supercheesegirl | Entries tagged with books2016

Read this out loud to my daughter. A good chapter book for her. She appreciated the mousely hi-jinks, even if motorcycles in particular aren't her favorite.

Wow, really enjoyed this. Gen is not the most likeable hero, but ends up being really fun, and the twist at the end left me wanting to go back and reread the whole thing. I'll look for more in this series.

Finished 10/18/16. Not as fun to read as the previous two books, although I liked the character development where Annie actually finds an opponent tricky enough to use magic to hurt her.

Finished 10/13/16. So much love for this series; Annie is a great character.

Finished 10/12/16. So much love for these books. Interested to see where the adventure takes them next.

I'd heard great things about this book and it's been on my To Read list for a while, which is why I persevered even though there's a mother grieving over the body of her dead child on the first page. Shortly after becoming a parent, I realized that my emotional reactions to certain stimuli had changed forever, and also that I just did not have time to waste on stuff that upsets me; I'd rather spend my limited reading and TV-watching time on things I enjoy. Thus, ordinarily, page one of this book would have been the only page I read, but I kept going. I'm glad I did, even though there was a lot that was difficult for me to read (spoiler: the kid on page one isn't the only dead or abused child in the book). Jemisin paints a world that is brutal and harsh, a people doing everything they can to cling to the essence of civilization; the first few pages make clear that we're on the edge of apocalypse, and things weren't too great before the catastrophic events began, either. But it's a fascinating world nonetheless, and not like anything I've read before. I'll definitely read the next book, but I might not get to it quickly.

Finished October 8, 2016

Florence Nightingale was so unexciting on her own that Osbourne had to set the book in Egypt and add a baby baboon, rock climbing, and jackals? Really not sure why she went this route unless she just didn't want to drop J & A into a war zone or get into the history of the Crimea. Which I guess is valid. Also, Annie just isn't Annie without a baby baboon or something. Freya liked it enough that we're rereading it already.

Found in a stack of kid books at my mother-in-law's house, and needed a new chapter book to read to my daughter. She really got into it and wanted to know what happened next! I appreciated that Nelly was a smart, aspiring scientist (not a Disney princess heroine) but I thought she should have been able to solve the problem herself without a phone call. But my daughter was on the edge of her seat the whole team and kept excitedly interjecting little comments, which is what counts.

Picked this up at a "leave a book, take a book" shelf at a park in Cranberry when I needed something to read, or I probably wouldn't have selected it myself. Still, I was expecting a little more from this. ( Read more... )It was a fun read but not recommended.

Finished on 9/28/16.

This is my favorite book in the Oz series so far, so I was really delighted to read Shanower and Young's graphic novel adaptation. I loved how the characters aren't "pretty" in the way they are in the book illustrations; they have real feelings on their faces despite being cartoons. I also enjoyed how Princess Langwidere and the Ev royal family were all pretty curvy and nobody was truly skinny. Overall I just really enjoy their take on this world. Their Dorothy has such spunk. (Note: I actually did not read this with my kid!)

Full title: Bringing Up Bébé: One American Mother Discovers the Wisdom of French Parenting. Finished on 9/29/16.

I checked this out from the library and have been listening to it on my iPad, mostly as I walk home from the train station (listening in bed put me right to sleep, and listening on the train had a similar effect). I honestly don't know how long it's taken me to finish it, but I've had to renew it at least four times. That's not to say it wasn't a good book, though - I was really interested in Druckerman's discoveries about French parenting. Although at times the book falls into a too-easy "French people make smarter better parents than Americans" rhythm, I did think she had a lot of interesting points to make. I'd like to reread this, with my eyes next time, and see if I get more out of it.

Abby Craden did a great job reading the audiobook, by the way. She killed the French words and the various accents.

Finished 9/27/16. This wasn't as good as Birthmarked (why is everyone so awful? I get that's what it means to be post-apocalyptic fiction?), but I did enjoy the woman power twist. A little annoyed at how Gaia, of course, breaks down barriers and destroys an entire social system just to get her own way, but they kind of had it coming.

Finished 9/26/16. Wow. This sucked me in right from the start. I had added it to my To Read list a long time ago and didn't reread the description when I checked out the ebook, so I was surprised to find it so post-apocalyptic, but Gaia is a great heroine, smart and flawed and interesting, and she grows a lot over the course of the novel. I also enjoyed the midwife twist. Excited to read the rest of the series.

Finished 9/25/16. A fun read. I mostly liked Ranira. I found this to be not really related at all to Wrede's first book - it's really a standalone other than one little reference - but that's fine.

Full title: The Diamond Age: or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer. Finished on 9/24/16.

I'm not even sure what to say about this. ( Read more... )

This book gets three stars for keeping me interested for over 900 pages. It would've gotten more if it had had an actual ending. (I may come back and revise these comments after talking with my book club on Friday, we'll see.)

Finished 9/23/16.

The beginning of this book is so creepy when read with modern adult eyes - Dorothy happily sets off on a mysterious road with a strange shaggy man. I couldn't help but think of what happens to the heroine of Karen Russell's Swamplandia! when she goes on a similar journey. But luckily Baum was writing in the early 1900s and Dorothy makes it safely to Oz with her new friends in time for Ozma's birthday party, which was a big hit with the under-five crowd in my house.

In addition to reading the book recently, we also listened to the LibriVox audio version in the car on the way to Pittsburgh. Narrator was OK but not great.

I'm so impressed with where Paolini took this series, and how he grew as a writer over the course of the four books. The ending has a lot of complexity and nuance; ( Read more... )If Paolini ever returns to Alagaesia, I'll go along for the ride.

This was a fun ebook to read. I was expecting more of a choose-your-own-adventure style, and up front it seems to be that, but from what I saw (and I didn't go back and follow every path) it seemed like whatever choice you made, you'd end up at the same place. You couldn't screw up and get eaten by a fish monster, basically, like in the Choose Your Own Adventure stories of the 1980s. Still, it was a fun read.

Really enjoying moving through this series. This was really long, and the character death at the end was pretty inevitable, but I'm so interested to see what happens in the last book.

Full info: Oz: Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz (Marvel's Oz Comics series #4), by Eric Shanower (Adapter), Skottie Young (Illustrations), L. Frank Baum

Really enjoyed this Oz adaptation by Shanower and Young. I haven't read the book itself yet, but I really appreciate their illustrations.