Monthly Archives: September 2018

Library Loot Wednesday

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I am buckling down and concentrating on reading a book every day this week; I HAVE to knock out some of these library books!

I checked out four books this week:

To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before, which I need to read ASAP as I’m sure I won’t be able to renew it, with the popularity of the movie adaptation on Netflix.

A Whole New World, which is the first in a set of Disney stories, twisted. In this case, what if Jafar found the genie first?

Revolution For Dummies, written by Egypt’s version of Jon Stewart.

And Autonomous, about a “pharmaceutical pirate” who brings cheap drugs to the poor in a future earth with robots.

Top Ten Tuesday – Hidden Gems

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Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, and this week’s topic is Hidden Gems – books we think didn’t get enough publicity or aren’t as well known as they should be. Since I read whatever catches my interest, I’m not always reading the latest and greatest. Sometimes I’m learning more about a topic, or reading an old classic that someone recommended to me, or reading a book to fit a challenge topic. So I feel like I’ve come across a fair number of books that I thought were excellent but hadn’t really seen talked about – some of them probably because they’re older.

Little Bee, for example, came out in 2010, but is still an excellent example of a refugee’s experience. Her experiences in London might not be typical, but her reasons for wanting to escape her home country? Heart breaking.

Period came out this year, but is a wonderful, diverse collection of essays on menstruation or the lack thereof.

Bill Bryson’s A Short History of Nearly Everything remains one of my favorite books. It came out in 2004 and was a bestseller then, but it seems like not too many people know about it now. It’s a gorgeous, fascinating book on the history of science, discoveries, and the planet.

invisibleInvisible is a nonfiction book on invisible illnesses and how they affect young women. It gets into the social and physical aspects of it as well as how it affects work and relationships and mental health. The book also talks about doctors’ reluctance to LISTEN to women, which other books have gone into more detail about. The topic is near and dear to my heart, as I have at least two autoimmune diseases (and possibly a third) that dictate a lot of what I can do day-to-day.

tolstoy purple chairTolstoy and the Purple Chair is a book I read for the PopSugar prompt “book with your favorite color in the title” and I am so glad I did! The author made a decision to read a book every day for a year to heal from losing her sister to cancer. She talks about what she read and how it affected her life. It’s a lovely, sweet book that appeals to my desire to escape into books when life is hard.

cinnamon and gunpowderCinnamon & Gunpowder is a book I just read, about a chef kidnapped by a pirate. It’s a bit of a twist on the pirate adventure story, and I really enjoyed it. My full review will be up on Monday!

drowning deepI don’t remember hearing much publicity for Into the Drowning Deep – it’s a very Cthulu-esque mermaid story. I had read the novella that precedes it – Rolling in the Deep – some time ago and was very excited to see a sequel. It’s by Mira Grant, which is a pen name for Seanan McGuire. (She’s a riot to follow on Twitter, by the way!)

Next up are two graphic novels – As The Crow Flies, which is a collection of a webcomic. It’s gorgeous and a wonderful story about a queer black girl at summer camp trying to fit in, but it ends on a bit of a cliffhanger and I’ve heard nothing about a sequel despite much Googling. All’s Faire in Middle School is the second graphic novel; I just picked it up from the Maryland Renaissance Festival at Page after Page, our book shop. It’s fantastic and really gets the atmosphere of a Ren Faire onto the page.

The last book I’m not sure qualifies as a Hidden Gem or not (it just came out), but I haven’t heard much buzz about it, and I really loved it. The Book of M is a dystopia about losing memories, and it’s an interesting look into what makes a person themselves. the book of m

Book Review: The Girl Who Drank the Moon

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girl who drank the moonThe Girl Who Drank the Moon
by Kelly Barnhill
YA Fantasy
388 pages
Published 2016

I adore this cover. It was what first caught my eye when people started talking about this book, and then to find out it was a fairytale about a girl, a witch, and a dragon? I was sold. The trouble was getting my hands on it! But it has finally worked its way through the long line of other people who wanted to read it at my library, and I got to check it out. I’ve labeled it YA Fantasy, but it’s actually pretty close to middle-grade Fantasy. Definitely something younger readers could understand, but enough meat in it for older readers who like fairy tales to enjoy it as well.

I would argue that the main character is not, in fact, the titular one, but the forest witch, Xan. Xan has been rescuing the babies left outside the Protectorate for many, many years, thinking the parents were abandoning them willfully, not that they were bullied into “sacrificing” wanted children. She’d cluck, take the babies, and deliver them to towns on the other side of the forest, where the villagers knew and loved her and cherished the children, calling them blessed and Star-Children. Meanwhile, the people of the Protectorate lived their days under a gray haze of misery, ruled by a Council who cared only for themselves and used Xan and the forest as a scare tactic.

Into this world Luna is born, and her mother refuses to give her up to be sacrificed, and goes “mad” when she is forced to. She is imprisoned in a tower, watched by fearsome nuns, while the oblivious Xan spirits her daughter away. On the journey, Xan winds up wandering instead of going straight to a village, and accidentally feeds Luna moonlight instead of starlight. Realizing the girl would be too much for a normal family to raise, she takes her home. (She also can’t bear the thought of giving this particular child up.) She raises Luna as a granddaughter.

But Luna’s mother wants her back, and some of the people of the Protectorate have started to wise up to the Council’s games, and the plot really begins.

I really enjoyed this book – the characters were fun, the emotional conflicts were realistic, and the world-building was cute. This would actually be an excellent book to read to a child as a bedtime story, one chapter a night. (My parents read to us that way, working through Laura Ingalls Wilder, The Chronicles of Narnia, Tolkien, and Anne of Green Gables.) Adorable book, gorgeous cover. Slightly simplistic, but it strikes a perfect balance between a middle-grade read and something adults will still enjoy.

From the cover of The Girl Who Drank the Moon:

Every year, the people of the Protectorate leave a baby as an offering to the witch who lives in the forest. They hope this sacrifice will keep her from terrorizing their town. But the witch in the Forest, Xan, is kind. She shares her home with a wise Swamp Monster and a Perfectly Tiny Dragon. Xan rescues the children and delivers them to welcoming families on the other side of the forest, nourishing the babies with starlight on the journey.

One year, Xan accidentally feeds a baby moonlight instead of starlight, filling the ordinary child with extraordinary magic. Xan decides she must raise this girl, whom she calls Luna, as her own. As Luna’s thirteenth birthday approaches, her magic begins to emerge – with dangerous consequences. Meanwhile, a young man from the Protectorate is determined to free his people by killing the witch. Deadly birds with uncertain intentions flock nearby. A volcano, quiet for centuries, rumbles just beneath the earth’s surface. And the woman with the Tiger’s heart is on the prowl . . .

The author of the highly acclaimed, award-winning novel The Witch’s Boy has written an epic coming-of-age fairy tale destined to be a modern classic.

Sunday Miscellany

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Oh man, it’s been a rough week. Monday was a very hot, very humid day working at the Maryland Renaissance Festival. I adore the friends I work with, but that heat and humidity just ruined me. I’ve spent most of the rest of this week in a bit of a daze, recovering. Couldn’t even stitch any codpieces. I got a little bit of reading done, but not much. And then Thursday night I couldn’t sleep worth a damn – I’d fall asleep for an hour or two and be woken up by a roommate getting home from work, or my husband’s alarm going off, or another roommate leaving for work – and each time, be up for at least an hour (sometimes three) before being able to sleep again.

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The Culprit looking innocent

So Friday night rolled around and I was really, REALLY looking forward to getting some sleep. Fell asleep a little after midnight – and woke up at 2 am to the cat puking up a hairball. Or trying to. It takes her a few tries sometimes. And then she wants to chew on plastic after she’s puked. So I was up until around 6:30 dealing with the cat. Then I got four hours of sleep – which was the biggest chunk of sleep I’d had in two nights so YAY! Hopefully I’m still asleep while you’re reading these words, as I’m writing it Saturday night before bed. I’m about to collapse.

I’m pretty sure I had a couple links pulled up to post here but I can’t remember what the heck they were.

So I’m just going to leave you with the soundtrack of my insomnia.

Book Review: All’s Faire in Middle School

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All's Faire in Middle SchoolAll’s Faire in Middle School
by Victoria Jamieson
Graphic Novel
248 pages
Published 2017

For those who didn’t know, I work at the Maryland Renaissance Festival, helping a friend of mine sell leather masks (and other leather goods). Throughout the year, I actually get to help her make them, including stitching the codpieces we sell at the Fair. So when I learned about this graphic novel set at a Renaissance Festival, I knew I had to grab it. I worked Labor Day Monday at Fair, so I popped over to the Fair’s bookshop, Page After Page, and picked up the book. (They even remembered I’d asked about the book over the summer to make sure they were going to carry it!)

Once I recovered from the heat and humidity at Fair on Monday, I cracked this book open and fell into it. It’s set at the Florida Ren Faire, and it captures the spirit of Rennies and the festival very, very well. One of my favorite parts was when Imogene announced she was going to middle school, and all the adults around her reply with variations of “MIDDLE SCHOOL SUCKED.” Imogene asks “Aren’t adults supposed to encourage kids to go to school?” and her dad replies “You got the wrong kind of adults, kid.” Oh, Rennies. There are D&D games, and thrift stores, and going to the store in garb, and speaking in accents while doing normal mundane things – yeah. This is a book about Rennies, alright.

I was a little disappointed in the adults not understanding the kind of pressure Imogene was under as the new girl at school. They all commiserated with middle school sucking, but didn’t give Imogene any slack for it, and in a couple of cases dismissed how important things were to her.

I loved seeing her go from school to Fair, and seeing the different environments contrasted. The art style is great. Each chapter begins with a page illustrated like a medieval manuscript, and a paragraph written like an epic story. “After months of preparations, including but not limited to careful outfit selection and triple-checking of school supplies, young Imogene is ready to embark on her journey into the Great Unknown. Like all explorers before her, our heroine has only one thought on her mind….”

I really loved this book. It would make a great gift for any kid headed to middle school who loves Ren Faires. (Or Rennie parents!)

From the cover of All’s Faire in Middle School:

Growing up with parents who work at the Renaissance Faire, Imogene has always been sure of who she is: a brave and noble knight. But now, after being homeschooled her whole life, she is about to embark on the epic adventure of . . . middle school!

Imogene will quickly discover that in real life there aren’t always clear-cut heroes and villains like there were at the Faire. How will she find her place (and new friends) in this strange and complicated land?

Friday 56 – The Girl Who Drank the Moon

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girl who drank the moonThe Friday 56 is hosted by Freda’s Voice. The rules are simple – turn to page 56 in your current read (or 56% in your e-reader) and post a few non-spoilery sentences.

Today’s quote is from The Girl Who Drank the Moon, by Kelly Barnhill.

Memory was a slippery thing – slick moss on an unstable slope – and it was ever so easy to lose one’s footing and fall. And anyway, five hundred years was an awful lot to remember. But now, her memories came tumbling toward her – a kindly old man, a decrepit castle, a clutch of scholars with their faces buried in books, a mournful mother dragon saying good-bye. And something else, too. Something scary. Xan tried to pluck the memories as they tumbled by, but they were like bright pebbles in an avalanche: they flashed briefly in the light, and then they were gone.