Well, The Book Jumper was a disappointment.
I’m a fan of book jumping stories, I LOVE THURSDAY NEXT, but this one was a mess from beginning to end. The plot was a muddle. The characters were pretty unlikable (except the real book characters.) The whole thing was just a let down, from start to finish. I had such high hopes — and maybe that was the problem?
Whatever.
Liz Henry talked about The Abyss Surrounds us a few weeks ago on Facebook and I decided we needed to read it. It was excellent! Totally awesome for #readathon. Trained killer sea creatures, a female pirate captain, a couple of lesbians. Really excellent. And, even better — it ended perfectly. I like that.
It’s getting late, I’m getting tired and since I don’t have a bunch of picture books and early readers this time around, it’s time to move to the world of cookbooks and over-sized coffee table books to carry me through the next couple of hours.
#Readathon Book Four: The Abyss Surrounds Us Read More »
I decided another Holly Black book was in order and went with vampires… The Coldest Girl in Coldtown and while I still prefer her faerie books, I enjoyed this one quite a bit.
Interesting characters, Gavriel’s insanity was a nice change for a vampire “hero.” The bloggers and vloggers and video feeds creating a weird connection between Coldtowns and the rest of the world was an interesting concept, too. I could see that happening. Absolutely.
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Rick Yancey makes me cringe with the gore sometimes but I’m way too invested in Will Henry and must find out what happens next. So… Isle of Blood happened.
I liked this one more than the last book. Will Henry is growing up and, well… becoming Will Henry. One more book to go. I’m a little worried.
Why is it that all of my audiobook holds come in all at once? Grrrr. Anyway…
Holly Black, on audio, FTW!
I don’t think anyone writes faeries as well as Holly Black. Seriously. The Darkest Part of the Forest was as creepy as you’d expect and as good as you’d expect, from a Holly Black YA novel. Hazel might be my favorite of all of Black’s characters. OK maybe not but I liked her. Sir Hazel… awesome.
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These might be the last books I read from this year’s shortlist. The year has run out of days and I’ve run out of interest in reading books that I’m just not THAT interested in. I might pick them up later if the mood strikes me. Or, I might not.
Finishing with these two non-fictions makes me pretty happy, even if I didn’t finish the full challenge. Both were excellent and I’m really glad I read them.
I Will Always Write Back made me yell a lot, about clueless white people. It also caused me to pull out my wallet and make some donations.
House Arrest was pretty darn good but it made me want to break things. It also made me just a little bit weepy.
2 Cybils Non-Fiction/Poetry Read More »
Now, all that’s left are poetry, early readers, some non-fiction and… yea. A whole lot of books. Anyway, on with the tracking of the ones I have read…
Bone Gap was not the book I expected it to be. Which is impossible for me to explain (I’ve tried, TW doesn’t get it, lol) so I didn’t quite love it. I did like it, though. I think.
I did like Inheritance of Ashes but not as much as I expected to. I found both sisters to be a little… annoying, which made it hard for me to really care whether they could sort out their relationship.
Shadowshaper is the one I had heard almost nothing about (shocked, not shocked, sigh) and had no expectations about. I loved it. Even when I was cursing the damn #patriarchy (which was all the way through it.) Loved this one because I loved Sierra (and her grandmother, even if we only got to know her toward the end.)
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.
Four Graphic Novels Read More »
I’ve read some pretty weird books because of the Cybils Shortlist but this might have been one of the weirdest.
Cuckoo Song is dark, complex, deeply troubling in places and downright weird in others. TW didn’t finish it because it weirded her out. And, it’s middle grade. I would love to find some middle grade kids who have read this so that I can hear their take.
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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