Books I Read and Other Assorted Oddities

 This book came highly recommended from a former coworker of mine. I picked it up on Audible, and then ended up buying a physical copy somewhere along the line, and got to the physical copy before the audiobook. I've been really interested in this topic as a parent and a teacher. Like Haidt, I've seen progressively alarming trends in student well being and mental health in recent years, and it was accelerated by the pandemic. The Anxious Generation  discusses what happened to teens in the wake of the transition away from flip phones to smart phones starting around 2012. Haidt discusses the effects of social media, and how these apps are designed to be addictive. He discusses solutions that parents, schools, and governments should take to help build resilience in our children and teens and protect them online. First of all, I thought this book was very thorough. I felt that Haidt addressed so many aspects of this discussion. I think it was helpful that he presented his research...

 OK, I'm back through my rotation again. Here's where I'm at with everything: Fantasy:  The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue  by V. E. Schwab (59%) Sci-Fi:  Legend  by Marie Lu (21%) Realistic Fiction:  Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe  by Benjamin Alire Saenz (49%) Brandon Sanderson:  Isle of the Emberdark  (11%) Nonfiction:  The Anxious Generation  by Jonathan Haidt (76%) Classic:  Les Misérables  by Victor Hugo (10%) Mystery/Thriller:  The Brothers Hawthorne  by Jennifer Lynn Barnes (100%) Historical Fiction:  Apeirogon  by Colum McCann (9%) Audio:  The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece  by Tom Hanks (16%) English Department Book Club: We didn't pick anything for the summer... Neighborhood Book Club:  The Winter of the Dollhouse  by Laura Amy Schlitz (26%) So I finished The Brothers Hawthorne , so I need to roll for a new mystery book. I rolle...

 Since I finished the Psychology of Zelda , I need to roll for another audiobook. I rolled a percentile and a D10 and got: But, bad news... 59 doesn't appear on my sheet. So I re-rolled and got 28! This time that's on my sheet. 28 is The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece  by Tom Hanks. I think I originally thought this was nonfiction, but as I'm looking at it now, it's definitely fiction. I still think it'll be really interesting, and I'm excited to read it. It is a bit longer (almost 16 hours) than some of my last reads, so it'll take a bit for me to get through.

My husband really enjoys The Legend of Zelda games, and I've liked watching him play them, though I'm not as interested in them as he is. I found this book on Audible (I think it was included with membership) and thought that it sounded really interesting. The Psychology of Zelda  is a collection of essays from various people (mostly with doctorate degrees in psychology and related fields) about how The Legend of Zelda  games are impacted by psychology. From topics ranging from projection to the stages of grief, this book picks apart the games, the music, the characters, and the players to show why the games are so impactful and popular. This book was interesting, and was generally easy to follow. I didn't fully know what I was getting into when I bought the book, so I didn't realize that it was a collection of essays. Still, that didn't overly bother me, except that it made the audiobook version a little hard to follow. I couldn't keep track the author biograp...

 OK, I finished Sunreach , so now it's time for another dice roll.  I again rolled a percentile for the tens place and D10 for the ones place. I use 00 as nothing in the tens place, so this roll is 8. On my list, this corresponds to: The Psychology of Zelda . It's a collection of essays diving into why The Legend of Zelda  games are so satisfying.

 This was a result of my roll for audiobook. The audiobooks split the novellas into separate works, but I also have the book in which these novellas are included. Sunreach  follows the story of FM, Rig, and Jorgen on Detritus while Spensa is off exploring her Cytonic powers. FM is the viewpoint character, and after the battle where the Delver appears, becomes the keeper of the slugs - the little creatures like Spensa's Doomslug. They quickly discover that these creatures are the secret to hyperjumping and long range communication. Can they gain allies against the Superiority with this new knowledge? I personally really liked this novella. I thought it was short and sweet, and was purposeful in continuing the Skyward  storyline. I liked FM as a viewpoint character and how she was contrasted against Spensa (who I also love as a character). This is particularly seen as the novella explores FM's budding relationship with Rig. That little hint of a romance was cute, and I like...

 I've been loving this series, so I was very excited when I got to roll for mystery books and this is what I got. I was definitely eager to continue the series. Jameson has found a secret in Prague, but not one he's willing to let Avery in on just yet. As they're in London, Jamison is approached by his father, a British nobleman who has a request: join the mysterious, underground club: The Devil's Mercy, and win back his ancestral home. Do Avery and Jameson have what it takes to beat the odds? Can they get into the Most Dangerous Game? Meanwhile, Grayson finds himself in Phoenix, Arizona trying to break his half sister, Gigi out of prison. Once there, he finds his father's real family in deep financial trouble, and on the brink of ruin. Unable to leave the situation alone, guided by Gigi's digging into her father's whereabouts, Grayson finds himself tangled up in a complicated family battle. Can he protect his sister's while also staying loyal to his Haw...

 OK, it's taken me a bit to get all the way through my rotation again. I've had to focus down a couple of books in order to be ready for book club. So, here's where I'm at. Fantasy:  The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue  by V. E. Schwab (46%) Sci-Fi:  Legend  by Marie Lu (16%) Realistic Fiction:  Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe  by Benjamin Alire Saenz (8%) Young Readers:  The Fledgling  by Jane Langton (100%) - I'm eliminating this category from here on out. Brandon Sanderson:  Isle of the Emberdark  (2%) Nonfiction:  The Anxious Generation  by Jonathan Haidt (67%) Classic:  Les Misérables  by Victor Hugo (6%) Mystery/Thriller:  The Brothers Hawthorne  by Jennifer Lynn Barnes (63%) Historical Fiction:  Apeirogon  by Colum McCann (7%) Audio:  Sunreach  by Brandon Sanderson and Janci Patterson (54%) English Department Book Club:  Death of the Author  by...

This was another book club book for my neighborhood book club. It's our middle grade choice, and I found the title and summary for it really intriguing. Coyote and her dad, Rodeo, live on a refitted school bus they've called Yager. They drive across the country in search of any adventure with the exception of Washington state. Washington is a "no-go." It was in Washington, five years earlier, that Coyote's two sisters and mother were killed in a car crash. In a weekly phone call with her grandma, Coyote finds out that the neighborhood park is about to be paved over. It was in that park, five years ago, that Coyote, her sisters, and mother buried a memory box, a time capsule that they promised they would dig up in ten years time. Can Coyote get Yager and Rodeo across the country without Rodeo knowing. I really enjoyed this book. It was cute, emotional, and funny. I found Coyote to be a really fun main character. She was witty, well-read, and sarcastic. I very much ...

 OK, I'm combining this... Man... two bad rolls in a row 😭 OK, I have the same issues with this adaptation as I did Treasure Island , which I was worried about when I started. Neither of these experiences are what I'm looking for in an audiobook. I'd rather listen to the full text novel than a dramatization. I'd rather watch a movie than listen to one. This book felt that way, and it is called an audioplay, so I can't even blame myself for not realizing it. Maybe I'll come back to these, but for now... this is a DNF. I swapped dice sets, and now I'm back on a roll. I again rolled a D10 and a percentile. 47 is the result. 47 on my list is ReDawn  by Brandon Sanderson. This is part the Skyward  books that I've been meaning to read, so I'm excited for that. I'm actually going to start with the first novella Sunreach  though. I didn't realize that I needed to read them in a particular order. I've fixed that on my sheet.

 Since I DNF'd Treasure Island , I need another book to read. I rolled a D10 and percentile: I got a 13. That translates to Ender's Game . This is called Ender's Game Alive and is another full cast adaptation. I'm a little nervous about it considering how Treasure Island went... I might have to roll for a second time in two days...

 I... DNF'd this after an hour. I'm not going to bother summarizing this book, because I didn't get very far. I have read Treasure Island  before, back when I was in college and took an entire class on the author. Of his books, this is probably the best one. I picked up this Audible Original because it was free and a classic. I didn't realize that it was a dramatization and not a faithful reading of the book. I felt like this isn't really what I'm looking for in an Audiobook. There were a couple of issues with it besides the fact that it was a dramatization. I didn't love the accents (though probably pretty realistic). They were hard to follow. Sometimes the dialogue got lost in the background stuff, and it just didn't feel like a book. I have nothing against this style of adaptation, but they're not for me. I will definitely be avoiding these in the future if possible. I gave this a ⭐ and did not finish at 21%.

 OK, since I finished The Women , I need to roll for a new book to read. I rolled a percentile dice and a D10 to get my answer. I originally rolled 80 on the percentile and ended up rerolling and getting 50. On this die, the face is the "0," so I read this as 50. On my list that corresponds to Treasure Island  by Robert Louis Stevenson. I read this a long time ago in college, but have it in my audiobook collection. We'll see haha. Hopefully I'll get through this one fast too.

 I've heard a lot of good things about this book, so I picked it up on Audible before I'd finished The Nightingale . This is what I rolled last time for an audiobook. I finished it really pretty quick for as long of a book as it is. The Women  follows the story of Frankie McGrath as she fights for her parents' approval. It starts with her father's "heroes wall" in his office: a wall of pictures depicting men in service of their country, and women getting married. When Frankie's brother leaves for war, his friend tells her "women can be heroes too." This sparks something in Frankie, and she joins the army as a nurse. She ships out to Vietnam shortly after learning of her brother's death. There, she serves in two evac hospitals, treating wounded soldiers as a surgical nurse. Frankie serves two tours in Vietnam, then returns home to find a country unwilling to recognize the service of any Vietnam vets, and especially the women. First of all, I d...

 This was a book club book for my teacher book club. I was initially kind of excited to read it because the title is intriguing and it's science fiction. Death of the Author  follows the story of wheelchair-bound Zelu. At the start of the book, Zelu is an unsuccessful author and university professor. She loses her creative writing teaching position due to her arrogance and insensitive comments toward some of her students. In her frustration and desperation, she sits down and pounds out a novel like nothing she's ever tried to write before: Rusted Robots, a sci-fi novel about robots after humanity. The book is wildly successful and propels her into fame. I really don't know where to start with this book. For one, I found the main character, Zelu, to be utterly intolerable. Nothing was ever her fault, and everything was always someone else's fault. Everyone was always judging her, and she was overly concerned about what everyone might have been thinking of her. I felt tha...

 I rolled this one as the young readers category. I'm doing away with that category and won't be rerolling for it now that I'm finished. I didn't read the previous books, so I can't attest to the whole series. I looked for the other books but they are out of print now and really hard to find. The Fledgling follows the story of a young girl, Georgie who thinks she can fly. She can't replicate it though, and finds it really frustrating. She then meets a great big Canada goose, who she calls the Goose King. She flies on the back of the Goose King and learns to fly. This book was a little annoying. I didn't like the whole transcendentalist part of it, especially in an upper elementary book. I felt like it made it overly complex for the interested age range. I also didn't particularly care for the whole storyline at all. It was boring, not much happens. The characters were all shallow too. I rated this book ⭐⭐

 This was one of the book club choices for my neighborhood book club. We called it historical fiction, but I didn't really feel like it was actually historical fiction, but I did enjoy it. The Names follows the storyline of a woman Cora and her abusive husband. Cora is in a terrible marriage. The story starts with Cora on her way to the registrars office to fill out the birth certificate for her newest child. Her oldest child, Maia, thinks the boy's name should be Bear. Cora wants to name him Julian. Her husband, Gordon, wants to name him after himself as it's a family name. The story follows all the way through what would happen depending on which name the baby is given. The concept of this book was really fascinating. I highly enjoyed the way this book was written and told, though it was a little confusing at the start. I also had a hard time with the time jumps that happen in between each chapter. Really though, I loved the characters in the book. Bear, Julian, and Gordo...

 OK, I'm back through my rotation completely again, and have started several new books. Here's where things stand currently: Fantasy:  The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue  by V. E. Schwab (41%) Sci-Fi:  Legend  by Marie Lu (7%) Realistic Fiction:  Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe  by Benjamin Alire Saenz (1%) Young Readers:  The Fledgling  by Jane Langton (19%) Brandon Sanderson:  The Frugal Wizard's Handbook for Surviving Medieval England  (100%) Nonfiction:  The Anxious Generation  by Jonathan Haidt (67%) Classic:  Les Misérables  by Victor Hugo (6%) Mystery/Thriller:  The Brothers Hawthorne  by Jennifer Lynn Barnes (50%) Historical Fiction:  Apeirogon  by Colum McCann (4%) Audio:  The Women  by Kristin Hanna (3%) English Department Book Club:  Death of the Author  by Nnedi Okorafor (51%) Neighborhood Book Club: The Names  by Florence Knapp (5%)...

 OK, as stated before, audiobooks will be rolled out of sequence of everything else. I just finished The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy , so now I need to roll again for audiobooks. I used a D6 for the tens place, and a 10 sided for the ones place. I rolled 29 which corresponds on my sheet to The Women  by Kristin Hannah. That will be what I start for audio.

 I've read this book before when I was in junior high, and while I remember most of it, I read it before I started this blog. So, here I am, rereading it. Arthur Dent is a regular guy with an unremarkable life. He finds himself one morning, with bulldozers on his front lawn to knock his house down in order to construct a byway. As he's protesting this action by laying down in the mud in front of the truck, his friend Ford, shows up to take him to the pub. Ford tells Arthur that Earth is about to be destroyed and that he should drink as much alcohol as he can. They then hitchhike onto a Vogon destructor ship, and away their galactic adventure goes. This book is utterly absurd. I hadn't really picked up on that when I was in junior high - I always thought it was funny, but the absurdity was lost on my developing brain. I still very much enjoyed this book, and laughed at the ridiculous side notes from Adams as the narrator and the Hitchhiker's Guide .  The characters in th...

 I picked this one up with a bunch of others after the Secret Projects campaign, and it's been on my TBR forever. I read this as part of my Sanderson rotation spot. John finds himself in the middle of a forest, at night, with no knowledge of how he got there, who he is, or why he's there. He quickly finds himself over his head, fighting well-armed men with all kinds of physical augments that he doesn't have access to for some reason. The twist? John is in an alternate dimension of Medieval England. He's from the future, but somehow has to blend in with these people of the past. Can he stop the people from his own timeline who are trying to exploit it? I will say... This was not my favorite Sanderson. I didn't not like this book, but it wasn't my favorite. I love the witty title, and the main character was fine. The writing was pretty good as well. But unlike a lot of Brandon's other books, this book was too slow for me. First: the amnesia problem. I don'...

 OK, so since I finished Three Dark Crowns , I need to roll for another audiobook to listen to. I'm going to roll these out of sequence from my physical books because I treat audiobooks differently. I don't listen to audiobooks in sequence with the physical books. I usually listen to audio while driving or while cleaning, so I like to have one at least downloaded and started.  I rolled: I'm calling this 1 (nothing in the tens place and 1 in the ones place). That happened to be The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. So, once I'm finished with it, I'll change that book on my sci-fi list to be book 2. I have actually read this book before, but it was a long, long time ago. I'm excited for another chance to visit it and write some reviews!

 This one was really popular in YA several years ago. I know... I'm always reading older books. But I was fascinated by the dark cover and spooky vibes. I picked this up as an audiobook and started it a couple of months ago. Lately, I've been really good and listening to books on my way home from work and while cleaning. Three sisters, divided as children. Each with a different power. Kat is a poisoner, capable of mixing power potions designed to bring death upon any enemy. Arsinoe is a naturalist, who can make plants bloom and summon an animal familiar. Mirabella is an elemental with the power to control the weather and fire. Two of the sisters are incredibly weak, and one very strong. After Beltane, comes the Year of Ascension, where two sisters must die, and one will become queen. Who will prove strong enough to survive? I had no expectations going into this book. I had no idea what it was about, or anything. I just knew that it was popular. I was hooked pretty much from the...

 I managed to finish off a couple of books during this past cycle through the line-up. Here's where I'm at: Fantasy:  The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue  by V. E. Schwab (9%) Sci-Fi:  A Wrinkle in Time  by Madeleine L'Engle (100%) Realistic Fiction:  Love and Gelato  by Jenna Evans Welch (100%) Young Readers:  Old Yeller  by Fred Gipson (100%) Brandon Sanderson:  The Frugal Wizard's Handbook for Surviving Medieval England  (73%) Nonfiction:  The Anxious Generation  by Jonathan Haidt (53%) Classic:  Les Misérables  by Victor Hugo (5%) Mystery/Thriller:  The Brothers Hawthorne  by Jennifer Lynn Barnes (18%) Historical Fiction:  The Nightingale  by Kristin Hannah (100%) Audio:  Three Dark Crowns  by Kendare Blake (66%) English Department Book Club: Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor (35%) I decided in the course of this rotation that I was going to just add my book club books into the...

 This book was the result of dice rolls. I originally got this book when my mother in law was downsizing her collection from her elementary school teaching days. I've never read it. I feel like in second grade, you read Old Yeller , or you read Where the Red Fern Grows , and I read Red Fern ... Old Yeller  is a coming of age story that follows Travis and his family during a summer. Travis's father leaves with the other men and older boys of their settlement in Texas to take cattle to Kansas to the market. Travis is tasked with being "the man of the house" and helping his mother out with all of the household things, the farm, and watching over his brother Arliss. Everything is going well until an old dog shows up in the chickens, stealing the eggs. Travis hates the dog to start with, but grows to like him as he realizes how smart he is and what a spectacular help the dog is. I knew going into this book that Yeller was going to die. You don't pick up a book like thi...

 This book is really nostalgic for me, and probably why I love it so much. My mom read this to my brother and I when we were kids, and it's one that has stuck with me surprisingly well. I remember several parts of the story really vividly (and was actually really impressed with what I remembered of the story). This one got the Disney treatment, but the movie is terrible in comparison. Meg's father is gone. They don't know where he is, when he will return, or if he's even all right. People in town are starting to talk, and kids make fun of Meg (and they're met with her fists). All of that changes when Charles Wallace, Meg's younger brother introduces them to three exceptionally odd ladies: Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Which, and Mrs. Who. The ladies set the children (who are joined by Calvin, their neighbor) on a journey to rescue Meg's father from a galaxy-consuming darkness. Like I said, I can't help but find this book really fascinating. I remembered portions of...

 This book is highly recommended online and from some of my book club friends. It's taken me months to get through this, but I ended up enjoying it. The Nightingale  follows the story of two sisters, Vianne and Isabelle. Vianne is the older sister, married with a daughter, Sophie. Isabelle is a beauty, but a wild spirit. Never one to follow the rules, Isabelle frequently shows up where she's not supposed to be. As the war breaks out, Isabelle finds herself disobeying everyone's expectations again, and throwing herself into the resistance. With her husband gone, Vianne is forced to billet a German officer. This only gets more complicated as Isabelle's resistance life clashes with Vianne's attempts to protect her family. I loved this book, but I also hated it. I struggle a bit with violence against children, and while it is historically accurate, I really had a hard time with that aspect of the novel. The characters were interesting, though I was a bit annoyed by both...

 This was a book club choice for this month, and I've never read it before. I will say, going into this review, (as I do frequently) that romance is not my genre... Lina thought she knew her mother. It had always been the two of them, and her mother was a force of nature. Then came the diagnosis, and the details of the man that her mother said was Lina's father. After her mother's passing, Lina agreed to go and stay with her father in Italy, where he lived. Upon arriving, she finds that he lived in a WWII memorial graveyard, and she met Ren, the most gorgeous boy she'd ever seen. Then comes the journal. It's from her mother, and the first words say, "I made the wrong choice." Can Lina uncover the truth about her mother's time in Italy and her own self? Overall, this book was cute, but predictable. I had most of it figured out before I was very far into the book, and it felt almost like a formulaic YA romance (the first boy is always the  boy, no matter...

 I lucked out and got to go to the bookstore twice recently. Here's what I got this time: I got Love and Gelato  for book club. I loved Project Hail Mary  so much I had to buy a copy. I only have a fancy copy of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy , so I bought this one so I don't have to use my fancy one. Then I've seen Assassin's Apprentice  by Robin Hobb be recommended so much, that I decided to pick it up and add it to my TBR.

 I've once again read through my entire rotation. Here are my categories as they stand now: Fantasy:  The Courting of Bristol Keats  by Mary E. Pearson (100%) Sci-Fi:  A Wrinkle in Time  by Madeleine L'Engle (62%) Realistic Fiction:  Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine  by Gail Honeyman (100%) Young Readers:  Old Yeller  by Fred Gipson (21%) Brandon Sanderson:  The Frugal Wizard's Handbook for Surviving Medieval England  (61%) Nonfiction:  The Anxious Generation  by Jonathan Haidt (48%) Classic:  Les Misérables  by Victor Hugo (4%) Mystery/Thriller:  The Brothers Hawthorne  by Jennifer Lynn Barnes (12%) Historical Fiction:  The Nightingale  by Kristin Hannah (70%) Audio:  Three Dark Crowns  by Kendare Blake (37%) I need to roll for fantasy and realistic fiction. For realistic fiction, I'm going to be reading Love and Gelato by Jenna Evans Welch for book club. It happened to slot righ...

I went to an author event hosted in my town where Pearson was promoting this book. I bought it and started reading it, and it's take me quite a while to get through it. Bristol Keats has grown up on the run. Running from what? Her parents have never said, and yet they move frequently, live roughly, and drift from one small town to another. Until Bowskeep. And then, after her mother disappears, and her father dies, Bristol and her sisters are alone, poor, and unsure what to do next. Until Bristol is approached by someone who says they can make a deal with her. She meets the Fae king, Tyghan, and is whisked off on an adventure to save her father and find the truth. In all, this book had some issues... It wasn't terrible, the romance was OK, but some of the tropes were difficult to stomach. In all, though, I did finish it, which is more than I can say for some other novels that fit this genre. Let's start with characters. Bristol was likeable enough. She was fiercely independe...

 I joined a new book club of ladies in my neighborhood, and I'm super excited to read more and get to talk about it with people I don't know as well. I'm excited to have a place where I feel like I fit in. This month, we read Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine  by Gail Honeyman. Eleanor is completely fine. She has a job (working in accounts), she has a flat (furnished with odd, mismatched pieces), she has her weekly phone calls with mummy, and vodka to numb. Some weekends, she doesn't use her voice from the time she leaves work on Friday until she goes back to work on Monday. Eleanor doesn't really have any friends, but she does have a timetabled life, the same schedule, and the same stores. That is, until she sees the singer. Eleanor just knows from this one glance that a relationship with this man is right around the corner. She does everything she can to find out everything about him, going so far as to find out where he lives and follow him on social media. Eve...

 One of my favorite parts of Christmas is getting books, and I've gotten several lately. Someone in my neighborhood hosts a book exchange for the ladies in the neighborhood. It's one of my favorite parts of the year, and I always buy my books well in advance. This year, I took The Midnight Library  by Matt Haig. I ended up with The Last Bookshop in Prague  by Helen Parusel which is a historical fiction. My coworkers also host a book exchange, and it is legitimately one of the highlights of my year. We do this so we don't have to worry about getting each other gifts, and it is so much fun. We all look forward to it, and again, I buy my books well in advance. This year, I took Everything is Tuberculosis  by John Green and Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. I got back: Fractal Noise  by Christopher Paolini, and The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones I'm super excited to add both of these to my TBR lists. We also had a really big health scare for me around Thank...