Phoebe and Her Unicorn

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phoebeby Dana Simpson
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Others in the series: Unicorn on a Roll
Content: It’s super accessible to all ages, but I think it’s aimed at the 3rd-5th grade crowd. It’s in the Middle Grade Graphic Novel section of the bookstore.

I’ll freely admit I read these backwards, reading the sequel first. And, as a result, this one wasn’t as funny as I really wanted it to be. Still: it’s good to have Phoebe and Marigold Heavenly Nostril’s origin story (Phoebe hit Marigold with a rock which broke Marigold’s attention — she was stuck looking at her reflection — and Marigold offered a wish in return). There were some hilarious little moments (like when Phoebe brought Marigold home to meet her parents), and I loved that the line between reality and imagination (called the SHIELD OF BORINGNESS) was blurred. Is Marigold imaginary? Is she real? Does it really matter?

At any rate, both K and I really enjoyed this one, even if it’s not quite as hilarious as the sequel.

Audiobook: Furiously Happy

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furiouslyhappyby Jenny Lawson
Read by the author.
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Content: Lots of swearing. Lots. And lots. You’ve been warned. It’s in the adult biography section of the bookstore.

I’m late to this party. I knew who Jenny Lawson was (I do work in a bookstore, after all) and I was aware of her book. I’d just never picked it up. I have so much else to read, that I figured a small book about a weird upbringing as the daughter of a taxidermist never really appealed to me.

But, when I was looking for a new audiobook, this one jumped out at me. Ann Kingman talked about it on Books on the Nightstand a while back, and so I picked it up.

I had no idea I was missing THIS.

In a series of short, random, wandering essays, Lawson tackles her mental illnesses (ADHD, anxiety, and depression), her crazy life and marriage, therapy, the ways she copes, and her adventures in, well, everything. It’s really random  and often super hilarious. I laughed a TON. Possibly because she’s super deadpan in her reading of the book, which just helped make it that more often. But, I also appreciated her being so candid about things I struggle with. She’s right: it does help to know that there are other people out there talking about struggling with depression, who have ways of dealing with it (or not), to put in perspective your own struggles. It’s wonderful. And the fact she does it with a sense of humor is that much better, too.

I probably should backtrack and get her first book, just to be complete.

State of the TBR Pile: April 2016

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There are days when I wish I could spend all day reading a book. Then there are days when I can’t seem to find a book to capture my interest, picking up one after another and tossing it into the “maybe I’ll give it another try later” pile. Which means my TBR pile (at least the active one; there are back ups to my back up pile, but at least it’s only a shelf, for now) is in constant flux. I’m most interested in what stays on there and for how long before I move it off. Then again, like everything, staying on top of All The Books is a process. (And right now, I’m noticing that there’s a lot of YA on there…)

Here’s what’s currently on my nightstand:

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The Girl in the Well is Me by Karen Rivers
A Totally Awkward Love Story by Tom Ellen and Lucy Ivison
You Know Me Well by David Levithan and Nina LaCour
Quiet Power by Susan Cain and illustrated by Grant Stine (who’s local, and at the store on May 3rd!)
The Haters by Jesse Andrews
The Way I Used to Be by Amber Smith
The Incredible Adventures of Cinnamon Girl by Melissa Keil
Will Wilder by Raymond Arroyo
The First Time She Drowned by Kerry Kletter
The Nocturnals by Tracy Hecht
Flawed by Cecelia Ahern

What’s on your pile that you’re looking forward to?

Love & Gelato

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lovegelatoby Jenna Evans Welch
First sentence: “You’ve had bad days before, right?”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Release date: April 12, 2016
Review copy snagged from the ARC shelves at work.
Content: There’s some drinking (the drinking age in Italy is 16) and a couple of lecherous men that the main character encounters. It’ll be in the YA section of the bookstore.

Lina’s mom has died somewhat suddenly, and several months later Lina has found herself in Florence, meeting the father  — Howard — she never knew because her mother never told her about him. It’s not exactly her idea of a good time. What she really wants is to just go home and live with her best friend.

Then she receives her mother’s journal from her time in Florence, and all of a sudden, things become more interesting. She not only learns about her mother’s secrets, but sees Florence through her mother’s eyes. It also helps that she meets a cute Italian (well, half-American) boy, Ren, to share things with.

This was was just about perfect as a summer romance. Sure, it starts with a dead parent, but after that it’s utterly charming. I loved the mystery of Lina’s father: who was he, what was he like? I loved her getting to know Howard, and I adored Ren as a character. Sure, it was a little predictable (I figured out the twist pages before Lina did), but in a comforting way. Besides, I was reading it as an escape to and a romance in Italy, not for some great literary writing. And Welch served it up (pun intended) delightfully.

 

Raymie Nightingale

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raymieby Kate DiCamillo
First sentence: “There were three of them, three girls.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Release date: April 12, 2016
Content: The publisher suggests 10 and up, but I think a 4th-grader would be able to handle it. It will be in the middle grade (grades 3-5) section of the bookstore.

Raymie has a plan. She will take baton lessons — it’s the summer of 1975, after all — and enter the Little Miss Central Tire competition, and win. That way, her picture will get in the paper and her father — who recently ran off with a dental hygienist — will see it and want to come home.

The thing is: her plan (like most plans) doesn’t go as she thought it would. She meets two other girls: Louisiana, whose parents have died and who wants to win the competition as much as Raymie because that means she and her grandmother will have money for more than tunafish;  and Beverly, whose mother is insisting on the competition, but who secretly hates it all and would much rather sabotage the whole thing. Together, the three of them have a summer they will never forget.

In many ways, this is vintage DiCamillo: quiet and unassuming, and yet it reaches something deep inside you. I didn’t want to put it down, not because I was thoroughly invested in the plot or the characters, but because this longing to belong, to figure out what life Means, to find and have friends all spoke to me. It’s a common enough theme, but in DiCamillo’s deft hands it transcends the ordinary. (I don’t know if I can praise this highly enough.) And yet, I think it’s going to be one of those books that adults like but kids just don’t quite get. I think this one sits better with some life experience, and some perspective coming to it. But I may be wrong.

Who ever reads it will definitely be touched, I think.

The Winner’s Kiss

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by Marie Rutkoskiwinnerskiss
First sentence: “He told himself a story.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Others in the series: The Winner’s Curse, The Winner’s Crime
Content: There’s some sexytimes, but it’s tastefully off screen. Mostly. I am toying with moving this to the Teen section (grades 9+). (I hate doing that, especially since the other two are really pretty firmly in my 6-8th grade range. But, I also don’t want one in the Teen section and the other two in the YA section, so I may just move them all, or keep this one in YA. Frustrating.)

Spoilers for the first two, obviously.  Also: I still hate these covers with a passion. I mean, they’re pretty and all, but they’re NOT the books.

Kestrel has been arrested as a traitor to her country and shipped off to a work camp in the frozen tundra. Arin is still reeling from betrayal, when Kestrel rejected him and is throwing himself into his alliance with the Dacrans, determined to beat Valoria out of his country once and for all. He’s still in love with Kestrel, but she doesn’t seem to return his affections.

Both are determined to make the best of their situation. Both are determined to exact vengeance upon the leaders of Valoria, which includes Kestrel’s father. Neither are prepared for the directions that goal will lead them.

I don’t want to give more away from the plot (though if you’re smart, you can make some assumptions from the content…), but I’ll say this. It’s a good ending. I liked how Rutkoski wrapped things up, giving the story a complete finish, while not giving us every single little detail about the future. I love how she gave both Arin and Kestrel moments to shine, moments to grow, moments to be complex and do the unexpected. I liked that there was palpable tension, not necessarily between people but in situations. I found myself biting my nails, hoping things worked out okay. I loved how no one was black or white, and that even the bad guys were complex and interesting.

I’m definitely sad that this series is ending. It was definitely a good story.

First Sunday Daughter Reviews: April 2016

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Well, after a week of being indecisive, the weather has finally settled on it being spring here. I like spring in Kansas. It’s short, but I do love the flowers and the leaves coming out, and the general greenness that I miss during the winter.

As for the girls, they are getting some reading done. Both C and E are reading this for English class:

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So far, they say it’s a bit boring. I’m afraid I’ve hyped it up too much, and they won’t like it. I hope they do. *fingers crossed*

A is re-reading this because she has to read a William Allen White book (that’s our state award), and we had this kicking around the house:

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She says Sierra is her favorite character because she doesn’t care about the game and just reads the entire time. Good reasons.

K and Hubby are reading this:

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They’re not too far into it (they just started a few days ago), but she’s enjoying it so far. She’s aware enough to know what’s coming at the end, but she’s enjoying discovering it for the first time.

What are your kids reading?

Monthly Round-Up: March 2016

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It was a Middle Grade month, one in which I snuck books in between the cracks. I made some headway on KidlitCon, with a great logo, designed by Sarah Stevenson, a date — October 14-15 — and a hotel. Stay tuned, because we’ve got a registration form coming soon! (It’s work, but it’s manageable so far, much to my surprise!)

My favorite this month was (and is; I keep gushing about it to people at work):

rebelofthesands

Rebel of the Sands

So. Good.

As for the rest:

YA

tellmethreethings

Tell Me Three Things

Adult Fiction:

drivingheat bollywoodaffair darkershade
Driving Heat
A Darker Shade of Magic
A Bollywood Affair (audio book)

Middle Grade:

spiritweekshowdown charmedchildren wildrobot aintsoawful clementine hourofbees alliefirstbooked
The Charmed Children of Rookskill Castle
Spirit Week Showdown
The Wild Robot
Completely Clementine
Booked
Hour of the Bees
Allie, First at Last

What was your favorite this month?

Allie, First at Last

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alliefirstby Angela Cervantes
First sentence: “Blame it on Junko Tabei.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy pilfered from the ARC shelves at my place of employment. G
Content: It’s a great book for middle readers, short (but not dumbed-down) with no romance or awkward situations. It’s in the Middle Grade (3-5 grade) section of the bookstore.

Allie comes from a highly competitive family. Her great-grandfather was the first World War II Veteran to get a Congressional Medal of Honor. Her mother has won best anchorwoman four years running. Her big sister is a national debate champion. Her big brother is a soccer star, and her younger sister is an aspiring actress. However, Allie feels like she’s just a string of flops. She can’t win anything, most recently the Science Fair. So when the Trailblazer Award comes along — with a fancy trophy and a $200 prize — she’s determined to win.

This was a cute, inter-generational book without the whole mystical Mexican thing. (Mexicans, yes, but not mystical at all.) I liked Allie’s relationship with her Bisabuela, and how he was able to guide Allie through life experience and stories. I liked that there was a nice moral at the end, but the book itself didn’t seem preachy at all. (I didn’t like that all the kids seem to have cell phones and were super-privileged, but that seemed to fit into the story okay, so by the end I let that go.)

It really is a sweet little story.  Plus: the author is from Kansas, which is nice.

 

Tell Me Three Things

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tellmethreethingsby Julie Buxbaum
First sentence: “Seven hundred and thirty-three days after my mom died, forty-five days after my dad eloped with a stranger he met on the Internet, thirty days after we then up and moved to California, and only seven days after starting as a junior at a brand-new school where I know approximately no one, an email arrives.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Release date: April 5, 2016
Review copy snagged from the ARC shelves at my place of employment.
Content: There’s a lot of swearing, including a dozen f-bombs, some teen drug use and drinking, as well as talk of sex. It’ll be in the Teen section (grades 9+) of the bookstore.

Two years after Jessie’s mom’s’ death, her father decides to move on, marrying a woman from L. A. that he met on one of the grief chat boards. What that means for Jessie, however, is being uprooted before her senior year, forced to leave her Chicago home and friends and forced to move in with a stepmother she doesn’t know and a stepbrother who loathes her and go to a private school where everything she does is wrong. Then she gets an email out of the blue from someone who calls himself “Somebody Nobody” and they start a conversation. One that, over the course of the fall, becomes increasingly important to Jessie. `

The big mystery, though, is who this Somebody Nobody is. Jessie’s pretty sure it’s a guy, but which one? And, as they get closer and she spills more of her secrets to him, will the ever meet?

I fell head over heels in love. Sure, it’s a bit 99% with the private school and the rich California kids, and sure there’s the whole dead-parent thing, but it’s a good picture of a girl trying to get past her mom’s death (rather than her mom dying) and moving on. and I liked how Buxbaum dealt with the whole blended family thing. But, what I really liked was the romance. I adored the conversations between SN and Jessie (is it bad that I peeked at the end to find out if it was who I hoped it was?) and I felt that Buxbaum found a creative and clever way to make their relationship grow without it feeling trite or cliche.

It really was a delightful read.