March Wrap Up #2

I've read three books since I've last updated you.

First I finished The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill. This was a cute middle grade fantasy about a witch, abandoned babies, and a girl who became "enmagicked" by drinking moonlight. While this is satisfying for children, there are definitely deeper messages of government with absolute power. I really enjoyed it and gave it 4 stars.

Then I picked up American Prison by Shane Bauer. He is a journalist who went undercover as a guard in a private prison in the south and wrote about the terrible conditions for both guards and prisoners, the effect privatizing has on prisons, and even history of how ours prisons have evolved. This was hard to read because it made me so angry. I gave the book 4 stars.

Lastly, I finished I Let You Go by Clare Macintosh. This is a thriller about a hit-and-run that kills a five year old boy.  We follow multiple perspectives to find out what happened. I liked the twists and was pretty engaged the whole time. I gave the book 4 stars.

Wrap Up #1

It's Middle Grade March which significantly pumps up my numbers. I have 9 books to review.

I picked up Nevermoor by Jessica Townsend which was a re-read. I enjoyed this just as much as the first time, maybe even more. I gave it 5 stars.

Then I picked up a childhood favorite Homecoming by Cynthia Voigt. This is the story of four siblings being abandoned by their mentally ill mother and their journey toward safety and survival. I love the characters, especially the oldest sibling Dicey who keeps her family together as they walk along the coast, trying to find a home. I gave it 4 stars.

I then picked up The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. This is a children's classic translated from French about a magical little boy who journeys to other planets. I found it really lacking in any plot and additionally, there is no character development or world building. Completely overrated in my opinion. I gave it 2 stars.

Next I checked out the graphic novel called The Witch Boy by Molly Ostertag. This was a cute story about a magical community where boys are shapeshifters and girls learn witchcraft. The protagonist is a boy who wants to be a witch and the backlash he faces when he doesn't fit into his gender roles. I liked the message and the artwork was cute. I gave it 3 stars.

I decided to pick up something a bit weightier with Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson. He help found the Equal Justice Initiative which helps get innocent people off of death row. He tells of specific examples of how poor people just don't get the representation which allows the legal system to railroad them. Additionally, he cites examples of how corrupt officials allow racial bias to convict an innocent man. This was a harrowing read but I'm glad to know there are programs out there fighting for people. I gave this book 5 stars.

On audiobook, I listened to Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson. This is my second book by her and I've come to conclude I don't care for her stream of consciousness writing style. This is based on her childhood and is written in verse. I gave the book 3 stars.

Next I read The Two-Family House by Lynda Cohen Loigman. This is a realistic fiction story about two related and close-knit families are living in the house and how one decision tears apart their relationship. The thing that tears them apart, wasn't much of a mystery. I basically guessed it within the first chapter but the author keeps heavily foreshadowing as if you don't know what it is. I didn't like that part of being spoon-fed. However, the brother characters were really well developed and grew over time which I enjoyed. I gave the book 3.5 stars.

Another audiobook I listened to was My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite. This was a short book about two sisters. One is very beautiful, floating through life, and also killing her boyfriends. The other is not attractive, working hard as a nurse and cleaning up her sister's messes. (literally) Things come to a head when the pretty sister starts dating the doctor the other has a crush on. The story was really engrossing but ultimately I felt there was little to no character development. The ending disappointed. 4 stars.

Lastly, I picked up The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. Oh my goodness! This was an adorable paranormal retelling of The Jungle Book. A family is murdered but the little toddler escapes to a nearby graveyard. There he has ghosts and other paranomal folk who take him in and look after him. I loved this story so much and am eagerly wanting to pick up more Neil Gaiman. I gave it a rare 5 stars!

Wrap up #4

This past week I've finished two books.

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens is an historical fiction with two timelines. In the first, we get to know Kya who mother, then siblings, and then whose father all abandon her. She grows up by herself in the shack in the marsh, eschewing relationships with most other people. The second timeline is several years later, where local cops are trying to solve a murder of a popular former athlete. Eventually, the two timelines merge. While I loved the survival parts of the story, the murder part was uninteresting to me. The writing was incredibly beautiful, I could tell the author put a lot of effort into the nature writing. I gave the book

Then I picked up This is How it Always Is by Laurie Frankel. This is an adult contemporary story about a woman who has five sons, though her youngest is a transgender girl. The parents navigate this change with acceptance but find challenges with other people who don't want to accept her. Their journey was eye-opening and informative to read about. I gave the book 4 stars.

March TBR

For the second year in a row, I'm going to participate in the Middle Grade March Readathon. There are 5 prompts, but I'm only trying to fulfill some of them based on books I actually want to read. I will not exclusively be reading middle grade as I have other books I need to get to.

Middle Grade March

A. Nonfiction or book based on a true story
B. Book with a non-human main character
C. Fantasy book
D. Book written in verse
E. A diverse read

I've picked out 7 middle grade books which fulfill 4 of the prompts.

1. The Witch Boy by Molly Ostertag
2. Homecoming by Cynthia Voight
3. Nevermoor by Jessica Townsend
4. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
5. Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson
6.  The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
7. The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill




My other reads are:

My Sister the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
The Two-Family House by Lynda Cohen Loigman
Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
The Farm by Joanne Ramos (ARC)
American Prison by Shane Bauer

Wrap Up #3

Since I last updated, I've read 5 books.

The first was Still Alice by Lisa Genova. This was a fictional account of a 50 year old woman dealing with early onset Alzheimer's disease. The author writes from the woman's perspective, which gradually starts to be filled with mistakes and blank spaces where the woman had previously been able to remember. This was truly heartbreaking and well written. I gave the book 4 stars.

The next book I picked up was Everyone Knows You Go Home by Natalia Sylvester. The focus of this book is on the hardships illegal immigrants undertake to hope for a better life. A newlywed woman meets her dead father-in-law on the Day of the Dead. He tries to tell his story and gain absolution for hurting his family. I felt this was quite powerful and made me view illegal immigration in a different light. I gave it 3.5 stars.

Then I finally picked up a book I've been meaning to read for ages; Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates. This is a letter written to his son about what it means to grow up black in a racist America. He details the fear black people have that people in power will exert over his body, citing several examples of police killing unarmed black men. While the subject matter is important, I didn't like the overall writing style and the repetitive nature. It seemed more like stream of consciousness, which is a style I'm not a fan of. Overall, I gave it 3 stars.

After all those serious books, I was in the mood for something funny. I picked up The Humans by Matt Haig. This is a science fiction book about an alien coming to Earth in the body of a human who has just made a scientific discovery the aliens feel humans aren't ready to have. His mission is to wipe away all the progress and kill anyone who knows about the discovery. The alien doesn't know how to be a human which leads to some comical situations. While the first part is funny, the rest was a look into what it means to be a human. How humanity is primitive in so many ways but advanced in knowing the importance of love, family, and connection. I felt the ending was sappy but enjoyed it overall. I gave it 3 stars.

Lastly, I finished the memoir Boy Erased by Garrard Conley. This was his account of growing up in a strict Baptist family, figuring out he was gay, and going to conversion therapy to be "ex-gay." I related so much to this book as I also grew up in a strict religious household. I could understand his trying to accept himself and what that meant for his relationship with God and his family. The self-loathing, suicidal ideation, and all the other trauma that is a product of his conversion therapy was absolutely gut-wrenching. He also included things that didn't seem to be important to the story which made this feel too long though. I gave it 3.5 stars.

Wrap up # 2

Since I last updated you I have read 2 books.

I listened to Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders on audiobook. This won an audiobook prize last year and has a full cast (over 100 different narrators) so I thought that would be the best way to read this book. This book is strange. The first several chapters are literally several quotes pulled from sources and quoted making the reading feel disjointed and more like a draft. Making it even worse, several times the sources contradicted themselves. "The night of the party there was a full moon." and "It was dark the night of the party as there was no light in the sky." I swear there were at least 6 sources about whether or not there was a moon that night. It felt like George should've taken the information to weave a narrative. It's historical fiction, its okay if some details aren't quite right. Additionally, the parts that weren't direct quotes were literally ghosts talking about random stuff in their life and not believing they were dead. They try to help Lincoln's son pass onto the afterlife while also providing weird tidbits about their lives. The whole thing was strange and I likely would've DNF'd it if they narration wasn't so great. (Bill Hader, Megan Mullally, Nick Offerman, David Sedaris, Julianne Moore, Susan Sarandon, etc.) I gave it 2 stars.

The next book I finished was Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie. This is the first Miss Marple book. I don't often enjoy mysteries but I have found I like Agatha Christie. The way she tells the story usually has me quite interested from the beginning. The one thing I didn't care for with this book is that it isn't told from Miss Marple's perspective. It is told from the Vicar's perspective. Perhaps that is different in the later books, but it bothered me a little. I gave the book 3.5 stars.

Wrap up #1

Since I've last updated you, I've read 5 books.

First I read The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai. This is set in Chicago during the 1980s and 1990s when the AIDS crisis happened, specifically hitting the gay community. The book focuses on a group of friends affected by AIDS. There are dual timelines and we also focus on a mother looking for her daughter who joined a cult. I didn't care as much for the second timeline and it was definitely very slow to start but I eventually loved this story. I gave it 4 stars.

Then I picked up You're Never Weird on the Internet (Almost) by Felicia Day. I've been a fan of Felicia Day since I watched Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog and I loved her again in Supernatural. This is her memoir chronicling her quirky education, her big break in Hollywood, and the creation of her web series The Guild. I listened to the audiobook which she narrates herself and read along (for the hilarious pictures) which I'd advise any reader to do. Her whole message is 'be yourself' which I found quite refreshing. I gave it 4 stars.

February is Black History Month so I'm making an effort to pick up books by black writers. The first one I chose was Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorofor. This is a YA fantasy about an albino black girl who finds out she is a witch with magical ancestry (who are called "Leopard People") and she studies with other students to take down a Leopard Person who is using bad juju to summon an evil being. I loved the world building and the unique twists on magic but I felt the end was over too quickly without certain things being explained. That took it down to only 3 stars.

The next book I finished was Another Brooklyn by Jaqueline  Woodson. I feel really mixed about this book because the writing was beautiful but disorganized and strangely repetitive. This is about a black girl named August who remembers her childhood after she runs into one of her former friends. This is very character driven but still I felt like I didn't get to know August all that well. I gave it 3 stars

The last book I picked up was a poetry collection titled Don't Call Us Dead by Danez Smith. The poet is a queer black man who is HIV positive. His poems focus on police brutality, growing up gay, and how he responded to finding out he was HIV positive. My favorite poem was called "Everyday is a funeral & a miracle" I gave this collection 5 stars.