Top Five Wednesday- 10/5/22

Top 5 Wednesday is a Goodreads group that responds to weekly bookish prompts. This week’s prompt:

October 5th: Got You Into Reading

October is National Book Month and to celebrate this month-long “holiday,” what are some books that got you into reading? These could be books from childhood that had you hooked on reading at a young age or maybe as an adult you stopped reading and then started reading again years later. Or maybe you’ve always been an avid book reader, but you tried a book outside your favorite genres and discovered a new favorite genre that you absolutely love. Regardless of when, let’s highlight those books that showed (or reminded) us how great books are!

I loved reading from an early age, so the books of my childhood are what came to mind immediaitely.

Harry the Dirty Dog was featured in my very first ever blog post. My Journey in Books.

My favorite Little Golden book about a group of animal friends who try living together, but it doesn’t work out because of their different tastes. So, they go out searching for their own paths in life.

My favorite bedtime stories that Mom would read me each night.

I remember being so excited when one of the Sesame Street Library books arrived in the mail.

While I eventually read all of these books, my fondest memories of the first four involve being read to, usually at bedtime. The Fudge series is one of the first chapter book I remember reading myself.

October 5, 2022

Top Ten Tuesday- 10/4/22

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly post hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, where people like me who love lists and books can share our thoughts on fun bookish topics. This week’s topic:

October 4: Favorite Bookstores OR Bookstores I’d Love to Visit (The UK celebrated National Bookshop Day on October 1, so I thought it would be a fun topic!)

When I saw this prompt, the only thing that immediately came to mind was Jenny Lawson’s store, but I had so much fun researching other bookstores around the world.

10

Bertrand Bookstore (Lisbon, Portugal)

Established in 1732, this is the oldest bookstore in the world.

9

Birchbank Books (Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA)

Owned by author Louis Erdrich this Birchbank Books features on indigenous literature and goods.

8

The Last Bookstore (Los Angelos, California, USA)

The Last Bookstore bookshop features a tunned of books and gravity defying bookshelves.

7

Libreria Acqua Alta (Venice, Italy)

Liberia Acqua Alta uses bathtubs and gondolas as shelves and houses cats.

6

Bart’s Books (Ojai, California, USA)

Bart’s Books is the world’s largest outdoor bookstore.

5

Book and Bed (Tokyo, Japan)

Book and Bed is a hostel where you can sleep in a bookshelf surrounded by 5,000 books.

4

Books & Books at the Studios of Key West (Key West, Florida, USA)

Co-owned by Judy Blume and her husband, this is a bookstore combined with a nonprofit arts and culture center.

3

Hay-On-Wye, Wales

Hay-On-Wye is a town of 1,000 with over forty bookshops. I couldn’t settle on one, so I’m counting the whole town.

2

Atlantis Books (Oia, Santorini, Greece)

This is the only bookstore on the list that I’ve been to, but there was so much to see in Oia that I didn’t get to spend as much time as I would’ve liked.

1

Jenny Lawson’s Nowhere bookshop. (San Antonio, Texas, USA)

I love the Bloggess and her Nowhere bookshop in San Antonio has been on my bucket list since it opened.

October 4, 2022

Middle Grade Book of the Week: Prairie Lotus by Linda Sue Park

Summary:

Hanna is a half-Asian girl living in California during the 1880’s. At a time of extreme prejudice against Chinese people her simple dreams are nearly impossible: graduating from school, becoming a dressmaker and making a friend. As the story progresses, Hanna finds ways to fight for what she wants.

My Thoughts:

If you’re a regular reader, you know that I love Laura Ingalls Wilder. But, even as a young white girl in the 1980’s I recognized how insensitively Native Americans were portrayed in the novels. Park gives readers a more realistic view of pioneer life, while still paying homage to Wilder. Hanna faces prejudice ranging unintentional microaggressions to legalized racism. At the beginning of the novel, she is very timid. I love the way she finds ways to quietly stand up for herself. Rather than focusing on a major historical protest or legal case that promoted change, Prairie Lotus small ways change individuals hearts and the power of friendship.

October 3, 2022

Honorable Mentions for September 2022

My favorite book of the month post was about Book Lovers. But the choice was so tough that I had to add a second post with honorable mentions.

Daughter of the Moon Goddess is a wonderful fantasy novel based on Chinese folklore.

Even though Spain is on my travel bucket list, I haven’t read many books set in Spain. Fountains of Silence was a great historical novel set primarily in the years directly following Spain’s Civil War.

You Deserve Each Other was a fun, unique love story. It would make a great movie.

I started my Christmas reading early to pass this on to a friend. The Christmas Wedding Guest has all the warm, fuzzy feelings you want from a holiday read.

Favorite Read of September 2022

The ones that speak to me are those whose final pages admit there is no going back. That every good thing must end. That every bad thing does too, that everything does.

That is what I’m looking for every time I flip to the back of a book, compulsively checking for proof that in a life where so many things have gone wrong, there can be beauty too. That there is always hope, no matter what.
Emily Henry, Book Lovers

Goodreads Synopsis:

Nora Stephens’ life is books—she’s read them all—and she is not that type of heroine. Not the plucky one, not the laidback dream girl, and especially not the sweetheart. In fact, the only people Nora is a heroine for are her clients, for whom she lands enormous deals as a cutthroat literary agent, and her beloved little sister Libby.

Which is why she agrees to go to Sunshine Falls, North Carolina for the month of August when Libby begs her for a sisters’ trip away—with visions of a small-town transformation for Nora, who she’s convinced needs to become the heroine in her own story. But instead of picnics in meadows, or run-ins with a handsome country doctor or bulging-forearmed bartender, Nora keeps bumping into Charlie Lastra, a bookish brooding editor from back in the city. It would be a meet-cute if not for the fact that they’ve met many times and it’s never been cute.

If Nora knows she’s not an ideal heroine, Charlie knows he’s nobody’s hero, but as they are thrown together again and again—in a series of coincidences no editor worth their salt would allow—what they discover might just unravel the carefully crafted stories they’ve written about themselves.

My Thoughts

I read a lot of great books this month. So much so that I am planning on adding and honorable mentions post. Book Lovers took the honor because I felt the deepest connection. I love Hallmark movies, but I keep thinking that I want a twist where they don’t want to stay in the small town. That’s what this is, a look at the other side. The person who usually gets dumped in the movies because they love their jobs and city life. Even though I’m more of a small-town girl, I loved the way Nora and Charlie were so dedicated to helping their family. As someone dipping her toes into the writing world, I also really liked the behind-the-scenes view of the publishing industry.

What I liked about this book

Nora and Charlie are both great characters
The book is a good mix of humor and sentiment
Even though Charlie and Nora had bad first impressions of each other, they didn’t drag it out too long once they finally realized they had a lot in common
The relationship between Nora and her sister Libby