I announced at the beginning of the month that I was participating in the Middle Grade Carousel Monthly Challenge. This month’s theme was cold-blooded animals. I decided to pick dragons for my cold-blooded creature. This classic has been on my shelves for awhile.
Princess Cimorene is bored of being a princess. So she runs away and becomes dragon’s princess to the mighty Kazul, a powerful dragon with green shining scales and sharp silver teeth. But Cimorene soon discovers that living with dragons isn’t always easy.
This was a great adventure tale for girls who don’t want to follow conventions. I think it was probably more revolutionary when it was written in the early 1990s. Today we have a lot more fantasy series with strong female leads. But, the story still stands the test of time.
“For the sake of trust building, the third chapter will follow the second. But then we will jump directly to chapter five, do you understand? No chapter four. Why? Because sometimes things don’t go like they should.” ― Allie Brosh, Solutions and Other Problems
Title: Solutions and Other Problems
Author; Allie Brosh
Publisher: Gallery Books
Publication Date: September 22, 2020
Goodreads Synopsis:
Allie Brosh returns with a new collection of comedic, autobiographical, and illustrated essays.
Solutions and Other Problems includes humorous stories from Allie Brosh’s childhood; the adventures of her very bad animals; merciless dissection of her own character flaws; incisive essays on grief, loneliness, and powerlessness; as well as reflections on the absurdity of modern life.
My Thoughts:
This is a different pick for me. Most of my picks are novels or traditional memoirs. But, this was a fun read that dealt with heavy topics. The format made it a really quick read. I would recommend it for anyone who likes Jenny Lawson’s writng.
Brooklyn-based Hannah is a bestselling author struggling to write her second book after personal losses. Her older sister, Sara, still lives in Chatham, Cape Cod, where they grew up, and is married with four children. Once a dedicated librarian, Sara dreams of reviving her love affair with literature, but instead, she is stuck with too many family responsibilities and a fizzling marriage.
When Hannah gets the chance to retreat to her aunt’s oceanfront house in Chatham for the summer, it seems like just the thing to get her creative juices flowing. And she’ll be able to spend more time with Sara, who is eager to find her way back into the workforce, to do something rewarding and book-related. The pair will spend the summer making friends, rekindling romance― especially Spencer, an old acquaintance from high school-turned very hot grump― and opening themselves up to the magic of books and the beach.
June 11
Sounds like a perfect summer read!
Rue Siebert might not have it all, but she has enough: a few friends she can always count on, the financial stability she yearned for as a kid, and a successful career as a biotech engineer at Kline, one of the most promising start-ups in the field of food science. Her world is stable, pleasant, and hard-fought. Until a hostile takeover and its offensively attractive front man threatens to bring it all crumbling down.
Eli Killgore and his business partners want Kline, period. Eli has his own reasons for pushing this deal through—and he’s a man who gets what he wants. With one burning exception: Rue. The woman he can’t stop thinking about. The woman who’s off-limits to him.
Torn between loyalty and an undeniable attraction, Rue and Eli throw caution out the lab and the boardroom windows. Their affair is secret, no-strings-attached, and has a built-in deadline: the day one of their companies will prevail. But the heart is risky business—one that plays for keeps.
I still haven’t read an Ali Hazelwood book, but I keep accumulating them because the descriptions all sound so good!
June 25
Two women—separated by decades and continents, and united by a mysterious family heirloom—discover second chances at love in this sweeping novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Summer Wives.
I loved The Glass Ocean which Williams co-wrote with Lauren Willig and Karen White.
She has a dream. He has a plan. Together they’ll take a leap of faith.
Ren has never held an iPhone, googled the answer to a question, or followed a crush on social media. What she has done: Read a book or two, or three (okay, hundreds). Taught herself to paint. Built a working wind power system from scratch. But for all the books she’s read, Ren has never found one that’s taught a woman raised on a homestead and off the grid for most of her twenty-two years how to live in the real world. So when she finally achieves her lifelong dream of attending Corona College, it feels like her life is finally beginning.
Fitz has the rest of his life mapped out: Graduate from Corona at the top of his class, get his criminal record wiped clean, and pass himself off as the rich, handsome player everyone thinks he is. He’s a few short months from checking off step one of his plans when Ren Gylden, with her cascading blonde hair and encyclopedic brain, crashes into his life, and for the first time Fitz’s plan is in jeopardy.
But a simple assignment in their immunology seminar changes the course of both their lives, and suddenly they’re thrown out of the frying pan and into the fire on a road trip that will lead them in the most unexpected directions. Out on the open road, the world somehow shifts, and the unlikely pair realize that, maybe, the key to the dreams they’ve both been chasing have been sitting next to them the whole time.
I love this series and am so excited to see an installment by Christina Lauren.
Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Description:
Have you ever wondered what happens if your snacks become… you? Munchpie Morgan does! From angel hair pasta to ears of corn, her munching sparks a hilarious, wonderful adventure woven with playful rhyme. Get ready to giggle and maybe even try on a new food with this tasty tale – perfect for even the pickiest of eaters!
My Thoughts:
“You are what you eat”, we’ve all heard the expression. This is the literal vision of this. Morgan describes all the food she likes to eat, then visualizes herself looking like the food. I love the fun word play such as having a head made of lettuce or chicken fingers. I imagine giggling kids wanting to read this again and again.
I know some of you saw this title and are shouting “ebook” or “audiobook”. I do love my ereader for traveling, and other times when it’s convenient to have esomething light to throw in the purse. I don’t do a lot of audiobooks because my mind drifts too much and I miss important information. But, I have been using them more lately since I have fee audible credits. That’s not what this post is about though. The majority of my reading is still physical books. So, that will be the focus. audiobooksPrintbooks vs ebooks
Paperbacks
My first choice is typically paperback. They’re lighter and take up less shelf space. I trade a lot of my books at paperbackswap.com, so it’s also cheaper to mail. They “feel” like a book should feel. They’re more transportable than hardcover and don’t add as much weight to luggage (because yes, I bring real books and my ereader when traveling- batteries die).
Hardcovers
While paperbacks are number one, there are some instances when a hardcover is preferable. If you’ve already waited two years for the next book in your favorite series, it’s not worth waiting for the paperback release. Hardcovers also last longer, so if it’s book I’m planning to keep, I’ll go with hardcover. I’m also more likely to pick hardcover for my classroom library because the books will be handled by grubby student hands with different standards of book care from mine.
I shared at the beginning of the month that I was planning on joining in on the monthly challenge at Middle Grade Carousel this month. The topic for April was rivals. I read Much Ado about Baseball by Rajani LaRocca.
My Review:
Trish and Ben are math competition rivals who end up on the same baseball team. Told from alternating viewpoints, it’s clear that these two rivals have so much in common they should be friends. This book covers so many different interests that it would appeal to a lot of different kids. The main characters love math puzzles and baseball. Plus, there’s Shakespeare references and a touch of magic. I am always looking for books that have diverse characters where the plot is not about racism or prejudices. Trish and Ben are from Indian American families, and the cultural aspect is just naturally woven into the plot. The main conflict is about winning their baseball championship. I would recommend this more for middle grade readers who are high readers because of all the problem solving elements to the plot.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
May’s theme for Middle Grade Caroousel is reptiles. My main reason for joining the challenges is to read the middle grade books I already own, and I don’t have anything with a “traditional” reptile, so I am going to go with dragons and read Dealing with Dragons by Patricia Wrede.
If you want more recommendations or to learn about the challenge you can get more information at Middle Grade Carousel
“To ask why was only to demand justification. To ask why not assumed endless possibility…” ― Stephanie Dray, The Women of Chateau Lafayette
Title: The Women of Chateau Lafayette
Author: Stephanie Dray
Publisher: Berkley
Publication Date: March 31, 2021
Goodreads Synopsis:
Most castles are protected by men. This one by women.
A founding mother… 1774 . Gently-bred noblewoman Adrienne Lafayette becomes her husband, the Marquis de Lafayette’s political partner in the fight for American independence. But when their idealism sparks revolution in France and the guillotine threatens everything she holds dear, Adrienne must renounce the complicated man she loves, or risk her life for a legacy that will inspire generations to come.
A daring visionary… 1914 . Glittering New York socialite Beatrice Chanler is a force of nature, daunted by nothing—not her humble beginnings, her crumbling marriage, or the outbreak of war. But after witnessing the devastation in France firsthand, Beatrice takes on the challenge of a convincing America to fight for what’s right.
A reluctant resistor… 1940 . French school-teacher and aspiring artist Marthe Simone has an orphan’s self-reliance and wants nothing to do with war. But as the realities of Nazi occupation transform her life in the isolated castle where she came of age, she makes a discovery that calls into question who she is, and more importantly, who she is willing to become.
Intricately woven and powerfully told, The Women of Chateau Lafayette is a sweeping novel about duty and hope, love and courage, and the strength we take from those who came before us.
My thoughts:
I love books with interwoven stories, but usually one is not as interesting. In the beginning, I was primarily interested in the story of Adrienne, wife of the the Marquis de Lafayette. But, as the story progressed, I found Beatrice and Marthe’s stories more fascinating. It’s a beautiful story of the strength of women and the power of their contributions throughout history.
A lot of months there’s a definite trend , but there’s a good mix of my favorite genres this month.
May 7
What makes a girl “beastly?” Is it having too much ambition? Being too proud? Taking up too much space? Or is it just wanting something, anything , too badly?
That’s the problem Arabella faces when she makes her debut in society. Her parents want her to be sweet and compliant so she can marry well, but try as she might, Arabella can’t extinguish the fire burning inside her — the source of her deepest wishes, her wildest dreams.
When an attempt to suppress her emotions tragically backfires, a mysterious figure punishes Arabella with a curse, dooming her and everyone she cares about, trapping them in the castle.
As the years pass, Arabella abandons hope. The curse is her fault — after all, there’s nothing more “beastly” than a girl who expresses her anger — and the only way to break it is to find a boy who loves her for her true a cruel task for a girl who’s been told she’s impossible to love.
When a handsome thief named Beau makes his way into the castle, the captive servants are thrilled, convinced he is the one to break the curse. But Beau — spooked by the castle’s strange and forbidding ladies-in-waiting, and by the malevolent presence that stalks its corridors at night — only wants to escape. He learned long ago that love is only an illusion.
If Beau and Arabella have any hope of breaking the curse, they must learn to trust their wounded hearts, and realize that the cruelest prisons of all are the ones we build for ourselves.
I love retellings and this sounds amazing!
The king of Yusan must die.
The five most dangerous liars in the land have been mysteriously summoned to work together for a single objective: to kill the God King Joon.
He has it coming. Under his merciless immortal hand, the nobles flourish, while the poor and innocent are imprisoned, ruined…or sold.
And now each of the five blades will come for him. Each has tasted bitterness―from the hired hitman seeking atonement, a lovely assassin who seeks freedom, or even the prince banished for his cruel crimes. None can resist the sweet, icy lure of vengeance.
They can agree on murder.
They can agree on treachery.
But for these five killers―each versed in deception, lies, and betrayal―it’s not enough to forge an alliance. To survive, they’ll have to find a way to trust each other…but only one can take the crown.
Let the best liar win.
I don’t read a lot of high fantasy, but this sounds like an amazing premise with intriquing characters.
In the near future, a civil servant is offered the salary of her dreams and is, shortly afterward, told what project she’ll be working on. A recently established government ministry is gathering “expats” from across history to establish whether time travel is feasible—for the body, but also for the fabric of space-time.
She is tasked with working as a “bridge”: living with, assisting, and monitoring the expat known as “1847” or Commander Graham Gore. As far as history is concerned, Commander Gore died on Sir John Franklin’s doomed 1845 expedition to the Arctic, so he’s a little disoriented to be living with an unmarried woman who regularly shows her calves, surrounded by outlandish concepts such as “washing machine,” “Spotify,” and “the collapse of the British Empire.” But he adjusts quickly; he is, after all, an explorer by trade. Soon, what the bridge initially thought would be, at best, a seriously uncomfortable housemate dynamic, evolves into something much more. Over the course of an unprecedented year, Gore and the bridge fall haphazardly, fervently in love, with consequences they never could have imagined.
Supported by a chaotic and charming cast of characters—including a 17th-century cinephile who can’t get enough of Tinder, a painfully shy World War I captain, and a former spy with an ever-changing series of cosmetic surgery alterations and a belligerent attitude to HR—the bridge will be forced to confront the past that shaped her choices, and the choices that will shape the future.
An exquisitely original and feverishly fun fusion of genres and ideas, The Ministry of Time asks the universal What happens if you put a disaffected millennial and a Victorian polar explorer in a house together?
This is a debut novel, so I know nothing about the author, but it sounds like an amazing premise that mixes up different genres.
For more than a decade, readers have been enchanted by the modern classic The One and Only Ivan , a Newbery Award winner and a #1 New York Times bestseller, and by its bestselling sequels, The One and Only Bob and The One and Only Ruby . Powerhouse author Katherine Applegate invites readers back into Ivan’s world for one last adventure—his most exciting yet. Ivan has been happily living in a wildlife sanctuary, with his friend Ruby next door in the elephant enclosure, frequent visits from his canine friend Bob, and his mate Kinyani by his side. And in the happiest turn of all, Ivan and Kinyani have welcomed a set of twins to their family! Ivan loves being a papa, even though it can be hard sometimes. But as he navigates the joys and challenges of parenthood, he can’t help but recall his life before the glass walls of the mall circus, his own childhood in the jungle—and his own twin. In the tradition of timeless classics like Charlotte’s Web and Stuart Little , the one and only Katherine Applegate has crafted a poignant, delightful, heartbreaking, unforgettable final foray into the world of Ivan, the world’s favorite silverback.
I hate for this series to end, but this sounds like the perfect ending.
May 14
Christina Lauren, returns with a delicious new romance between the buttoned-up heir of a grocery chain and his free-spirited artist ex as they fake their relationship
in order to receive a massive inheritance.
Anna Green thought she was marrying Liam “West” Weston for access to subsidized family housing while at UCLA. She also thought she’d signed divorce papers when the graduation caps were tossed, and they both went on their merry ways.
Three years later, Anna is a starving artist living paycheck to paycheck while West is a Stanford professor. He may be one of four heirs to the Weston Foods conglomerate, but he has little interest in working for the heartless corporation his family built from the ground up. He is interested, however, in his one-hundred-million-dollar inheritance. There’s just one catch.
Due to an antiquated clause in his grandfather’s will, Liam won’t see a penny until he’s been happily married for five years. Just when Liam thinks he’s in the home stretch, pressure mounts from his family to see this mysterious spouse, and he has no choice but to turn to the one person he’s afraid to introduce to his one-percenter parents—his unpolished, not-so-ex-wife.
But in the presence of his family, Liam’s fears quickly shift from whether the feisty, foul-mouthed, paint-splattered Anna can play the part to whether the toxic world of wealth will corrupt someone as pure of heart as his surprisingly grounded and loyal wife. Liam will have to ask himself if the price tag on his flimsy cover story is worth losing true love that sprouted from a lie.
I love a fake romance trope. Even though they’re crazy unrealistic scenarios, you really get to see the relationship evolve.
May 21
Caught in the great Galveston Hurricane of 1900, a female doctor who’s joined a traveling medicine show to support her disabled son is forced to weather the storm and its aftermath in a town hostile to the troupe’s unconventional ways but desperate for their help.
Readers of Ellen Marie Wiseman, Sandra Dallas, and Sara Donati will be captivated by this story of medical historical fiction by Amanda Skenandore, registered nurse and acclaimed author of The Nurse’s Secret and The Second Life of Mirielle West.
Once a trailblazer in the field of medicine, Dr. Tucia Hatherley hasn’t touched a scalpel or stethoscope since she made a fatal mistake in the operating theater. Instead, she works in a corset factory, striving to earn enough to support her disabled son. When even that livelihood is threatened, Tucia is left with one option—to join a wily, charismatic showman named Huey and become part of his traveling medicine show.
Her medical license lends the show a pretense of credibility, but the cures and tonics Tucia is forced to peddle are little more than purgatives and bathwater. Loathing the duplicity, even as she finds uneasy kinship with the other misfit performers, Tucia vows to leave as soon as her debts are paid and start a new life with her son—if Huey will ever let her go.
When the show reaches Galveston, Texas, Tucia tries to break free from Huey, only to be pulled even deeper into his schemes. But there is a far greater reckoning ahead, as a September storm becomes a devastating hurricane that will decimate the Gulf Coast—and challenge Tucia to recover her belief in medicine, in the goodness of others—and in herself.
I loved The Second Life of Mirielle West and am excited to read more by this author .
Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
Description:
Inspired by a quote from the late, great children’s book author Margaret Wise Brown, this poem honors and celebrates the beauty of being your authentic self. Soothing rhymes and soft illustrations convey the peace of being alone with your thoughts.
This is a gentle introduction to the concept of being an introvert, as well as an invitation for child and grown-up readers alike to observe and imagine their inner world and the world around them. What can you hear when you stay quiet as mud?
My Thoughts
You can never fail with a Jane Yolen book. This book is a beautiful celebration of introversion. There are so many books about a being bold, it’s breath of fresh air to show kids the beauty of quiet introspection. The poem and illustrations are gorgeous.
Thank you to NetGalley for providing an ARC copy in exchange for an honest review.
Description
The Paper Bag Princess meets The Parent Trap in this an unconventional fairy tale about a quick-witted princess and her ogre buddy trading places Best friends Oggy and Pru spend their days playing games, having adventures, and getting spoiled by shopkeepers. Then, every evening, Oggy goes home and does whatever he wants, while Pru returns to the palace where she must finish her vegetables, tidy her playroom, and go to bed on time. She’s had enough of the rules—she wants freedom! So Oggy and Pru hatch a plan for Pru to experience the easy existence of an independent they’ll disguise themselves as each other and switch lives with their hilariously apt transformations. But as time passes, Pru realizes that the life she resented as too limited was great after all. And when a dragon swoops in to kidnap the “princess,” their plan quickly goes awry. This fearsomely funny sequel to Princess Pru and the Ogre on the Hill is a fun take on the classic saying “the grass isn’t always greener on the other side” with expressive, comical illustrations that perfectly portray the characters and kingdom.
My Thoughts
I was lucky to get to reviewPrincess Pru and the Ogre on the Hill last year and was excited to return to their world. Pru is tired of following rules. Oggy hatches a plan for them to switch places. The images of an ogre and a princess switching places will make kids laugh while teaching a lesson about appreciation.
