Books I Read and Other Assorted Oddities

 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 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...

 Like I mentioned when I rolled for options for realistic fiction, I have read this book before, but I didn't review it on here. I'm so glad I picked it up again and reread it. I finished this book in one day, it's quick, engaging, and powerful. Melinda Sordino is an outcast. Her friends have all abandoned her and no one will speak to her. What's worse, Melinda finds herself not caring about anything. Her grades slip, she cuts class, and she almost doesn't care about her complete lack of friends. She also stops speaking, almost entirely. What happened?  This book does deal with sexual violence and rape, however I believe that it's a story that must be told. So many young girls (predominately) will find themselves in a position where they don't consent to what's happening to them (and let's be clear, minors CAN'T consent) but they don't know how to stop it. After it's happened, they also don't know how to talk about it, or how to tell ...

 I thought the synopsis of this book sounded interesting, and I picked it up on Audible years and years ago. I finally got around to listening to it. It's short, and easy to get through. I realized when I started it that it is geared towards upper elementary/middle school readers. The Golden Orchard  by Flora Ahn follows the story of Maya. Maya's grandmother has come to live with her and her mother. Maya's grandmother has dementia, and struggles to remember where she is, and other details. However, she does remember recipes, and begins teaching Maya traditional Korean recipes. These cooking sessions have a twist: Maya realizes her grandmother can take her back in time to witness her memories. What will Maya learn from her grandmother? In general, I liked this book. I liked the characters, and the plot was sufficiently complex to keep my interest, and the characters were interesting. I liked what the author included and explained about Korean culture and food. I felt that th...

 John Green is a world-famous author, but he isn't typically known for nonfiction. Instead, Looking for Alaska , The Fault in Our Stars,  and his other works are typically geared toward teen readers. However, this book is different. I started following John Green on Instagram maybe a year or so ago, and enjoyed his reels. There was a definite shift in them after a while, as Green started talking more and more about Tuberculosis. I was fascinated by his perspective on the disease, and so I've wanted to read this book. There are bonus points with this one, because I'm also planning on adding it to my AP curriculum. Everything is Tuberculosis  explains just that: how so many things are tied to TB. Green discusses the history of the disease, how treatments were developed, and (I think) most importantly, the stigma tied to TB. It all started years ago in Sierra Leone, where Green was visiting with an organization he works with. He wasn't there to study TB, but a different cr...

 I've been following this case since 2020, when officers pleaded with Lori to return her children to Idaho. Since then, I've paid careful attention to new developments in the case. I also read Leah Sotille's book: When the Moon Turns to Blood . You can see my review for that HERE . This book was recommended to me on Audible, and I picked it up to see if it had any new insights on the case. Doomsday Mother  gives a pretty thorough background on both Lori Vallow Daybell and Chad Daybell. Lori grew up in California to well-off (but anti-government) parents. They were supposedly devout members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Lori's marriages ended in disaster. Chad grew up in Springville, Utah. He served a mission for the Church and then worked at the Springville cemetery, where he met Tami. The two were eventually married and started their family. After a near-death experience, Chad began writing about it and the end times. He ultimately claimed to be h...

It was summer 2023. I remember coming across breaking news headlines about two children who were found in Ivins, Utah, in deplorable condition. These two children had been abused by their mother, Ruby Franke, and her friend, Jodi Hildebrant. The children were malnourished and had been forced to do horrible punishments, outside in the stifling Utah desert heat in the summer. This has been one of the major child abuse cases to come out of Utah in recent years, a string of others not far behind. It's a case that I remember distinctly following. One of my coworkers recommended this book to me, and I'll admit, I was hesitant at first. Sometimes people who experience this kind of abuse and trauma become extremely anti, and I just wasn't sure I wanted to read about that. However, as I dove into Shari Franke's book, I found her to be the opposite. That impressed me, and just added to what I liked about this book. In The House of My Mother , Shari Franke (Ruby Franke's oldes...

 I inherited a bunch of upper elementary books from my mother-in-law when she left teaching, and it's been my goal to read some of them so I can make recommendations to my own kids. I keep thinking these little books will only take me an afternoon, but here I am two months after starting it finally finishing it. Moose Flannagan lives on Alcatraz Island. He's not a prisoner, but his father works at the prison, and so the family lives right there on the Island next to the cons. Moose's sister has been ten for five years in a row. They've tried to find help for her mental condition, and their last choice is a school for similar children. The family has relocated to Alcatraz to be able to afford the school. Moose meets the other Alcatraz children, including the willey Piper, the daughter of the warden. Piper hatches many schemes, one of which is to get the kids at school to pay them to get their clothes laundered by the cons including the infamous Al Capone. Can they actual...

 This is a book that was recommended to me by several of my coworkers. I read it for my AP class, as several teachers before me used to use it in that class. If you want to truly know and learn about the horrors of the Holocaust, this is the book for you. Elie Wiesel took a ten-year vow of silence before writing about what he experienced at the hands of the Nazis during World War II. Wiesel describes how the Jews in his village in Romania hoped that the war would pass them by, how they knew that something was happening to Jews in other countries, but they hoped that nothing would happen to them. Wiesel then describes being forced into ghettos, then being taken to Auschwitz, where he was separated from his mother and sisters. Wiesel describes his experiences in the camp and the ending of the war as the Jews in the camps were liberated by the Americans and Russians. This book is chilling. There is no other way to describe it. Wiesel writes in vivid detail and describes the deep fear ...

 This book was a book club choice, and while the premise sounded a little weird, it ended up being a feel-good book that I enjoyed. Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt follows three different stories. At first, the storylines are disconnected, but gradually they start to line up. Tova lives in a small town in Washington and has recently lost her husband. Cameron is a failure who gives up on everything he's ever tried. Afraid to invest in anything, and desperate to know his parents, Cameron sets out from California to Washington to find his father. Marcellus is an octopus living in the Sowell Bay Aquarium. He alone knows the answers to the mystery of Tova's son, and though he can't communicate it directly, he really is a remarkably bright creature. This book turned out to be a feel-good, warm, fulfilling novel. If you're looking for a beach read or a cozy, comfort book, this is a great choice. I loved the sense of mystery throughout this book. It's clear f...

 Again, I had this book finished quite some time ago (shortly after finishing The Hero of Ages ) and I just haven't had a lot of time to get to posting my review. I am now about halfway through the next book, and now that the term is over, I'm hoping I will have a little more time to finish that book. The Alloy of Law  by Brandon Sanderson introduces Era 2 in the world of Mistborn . No longer does the world of the Final Empire exist, but it has literally been remade by Harmony, or the character of Sazed and the Hero of Ages that readers might recognize from The Hero of Ages . In this world, Waxillium Ladrian is a lawman in the Roughs. At least he was, until his uncle and sister unexpectedly died, and Wax is forced to assume control of the noble house he is now heir to. He finds the city is no less in need of a lawman than the Roughs, and is soon embroiled in the investigation into The Vanishers. Once his fiancee is kidnapped, and his butler tries to blow him up, Wax is fully i...

As Elantris  is probably my favorite Sanderson book of all time, I was excited to see this novella that takes place in the same world. I listened to this on Audible, and it went really quickly (I think it's about 3 hours total). The Emperor's Soul  follows the story of Shei, a Forger, who has been arrested for Forging a copy of a painting in the Emperor's palace. Unbeknownst to Shei, the Emperor was injured in an assassination attempt, and his mind was broken. Knowing her great skill, the bureaucrats in charge of the Empire offer her a trade: her life, for a forgery of the Emperor's soul. This feat is nearly impossible, and Shei knows this, but she accepts the chance at freedom. Will Shei actually be able to recreate the Emperor? This novella was beautifully written. I loved Shei's personality, and the conflicts she had with the Empire. I found it fascinating to learn more about her, and her attempts to thwart being manipulated. I thought her story was fascinating i...

 I know I posted about this book a couple of years ago, but I just wanted to take a second and highlight it again. I just finished this for another time through (probably my fourth or fifth time reading it). I can't say it enough: I LOVE this book. It gets me every time I finish it (even like four times later). I convinced my mom to read it, at a time when we're watching her parents struggling with illnesses and conditions we know aren't treatable. And it's hard. And we're so far away. And it just sucks. I hadn't even thought about them, when I suggested it, because I just wanted my mom to read it. She came back to me and told me how much she loved it. She finished it in one day, and her reaction was, "It allows you to feel however you feel about death and terminal illness. It shows that whatever you feel is ok and if you are honest with yourself you can be ok too." And as I said in my last review: Losing loved ones is a universal experience of being h...

 One of my coworkers handed this book to me to read and I literally read it in about 20 minutes. How can three sentences be so powerful? This book, combined with the beautiful artwork, tells the story of a black family in the U.S., grappling with the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd. It also tells the story of their grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic. This book is beautiful. It's very simplistic, but the artwork speaks volumes to what the author doesn't explicitly say. I loved its overall message and what it was trying to communicate. I particularly love how the narrator points out how the pandemic impacted their family. This is a great book to look at when talking about inferencing. I rated it ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ G

This book was recommended to me by one of my teachers as a possibility for AP. I didn't end up going with it, and I don't think I still will, but I very much enjoyed the memoir. I Want You to Know We're Still Here  is Esther Safran Foer's memoir about life after the Holocaust. She describes how her and her parents came to the United States following the end of WWII, and her life following. She is obsessed with discovering her family's history. She describes traveling to Israel and Ukraine to meet with people who knew her family, particularly her father's family. She eventually is able to track down the Ukrainian family who helped hide her father during the war. Through this family, Foer was able to learn about her half sister, who her father had never mentioned. This connection to family is so incredibly important to the author. Overall, I did enjoy this book. The family history side of it particularly drew my attention. In my religion, there is a big focus on f...

This was a series that I was really excited to finish. I loved The Paper Magician  and The Glass Magician , so I was excited to read this one. Ceony Twill has a hidden secret: she can perform all the types of magic. She has discovered the secret to unbinding and rebinding to different materials. She has one last hurtle before she's a full magician: the test. Emery has decided that he will not be the one giving the exam, and instead passes Ceony to another folder: Magician Bailey. As Ceony arrives at Bailey's house, she discovers the depth of his dislike for Emery, and that seems to have passed onto her. Now, with Saraj Prendi on the loose, Ceony decides to track him down herself, fearing for her family. Overall, I did really enjoy this book. I loved Ceony, though she did feel a bit whiney this time. She cleverly managed to solve all of the problems in the book, and I loved her method of solving all of the questions on her magician's test. I thought that the plot was overall...

This is a novella that I picked up from Audible and listened to in an afternoon. It's short and interesting, and I liked it. Because my understanding of the Cosmere is limited, I didn't really understand where this fit in, so it might be good for readers to do a little bit of background research before diving into the book. Some things I did love about this: It was written in 3rd person limited, and the voice of the character is very unique. I can almost feel Sanderson in this text, as if he is the character. I thought that was really interesting. I loved the twists the plot makes. I loved the distinct rules of the magic system in the forests. The characters of the story were very fascinating. I loved the amount of character development Sanderson gave us in a very short piece. The innkeeper goes from being a very innocuous to being a big-time bounty hunter who only hunts the biggest bounties. I loved the way that was revealed. I also loved the intrigue of the main character...

 I read Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson years ago, and it's a series that I'd love to finish at some point. It's also one that I find students enjoy. Mitosis  takes place soon after the end of Steelheart . The Reckoners have set up a government in Newcago and are welcoming people into the steel city. David and Abraham go to greet some of these newcomers, only to be faced by an Epic: Mitosis. Mitosis can make copies of himself, and begins to do so, spreading them throughout the city. His target? David, nicknamed Steelslayer. Will David be able to outwit this Epic as well? This short novella (only five chapters) was well-written, and for some reason, I feel that it has Brandon all over it. I can practically hear his voice coming through David's character, which I found interesting. I thought that this was a clever interlude in between Steelheart and Firefight , and I'm wondering if it leads into Firefight ? Since I have finished the original trilogy, I'm excited t...

I read this novel for Battle of the Books, but I also wanted to read it. I keep trying Sepetys novels, thinking I'm really going to like them, and then finding myself disappointed. This novel was an exception. This is probably the best Sepetys novel I've read so far. I Must Betray You is the story of Romania behind the Iron Curtain. Christian Florescu is seventeen. His grandfather, an intellectual, questions the current regime, and Christian finds himself agreeing. Romanians are struggling; waiting in long lines hoping for food, spies everywhere, never knowing who's an informer and who isn't. Amidst these tensions, Christian is confronted by an agent of the secret police and blackmailed into informing on Dan Van Dorn, the son of the American Ambassador. Stuck between his beliefs and his fear, Christian does as he's told, hoping that he can dupe the agent. I loved this book, more than any other Sepetys novel I've read. While Sepetys excels at many things in her w...