This Weeks Books (week ending 3/26/17)

This week I finished...

The Land of Stories: The Enchantress Returns by Chris Colfer
Well, my nine year old niece was right, the second one was better than the first.  I will have to read the third to see if the second was the best.  I really enjoyed it.  I love how one of the protagonists (I am trying not to give anything away) used compassion and empathy to defeat the evil.  It is written for kids and it is good.  I have heard the audio book is good too (my nieces like it and they have high standards for audio books having listened to Jim Dale read HP many times).  If the size of a book intimidates you, don't worry, although thick it is a quick read once it gets going (and it seems to speed up too).

Recommendations

I Recommend...

Every so often friends ask me to refer a book to them.  Some you can read below as I read them this year.  But some of my recommendations are books that I read before 2017.

My current top 3 recommendations are:

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
Especially for anyone into gaming or that grew up during the 80s.  It takes a little to get into it, but not as much as Game of Thrones.  After reading it, there are things you may question.

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
This lives with you for awhile.

Americanah by Ngozi Adichie
It is written beautifully.  It is eye opening and amazing.  And it was just chosen as the One Book One New York book, which means if you are in NYC there will be lots of events around the book.  Even if you aren't in NYC, you should read it.
http://www1.nyc.gov/site/mome/initiatives/1book1ny.page

I also recommend:

Three books I read fairly recently.  They were gifts I received at Christmas...
The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley (from my 12 year old niece),
The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart (from my 9 year old niece),
and Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey which I got from my best friend from home.

and anything by Rainbow Rowell (start with Eleanor & Park, if you have the choice).

As I recommend other things to other people, I will add them.

This Weeks Books (for a few weeks)

For the week ending 3/19/17

So I could say I didn't finish any books this week, but I did.  I listened to a really corny Hallmark romance that I found on Hoopla.  I listened to it as I walked to school or work or as I ran errands.   I did read a bit of some other things, but nothing else got finished.  (So I fessed up and this weeks picture will be non-existent as you don't need to know the title of the book ;-))

For the week ending 3/12/17

The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater.  

It is the last book in the Raven Cycle series.  It tied everything up.  It was a little darker than the other books and it was good.  I don' think it fits into any of the book challenge categories.  I did listen to this as I drove or walked.  

A Big Dose of Lucy by Marthe Joceyln.  

The protagonist is a 16 year old mixed-race orphan in Canada during the 1960s.  It is a story of gumption and courage.  It turns out it is something I had on one of my many book lists.  It also fits the all points-of-view characters are people of color as the whole thing is told from her point of view.   I enjoyed it.  There was a moment i put it down for almost a week as I thought something bad was about to happen and I didn't want to read it.  I had to remind my self it was a book for kids so what i thought might happen, probably wasn't going to - I picked it up again, and i was right - it didn't happen.  #readharder

March 12th was book club - I didn't finish the book in time and it is good (it is still not done- darn school).  

For the week ending 3/5/17

Alas, no books were finished the week ending March 5th.  Books were read, but none were finished.

This Weeks Books (books finished in the week ending 2/5/17)

Making Life Easy: A Simple Guide to a Divinely Inspired Life - Christiane Northrup, M.D.
I listened to the book on tape.  It was much more "airy, fairy" than I had anticipated and I loved everything it had to offer.  Dr. Northrup breaks everything down into to doable steps.  I ended up buying a copy to  use as reference (as following steps from an audio book involves a lot of transcription).
#popsugarreadingchallenge - audio book & book by someone I admire.

Leviathan Wakes - James. S. A. Corey (actually Daniel Abraham & Ty Franck)
I don't normally pick up science fiction on my own, but when someone recommends it, I always enjoy it.  I will have to check out the tv show (word has it, the second season has just begun), and the novella about Fred.  I enjoyed how the point of view alternated between two characters, with the exception of the epilogue.  (thank you Liane - great gift)
#popsugarreadingchallenge - a book with multiple authors (which I didn't know until I read the interview in the back of the book) & a book by an author who uses a pseudonym (the reason I didn't know it was two authors)

Dumplin' - Julie Murphy
I enjoyed this book.  Perhaps I read it too fast, but it felt like something was missing.  Perhaps her body confidence and general confidence wasn't established or thoroughly enough so that when it wavered and escaped her, it didn't feel missing.  I enjoyed all the characters and how death was dealt with - an ongoing process.  It occurs to me that this could easily be made into a film and the confidence could be easier to establish without beating one over the head with it.
#popsugarreadingchallenge - a book with a title that is a character's name (does nickname count?)

Reading in 2017

So last year and the year before, I took the Goodreads Reading Challenge, where you say how many books you will read in the coming year.   (Okay, so I just checked and I have been doing the Goodreads Reading Challenge since 2011).  I always read more than I commit to and doing the challenge has me record each book I read (or listen to).  I have enjoyed it.  As you may know, I love book lists.  And in the spirit of book lists and expanding my reading (not necessarily more, as I will be in school for portions of the year, but in diversity), I am taking on 3 other reading challenges.  Two are lists, well all 3 are lists, but one requires reviews to win.  I don't know if I care about winning, but if I am going to play, I might as well follow the rules and be eligible.

In no particular order...

The BookRiot Read Harder Challenge with #ReadHarder

The Popsugar Reading Challenge with #popsugarreadingchallenge

The 2017 Back to the Classics Challenge

So feel free to look here and see what I am reading.

Last year, I started posting pictures of the books I had read and listened to each week.  I posted them on Instagram and Facebook and usually tweeted them too with the hashtag #thisweeksbooks.  (I am @KathleenMK)  I will continue doing that and adding the appropriate hashtags from the challenges above if they apply.

I am not a book worm; I am a book dragon.
(yes, I am a dork)

If you are looking for a reading challenge and none of these speak to you, check out this list of 20 from BookRiot.

Iron Man to Roger Ebert to Studs Terkel

Tonite thinking about going to the movies, I was looking up Ironman and to make sure I had gotten the right name of the movie, I came across Roger Ebert's review of the movie. After reading that, I noticed a link to a previous blog entry of his regarding Studs Terkel. I was introduced to Studs Terkels work in my acting class with John Short. He had us choose monologues from one of Mr. Terkels' books. Anyway, Roger Ebert's article about him touched me and I just wanted to share it.