I finally made time to sit down with Luvvie’s Im Judging You: The Do Better manual. As expected, Luvvie nailed it all. This is shit some of y’all don’t know and SHOULD know. You should just go ahead and read it right now. And give a copy to your family members who should know better and don’t.
You should also follow Luvvie on FB and Twitter. Immediately.
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Damn Jodi Picoult (in a good way.)
If you’re not generally a fan or you used to be a fan but got tired of the formulaic stories, characters and writing … you need to read Small Great Things — particularly if you are WHITE. Particularly right now with P45 choosing White Supremacists for his team. (Have a clueless WHITE mom or sister or friend who loves to read? Buy her this book for Christmas… just sayin’.)
This is not a perfect book. It’s still formulaic. It’s still got everything a Jodi Picoult novel has, that you may not love or may be tired of, but it is a must read RIGHT NOW. (And, do yourself a favor and follow her on Twitter, as well. She’s done a very good job of speaking up and speaking out. I respect that and appreciate it.)
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My expectations for The Fog Diver were low. Another post-apocalyptic/middlegrade/ya/adventure book. Ho hum? OK not ho hum, because I LIKE this genre but still… turns out, this was one of the better ones.
Really clever cultural references gone wrong, gone very very wrong. Likable characters. A plot that moved fairly quickly. Mostly it was the cultural references that got me.
***
Off-topic but not really: I’m considering not doing the Cybils Challenge next year. Or ever again. It’s not that I don’t love these books, I do. But, so many of them are series’ books and I just can’t keep up with the series’ while also reading a bunch of newly introduced series. When I try, I find myself reading nothing but YA and Middle Grade fiction/scifi/fantasy. I need to find some sort of balance. So… stay tuned, this may be the last full shortlist challenge I attempt. Figures, since odds are high that I’m not going to successfully complete it, for the first time – ever.
Lion of Rora was the graphic novel that I expected to like the least. Turns out, it was pretty darn good. Well drawn and well written.
I also really enjoyed Secret Coders #1 but was so annoyed when it ended. I understand cliffhangers but geez, really? You couldn’t give us just a tiny bit more??? Oy. (Also, those birds are kind of creepy.)
Ms Marvel was excellent, as expected.
And, the big winner for me was The Marvels. This was really well done. All graphic novel in the beginning and then text at the end. Beautiful. Also, sad.
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Again, we were in need of an audiobook and I had to just pick one from the shelf. The Unlikely Hero of Room 13B was an excellent choice.
POOR Adam! Also, what a great kid. All of the characters were well written but Adam especially so. I’m not sure whether the author has written anything else but you can bet I’ll be checking. I really enjoyed this story.
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I couldn’t resist checking out Miss Cayley’s Adventures when I saw it on the library shelf last week (or was it the week before?) Written in the late 1800s and features one of the first female detectives. This is right up my alley, right?
And, I enjoyed it quite a bit. Lois was smart and daring and (gasp!) and adventuress!
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I reserved these with the intention of reading at least some of them to JMP and SquishyFace when they were here and… I didn’t read them a single book. Not one. Gasp. What is the world coming too? Boo!
Oh well, some of them were really really great and they were all good.
My favorites:
Mango, Abuela, and Me – loved it. Such a great story. I’ll read this to the boys, some day.
Last Stop on Market Street – perfection.
Sidwalk Flowers – awwwww. How cute was that?
Really liked these:
Blizzard – though I wouldn’t want to give JMP any ideas about heading out for food after a blizzard, lol.
Bug in a Vacuum – hah. Totally amusing.
In a Village By the Sea – I loved the illustrations.
Good ones:
Hoot Owl, Master of Disguise – loved the illustrations, the story not quite as much.
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There was a time when I never quit a Cybils book but this year, I’ve quit two. The most recent, Symphony for the City of the Dead was… I just couldn’t read it. I tried, I really did. TW read the whole thing, and I give her props for that. I cannot imagine any kid reading this who didn’t have to. (Unless he/she had some great fondness for Russian history or Shostakovich, I guess.) Ugh.
Thankfully, Bayard Rustin: Invisible Activist was better. In fact, it was excellent. Everyone should read this one.
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I love The Custard Protocol books almost as much as the Soulless books. Really. Imprudence was awesome. I’d been wondering about Pru’s father and how the transfer of his pack to a new alpha might go. Now I know. Also, FLOOTE is awesome. So is Miss Sekhmet, heh.
I also want to point out that pages 92/93 were the saddest thing ever. (The pack! Biffy! Pru! Really??? REALLY?)
Yay, Maisie Dobbs! Journey to Munich was pretty excellent – particularly the ending. Heh. I was hoping that was going to happen… and it did.
I’m looking forward to seeing what happens next, (though it’s going to be pretty depressing what with the whole WWII thing happening. Ugh.)