Shadow Scales is the sequel to Seraphina, which we listened to last year on audio (it was on the cybils shortlist.)
It was a very long book on audio but also a very good one. Dragons and half-dragons and lesbian queens and fun stuff like that. I have enjoyed both books but TW particularly likes them. I hope there’s a third book.
I finally finished No Wind of Blame, which I started on Kindle during the October #readathon. I love Georgette Heyer and this was a fun read, though I really feel like I might have read it before. It all felt familiar to me.
Oh good grief, this book, Language Arts made me nuts. Not in a bad way. It took me a whole week to read it, not because it was hard to read or boring but because I kept having to put it down to ponder the story. Or to think about cursive handwriting. Or to research the history of Language Arts in elementary school curriculum.
Also… I didn’t see THAT coming, though I should have because TW made a couple of comments about “the daughter”. I should have realized something like that had to have happened. But that would be too nutty to even comprehend.
Anyway. I liked the book. It’s troubling in about a million different ways. Now I want a Palmer Method workbook and to just make loops all the time or at least until I’ve solved all of the big mysteries of life.
How I love Christopher Moore. Secondhand Souls was a long time coming but so worth the wait. I actually liked it better than Dirty Job and that’s saying quite a lot.
The Little Paris Bookshop is a very pretty book. Love and loss and all of the feelings…
“Time. It rubs the rough edges that hurt us smooth.”
“Love is a house. Everything in the house should be used – nothing mothballed or ‘spared.’ Only if we fully inhabit a house, shunning no room and no door, are we truly alive. Arguing and touching each other tenderly are both important, so are holding each other tight and pushing the other away. We must use absolutely every one of love’s rooms. If not, ghosts and rumors will thrive. Neglected rooms and houses can become treacherous and foul…”
Little Paris Bookshop Read More »
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.
A Ton of Children’s Books Read More »
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.)
The Book of Speculation Read More »
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 »
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 »
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.