4 Stars. This was published in 1993, when I was 15 years old, and I must have just barely missed having it as assigned reading in school. While it's probably a classic to many of you, this was the first time I've read it. I was surprised by how unsettling it is. Jonas's world seems almost perfect at first. Everyone apologizes [...]
4 Stars. I liked Callie and her theatre geek crew! (I was a band geek myself.) Callie is outgoing and unashamedly enthusiastic in her passions. She's a great friend and encourages others at every opportunity. She's also in 7th grade, at an age when boys and girls are developing school romances. This group of schoolmates sure [...]
Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl gave us a freebie for Top Ten Tuesday today. Since it's Banned Books Week, I've borrowed a graphic from the American Library Association to share the top ten most challenged books of 2020. As I prep this post on Saturday, I've read three of these books (#1, 7, 8), I'm currently reading a fourth (#3), and I'll eventually read a fifth because it's on my Classics Club list (#9). I'll probably read even more of them someday but they're hard to find at the library right now because they're so popular, ironically enough. To Kill a Mockingbird is one of my favorite books ever. I read Melissa (Formerly published as George) for Banned Books Week last year and loved the titular character so much! Of Mice and Men--well, I had to read it and watch the movie in high school. I never liked books I had to read for school. But I'll never tell you that you can't read it. All American Boys is difficult but so important. In glancing through the reasons for challenging these books, most of them can be boiled down to a common theme--they present a point of view or topic that is "different" and/or difficult. But isn't that part of the beauty of reading? To quote from To Kill a Mockingbird, "You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it." As a hetero White woman, I'll never feel the anxiety of a ten-year-old who was born the wrong gender. I'll never know what it's like to do everything right but still get beaten by a policeman because of the color of my skin. But by reading books written by authors who…
3 Stars. I'm just not the reader for magical realism in literature. Oh, I do just fine with Sarah Addison Allen's light touches of fantasy in otherwise contemporary novels. But a huge black beast of an unknown species adopting a family? Spirits wandering the house? Curses? Mermaid girls? All in dark historical fiction? I just [...]
Today kicks off Banned Books Week 2021. I've tried to acknowledge this week every year that my blog has been active. I never used to think of myself as a reader who chooses particularly controversial books. When I first started my blog, I mostly read fantasy. What's offensive about that, right? But when I look at the list of the 100 most frequently challenged books from 1990-1999 (the years when I was in middle school - college), I've read a lot of them just for fun. Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. The Goosebumps series. A Wrinkle in Time. Lots of Stephen King. The Wish Giver. If someone had their way, I might never have been able to pick these up at the library and enjoy them. Are these books for every reader? Not by any means. But you choose what you're interested in and I'll choose what I'm interested in and we'll all be happy. Concerned parents can monitor the reading choices of their own children, and even ask for a different assignment for their child if they disapprove of a teacher's choice. But no one has the right to restrict the community's access to a book. Now that I'm older and reading more widely, I do find myself reading more of the difficult books from the challenged book lists. A lot of frequently challenged books touch on LGBTQIA+ themes and/or social justice. These aren't easy topics. I get it. But, as the graphic above says, censorship divides us and books unite us. Reading books written by people who are of a different race, gender, or sexual orientation than me lets me experience the world through their eyes. It's easy to view people who are different from us as "other." But when we pick up a book and…
Welcome to my weekly update for September 26, 2021! My husband and I are flying home to Asheville, North Carolina tomorrow after spending three months in Anchorage, Alaska with his job. We've had a wonderful time in this beautiful state! My big bookish news is that I've been chosen as a round one panelist in the high school nonfiction category for the Cybils Awards! I'm so excited! This is my first year participating but the other panelists and round two judges have amazing qualifications; I look forward to working with everyone! Nominations begin Friday, October 1. Also, today kicks off Banned Books Week. I'll write a separate post about it but I've tried to read enough banned books recently to review one every day this week. Right now I'm a little behind but I think I'll get it done. In personal news, I checked my number one bucket list item off last weekend--I saw the northern lights! Woohoo! You can see them from Anchorage sometimes, but the farther north you go, the better your chances of seeing them. At least that's my understanding. So we drove up to Fairbanks for the weekend and spent three nights looking at the sky. We only saw a low mass of snow clouds on the last two nights but we did get lucky on our first try! I did not know that a camera with the correct settings will pick up the lights better than our naked eyes will. So at first there was a lot of, "Is that faint greenish smudge what we're looking for?" Sure enough, it was. But as the night went on, we were able to see them more and more clearly. We didn't see the most active display by any means, but seeing them at all was a dream…
Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl invited us to share "Ten Books on My Fall 2021 TBR" (To Be Read list). I'm very much a mood reader but with Halloween just around the corner, Banned Books Week coming up in a few days, and several of my reading challenges having monthly prompts, I decided I could take a good guess at what might be on my reading horizon. I have an affiliate relationship with Malaprop’s Bookstore/Cafe in beautiful Asheville, NC. I will earn a small commission at no additional cost to you if you purchase merchandise through links on my site. Reading Challenges Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (Book set in Africa for the Book Voyage Challenge) Lost City Radio by Daniel Alarcón (Book set in South America for the Book Voyage Challenge) Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant by Daniel Tammet (Physical/sensory/cognitive/intellectual/developmental disabilities for the Diversity Challenge) I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer by Michelle McNamara (True crime novel for the Uncorked Reading Challenge) Drama by Raina Telgemeier (Banned book from the 21st century for the Uncorked Reading Challenge) The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole (Classics Club Dare Challenge) Just for Fun The Dead Zone by Stephen King--I didn't read either King or Joe Hill last year in October and the season just didn't feel complete without one of them. I think I've read all of Hill's published work so King it is. The Necromancer's House by Christopher Buehlman--One of my friends from high school raves about Buehlman's work and I have to say that I have enjoyed the other two books I've read by him. The Suicide Motor Club scared me in ways that vampires haven't in a long time. The Final…
Welcome to my weekly update for September 19, 2021! We didn't do much after my sister left last weekend but we drove up to Fairbanks for this weekend (more about that next week). The fog had Anchorage socked in when we left but as we drove further north, the air became crystal clear. We had spectacular views of Denali and the fall color! Posted: Time and Again by Jack Finney--3 Stars Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, & Me by Ellen Forney--4.5 Stars Ten Books with Numbers in the Title Read: Nothing. I can't even begin to guess the last time that happened. But I've got a couple of dense printed books on the go and I downloaded my audiobook fairly late in the week. Currently Reading: The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende, translated by Magda Bogin The Snake, the Crocodile, and the Dog (Amelia Peabody #7) by Elizabeth Peters, read by Barbara Rosenblat Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family by Robert Kolker Up Next: At this rate, who knows? I would like to read a couple more banned books for next week though. What did your week look like? Deb Nance at Readerbuzz hosts The Sunday Salon and Kimberly at Caffeinated Book Reviewer hosts Sunday Post. Kathryn at Book Date hosts It's Monday! What Are You Reading?
4.5 Stars. I got behind on the monthly prompts for the Diversity Reading Challenge in August so I was looking for a short book about mental health or addiction when I stumbled on this title. It seemed like the perfect choice to help me catch up. But what started as a book I was reading simply to check a box quickly became a [...]
3 Stars. I'm not a fan of New York. To be fair, I've only spent one day there and that was the day after my best friend's funeral; still, nothing about the city has ever appealed to me. That said, Time and Again didn't work particularly well for me but I think those who love New York and its history will relish it. I don't [...]