pickI‘ve passed on this book an uncountable number of times. It took a friend literally thrusting their copy into my arms and telling me to enjoy it for me to actually read it. I should have read it sooner. The entire time I thought I knew the twist and that it was ridiculously obvious but NOPE it was a different twist that was even better!! 5🌟
pickDid I enjoy reading this book? Yes, yes I did. And while yes, this is a book about the struggles of trans sixth grader, I also still expected it to be a novel of feminism and in a way it was, but the author attacked gender norms set for girls while encouraging the ones set for men. The MC just seemed to struggled off male stereotypes and issues way too easily (I just mean when the MC‘s guy friend mentioned how dumb it was that he couldn‘t wear a⬇️
pickWhile I was reading this, I couldn‘t get over the fact that this author can write one really bad book (I‘m talking about the book Radio Silence NOT Heartstopper these are perfection) and then this great series. I love these but still, Charlie‘s body proportions are extremely weird. 5🌟
pickI‘m not going to lie, this is not what I was expecting from this book. I thought it would just be like classic zombie apocalypse style with the MC and crew going around and killing with style. I was NOT expecting the false utopia that was actually presented in this. But hey, unexpected stuff can be fun, and this was. 4⭐️
pickAfter much peer pressure from my friends who are obsessed with the show, I finally bought (due to absurd library wait times) and read Heartstopper. The only truly bad thing I need to say about this are 1) what the heck was up with Charlie‘s head proportions to his body proportions? His head just felt too small for his body. Bugged me the entire time. 4⭐️
pickAs with every book I‘ve read by Julie Murphy I really enjoyed reading this. Though I can‘t really see how it qualifies as part of the Dumplin‘ series, I liked the plot & of course enjoyed Cheese the cat. I‘d never read a book with a plot along these lines. Not the divorced parent story but with the advice column author. I guess with newspapers quickly becoming obsolete, I‘ve never thought about the actual writers for said newspaper. As always, 5⭐️
pickWhile yes, I did enjoy reading this book, it also let me down. I mean, the second I added to my TBR I knew it would be sad and I knew it was almost 500 pages, so I thought I would fall in love with the characters and then sob. But when characters died, I wasn‘t that sad. In the end it just felt wasted, especially with people I know who have amped me up for crying with this. And though I know it defeats the purpose of this book, I wonder if it ⬇️
All of my choices for the bracket this month were unbelievable close. #ReadingBracker2022
pickI don‘t know what I was expecting when I added this book to my TBR, but it was not what I ended up reading. I guess I hadn‘t really thought about the fact that there are so many different styles and lore around vampires that all can be taken in so many directions. But, I also felt a little let down considering how amped up I got myself about the author selection (Samir‘s Ahmed, Julie Murphy, Dhonielle Clayton, AND Mark Oshiro!). ⬇️
pickThis is not the only book I‘ve read featuring menstruation discrimination, but it‘s definitely the best. It tackled diseases caused by periods as well as friendships, while still including trans men and gender non-conforming people in the book. Definitely haven‘t seen that before. 5🌟
These next few will be some strange connections because I have a LOT of library books I need to read.
#ThingsWeHaveInCommon
pickIt took me a while to get into this one partially because I would only read small portions of it and couldn‘t get into the story but also because this is one of those books where you are deeply interested while reading it but then later forcing yourself to sit down and finish it. Over all I liked it. If you‘d asked me what I‘d rate it now ten minutes after finishing I‘d say 5⭐️. Tomorrow I may say 4⭐️. So I figured I‘d round it off at a nice 4.5⭐️
pickI‘ve never read a book that was started by one author who passed during the process of writing it and then finished by another. But now that I have, I can‘t help but wonder if the author would have enjoyed what became of her book. All I do know, though, is that I enjoyed it. Native American history pass The Trail of Tears is not taught enough in schools. There need to be more books like this to educate those who are oblivious to ⬇️
pickMy bar for a funny book has skyrocketed after reading this. However, it still dealt with mature themes of death, addiction, and adult sibling relationships in a way that felt natural. Props for healthy polyamorous rep. Perfection. 5🌟
so-soI was intrigued by this one. I had never heard of the American Library of Paris nor did I know that that was a thing countries did. However much I enjoyed that aspect it though, I didn‘t understand why it was necessary to add 80‘s Orile‘s story in, much less told through a different person‘s perspective. Not to mention the horrid amount of slut-shaming that took place throughout the book. “Oh she‘s wearing furs when people are starving? What a ⬇️
pickI quite liked this one. I just felt that the author wasn‘t fully aware that very few children who read middle grade (the intended audience for this book) know details of Ann of Green Gables or The Little Princess. The end isn‘t felt rushed and sloppy, like something you‘d do when you‘ve been doing something forever and you just want to be done with it. I personally feel it would have been better on a cliffhanger, ⬇️
pickI think it‘s odd how both of the books I‘ve read this year with movie adaptations have bad relationships that are not displayed in said movie. I would have like to seen Mia deal with her mother not being a responsible adult but, hey, it‘s a ten book series dot there‘s still time. Based on personal experience, it bugs me to hear a character complain about being flat chested the entire book, but I like the body sensitivity rep. For ⬇️
pickI was not expecting this book to be like this. The last and only zombie book I‘ve ever read was more or less a comedy and the title gave away that they all (or close enough to all) survive (Girls Save the World in This One). But this one has me questioning who would live and die up until the very last pages of the story, despite the character archetypes and odds of survival listed at the beginning. The concept was stellar and I‘ve never seen ⬇️
pickI‘ve been wanting to read this one for a while, and believe me I was not disappointed. The ending was too much of an unbelievable twist for my taste. But between the delicious sounding food and the wiener dog named after a sausage I was captivated enough to give it 5⭐️
pickNow this was a good murder mystery novel. The ending had a perfect measure of not expecting the murderer and not having the murderer connected in some extraordinary way. I‘ve never read Pride and Prejudice, so I have no idea how it compares to that, but it was a great mystery and romance. 5🌟
so-soI only read this one because it had to be CIA approved to get published and I thought “Hey, that might be interesting.” I liked there story, but the art style was not my favorite. When a character cried, they looked like a zombie. And since there where only like four colors, the story felt repetitive. The spots that had dark colors and black wording on them were hard to see and read. 3.75⭐️
so-soI did feel slightly disappointed by this. From the whole “Project Runway goes to Comic Con” deal, I was expecting more time in the actual making portion of the competition that was promised in the summery on Goodreads. And while yes, I did appreciate the happy ending feel good stuff, Luca and Raffy‘s mothers‘ character developments both felt too fast. Not like it extremely sucked or anything, still a decent read. Between a pick and a so-so. 3.75⭐️
#ThingsWeHaveInCommon first pick is Be Dazzled, definitely helped that it‘s on our good friend Matt Krause‘s list of 850 books he wants to ban! #BannedBooks
panI haven‘t been more confused about my feelings for a book and for the actual book itself in a long time. I can‘t tell if it was meant to be a conspiracy book or just a magical realism book, but I feel as if that could have been easily cleared up if it had an authors note or at the very least was dystopian. And while I would have no interest in reading a sequel, a cliff hanger ending like that with no sequel is brutal. And one last thing, a 418 ⬇️
pickWhat more can be said about this than what‘s already been said? It‘s written by a twenty-two year old and presented at a presidential inauguration. This needs to be taught in schools.
pickI‘ve never known much about the Chernobyl accident other than it happened, so this book really opened my eyes to what went on in the aftermath. It‘s the stories of two girls who-yes have life as they know it destroyed-but come together and make new-and in one case better-lives for themselves. I quite liked the characters and the plot. I‘m glad that the Rifka twist at the end wasn‘t that big of a deal because I saw it coming a mile away. 4.5⭐️
pickI bought this more for the concept of it than the actual plot. But, I was disappointed with how little the cooking show aspect of it was showed. It would be Peyton struggling to come up with an idea for about a page or so and then the next part would be half a page, judging and elimination. I felt those were too sudden because you would be reading one sentence and then the next the one person you thought would be in the finale went home. It ⬇️
A book where a girl thinks her mom is deported and there‘s also aliens? Sign me up!
so-soThis book was a… unique middle grade novel. It was shockingly violent, but had a writing style for elementary schoolers. I guessed the villain from page 4. The twists at the end seemed very sudden, and not in a good way. But, surprisingly, I was interested enough to want to read the second one. 3⭐️
Yet another shockingly violent quote from a supposedly middle grade book!
This book is confusing me so much. The writing style feels aimed towards 3rd graders and then stuff like this happens??? Where a ten year old dies in a workhouse??
so-soI read this on my kindle and at one point I looked down and saw I was 75% through??? All the way from start to finish it felt like this book had no climax. Sure, there was plot, but it was just enough to keep me interested, nothing more. And towards the end of the book, some of the supposedly “obvious” conclusions Dani came to were super unclear to me. Probably won‘t read the sequel. 3⭐️
pickThis was. . . Not what I was expecting. I think I thought it was going to be a much more literal translation of Mamma Mia, with the mother not knowing who the father is, but when it‘s switched, the entire plot of the book could‘ve been resolved if Millie just asked her dad the name of her mom. And the tagline - the one that is front and center on the cover - is a total spoiler alert. She never so much as likes the dude before the last 50 pages ⬇️
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