Reading Recap May 2024

 Books I read during May 2024

My focus this month was the Asian Readathon. (Something that is run by a very big youtuber, and I feel like is a pretty big event... but I don't see anyone else doing it at all. Weird. May is AAPI month, so it seems like a perfect time to stick in a few Asian books, so I tried.)

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros: The first in this very popular romantasy series where we meet our girl Violet as she is about join the riding school in order to be a dragon rider... that is if she passes all the tests and physical challenges.... alive. And stay away from the dude who is an enemy to her family. And that might be harder than staying alive. ⭐⭐⭐

Shine by Jessica Jung: The story of what it's like being a kpop trainee and dealing with all the rules and restrictions. And dealing with your family not believing in what you want. And dealing with falling in love with the most famous kpop star. Written by a former kpop star so it makes all the things more real since I'm sure it's based an many of her own experiences. ⭐⭐⭐

A Curse So Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer: A unique Beauty and the Beast retelling where our girl is kidnapped from the contemporary world and brought to this fantasy world with the hope she will fall in love with the prince. He's not currently a beast, but he will turn into one if the curse is not broken and kill her and everyone around her. Does she finally break the curse? ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Namjoo Cho: A strange little book about a girl who is going quite crazy at the beginning and then we flash back and relive her whole life to see what might be the cause. She has struggled at every turn with misogynistic attitudes from everyone around her. It's written with a very detached style that was sometimes okay and sometimes boring. But when you get to the end, it all seems to make sense in a very mind blowing way. ⭐⭐⭐

When My Name Was Keoko by Linda Sue Park: A middle grade bordering on YA book that tells the story of this Korean family during the Japanese occupation and then during WWII, and how they had to bow down to every whim of the Japanese government, but still somehow survive it all. Beautifully and simply told.  ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Heartstopper Vol 1 by Alice Oseman: The first book in this very popular graphic novel series about the romance between two high school boys. Everyone said it's a sweet story, and they were right. ⭐⭐⭐⭐

This Woven Kingdom by Tahereh Mafi: The first in this YA fantasy series by one of my favorite authors, based on Persian mythology complete with a jinn main character. It also has a lot of Cinderella vibes. Our girl is jinn and there's a prophecy that she is destined to free her people and become their queen. But an encounter with the prince makes everyone VERY complicated and now neither one of them is sure about anything. Ah, this one is SOOO good and my favorite read of the month! Can't wait to have time for book two! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

And in case you are interested, here are some videos I uploaded to the channel this month:

May Monthly Wrap Up 

Review for This Woven Kingdom

Review for When My Name Was Keoko

Review for Shine

Big Books I want to read during summer

Best and Worst Books from Book Club

Party Prepping for the 20th Anniversary for Book Club

Little Free Library Hunting

More Little Free Library Hunting

Review for Fourth Wing

A Cozy Writing Vlog

Reading Recap April 2024

 Here's what I read in April!

The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu: The craziness that began in Three Body Problem continues in this book two. We have the Wallfacers who are trying to figure out a solution to the alien forces that will arrive in 400 years time. They all come up with great solution, but none of them work. Except one. Maybe. With this book I am officially invested in this crazy intense hard core science fiction story and I now need to see what happens with the next one, which I understand is a parallel story to this one. WAH! ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid: This was the book club choice for April. I struggled through, mostly because it was really about nothing except this tennis players desire to regain her title. I felt no investment in it at all. I did enjoy her relationship with her dad, which made those bits somewhat interesting. And it was overall an easy read. I don't know... I don't get the hype! ⭐⭐⭐

Have I Told You This Already? by Lauren Graham: We got this book at a Lauren Graham book signing earlier in April. An essay memoir book full of her funny stories of the business and life in general. She is awesome. And it was a blast to see her. You can check the channel for clips from the experience. I'll post channel links below. ⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Do-Over by Lynn Painter: I read this for Dewey's Readathon which was on April 13. So much fun! This is a great romcom where our girl gets in a bit of a Groundhog Day loop, only it's Valentines Day... and she is determined to make it the best day ever, but things just keep getting worse and worse! And then she just decides to forget it and let it all loose. LOL! I loved it. ⭐⭐⭐⭐

An Improbable Season by Rosalyn Eves: This one is a YA regency romcom... where we have two sisters and their cousins coming to London to make their debut and join the "season" for the first time and find their husbands. They expect it to be all fun and games, but of course, everything goes wrong! Another fun enjoyable book! ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Tree.Table.Book. by Lois Lowry: At the end of the month we got to go to a Lois Lowry signing and we bought this book there. It's an adorable middle grade story about the friendship between Sophie who is 11 and Sophie who is 88. The younger Sophie is very worried about the older Sophie because she thinks her family is about to take her away to put her in a old folks home. She is determined to make her remember stuff, but she ends up learning a ton more about Old Sophie than she expected. Heartwarming in all the ways. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

It as a lovely reading month! In May I plan to make most of my books be for the Asian Readathon in celebration for AAPI Month. 

Here are some channel links from the past month if you want to go check them out!

Review for The Dark Forest

Memories of going to the library

Lauren Graham signing

Dewey's Readathon Prep

Dewey's Readathon Vlog

Review for Carrie Soto

Book Club Choices for 2024-25

Lois Lowry Signing

May TBR Plans

Review for Tree.Table.Book

April's Monthly Check In

Reading Recap March 2024

 I didn't read much this month, but I here's what I DID read!

Beartown by Fredrik Backman: A story about a town and a hockey team, and how that town LIVES for the hockey team, and how that all falls apart one day. Told from many points of view from many different townspeople, and how they all deal with the situation in their own many and different ways. Another great book by another great author! ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Flippin' Skaters by Teresa Richards: I was hoping for a cute sort of YA story, but it wasn't as cute as expected. Something happened, and our girl doesn't even know what, but suddenly she is getting cyber bullied, and she has to figure out how to deal with that, and to also figure out what actually happened. As the title suggests, she ends up skating as her distraction to real life. ⭐⭐⭐

Fairy Tale by Stephen King: What a fun readalong book this was! Crazy that it's over already! This is the story of our boy Charlie who discovers something in the shed of his neighbor. It takes half the book to lead up to us finally finding out what's in there, but the build up to that was lovely. This book definitely lives up to its fairy tale title with many nods to fairy tales, and a general fairy tale vibe. It was a very enjoyable reading experience. ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Plans for April:

• I'm deep into The Dark Forest and will hopefully have that done this weekend!
• I'll be reading Carrie Soto Is Back for book club.
• I've started a YA called An Improbable Season by Rosalyn Eves.
• I'm hoping to participate in Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon this coming Saturday...for the first time in years! Hopefully I'll some light fun easy books in my stack for that.
• Maybe I'll keep working on my Count of Monte Cristo re-read.

Fairy Tale Read-Along Week Three: Chapters 17 to 24

 

How's everyone coming along in this book? Are you still with me???

I'm still really enjoying it and am able to get through the assigned sections pretty quickly and easily. I'm glad that we are one the last week now this coming week so I can just finish it and see what happens!

Here are some thoughts and a couple of random questions! (Beware spoilers for up to this point!)

• Just like I expected this took quite the turn as soon as Charlie got to the city!
• I'm staring to worry about a happy ending. I want a happy ending!
• This city is CREEPY... and when Charlie describes it, I get dizzy too just like he's feeling.
• This whole thing about Charlie actually physically changing is very strange. I did not expect that tidbit!

Some questions for all you that are reading along:

1. What do we think is happening with Charlie and do we think he's going to be able to save the land and the people?

2. What interesting/crazy thing about the city stood out to you? 3. Is anyone else worrying about Radar and what's become of her? I hope we get back to her story soon!

I can't wait to finish this one. It's been a fun read along. Thanks for joining me. I think we'll be doing a LIVE on the channel talking about the whole book this weekend, probably on Friday evening at 5:30 MDT. That seems to be the best for everyone. Check over on the channel for final info on that! (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5o015Klju9s3FGv4MaQwwg)

Fairy Tale by Stephen King Read-Along: Week Two Discussion (Chapters 10 to 16)

 

Well, and so Charlie's adventures begin!

Beware spoilers if you haven't read this far yet! (Halfway through the book up to Chapter 16)

Random thoughts:

• This new place feels at once both cozy and creepy. How is that possible? LOL. Like it does feel pretty storybook-y but also very very weird.
• Wow but the first section we read, and this section have totally different vibes. 
• I'm finding it interesting that I'm able to picture these gray people quite well. How's everyone else doing on that?
• I'm still really quite loving Charlie as a character. He did notice though when he sort of addressed the question I had last time, and let us know he doesn't think he's that "good" of a dude.
• I still feel like this book could totally be a YA fantasy. 
• I'm find this to be very easy reading so far, which is a good thing for keeping up with the read along! LOL!

Some official questions:

1. Any thoughts about all the comparisons to different fairy tales? Are you feeling these connections or is it a stretch? What's your favorite fairy tale connection so far?

2. Do you think this new place is a parallel universe? Or a completely different place altogether?

3. Speaking of this, our reading segment this time ends with Charlie saying that his world is the make-believe one and that this world he's in now is the reality. What does he mean by that?

4. From all the new people that Charlie is meeting, who is your favorite so far?

5. Are you feeling invested and anxious about Charlie's mission? Or do you feel it's still quite "tame" and easy so far? 

6. What thing are you worried about most for Charlie's future? The giant Hana? The night walker things? The sleeping something in the city? The gray disease?

If you are reading along, please answer in comments! Or check out the booktube channel and answer there. (Or the Storygraph page...I've got it going everywhere!)

Fairy Tale by Stephen King Read-Along: Week One Discussion

My thoughts and some questions on our first week's reading for this Fairy Tale read-along. There will be spoilers for the first section which is Chapter 1 to 9. 

My random thoughts:

• This ended up being the perfect ending spot for our week one! It's almost like I planned it, lol! (I literally just divided it into four equal chunks!) I feel a huge shift coming! Should we be nervous?
• I am dying to know what's on that tape recorder and what's in that shed! What do you all think is going on with the shed? 
• Very anxious about our dog... but I'm also really wondering if she has something to do with the mystery.
• So far this has read like a sweet YA book... which is not at all what I expected. I am nervous though that it's all going to change.
• Charlie seems like the sweetest dude, yeah? I didn't picture him so big until it was revealed he is 6'4". Wow.
• Does anyone have any predictions of what's up with Mr. Bowditch? I am terrible at figuring things out. 
• The murder of the jeweler dude seems like it might come to be important.

Some official questions:

1. Do you agree that so far this is very different from what we typically expect from Stephen King? Is that a good thing or a bad thing? 

2. What are your feelings about our main boy, Charlie? Do you think he is as "good" as he seems to be?

3. Assuming you are going into this book cold and have no idea what's going down, what are your predictions about what's in the shed? And what do you think Mr. Bowditch is hiding?

4. What are your feelings about Radar, the dog? Does she have something do with the weirdness? Do you think she's really going to die as Charlie continues to foreshadow?

5. Speaking of that, are you annoyed at Charlie for randomly throwing out spoilers to us the readers? Do you hate or like that as a writing device?

6. Is the promise Charlie made to God a likely reason he was so motivated to help Mr. Bowditch? Or do you think he has other motivations?

7. Do you think Mr. Bowditch is actually FROM a fairy tale? If so, which one?

8. Also, Mr. Bowditch is giving off vibes of a character from another popular and well-loved book, can you guess who I'm thinking of? 

I think that's good for now! If you are reading with us, let me know in comments what you are thinking about this first bit of reading. Can't wait to see what everyone is thinking so far, and I'm excited to keep reading. It has me hooked for sure!

Reading Recap February 2024

 Wow, it was an awesome reading month! Here are the books I read in February:

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chobosky: This is a book I feel like I've been meaning to read forever. Glad it finally happened. It's about our boy Charlie, who is a bit different, and his first year in high school. He's sweet and smart and funny, but many people brush him off as not really any of those things, which allows him to observe everyone in all their glory. Some stuff he sees is not that great, and some stuff he ends up doing is also not that great. But he learns from it all. It's a sweet, heartfelt, coming of age story. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Weight of Everything by Marcia Mickelson: Our girl is struggling with her mother's death and especially the fact that her dad has pretty much checked out. (This seems to be the theme in so many books I'm reading lately!) She has to take care of her bother and work to get money for the bills. AND do school. She ends up with an assignment that helps her to feel close to her mother and learn a lot about her heritage. These also a sweet romance with a dude that feels almost too good to be true. It was a nice story, but hasn't been especially memorable. ⭐⭐⭐

We Were Dreamers by Simu Liu: We drove a LONG ways to get to a wedding one weekend in February and I listened to this one on the way. SO GOOD! I loved loved loved hearing his back story, his amazing parents who always had struggles with as a teenager, his desire to be on the stage and perseverance to get there. I cried, I laughed, I feel in love. He's great and this story just confirms it. (He is the star of Marvels Shang Chi, and also a Ken in the Barbie movie if anyone needs a reminder, lol!) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson: The next weekend we drove the long long drive to get to the grandkids for the President's Day holiday. I listened to this one on the way there. I love this very funny author and hearing his experiences growing up in the 50s was awesome. So many stories, and lots of historical tie ins. Perfect for road trip listening! ⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell: This was a really quick listen for the drive back home. A book I've heard so much about over the years, so I thought I'd see what it's all about. Which is basically our human natures to follow a trend. Something small and insignificant suddenly becomes a huge thing, like the pandemic of virus! It was fun to hear all the different ways we can apply this to our lives. I'm thinking YouTubing specifically for me! ⭐⭐⭐

Killing Jesus by Bill O'Reilly: I feel like the title (and maybe its author?) turns people away from this book, but I found it fascinating to learn about the history and culture of the era around Jesus' birth and death. And to learn the back stories of all the Roman emperors of the time and etc. Wow, but it was a ruthless time to be alive. These leaders were awful! The descriptions do get a bit graphic so warning for anyone who might have an issue with that. Anyway, I really enjoyed this historical perspective of a story I've learned about my whole life. ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Book Lovers by Emily Henry: Another Emily Henry book! I enjoyed this one a bit more than Happy Place (from January's reading) but not as much as The People we Meet on Vacation. I'm thinking maybe this author is not for me after all. I find the stories to be very surface level and end up not really loving the characters much. And I feel they are driven more by the physical of the relationship than anything about connecting with each other as actual people. This one did have some great banter though. So that saved it. And the bookish topic I suppose! ⭐⭐⭐

Overlap: The Heart of Happiness by Trevor J Petersen: This is a fabulously well researched look into how we can become happier. Which is, bottom line, to connect with people, and whatever else we deem a living thing. Lots of ideas, lists, suggestions to help us get there, and ways to overcome the obstacles we feel are in our way. I did a full review of this one in another post, so check it out if you missed it!  ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Four books I read, and four I listened too! Wow! And THREE five stars? I'd say it was a pretty great reading month. How did everyone else do?