Those pesky humans.

Loved it.

“And I knew the point of love right then.
The point of love was to help you survive.
The point was also to forget meaning. To stop looking and start living. The meaning was to hold the hand of someone you cared about and to live inside the present. Past and future were myths. The past was just the present that had died and the future would never exist anyway, because by the time we got to it the future would have turned into the present. The present was all there was.” 
― Matt Haig, The Humans

So wonderfully different

Deliciously different.

This may be billed as YA, but I loved it.  Such a novel take on fairyland and adventures.

A book 2 that was more enchanting than book 1???

I love these characters and the concepts are so wildly different.

From all the trilogies it seems I have read in the last few years, this is the best book 2 I have read in a long, long time.

Damn.  Now I have to wait for book 3.

Four Londons, you say?

Fantasy has been such an enchanting genre for me this year.

Again, a truly novel surprise.

A book and a movie...

You know, I am randomly assigning dates to books I have read in the last few months in an attempt to at least track the books that have been impacting my psyche.

This was nice.

The movie was nice.. except for maybe the tree boobs that tried to squish one of our main characters.

Not as captivating as some of the YA fantasy I have been reading, but okay.  This doesn't quite sell you for this one, but it kind of feels like 13 year old girl stuff. Not in a bad way, just not as intriguing as most of the other stuff I have been reading.

Better than most

If you want a mystery, a bit darker, Tremblay is a talented writer.

Having read many of the popular fodder types in this genre, I think this is a step ahead and ultimately not as bleak of a novel compared against Gone Girl or Girl on the Train.

Although well written, I had a harder time getting in to this one .. however I think that is more due to the other types of books I am reading than this one itself.  Hopefully that distinction makes sense.  I am more on a fantasy kick and this one was just way out there compared to what I have been reading.

Thinking women you say?

Another enjoyable read.

This has been a part of a great fantasy kick.

Go Big...

 A highly quotable book, this.  If I am on a fantasy kick, I would also have to admit to being on a bit of a YA kick.  There is some kind of magic roaming through different genres far and wide and trying to pluck out some gems.

This human condition thing is an interesting beast.

I really enjoyed this book.  A different kind of heroine - at once, many different things: self aware of her size, confident, insecure, beautiful, funny, nasty, emerging into an older version of her self (AKA growing up).

It is great to see so many different voices, and how important they are to find.  I was going to say as a young person, but hell, I am in my 40s and I enjoyed it and got something out of it... so it really isn't about age.  It helps to hear different voices, different selves growing up, being insecure, making mistakes, being pulled in too many different directions at once.  I didn't always like Willow, but we aren't meant to. She pissed me off sometimes and I wanted to smack her.  I wasn't always comfortable - as a person who has never been small, there are some things written in this book I have definitely thought.  I also love how female friendship is handled in this book, and power struggles, and how important honest communication is.

How hard is to quiet that voice in your hard? We all have that harshest critic that questions whether or not we are good enough.  It is harder when you don't quite fit the normal mode, or the average.  Yes, I can hear that voice saying to me but HEY, what is normal anyways? I would also say normal is whatever your experience is of this thing called life... but there are some experiences that are outside of what is generally experienced.  Like when Willow says she hates going to a mall because 90% of what is inside won't fit her.  There is truth in that statement. I can't say I like going to the mall.  Select stores, maybe.  I hate many things about the mall, feeling inadequate because the clothes in the trendy stores don't normally fit doesn't help.  It is why I will never purchase lululemon clothes.  Their whole thing that they aren't for fat people, and their small sizing and big pricing.  Beauty comes in every size, and even folks who have some extra padding can be active and want some quality yoga pants.  Even if I was a 10 or even a 12... owning a pair of lulus isn't the hill I am going to chase.

This is a quick, fast, enjoying coming of age novel from a larger gal down south in pageant country.

Full on fantasy kick

I don't think I saw this one coming.. but I seem to be reading a lot of YA and fantasy novels this year.  They seem to be filling some kind of need - or perhaps this is an offshoot of the books that I am reading with my kids.

This is a cool idea - what if dragons exist, form deep bonds with humans, and we use them in warfare?  Enter this novel, during naval battles between Brits and the French in the time of Napoleon and Nelson.  A very different take, and quite enjoyable as a summer read.

Where?

There is something wonderful about Gaiman's imagination.

I am sure a conversation with him would go in weird and enlightening directions.

Again, a totally different novel that was at once enchanting, and a little dark. I like the worlds that Gaiman creates, and this is a different take on New York, London, and the places that exist in the cracks of society.

Good read.

Far better than some of those popular thrillers...

VERY interesting book.

This is one I would love to discuss with my bookclub ladies.

Damn, I wish I would have written this after I had finished this book, not attempting to reconstruct my impressions weeks later.  Such is life.

This is about a family cracking around the edges, and something terrible happens in the tradition of old school horror movies meets reality TV.  Well worth a gander.

That wolf in the tower

I love being able to adjust dates. It is like having correct history at work.  I must admit, I am a bit shocked that it has been a while since I updated my blog. I didn't mean for two months to go sliding past, but they did.  I am writing this in August, and dating it for July... purely to almost accurately track what I was reading and when.  For some reason, I like having this record.  The books I read throughout the year are but one of the joyrides I am on.

You could also track my year by kids sports.

How many walks I take at lunch at work.

How many times I check my budget.

I am loving the different fantasy books I have been reading.  This was another one that was a solid entry for me.  Great summer read, I liked that this one wasn't a series, and different enough.

Well done trilogy

All three were great, and the second book didn't go through that terrible slump that so many second books do.

This is such a different series, and the embedded photos are just wonderfully strange.

I am really looking forward to seeing this movie when it comes out.

Still lurvley.

When you are a little ragged around the edges and want to read a lovely book.. any in this series is worth your time.

Nothing earth shattering, just lovely reads about the fictional town of Ballybucklebo in Northern Ireland in the mid 20th century.

Something about this series...

Does this book/series count as a guilty pleasure? I would say magical fantasy and defintely YA, and I loved them all.  I have no idea why... but they were just right up my alley and I enjoyed all four books.  This one was no exception.  Heck, I may even go and read her other series.

Lost something...

This is fantasy in a totally different direction.

If you love Literature, and get off on your grammar... I think you would really enjoy these books.

I liked it... but it wasn't a speedy read or one that kept me up at night.

Unexpected

Sometimes it is good to blog in the moment so I don't lose some of the thoughts that are rattling around in my brain. I do think that when so much can happen in any given day (work, commute, meals, kids, sports, cats, laundry, food shopping, friends, Facebook) if you don't stop to reflect for a few moments, you can truly lose so much as it just becomes a bit of white noise in your life.

This was a great YA book.  It seems that there have been many more YA books peppered in to my daily reading in the last few years. I am so grateful I opened my eyes and my heart to different books.

I never thought that the first time I read about someone with hydrocephalus it would be in a book such as this.  First line in the book essentially talks about this kids' water on the brain and how he was lucky to be alive.  And then life moved on.

Isn't that just the thing? Life is complex. Life is many things.  At one point, our main character comes to realize that he may be a Spokane Indian, and more nomadic than his peers, he is also part of the people that love basketball, and comics, and reading.  This is a book about community, and growing up poor and Indian and on the rez, and how it can be such a terrible cycle to break to get out of a life without hope and to get farther than two miles from where you are born. I did some googling, and apparently this book is BANNED in some schools! THIS IS A GREAT read!! It is a coming of age novel that tackles some pretty heavy topics, but isn't that life? We cannot pretend for our kids that crappy things don't happen.  We can't put our kids in plastic bubble wrap and think they will never get hurt, or their heart's broken.  We need to build resilience.  Foster hope.  Encourage joy.  Keep them curious.  This is a great book and would be an interesting addition to grade 8 - 10 curriculum, especially from a different perspective that we don't always hear from.

So many different things you could say about this book.  I enjoyed it.  I thought so, until I read the first few lines, wigged out a bit, slept on it, and carried on.  I laughed, and I ached for this poor kid.  Human experiences, I think we can all relate to a part of a book like this.

This one had promise ... but ...

The writing was fair, the characters started off showing some promise.. and then I started to lose interest because the story just seemed a bit predictable by the end and I found myself getting a wee bit frustrated and turning the pages faster and faster until I finished the book.

Very average.

Surprising.

This was better than I thought! A totally different choice for book club this month, and I found that I really enjoyed reading about Lowe's life.  I was surprised about some things, and I really enjoyed reading the passages about when he was making the 'Outsiders' movie.  Reading the stories about growing up with Charlie Sheen and Emilio Estevez as your best buddies was a bit crazy after having been a little younger and watched all those brat pack movies.

There were good stories, and insights (such as being surprised about Lowe's sobriety), and Lowe comes off fairly self aware and intelligent (not just a pretty face).  Some of his comments about fellow actors were interesting (such as how talented and driven Patrick Swayze was).

This book didn't dish out on people, or throw them under the bus, you get the impression that Lowe truly loves his wife and is grateful for her, and that he made mistakes when he was younger. The stories are good, however, they don't get in to the really nitty gritty details of what really was happening, but I think enough details are revealed to keep you interested as you read this book.

A slow burn

This is the kind of book that creeps up on you.

Not quite as engaging as Blackberry Wine... but the characters draw you in and this is a well crafted book.

A very different perspective of life during WWII in France from a child's perspective.

I enjoyed this one as much for how it is crafted as for the story itself.