Books I Read and Other Assorted Oddities

 This was a book club book choice for this month. This was a really quick read. It took me about 45 minutes to get through. Carlos and his family live in rural Cuba, on land that their family has owned for centuries. Carlos's grandparents and aunt are next door, and Carlos loves spending time with them and his friend, Alvaro. Then, Carlos's father wins the lottery, and moves the family to a big city. He starts a woodworking business that becomes very successful. But things change drastically for the family when Fidel Castro and his revolutionaries take over Cuba. First, I had a hard time rating this book. It was good, so I gave it five stars, but I'll admit it didn't blow me away. I did like that it was about a time and place that I didn't know much about. The autobiographical nature of the story made it really personal. The story itself was pretty simple and fast paced. There was not a lot of exploration of some of the deeper topics of the story. I think the thing ...

 OK, once again, I'm back through the rotation. Fantasy:  The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue  by V. E. Schwab (61%) Sci-Fi:  Legend  by Marie Lu (32%) Realistic Fiction:  Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe  by Benjamin Alire Saenz (70%) Brandon Sanderson:  Isle of the Emberdark  (19%) Nonfiction:  The Anxious Generation  by Jonathan Haidt (100%) Classic:  Les Misérables  by Victor Hugo (17%) Mystery/Thriller:  The Eye of the Crow  by Shane Peacock (100%) Historical Fiction:  Apeirogon  by Colum McCann (12%) Audio:  An Ember in the Ashes  by Sabaa Tahir (11%) English Department Book Club: We didn't pick anything for the summer... Neighborhood Book Club: How to Say Goodbye in Cuban  by Daniel Miyares Husband Buddy Read: The Hero of Ages  by Brandon Sanderson (7%) I've also got to read a couple of books for work: Code Name Verity  by Elizabeth Wein A Visual, St...

 Now that I've finished Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece , it's time to roll again for an audiobook to read. I rolled a percentile D10, and a regular D10, and got: 84 on my list is An Ember in the Ashes  series! I'm on book 3. I'm really, really excited for this one. It's been a while since I read book 2, so I'll need to do some research to remember what's going on, but I'm super excited to get to continue this series.

 I picked this one up on Audible because it sounded interesting, and I thought it was nonfiction before. Turns out, it was fiction, but it ended up being an interesting read. The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece follows the story of the development of a fictional (but I think based off of a real) film. From the creation of the source material, to the writing of the script by director Bill Johnson, to the casting of Wren Lane and others, the book follows the entire production until a screening of the final film in New York. The film is based on a series of comic books. These comics were a fictionalized story of his uncle who was a flamethrower in World War II. The character, Firefall, becomes a villain in a new installment of a blockbuster super hero franchise. This is another complex story with a lot of moving parts. It has a very large cast of characters and sometimes it's difficult to keep them separated. There's also not a whole lot of development on many o...

 OK, this was our book club book this month. It's another middle grade kind of book. Tiph is new in town. Her parents (well her dad and step-mom) are occupied with her two younger siblings. While on a walk, Tiph comes across an elderly woman who seems to be struggling to walk her dog. Offering to help, Tiph discovers that the woman is alone and recovering from an operation. Tiph helps her, and finds herself with a job working for the old woman. Tiph loves dolls and has been eyeing one in a shop in the town (incidentally, where she also came across the old woman). The shop owner doesn't like kids much, and Tiph isn't allowed in his shop on account of being suspected of stealing a clock from the shop some months before. When she accompanies her new friend, Néni (Aunt) Szilvia, she steals a doll she has been eyeing for some time. Will this theft change her relationship with everyone? OK, this summary doesn't really do the book justice. There are a lot of moving parts in th...

 I have a portion of this series in my classroom library, so I've added it to my mystery reading sheet. I obtained the first book from the library, and was able to read it really quickly so the person who had it on hold could get the chance to read it as well. The Eye of the Crow  follows a 13 year old Sherlock Holmes. Sherlock is ditching school and reading the papers, looking at crimes and investigations. It is through these "sensational" papers, that he sees the murder of a woman in the Whitechapel neighborhood. Sherlock sees the primary suspect be arrested, an Arab boy only a little older than Sherlock himself, who whispers to Sherlock "I didn't do it!" Driven by this, Sherlock begins to investigate the case, only to find himself in the cell next to the Arab, accused of being an accomplice to the murder. Can Sherlock solve the case and save himself and the Arab? This book was fairly quickly paced, and while the ending was kind of predictable, I enjoyed t...