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?

Razzle Dazzle Unicorn

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razzledazzleby Dana Simpson
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Others in the Series: Phoebe and her Unicorn, Unicorn on a Roll, Unicorn vs. Goblins
Content: Simple, fun, colorful, and funny, these are perfect for kids in 3-5th grade. They are also perfect for anyone who likes a little silliness in their life.

I feel a little silly still writing reviews of these; it’s not a story (really; though there is a bit of an arc, it’s more like Calvin and Hobbes than an actual story) that needs to be updated. But every time I see a new Phoebe and Marigold collection, I pick it up, because I can’t get enough of them.

It’s a lot like the other ones: there’s holiday magic, there’s struggles at school (the best is when Phoebe gets in trouble for taking journaling a little too seriously), there’s summertime fun, Phoebe goes to music camp again. It’s silly, it’s funny, it’s pure delight.

If you’re not reading these, you are missing out.

Audiobook: Three Dark Crowns

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threedarkcrownsby Kendare Blake
Read by: Amy Landon
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Content: There’s some off-screen sex, and lots and lots of violence. It’s in the Teen section (grades 9+) of the bookstore.

The premise of this one is weird and awesome: on the island of Fennbirn, every generation there is born a set of triplet queens. They are fostered out, according to their “powers”, and each one has an equal chance at becoming queen. The catch? The one who becomes queen has to kill her sisters.

Our queens are Arsinoe, a naturalist, said to have power over nature; Katharine, a poisoner, who can ingest the most lethal poisons and not die; and Mirabella, an elemental, who has control over the weather. Except, things aren’t always as they seem. And those who the queens have been fostered to have much more power than the queens.

It had a really slow start to it; there was a lot of exposition about the magic (which I didn’t mind) and the characters (I liked some better than others). There were a couple of love stories, and a love triangle (of sorts). (I kept rooting for one of the queens to be lesbian; I think one is, but not the one I suspected.) It took a long time to get going, and the only thing that kept me listening was the narrator, who was quite spellbinding. For one, there’s a lot of weird names of people and places in this, and it was nice to have someone else pronounce Arsinoe (ar-sin-oye) and Katharine (cat-er-eene), instead of trying to figure it out on my own. I think Blake tried to balance all three queens’ stories, but she ended up focusing more on Arsinoe more than others. (Or at least I felt she did.)

It wasn’t a stand-alone, as I had hoped. And I called one of the major twists fairly early on. But were a couple of things that surprised me, and I have hopes for the direction that the sequel should go (we’ll see). It wasn’t the best fantasy I’ve read, but it wasn’t bad either.

 

Jacob Have I Loved

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jacobhaveilovedby Katherine Patterson
First sentence: “As soon as the snow melts, I will go to Rass and fetch my mother.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Content: It’s slow (it won the 1980 Newbery Award), and there’s not a lot of action. It’s perfect, though, for those 12 or 13-year-old kids who are trying to figure out themselves. And who like historical fiction.

A quick side note: it’s my 12th blogiversary today! I’ve fallen out of the habit of celebrating these, but I carved out this little corner of the internet 12 years ago today. Hard to believe, but there it is.

I wasn’t feeling much like reading new stuff the past couple of weeks, so I turned to a couple of rereads. One was The Blue Sword, which I’ve already given its own review. But the other, I only mentioned briefly, 12 years ago, so I thought it deserved its own post.

Sara Louise has spent her whole life on the small island Rass in the Chesapeake Bay. Her father works the water, crabbing in the summer, and harvesting oysters in the winter; her mother was a former schoolteacher and currently runs the house. Louise is mostly content, except… her younger twin, Caroline. It’s not that Caroline is mean or awful; in fact, it’s the opposite. Caroline is beautiful, Caroline is talented, Caroline is kind. Caroline is the joy of everyone on the island, and Lousie just can’t compete. She knows she should be supportive of her sister, proud of her sister. And she is. But she’s also jealous: she wants to be Noticed. But she’s not. She’s the backbone. The work horse. The awkward child.

There isn’t much of a plot; it’s Louise’s experiences growing up, and her (finally) figuring out what she wants out of life as an adult (which is nice). I spent this reread (it’s been a while) trying to figure out why this moved me as a pre-teen, why I have such a powerful attachment to it. I think it’s because everyone (well… me) can connect to being left out. To being looked over. To working and working and working and never feeling appreciated. To always being on the outside. And Patterson captured that feeling so very perfectly. She captures the awkwardness of the pre-teen years (I really don’t think anyone ever has things together the way Caroline does in the book; I’d love to see this story from Caroline’s point of view. It’d make her more human), the way they Want but don’t quite know how to articulate that want. The up and down feelings, the drama of just Living. It’s a perfect portrait of those years, and I think that’s what resonated.

Does it hold up as an adult? Yes, it does. It’s definitely historical fiction; it’s a picture of a small island in the 1940s, during World War II, and I found that interesting. I wanted to smack Grandma. Seriously, the woman had issues. I wished there was more about Louise’s mom; I would have loved to hear her story. I did enjoy it, even if I didn’t connect to it as deeply as I did when I was a pre-teen.

Definitely still worth reading, though.

Voracious

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voraciousby Cara Nicoletti
First sentence: “Growing up in a family of butchers and food lovers, I was surrounded by the sights and sounds and smells of cooking from an early age.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Content: There’s nothing. Hand it to anyone who loves books and food. It’s in the cooking reference section of the bookstore.

The premise of this book is simple: Nicoletti, who studied English and Latin in college but whose professional life has been as a chef (and currently a butcher), has a passion for food scenes in books.  This is something she’s always enjoyed in books, especially since she grew up in a house surrounded by both books and food. So, pairing them both — first a blog, and then in this book — is a natural thing for her.

The book itself is a series of short vignettes, each about a particular book, followed by a recipe that, for her, fits each book. It’s a delightful read; she writes about experiences in her life, about where she is when she reads each book, and about what the books mean to her. I haven’t read a lot of the books (especially as Nicoletti moves into her adult years), but it didn’t seem to matter. She doesn’t go through plots and she doesn’t make you feel on the outside if you haven’t read them. This is what these particular books mean to her, and hopefully, it will resonate with you. (It did me.) And the recipes sound delicious! From donuts and cakes to soups and blinis and caviar, it all sounds delicious, and I will probably get around to making at least a few of them (hopefully). Even if I don’t, I thoroughly enjoyed reading the recipes. (Is that just me?)

An excellent read for those of us who prefer a little food with our books.

When the Sea Turned to Silver

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whentheseaby Grace Lin
First sentence: “When the sea turned to silver and the cold froze the light of the sun, Pinmei knew the Black Tortoise of Winter had arrived with his usual calmness.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Others in the series: Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, Starry River of the Sky
Content: It’s a slow book, with only a little action, so it’s probably not for those readers who like a fast-paced page-turner. It’s in the middle grade (grades 3-5) section of the bookstore.

I feel I’ve run out of things to say about this sweet series based on Chinese mythology. It’s very much like the other two: an adventure of a main story, interspersed with old legends which blurs the line between “myth” and “reality” It has an element of the fantastical, with gods and magic, but it’s not overbearing, rather fitting seamlessly into the story of a granddaughter searching for her grandmother.

So, really, there isn’t anything more to say except if you haven’t experienced the delight that Lin’s tales are, you are really  missing out.

State of the TBR Pile: November 2016

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I just now realized that I didn’t do a TBR Pile last month. Wow. September and October really did get away from me. The pile hasn’t changed a whole lot in the past month or two, mostly because I haven’t had the time to read (and lately haven’t felt a lot like reading either). But, I’m still interested in all of these, so maybe I’ll actually get to them before the end of the year (which is coming much faster than I am comfortable with!).

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Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson
Geekerella by Ashley Poston
The Kidnap Plot by Dave Butler
Dreidels on the Brain by Joel ben Izzy
Proxy by Alex London
Pasedena by Sherri Smith
Life in a Fishbowl by Len Vlahos
My Sister Rosa by Justine Larbalestier
Saving Hamlet by Molly Booth
The Hundred Lies of Lizzy Lovett by Chelsea Sedoti

What’s on your pile?

Searching for John Hughes

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searchingforby Jason Diamond
First sentence: “I wasn’t paying attention to the people waiting in line for cupcakes; I was just looking up at a night sky dotted with flurries of snow bravely falling onto rooftops and parked cars, their only purpose in this world was to make things more magical to those queued up for an authentic Magnolia Bakery experience, then they’d hit the roof of a car or the sidewalk and melt away.”
Review copy pilfered from the ARC shelves at my place of employment.
Release date: November 29, 2016
Content: Lots of swearing, lots of drinking, lots of drug use. It will be in the biography section of the bookstore.

I picked this up because of the title and cover; while I’m not a film connoisseur, I’ve enjoyed my share of John Hughes movies, and as a kid of the 1980s, I thought this might be fun.

Well.

I didn’t finish it. I couldn’t, even though I did try.

It’s Diamond’s memoir of growing up, and while he had the worst childhood ever, that’s not what did me in. (Well, it’s partially what did me in. He didn’t make his crappy childhood compelling enough. That sounds heartless, but it’s true.) I think it’s because I wanted the book to be more about his experiences with the John Hughes movies I loved and less about his crappy childhood. Sure, he did get that in there, but it wasn’t enough to outweigh the negativity.

Or maybe it was just me; I wasn’t in the mood for a memoir about an aimless 20-something who was trying to find meaning in the movies from my childhood.

Either way, this one didn’t do it for me.

Journey’s End

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journeysendby Rachel Hawkins
First sentence: “Albert Macleish woke up early on the morning he disappeared.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Content: There’s a slight bit of crushing going on, so it may turn off those who aren’t interested in that sort of thing. Otherwise, hand it to anyone who’s interested in a quieter fantasy. It’s in the middle grade (grades 3-5) section of the bookstore.

Nolie’s parents have recently gotten divorced, and her father’s been living in northern Scotland, a scientist investigating the weird fog that hangs off the coast of the town of Journey’s End. Nolie’s headed to spend the summer with her dad, hoping for a fun Scottish adventure.

Once installed in Journey’s End, she meets Bel, the daughter of a local store owner, someone who cashes in on the tourists who come to experience the fog, which they call the Boundary, and the magical/mystical story behind it.  And then when Nolie and Bel discover that a boy who’s been dead for nearly 100 years is wandering on the beach, things get really interesting for them.

I feel like this one is almost “fantasy light”. There’s no magic, no wizards, no faeries (which I thought there would be when it started). There are some references to ghosts (and one does show up) and there is a curse and a couple of people who are very, very old, but that’s the extent of the fantasy here. It’s fantasy for those who like theirs with a dose of realism, or for those who like their books quiet. That’s not to say it’s a bad book; Hawkins has woven a splendid yarn, with conflict and tension, humor and friendship, one that kept me turning pages wondering what was going to happen next.

It’s quite a lovely book, one that I hope younger readers will enjoy as much as I did.

First Sunday Daughter Reviews: November 2016

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Happy November! I think we’re finally (!) cooling down here, and I’m finally mostly back on top of things at home and finally looking forward to the holidays. I desperately want to spend a weekend not running around or cleaning the yard or baking (which is how I’ve spent the past couple of weekends), and just READ. I say that, though, and yet when I do have the time, I find that I’m lacking the focus I need to do just that.

My kids are knee-deep in school projects and homework and concerts, but they’ve found a bit of time to read here an there.

C and E are reading this for their AP Literature and Composition class:

9780142437339

They’re enjoying it, I think. C is finding it interesting to read through, since she was in the play as an extra her freshman year.

I finally convinced A to read this:

f6bca-bluesword

I REALLY want her to like this one. *fingers crossed*

And K was going through my piles of books and found this one:

9781481409209

So, far she’s REALLY liking it. And she’s basically convinced me that I need to read it,  as well.

What are your kids reading?

Falling Over Sideways

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fallingoversidewaysby Jordan Sonnenblick
First sentence: “I’m waiting in the wings, watching all the fathers dancing onstage.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Content: There’s no swearing, drinking, or drugs. There is some talk of crushes. It’s a pretty skinny book, too. It’s in the YA section (grades 6-8) of the bookstore, but I’d give it to a 5th grader who was interested.

Claire is managing 8th grade okay so far. Sure, she’s no longer in the same dance class as her best friends. Sure, the boy at school who’s been mean to her for two years is still there. Sure, she’s still being compared to (and found failing) her Perfect Older Brother. And, sure her science teacher is kind of crazy. But it’s all manageable.

That is, until her father has a serious stroke. And she’s the only one home. She does what she’s supposed to do: calls her mom, calls 911. But it’s left her shaken. And it’s left her dad as a shell of himself. And that means her life has changed, whether she wants it to or not.

And while it’s a tough year for Claire, there are some bright spots. Sonnenblick captures the ordinary incredibly well, finding the joy and heartbreak in the little moments. Claire has a really heartwarming growth arc, as she goes from being afraid of her father in his new condition to being his biggest champion. And she grows with her friendships as well, discovering friends where she didn’t think there were. It’s a heartwarming tale overall (even if the mom starts out as annoyingly perfect and positive), one that will not only resonate with kids whose parents have been ill, but pretty much everyone who’s struggled a bit in their life.

A very, very good read.