November Wrap Up #2

Since I last updated you, I've read 7 and DNF'd another. November was the month of children's books and non fiction. It was nice because the children's books were a palate cleanser between heavier and more serious non-fiction books.

The DNF was The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman. I wanted to read His Dark Materials series to prepare myself to watch the HBO adaptation since I have never read the series before. I got about 80 pages into this second installment and decided to quit. I am not interested in the story and felt it was dragging as such a slow pace.

I picked up another graphic novel with The Tea Dragon Festival by Katie O'Neill. It was cute and I really love the art. I really appreciated the inclusion of sign language in this book as well. However, I felt that there was not really much of a story and gave it only 2 stars.

Next I listened to the audiobook of The Boy who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba. This was a memoir of a young African boy who after enduring a famine, decided to build a windmill to power a water pump to irrigate their crops. He had to drop out of school due to lack of finances and learned how to build a windmill out of a book from the library. It was an inspirational story and I awarded it 4 stars.

For the Believathon, one of the prompts was to read a book from an animal's perspective so I read The Call of the Wild by Jack London. This follows a domesticated dog being sold to work as a sled dog up in Alaska. I didn't connect with the story and there lots of brutal scenes. I gave it 2.5 stars.

Then I picked up the group read with Voyage of the Frostheart by Jamie Littler. This was a polar fantasy about a boy who goes on an adventure looking for his parents after being exiled from his community. I really enjoyed the story but didn't realize that this is the first book in a series. Some of the plot points were left hanging. I gave it 3.5 stars.

For the prompt of sport, I chose to read Rough Magic by Lara Prior-Palmer. This is a memoir of a young woman who enters into the Mongolian horse race and wins. While the actual race information was interesting, she annoyed me quite a bit and included random information about her grandmother who was also a horse racer. I didn't really enjoy the story and gave it 2 stars.

Fortunately, I was much more interested in Unfollow by Megan Phelps-Roper. She was raised in the Westboro Baptist Church (which is more like a cult) who spreads hatred by picketing soldier's funerals, holding signs that says "God hates f*gs" and "pray for more dead children" after school shootings. I had a visceral reaction to this toxic environment she grew up in and ultimately she leaves the group after questioning her faith. I will say I feel it ends a bit too soon but still a worthwhile read. I gave it 3.5 stars.

Lastly, I picked up the graphic memoir Good Talk by Mira Jacob. She writes about her Indian-American identity, her sexuality, and her discussions and fears about being a person of color in Trump's USA. It was important, funny, and quite a compulsive read. I gave it 4.5 stars and am eagerly awaiting picking up her novel.