Random Musings of a Bibliophile

Here are some shorter musings on recent MG reads. Beast & Crown  by Joel Ross I wasn't a huge fan of Ross' first works. It was a me thing. I've never been super into dystopia, and I was well and truly done with it by the time his first two books came out. This was much more my type of story. It is a quest fantasy with a great cast of characters to love and root for. The heart of this team is Ji, who is a snarky lying thief. (And yes, that is my character weak spot.) There is a great deal of treachery and plot twists. Definitely worth an addition to any MG shelves. I was a bit thrown out of the story due to the world being a weird mix of British manors and California culture, but the target audience is not going to notice that as much. A Properly Unhaunted Place  by William Alexander A fun, quick read about kids who have to save their town from a malevolent ghost. This is one of those MG books where the adults can't do what needs to be done and the kids rise to...

I debated whether or not I was going to write a full review for Crossing Ebenezer Creek by Tonya Bolden or just include it in one of my shorter musings posts. It's a hard book to discuss because there is a lot the reader just needs to experience. In the end, I decided to write a full review simply because it was one of those books that kept me thinking for days after I finished it. Mariah is a slave who longs for freedom. When a contingent from Sherman's army shows up at the plantation she is on to procure food and supplies, she jumps at the chance to leave with them. Caleb was born free and works for the army driving a cart and helping with supplies. He offers Mariah and her brother a ride in his wagon. There are many former slaves who have joined Sherman's march to the sea as it makes its way south. Mariah and her fellows from her plantation find their place among them, offering the skills they need. Caleb helps them adjust an gives them as much help as he can. He fin...

Here is a round up of all the books I chose not to finish, adult reads, and favorite reads of the last three months. The DNFs (with links to my reasons why on Goodreads): Wintersong  by S. Jae Jones Non-Fiction (with links to reviews on Goodreads): Samurai Rising  by Pamela Turner Adult Reads (with links to Goodreads reviews):   Acute Reactions  by Ruby Lang (contemporary romance) Always My Girl  by Samantha Chase (contemporary romance) Forever a Bad Boy  by Genevieve Turner (contemporary romance) Love Walks In  by Samantha Chase (contemporary romance) Made for Us  by Samantha Chase (contemporary romance) This is Our Song  by Samantha Chase (contemporary romance) The Best of the Best (links to my reviews): Patina  by Jason Reynolds A Sky Full of Stars  by Linda Williams Jackson

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly themed blog hop created by  The Broke and the Bookish  and now hosted at  That Artsy Reader Girl . This Week's Topic: Books That Take Place in Another Country For the purposes of this list, I excluded not only books that take place in the US (where I live) but also books that take place in England. If I added those the list would never end. Egypt: Australia: Ethiopia: (Read the whole series.) Canada: Bolivia: China: France:

I haven't been reading much this month. Not because I'm in a slump. I've just been doing mostly rereading. I am teaching a few English classes at our co-op next year and have started working on syllabuses. This is taking a lot of my attention and time right now. There are posts scheduled for next week, and I do hope to get some new to me books read soon so that I can post some new reviews. I've been so busy, I haven't been doing bookish posts on Instagram or Litsy either. Hoping to get back on that too. Thanks to all of my followers still here in spite of my erratic posting in recent months. I love you all.

I take the 2nd Friday fo every month to highlight some upcoming releases I am looking forward to that I hope are Future Favorites. Feel free to do your own post, just please link back to my blog and tell me about your post in the comments. One of my favorite books of last year was The Dragon with the Chocolate Heart  by Stephanie Burgis. I already had the upcoming companion novel down as one of my most anticipated reads of this year, but became even more excited after the release of the gorgeous US cover. Also there is the synopsis. Fairies. Intrigue. Sign me up!!!! Once upon a time, in a beautiful city famous for chocolate and protected by dragons, there was a girl so fearless that she dared to try to tell the greatest story of all: the truth. Silke has always been good at spinning the truth and storytelling. So good that just years after arriving as a penniless orphan, she has found her way up to working for the most splendid chocolate makers in the city (oh, and ...

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly themed blog hop created by  The Broke and the Bookish  and now hosted at  That Artsy Reader Girl . Diplomacy in my own my name.                                           Do you find it easy to get drunk on words?            So easy that, to tell you the truth, I am never perfectly sober.                         Safety is an illusion. Now the trouble about trying to make yourself stupider than you really are is that you very often succeed. If you say a word, it leaps out and becomes the truth. I love you. I believe it. I believe I am lovable. How can something as fragile as a word build a whole world? I guess love's kind of like a marshmallow in a microwave on high. After it explodes, ...