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?

System Collapse

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by Martha Wells
First sentence: “Dr. Bharadwaj told me once that she thought I hated planets because of the whole thing with being considered expendable and the possibility of being abandoned.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Others in the series: All Systems Red, Artificial Condition, Rogue Protocol, Exit Strategy, Network Effect
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Release date: November 14, 2023
Content: Like all Murderbot books, there is a lot of violence and swearing (Wells is a master of the artfully placed f-bomb). It will be in the Science Fiction/Fantasy section of the bookstore.

The events of this Murderbot book pick up shortly after those in Network Effect: Murderbot and his humans are trying to help the colony of humans fend off the advances of an unethical corporation that’s trying to take over the planet. Things go badly, of course, and Murderbot has to keep his humans safe. Except there’s something wrong with it [it’s redacted]that is interfering with its ability to do just that. 

I really don’t have much new to say about this one. It’s just as smart, tight, and fun as the rest of the series. I will seriously go anywhere in this world that Wells wants to take me, and happily read every new Murderbot book. I love them so much, and the only problem is having to wait for the net one to come out.

The Unhoneymooners

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by Christina Lauren
First sentence: “In the calm before the storm – in this case, the blessed quiet before the bridal suite is overrun by the wedding party – my twin sister stares critically down at a freshly painted shell-pink fingernail and says, ‘I bet you’re relieved I’m not a bridezilla.'”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Content: There is swearing, including multiple uses of the f-bomb, and an on-screen sex scene. It’s in the Romance section of the bookstore.

Olive Torres is sure of one thing: she’s unlucky. Her twin sister is the glamorous one, the successful one, the one who is about to get married to the man of her dreams. And Olive? She just lost her job, she has no luck in dating, and perhaps worst of all: she’s stuck in a florescent green bridesmaid’s dress. So, when everyone at her sister’s wedding gets food poisoning from the buffet, she’s encouraged to go on the non-refundable, non-transferable honeymoon by her sister. The catch: the best man, Ethan, whom Olive despises, has to go too. Determined to make the most of a vacation to Maui, even if it’s with someone she hates (and who hates her), Olive agrees. The thing is: the reality is sometimes vastly different from the perception.

Ah, your classic enemies-to-lovers trope (mixed up with fake marriage – they’re on their “honeymoon” after all – and only one bed) with two people who just loathe each other learning to actually get past perceptions and miscommunications and, well, fall in love. It’s a classic for a reason. I enjoyed the push and pull between Olive and Ethan, and thought their ups and downs were very realistic. I liked the chemistry they had, and the way Olive had to learn to trust herself, and not just fall back on the excuse that she’s “unlucky”. The only thing I wasn’t thrilled with was the fact that Christina Lauren is the pen name of two white women, but Olive and her family are most definitely Latinx. Not a god look, that. Even so, it was a fun little read.

War and the American Difference

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by Stanley Hauerwas
First sentence: “Ten years and counting.”
It’s out of print, so you can’t support your local independent bookstore (unless they can procure used books, like ours does), but you should buy it at Alibris, instead of Amazon.
Content: It’s super academic. It’d be in the theology section of the bookstore if it wasn’t out of print.

On the 10th anniversary of 9/11 and the War in Iraq, religious and political philosopher Hauerwas (my husband’s read some of his other stuff!) published a collection of essays/papers/speeches about the connection between war and American Christianity. 

But Melissa, you say, this is not your usual reading. And you’d be right. I usually don’t tackle works of religious and political philosophy; I leave that to the professor in the house. However, I’ve started following Pastor Ben Cremer on Instagram and signed up for his weekly newsletter/sermons. There was one a while back (maybe around the 4th of July?) about why the idea that Americans worship war is wrong, especially as Christians, and he recommended this book. As someone who at the very least is uncomfortable with the idea of war, I thought I’d give it a shot. 

I’ll admit a lot of this book was over my head. That said, the parts I was able to grasp/understand, I found fascinating. Hauwerwas talks about the need for local churches, involved in the work of building the kingdom. He talks about rejecting the idea that countries are only meant to conquer. He laments that Christianity became connected to the Roman empire, and on down to the founding of America. He talks about how America’s true “religion” (in the absence of a state religion) is war and the sacrifice that war brings. And that if we truly believe that Christ has conquered death, we would be more willing to be killed than to kill others. All things to think about. And his conclusion is probably the most striking: “Let the Christians of the world agree that they will not kill each other.”

So, no, I probably didn’t get everything I could have out of this book, but it did make me think. Which is something I appreciate.

Race for the Ruby Turtle

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by Stephen Bramucci
First sentence: “If there was one thing Jake Rizzi didn’t want to do on the last Saturday morning of the summer, it was pack a bag for the rainiest town in the whole state of Oregon.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy provided by the author.
Release date: October 3, 2023
Content: There are some intense moments because adults are being terrible. It will be in the Middle Grade (grades 3-5) section of the bookstore.

Jake has recently been diagnosed with ADHD, and after an incident at the craft fair (let’s just say there was damage done), he’s being carted off to his Great-Aunt Hettle’s place. Once he gets there, he discovers a mystery involving a possibly mythic Ruby red-backed turtle, which coincides with a local festival. Hettle’s being cagey about everything, but Jake suspects there’s more to this story. So, can he and his new friend Mia figure it out before the adults do?

This was a lot of fun! Bramucci mixed a kid learning to deal with ADHD (but less of the “he’s a problem, let’s fix it” angle!) and a good mystery/environmental story. I liked that Jake was an animal lover and that his great-aunt Hettle got out of the way and let Jake be Jake. Sure, he makes mistakes – and has an epic fight with his new friend Mia – but he learns and grows, and yes, the two kids were able to outsmart the grown-ups.

It’s a fun book, one that embraces the importance of being kind and protecting the environment. You can’t ask for anything better than that.

Buzzing

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by Samuel Sattin, illustrated by Rye Hickman
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy pilfered from the ARC shelves at work.
Content: There is mention of cartoon violence. It’s in the Middle-Grade Graphic Novel section of the bookstore.

Isaac has just been diagnosed with OCD, which is manifest in the graphic novel as hovering, ever-present bees. His mother is pretty protective of him, and the way he’s coping with his new diagnosis, so when he asks to join a group of friends to play a Swamps & Sorcery game. Everything is fine until he fails a history test (and thereby the class) and his mother bans him from seeing his friends or playing the game. There is some growth – his older sister feels left out because Isaac gets a lot of attention due to his OCD and she learns to accept it. Additionally, his mother learns to be more trusting of Isaac. And he learns how to better manage the buzzing in his life.

I liked this one well enough. I think the best part of the book was the depiction of the OCD as the bees. I liked how they were always around, and Isaac had to learn to live with – and ignore – them. I liked the story and the interspersing of the Swamps & Sorcery game. The art was nice; there was some diversity – Isaac is Latinx, maybe? – and one of the characters was gender fluid. It’s not going to be my favorite this year, but it was a solid book.

The First Magnificent Summer

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by R. L. Toalson
First sentence: “Period (noun): a length or segment of time.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy pilfered from the ARC shelves at work.
Content: There is mention of swearing, and maybe a couple of mild ones. There is talk of a girl getting her period, and of their father having an affair. It’s in the Middle Grade (grades 3-5) section of the bookstore, but this one really skews to the older end.

Victoria – please don’t call me Tori anymore – and her two siblings are off to Ohio to see their father, whom they haven’t seen since he left their mom two years ago, for a whole month. Victoria is – rightly – worried about it: her dad has a new family, a new wife, and two new children, whom she calls The Replacements. She hopes it will go well, but is anxious she won’t.

And – no surprise – it doesn’t. Her dad is emotionally abusive to her, calling her fat and making her do chores that her older brother gets out of simply by being male. In fact, when she vents into a journal about her experiences – camping in a tent while The Replacements sleep in a trailer, getting her period and her father forcing her to swim anyway, her stepmother complaining that Victoria doesn’t dry the dishes correctly, or even the fact that her dad won’t use the name she prefers – her father reads her journal without her permission then proceeds to yell and slap her for it. Victoria is supremely happy to go home.

The cover and title suggest something happy, something about discovery (well, Victoria discovers she doesn’t need her father), but this was a dark, terrible book. Victoria’s dad was – to put it mildly – a piece of work. I didn’t quite get why the book needed to be set in the 90s (there was a mention of the Waco Branch Davidians raid happening a couple months before, which is a really odd way of setting a book in a time. Are kids going to know that reference?), except to maybe make it so Victoria couldn’t call home? (Or to give her dad something else to yell at her about.) It was very much about shattered dreams and shattered illusions and picking oneself up after that. Which, sure, I appreciate that.

But honestly? I really disliked this one.

Dad’s Girlfriend and Other Anxieties

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by Kellye Crocker
First sentence: “Ana should have been happy.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Content: There is a lot of lying, talk of pregnancy, and some parental neglect. It’s in the Middle Grade (grades 3-5) section of the bookstore.

Ana’s whole life it has just been her and her dad. Her mom passed soon after Ana was born, and she hasn’t known anything else. But the summer after sixth grade, her dad decides to take her out to Colorado to meet his new girlfriend and her daughter. For two whole weeks. This wouldn’t be so bad, but Ana just got diagnosed with anxiety disorder, and the idea of traveling to Colorado from nice, safe Iowa is positively anxiety-inducing. And so, when they get there, all she wants to do is go home. So she decides to sabotage the vacation. In one horrible situation after another, Ana tries to make everything come undone… and learns a lot in the process.

This was a good portrait of a 12-year-old, who was used to being the center of her father’s life, learning to share him with another adult. And remember to manage her anxiety, and how to be open to new situations. It’s kind of fun, sweet, and perfect for those middle-grade readers who want to experience a Colorado vacation (while simultaneously getting second-hand embarrassment).

A fun read.

Monthly Round-up: July 2023

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When I yped all this up, I was legitimately suprised how much erading I’d done this month. Go me! My favorite, though, and one I still think about:

Remarkably Bright Creatures

Who knew a book about an older woman and a octopus could be so good? So glad I finally read it!

As for the rest:

Middle Grade Fiction:

My Not-So-Great French Escape
Dear Mothman
102 Days of Lying About Lauren

Adult Fiction: 

Kiss Her Once for Me (audiobook)
One Italian Summer (audiobook)
The Dead Romantics (audiobook)
A Gathering of Shadows (reread)
A Conjuring of Light (reread)
The Fragile Threads of Power

Non-Fiction:

The Art Thief (audiobook)
Beyond the Story

Whaat was your favorite this month?

Beyond the Story: 10-year Record of BTS

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by Myeongseok Kang, translated by Anton Hur, Slin Jung, and Clare Richards
First sentence: “Korea’s busiest crossroads is in Seoul’s district of Gangnam, near Sinsa station.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Content: There’s some talk of drinking and depression. It’s in the Music section of the bookstore.

At some point, maybe 5 or 6 years ago, one of my daughters got into BTS. She wanted to share with me, showed me tons of videos, and tried to get me to remember their names (I still get Jung-kook and Jin mixed up), and wanted to share her love of this K-pop group with me. I was more than happy to listen to and appreciate her enthusiasm. I think it’s faded over the past couple of years as she’s found other things to be enthused about (futbol, figure skating, Formula 1), but BTS has a special place in my heart because of all the time I spent with my daughter, who was gushing over them.

And, while I’m not sure you’d call me a fan, I can appreciate the work that these young men have put into their group. So, when this book came out, I thought why not see what the “official record” had to say.

First: it’s not an elegantly written book. I’m not sure if it’s the translation or if it’s the way it was originally written, but the sentences themselves are often clunky (and sometimes super fan-girly). But there’s a lot of interesting information there. It charts BTS from the beginning when all seven were in training to debut, and how Big Hit Entertainment struggled with their launch. It charted the rise of BTS and the role their fans played (they are very grateful to their and!). The coolest thing was the QR codes as footnotes, linking to videos, many of which you wouldn’t have seen unless you were a super die-hard fan. I watched a ton of them and was fascinated with the growth of the group.

So, why get this book? Well, for someone interested in learning their history, it’s honest and revealing, especially about the mechanics of a K-pop group. For the die-hard fan, it’s got interviews with the members of BTS (I’m not entirely sure if the interviews are original, but I suspect so), lots of photos, and is a lovely collectors edition. So, it’s a win for everyone.

102 Days of Lying About Lauren

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by Maura Jortner
First sentence: “Every morning, the skeleton-rooster lets out a cock-a-doodle-do that could shake a person to their very core.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Content: There’s abandonment and some parental emotional abuse. It’s in the middle grade (grades 3-5) section of the bookstore, but I’d be wary about handing it to the younger end of that age group.

For 102 days, Mouse has been living in the attic of the Haunted House ride at the theme park. For 102 days she has been pretending with her “borrowed” shirt to be an employee, sweeping up guests’ messes. For 102 days she has been left alone after her mother left her in the park. She doesn’t know if her mother is going to come back, but just in case, she doesn’t want to leave. For 102 days, Mouse has been just fine. But then a strange girl comes to the park and starts asking questions about Lauren, which Mouse doesn’t want to think about. And hasn’t – not really – for 102 days.

Oh, this one is heartbreaking. Abandonment – Mouse’s mother just hit the end of her rope, but you don’t leave your kid at an amusement park! And parental abuse – Mouse’s friend Tanner is the son of the park boss, and he’s a piece of work. It takes a tornado and his son almost dying to bring him around (sorry, that’s a bit of a spoiler). And yet, there’s a bit of Boxcar Children in this one: a 12-year-old girl figuring out how to “survive” on her own, making things work for her. It’s sad, but it’s also engaging, especially since the book takes place over one day, that 102nd day when Mouse’s life changes again.

I’m not sure it’s for really young kids, but it’s a good book for someone who wants a bit of adventure and doesn’t mind the abandonment part.