a couple of hours later and figured I’d just read a few pages and if I didn’t like it, I’d put it in the bag. I didn’t even add it to my Goodreads right away. I was that sure I wasn’t really going to read it.
But, it turns out, I enjoyed it. The stories are short. They’re easy to read. There’s just enough “God” to make the stories… nice… not so much that you feel like you’re in someone else’s church against your will. I kept stopping to look things up. Or to ask TW how she felt about this bird, or this animal. (How do YOU feel about moles?)
I really, really enjoyed it. I’m glad I didn’t take it back unread. And, I really really want a few acres of my own.
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Well that was depressing. Good, but depressing. The Rebellion of Miss Lucy Ann Lobdell is FICTION but loosely based on a real person. The question is, how loosely based. I’m not a huge fan of the whole “ghost” story author’s note at the end… that sounds to me like it was added because family members of Lobdell tell a slightly different version of the story. Not that it matters, still a depressing story. Lesbian woman. Trans man. Whatevs. Pretty darn sad.
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Yay! Another book in the series! Boo, I’m not sure I read all of the “glass” books, haha. I need to go back and figure that out. I did enjoy Shadow Study but not as much as the other books (that I remember reading in the two series. lol) And I absolutely knew what Yelena’s problem was from the very beginning. Wasn’t it a little obvious?
I think the next two books are going to be very interesting…
I really wish the Cybils didn’t put children’s poetry in with the middle grade/YA poetry. It seems… not right. Whatever. It is what it is and we’ll just go with it, I guess.
So I read six. Finally.
– Dear Wandering Wildebeest and Other Poems From the Water Hole was fine. I didn’t love it. I didn’t hate it. It was fine.
– Firefly July was a cute seasonal poetry book. Nice mix of poetry from typical favorites and lesser known poets.
– Hi, Koo!: A Year of Seasons was fun. It was haiku but not the traditional haiku, which I appreciated. I was also amused by the hidden A, B, Cs — though that’s probably not super useful, I was just amused by it.
– Santa Clauses was better than I expected it to be. More haiku, which I wasn’t thrilled about but ended up liking quite a lot.
– Voices From the March on Washington was super interesting. (Again, why this and Brown Girl Dreaming are in the category with these younger children’s poetry… ugh.) I liked it very much. Kids who aren’t into poetry might like this. I highly recommend it.
– Water Rolls, Water Rises Water Rolls, Water Rises was excellent. I was surprised by how much I liked this one. I think it might have been my favorite of the bunch.
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