Category Archives: Book Reviews

So many books (to review), so little time!

My apologies to all authors who have given me (free) books to read in exchange for a review and for whom I have not yet written one… oh, and there are unfortunately so many more than I wish there were! In response to this backlog I have stopped requesting and/or accepting so many for review. This makes me sad, but, I think, is more honest and respectful of the hard work authors put into their books. In any case, I’m going to attempt to clear the backlog a bit by posting some shorter-than-usual reviews over the next several days/weeks. To keep me on track, here’s a list (picture me hanging my head in shame):

That list is only the books I’ve already read. I also have quite a few I haven’t yet read:

  • Vulnerable – Patricia Loofbourrow
  • Denmark Veseys Garden – Ethan J. Kytle and Blain Roberts, via NetGalley
  • Marabel and the Book of Fate – Tracy Barrett, via NetGalley
  • The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row – Anthony Ray Hinton with Lara Love Hardin, via NetGalley
  • 100 Days of Mental Health – Paul Green
  • American Wolf – Nate Blakeslee, via NetGalley
  • The Art of Hiding – Amanda Prowse, via NetGalley
  • Bored and Brilliant – Manoush Zomorodi, via NetGalley
  • Holding – Graham Norton, via NetGalley
  • No Problem, Mr. Walt – Walt Hackman

SO, as I write the reviews I’ll pop back in here and link to the book and my review. AND, keep in mind, this list does not at all include books I’ve purchased or acquired by other means and hope to review someday…

Wish me luck!

If you’re looking for some light reading…

…check out F in Exams: The Very Best Totally Wrong Test Answers by Richard Benson. I probably wouldn’t have picked it up myself, but I got it as a gift and it certainly entertained.

Here are two examples from the back cover:

  1. What is the highest frequency noise that a human can register? Mariah Carey
  2. What was the main industry in Persia? Cats

A couple from inside the book:

  1. Who wrote The Republic and The Apology? Playdoh
  2. What is Sir Francis Drake known for? Sir Francis Drake circumcized the world with a 100 foot clipper

This last one unfortunately reminded me of a seventh-grade science test where I am fairly certain I answered “contraception” for some other, unknown c-word. Maybe I had just learned what it was? I have no idea…

So, all in all it wasn’t laugh-out-loud funny, but it was good, light bedtime reading that kept me smiling throughout.

Three stars!

Prairie Girl – My first book of 2018

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So my first book of 2018 was a kids book, and I didn’t even read it to one of my kids! My oldest read it on her own and I decided to give it a quick read last night for myself. I’ve been a big fan of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House books ever since I read them in second grade. I still remember my second-grade teacher taking me to the bookcase in the school library and suggesting I read the series. (I also continue to be irked that she did not recommend them to me in chronological order but rather had me start with Little House on the Prairie.)

So, I went my entire childhood and most of my adult life thus far believing the Little House books were nonfiction. And then. I found them for my daughter in the “JFIC” section of the library. MY WORLD WAS UPENDED. Ok, not really, but I was disappointed. I felt like I had been lied to, which is kind of ridiculous, but I felt unsettled knowing the books were partly/mostly true but not knowing which parts! This was obviously not a pressing priority in my life, but I did kind of have in the back of my mind the desire to read more about Laura’s actual life and about the writing of the books. I happened upon Prairie Girl in the library one day, and so I checked it out — more for me than for my daughter, though she did read it first 🙂

On its own, the book isn’t amazing, but I did enjoy it. It’s nowhere near as engaging as Laura Ingalls Wilder’s own writing, but it is a very simple and approachable biography for a child and a great introduction to her biography for an adult. It very straightforwardly addresses tragic events (like the deaths of Laura’s infant brother and later her infant son), which seemed to go over well for my daughter. It helped put the fiction books into context for me and understand how Laura herself could say the “stories” were “true” without being works of nonfiction, and I learned a lot about her adult life. It seems strange, in a way, to think of adult Laura owing a car — in my mind she’s always the little girl in the covered wagon or the teen in a buggy with Almanzo, her suitor.

In any case, this is a lot of rambling today but I wanted to share my first book of the year! I got an overall positive feeling from the book and now I’m interested in reading a biography of hers written for adults rather than children.

Three stars!