Author: booknutgirls

booknutgirls http://thebooknutdotcom.wordpress.com I read. I blog. I sell books. I chauffeur my kids. What more do you need to know?

First Sunday Daughter Reviews: July 2017

1 Comment

We’re halfway through summer now, and the girls are busy being lazy and going swimming and working. But they’re still finding time to read. (Which is almost more than I can say for myself…)

C has moved on from reading about how to read literature to reading this:

She hates taking notes on it (she hates taking notes on books, period.), and she has Opinions which she’s not “allowed” to include (she is anyway). I think she’s enjoying it. She’s definitely thinking about it as she reads.

A has moved on to this

She’s really enjoying it. It’s made her cry a LOT and has enjoyed the plot reveals, and is finding it a really intriguing story so far.

And K nabbed this when I brought an advance copy home

She loved it! And is dying for me to read it, just so she has someone to talk to about it.

That’s what we’re reading right now. What are you reading?

Audiobook: Al Franken, Giant of the Senate

Leave a comment

by Al Franken
Read by the author
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Content: There are six f-bombs in one chapter, mostly because there are two in the title of something Franken wrote and he said it three  times. It’s in the biography section of the bookstore.

I suppose, if you don’t know who Al Franken is, you probably won’t have any interest in this book. That said, I knew who he was, but wasn’t a huge fan.  But, I’d heard enough good about it that I decided to download the audio book.

Franken is in his second term as the junior senator from Minnesota, a former writer for Saturday Night Life, and a very, very smart writer. This book is basically a memoir of his time at SNL, his family life, his first election, and his thoughts on being in the Senate as a whole.

It’s a very smart book. And while it’s not always hilarious, it IS very funny. And insightful. Be aware that Franken is a Democrat, and so there’s definitely a partisan flavor to it (he blames Newt Gingrich, Rush Limbaugh, and Mitch McConnell for the current state of politics), but he also recognizes a need to work together, and has some good things to say about many Republicans (just not Ted Cruz). It’s insightful, interesting, and incredibly engaging.

And on audio? Very delightful. I loved listening to Franken read his words (I often enjoy celebrity memoirs more in audio) and thought it was a definite value-added to the book. He kept me engaged in the book, and I looked forward to turning it on whenever I got in the car.

A very, very good read.

Montly Round-Up: June 2017

Leave a comment

I am up to my eyeballs in school, camp preparations (I’m doing most of the sessions of Camp Watermark this year, and while I’m enjoying it, it’s a LOT of work. Thankfully, I have a FANTASTIC teen helper), and trying to stay on top of my regular work. I’m not home much. And while I’m reading… it’s not as much as I used to. (Thank heavens for audiobooks on the commute!)

My favorite this month?

Words in Deep Blue

SO good. Seriously. Such an incredible romance.

As for the rest….

Middle Grade:

Henry Huggins
The Secret Grave
Epic Fail of Arturo Zamora
Beyond the Bright Sea (audio)

YA:

I Believe in a Thing Called Love
The Dark Prophecy (Did you see?? He’s coming to Wichita! I’m SO EXCITED!)

Adult:

The Best of Adam Sharp (audio) (DNF)

What was your favorite this month?

Henry Huggins

Leave a comment

by Beverly Cleary
First sentence: ”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Content: It’s really simply written; it could easily be a beginning chapter book these days. It’s in our classic chapter book section.
Review copy provided by the publisher.

I realized last year, when doing my kids summer book club, that part of what drew people to it was the chance to revisit books the parents loved as a kid, and to share them with their kids. So, I decided to revisit one of my favorite authors this year: Beverly Cleary.

Now, I say she was one of my favorite authors, but in all honesty, the only books I ever read by her were the Ramona ones, which I adored. I think my brothers may have read some of the others, but I didn’t. So, I consciously picked the books I hadn’t read for this group. (I missed the Beezus and Ramona week. I am going to have to reread that one on my own time!)

Henry Huggins is living a boring life. That is, until a stray dog finds him. And then, all of a sudden, Henry’s life becomes SO much more adventuresome.

Some  thoughts:

  • It’s very dated. I could tell it was written in the 1950s, not just because of the references (like a bus ride being a nickel, etc.) but because of the attitudes. And that sometimes grated on me. (Like Henry’s disdain of the class play. Get over yourself; it’s not that bad.)
  • The kids at the book group liked it, for the most part. Mostly they liked the dog. I agree. The dog was the best part.
  • It was REALLY simple. If it came out today, it’d be put in the beginning chapter book section. I don’t know if Cleary meant it to be for the 7-9 year olds, or if children’s publishing has gotten more sophisticated. Either way, both I and the kids in the book group noticed.
  • The lack of over-arching plot was also noticeable. I liked the vignettes with Henry and Ribsy, but I also missed a plot with conflict, rather than just a series of events happening.
  • I think the ending was sad, but that’s just me.

I’m glad I took the time to read this one, even if it’s not my favorite.

I Believe in a Thing Called Love

Leave a comment

by Maurene Goo
First sentence: “When I was seven, I thought I moved a pencil with my mind.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy provided by the publisher
Content: There’s a propensity to use the s-word. It’s in the YA section (grades 6-8; I debated, but decided that it ultimately wen there) of the bookstore.

Desi does it all: she’s student body president, involved in practically every club, soccer star, valedictorian, and a model daughter for her dad (especially since her mom’s sudden death seven years before). The only thing she doesn’t have (and hasn’t ever had): a boyfriend.  And then Luca shows up at her school: reserved, artistic, with a shady past, and that… something… that makes him completley desirable to Desi. The problem? Desi is absolutely lousy at flirting. (Or as her two best friends, Fiona and Wes, call what she does: flailure.) So, Desi turns to one of her father’s passions to get help, and starts binge-watching K-Dramas. She comes up with a list of 28 tried-and-true (and also a bit cliche) steps to Get the Guy and starts her project.

The best part of this incredibly sweet book is that you don’t have to know K-Dramas (though I suppose it helps) in order to enjoy that this is parodying K-Dramas while also following the formula. (It’s  Jane the Virgin in book form!) Yes, there’s a definite arc to the book, but it feels, well a bit wink-wink-nudge-nudge about it all. It’s very self-aware, and that was something I really enjoyed about it. That, and the father-daughter relationship. Sure, there’s a dead mom, but Desi’s dad is the most well-adjusted adult in a YA novel I’ve read in a while. I liked that he was a mechanic with a passion for funny shows (Desi was named after Desi Arnez) and K-Dramas. I liked his relationship with Desi, and the love that I could sense between the two.

It’s cute, it’s sweet, it’s a little silly, and it’s thoroughly enjoyable.

The Secret Grave

Leave a comment

by Lois Ruby
First sentence: “Lots of people don’t realize that some nightshade plants are poisonous.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Content: There’s some scary moments… but it is a ghost story, so that’s pretty par for the course. It’s in the middle grade (grades 3-5) section of the bookstore.

Hannah is the middle child of a big Irish family, who has just moved into a large, old mansion in northern Georgia. She finally gets her own room. She’s turning 12. And even though her best friends are leaving for camp and London and her older sister is a bit of a bear, she’s determined to have the best summer. And when she meets the mysterious Cady in the forest, she knows it’s bound to be great.

But then Cady gets possessive and controlling. And mysterious things start happening at the house. And Hannah’s brother, Scooter’s asthma gets worse. What, really, is going on here?

You know it’s a ghost story going in (because it’s part of the Hauntings series), which is fine. There’s a couple of ghosts, one which is spelled out, and the other which is obvious (at least to me), but the big reveal is held until later in the book, which annoyed me as an adult reader (though I wonder if more observant kids would mind). The characters grated on me; then again, I’m the oldest and it’s been a long while since I was a kid, so I don’t know how I would have felt, had I been in Hannah’s place. That said, I liked that there was a good family surrounding Hannah (don’t often get that), and that the conflict took place in spite of her parents, not because of them. While I found the ending to be a bit, well, cheesy, I did appreciate that there were consequences and that Hannah and Scooter tried to solve the problem, rather than just letting it be.

Not a bad book, just not for me.

State of the TBR Pile: June 2017

Leave a comment

I’ll be honest: I’m taking a class this semester that is FULL of busy work. Seriously. I’ve already taken a quiz today, and I’ve got to work on this group project that’s due next week…. plus there will be more quizzes and a paper and and and. Plus, regular life and work. So, aside from the top four, which I HAVE to read for the book group I’m doing this summer, I’m thinking of this pile more as an “I’d like to read” pile. We’ll see if I get to ANY of these. On the upside, I’m still listening to audiobooks as I drive, so maybe my reading/posting won’t disappear entirely this summer.

Henry Huggins by Beverly Cleary
The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Bevery Cleary
Ribsy by Beverly Cleary
Dear Mr. Hensaw by Beverly Cleary
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Windfall by Jennifer E. Smith
The Pearl Thief by Elizabeth Wein
The Inexplicable Logic of My Life by Benjamin Alire Saenz
The Names They Gave Us by Emery Lord
The Queen of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner

 

What’s on your TBR pile?

Audiobook: The Best of Adam Sharp

1 Comment

by Graeme Simsion
Read by David Barker
Content: There’s a couple of f-bombs, some other general swearing, and lots of sex, most of which is not tasteless.

I picked this one up because I liked The Rosie Project well enough, and I thought the premise of this one — a man who met the love of his life when he was in his 20s, though it didn’t work out, and 20 years later reconnects with her — sounded like something I’d like. And, for a good long while, it was. Adam, the main character, is a pianist by hobby (and a good one, though with a tortured relationship with his musician father) and there was a lot of music and musical references running through the book. I liked the falling in love, the wistfulness when remembering how it didn’t work out.

But, then, once he reconnects with his ex-lover, it just does sideways, and turns into a middle age wet dream. Or something that felt a lot like that. And when he ends up in a ménage à trois with his ex-lover and her current husband (about 2/3 of the way through), I bailed. Yep, I do have limits and there they are. I have to admit there’s a part of me that’s curious to know where the book went from there, but it’s not strong enough to pick it back up.

As for the narration, it was good, though I really couldn’t tell much of a difference between the Australian and English accents (is there much of a difference?) and his women’s voices were abysmal.

So, really: not worth the time at all.

Trials of Apollo: The Dark Prophecy

1 Comment

by Rick Riordan
First sentence: “When our dragon declared war on Indiana, I knew it was going to be a bad day.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Others in the series: The Hidden Oracle
Content: There’s some dark undercurrents (but those will probably go over the heads of younger readers) and some violence. It’s in the YA section (grades 6-8) of the bookstore.

So, Apollo is off on a quest, this time to figure out what Big Bad (really: he’s the worst) Nero is up to, and to get to it and stop it before Nero gets too much power. Tagging along with Leo and Calypso, they head to Indianapolis, where they find a huge mess involving yet another evil Roman Emperor to stop, battle ostriches, and a kidnapped oracle. Not bad, all things considered, and yet Apollo manages to make things worse.

This one definitely has the feeling of a middle book (maybe because it is…). It’s not a bad book; Riordan knows how to pace an action-packed novel, and there’s enough pop culture references to nod and wink at the reader without it being overbearing. They sassy haiku are back (my favorite: Yeah we got the skills/Fake hexes and shooting feet/Teach you ’bout pancakes), which is always fun. Apollo is much less unlikable in this one (he has his moments, but they’re getting fewer) and Riordan seamlessly weaves in ancient myths and stories. It’s much like all the others: good, fun, enjoyable, but nothing that sticks with you for long.

Still, worth reading.

First Sunday (sort of) Daughter Reviews: June 2017

1 Comment

We were driving home from vacation last week (yay for vacations!), which is why this is a week late.  In fact, most of the girls will be gone this week at camps, so “summer” (as in: trips to the pool, watching too much TV, and being bored) doesn’t really start in earnest until next week. Even so, the girls are reading.

C has decided to get a jump on summer homework and is reading this:
She wasn’t looking forward to it (thought it would be dry and boring), but is finding that it’s actually quite fascinating. It’s nice when summer reading isn’t a drag.

E picked up this, which I had tossed her way a while back:

And basically confirmed what I already knew: Patrick Ness is an amazing writer and can’t write a bad book. (I really ought to make the time to read this!)

A is working her way through this:
Which she says is not as good as Raven Cycles (duh), but is fascinating and she’s interested enough to keep going, even though the horses are hard to keep straight.

And K decided she missed reading with her dad, and so asked him to read this aloud:
They say it’s a lot of fun.

So, that’s what they’re reading (for now). Here’s hoping they’ll keep it up all summer!