Books I Read and Other Assorted Oddities

So sorry for the absence of reviews. I caught up with what I had finished, and I've started back for a new school year, so things are super busy, but I finally finished  Slaughterhouse-Five . This once again as a book club read. The BBC has a list of 100 books that they bet most people haven't read, and this is one of them. I had never read this book, so this was my first time through. Billy Pilgrim is unstuck in time. As the story progresses, it is quickly established that the story is nonlinear. At times, Billy is in Germany as a prisoner of war. At other times, he's in his house in 1950, talking with his daughters. At other times, he is on an alien planet called Tralfamadore. These memories all lead up to the firebombing of Dresden, Germany, a real event that Kurt Vonnegut himself lived through. This book is very complicated. It is clear that the nonlinear structure of the novel is very intentional. The order of the experiences we read is exactly how Vonnegut meant them....

 As an active World of Warcraft player before the Battle for Azeroth expansion, this was almost required reading. BFA is over and the next expansion came out like a year ago and I'm just now finishing this book. That should tell you all you need to know about how I feel about it. Before the Storm  by Christie Golden tells the untold story of what happens in the aftermath of the Legion's invasion of Azeroth. Faced with the death of his father, Anduin Wrynn must regroup the Alliance. Sylvannas has become ruler of the Horde, and with the discovery of Azerite in Silithus, she begins her plans. Neither faction can afford a war, and yet it is brewing on the horizon. Can Anduin bridge that gap and establish peace between the Horde and the Alliance? I... didn't like this book. Pretty much at all. I wanted it to answer more questions about why Sylvannas did what she did, but we STILL don't have all the answers to that, even an expansion later. It didn't answer my pressing qu...

 This book is one of the more popular YA fantasy reads out there, and after reading it, I can see why. I would definitely recommend this to older and more mature readers based on the content. An Ember in the Ashes  by Sabaa Tahir follows two characters: Laia and Elias. Laia has lost everything; her family and her home. Her brother has been taken to prison, and Laia's only option to save him is to work for the Scholar Resistance. She is sent as a slave to the most dangerous woman in the Empire, the Commandant, the leader of Blackcliff School. Elias is a Mask. He is of the ruling class in the Empire, a student at Blackcliff, training to become the Empire's most feared weapons. But he feels trapped. Disgusted by the things he must do, Elias finds himself abandoning his plan to flee the Empire and fighting to be its emperor instead. Will Laia be able to save her brother? Will Elias ever be free? Overall, I loved this book. Tahir has woven a stunning tale full of twists and turns, ...

 This is my second time through Artemis . I read it before resurrecting this blog, so here I am, reading it again to review it. Artemis by Andy Weir imagines a society on the moon. Jazz Bashara has lived in Artemis since she was six. She has a successful smuggling side hustle alongside a legitimate porter job. Artemis is full of all kinds of people, from the very wealthy to the very poor. As Jazz says, "I'm one of the little guys." That's all about to change when Trond Landvik, one of the very wealthy, offers her a million slugs to pull a job. All she has to do is sabotage the mining operations of the city's oxygen supplier, Sanchez Aluminum. After a botched job, and a double murder, Jazz finds herself far over her head and the next target of a powerful crime syndicate. Can Jazz outwit O Palacio and mend broken relationships to save Artemis? This is a fun story. Jazz's narrative voice is hilarious. I love her personality and her depth. I love the amount of sci...

 I really enjoyed The Paper Magician and was excited to read on in the series. If you'd like to see my post for the first book, you can click here . The Glass Magician  continues the story of Ceony Twill, picking up almost immediately after the conclusion of The Paper Magician. Ceony and a group of apprentices go on a tour of a paper mill. The tour quickly turns deadly as they're suddenly evacuated and witness the mill explode. Events only darken as after a lunch date with Delilah, a glass apprentice, Ceony finds herself face to face with Grath Cobalt. Grath is the most feared excisioner, a long-time enemy of Emery Thane's. Will Ceony be able to outwit Grath? This book was amazing. I loved it far more than I liked The Paper Magician.  While the first novel got a little repetitive, this one did not. This novel had very few "down times" and I enjoyed the pacing far more in this one. I loved seeing Ceony's character grow and change, and I love her narrative voice...

This is another book that I use in my classroom. My 10th-grade students enjoy this story. I've read this book a few times, and I enjoy it more every time I read it. Warriors Don't Cry  by Melba Patillo Beals tells the true story of her experience integrating Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. Melba was a normal teenage girl. She had friends, went to class, got good grades. She had a tight-knit family at home. Her life was forever changed when she put her name down on a list of students to possibly integrate Central High School. Melba went from a normal school to what she describes as a battlefield. She had to be escorted to every class by a soldier from the U.S. military, she had to watch every corner and staircase, she was beaten, spit upon, and yelled at, and even had segregationists calling her home to try and scare her out of going to school. This book is another narrative that is particularly sensitive in the current climate of racial tensions. I also think this...

 I love Elizabeth Wein and Code Name Verity (see my post here ). Since reading Verity , I discovered that there are more books in the series, and while not completely related (you can read them in any order), I've been excited to read them all. Rose Under Fire has been on my tbr list for AGES, and I finally got around to it. Rose Under Fire  by Elizabeth Wein shines a light on the darkness of Ravensbruck, the Nazi prison camp for political prisoners (at least at first). Rose Justice was an American who went to Britain to help with the war effort. While there, she met Maddie (one of the perspectives of Code Name Verity ), a pilot for the civilian ATA. After a ferry trip over France, Rose is intercepted by Nazi fighters and is forced to fly deep into Germany. Once there, she's sent to Ravensbruck, the infamous work camp for political prisoners. Wein spares no details in showing the horrific conditions of prisoners in the camp. What will happen to Rose and her friends, the Rabbit...