Posted in 2022 Books, Book Reviews, ProjectLitBookClub

Sadie – Review

This book has been on my TBR list for over a year. Everyone I knew who had read it really liked it. So one day this past semester, I was down in our school library chatting with our media specialist, and I saw it. I went to grab it and she stopped me, “Don’t do it,” she said. My initial thought was that I had heard such good things, what was her problem with the book. She went on to tell me that the audio book was SO GOOD that I would probably enjoy that much more than the physical copy.

At that time I had about 4 other audio books on my Libby app, so I put off checking it out. It wasn’t until about 2 weeks ago that I added it and started listening to it, and within minutes, I was hooked! The book is told from a dual narrative perspective, so when Sadie is telling her story, it is a narrative, but when its West McCray’s turn, it is like listening to a podcast. There is even intro music for the show. I definitely enjoyed the audio of the book.

The basic premise of this one is that Sadie is a teenage girl whose younger sister, Mattie, is found dead and now Sadie is missing as well. You find out pretty early on that Sadie believes she knows who is responsible and has taken up on a search to find him and kill him.

As the story unravels from the two perspectives, we learn a lot about Sadie and Mattie’s past and the trauma they endured. We learn that the man Sadie is after has a much more troublesome past (and present) than Sadie even realizes as she sets off on her journey.

I feel like this book was very well put together. I haven’t read anything else by Courtney Summers, but once I make a dent in my TBR, I’ll be sure to check more of hers out.

Posted in 2021 Books, Book Reviews, NetGalley

Trouble Girls Review

I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley, and I was very excited to read it. It was hyped as a modern day Thelma & Louise story integrating the #metoo movement. I’m all about girl power, so, like I said, very excited to dive in.

Now, I don’t know if the advanced reader copy I received had not gone through its final edits, but right from the start there were major continuity-type errors. The scenes would shift abruptly where a new chapter should be, but there were no chapters in the book. Like you will literally be reading one paragraph and in the very next paragraph, you are in different location. There isn’t even a gap to indicate a shift in time. The lack of chapters in books always makes it hard for me to read because it’s hard to find a stopping point, but this book desperately needed page breaks for it to even make sense.

The story, though, is super interesting. The girls find themselves on the run after Trixie, the main character/narrator, makes a snap decision. And in all honesty, what she does is completely justifiable self-defense. But, of course, when something traumatic happens, many people lose the ability to think clearly. While on the run, the girls meet some interesting people, but they are constantly running into problems. The major one being the lack of money. I don’t want to say too much here in case you choose to read it, so I’ll stop with that.

I did scan a few other reviews and the blurbs people wrote for the major retailers, and it seems that this is a “fast-paced, thrilling novel” according to them. It was definitely not that way to me. The book dragged, and I was bored through a lot of it.

The other part I have issues with is Trixie and Lux’s (the other main character) relationship. The author never really develops Lux since it is told through Trixie’s point of view. This was really hard for me as a reader because Trixie honestly felt obsessive and a bit possessive over Lux. The beginning of the book, Trixie makes it clear through her narration that she’s in love with Lux, but Lux sees them as friends (this opinion apparently changes, and it’s stated that Lux has always loved Trixie, but I just didn’t get that vibe from anything else that happened in the book). The idea of this being written with dual narrators would have been something I would have suggested if I were an editor.

All in all, I’m not mad I read the book. Like I said, the story was good. The execution of the story could have been much better. This is a book that I wouldn’t personally buy for my classroom, but if someone donated it, I would add it to my class library. Some people, who may be less critical than I am, would probably really enjoy this book.

Posted in Book Reviews, Personal Journal

TBR – or will they be?

I saw that another blogger had posted about removing books from her TBR list, and I decided that it might be about time that I did the same. While I only have about a quarter of the amount of books on my TBR as she did, I still find it overwhelming to look at, especially as more and more books get released and added to the list.

I am writing this blog as I am working on this list. I am going to start with the books that I had added to my list when I first started tracking my books on Goodreads in 2013. So far, I feel like these books I want to keep. There are a few classics that I haven’t read yet, so they’re staying.

Okay – this is real life here. I can’t do it. I feel like nearly every book on my list is something that I still want to read. New idea. My reading goal for next year (even though I haven’t set it yet) is to read at least 100 books. I’m going to add a stipulation to that goal. At least 75 of them have to be on my TBR list. Eek!

At this moment I have 298 books on my TBR, I’m assuming that will go up as the Project Lit group announces more books for its list. But! It will be nice to make a dent in that with my goal for next year.

I hope you enjoyed reading my train of thoughts on this post and will help keep me accountable to my goal throughout the year. 🙂

Posted in Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday – BOOKS I’VE READ THAT I’D LIKE IN MY PERSONAL LIBRARY

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.

Over the last three years, I have only purchased one book for myself, and that was The Hate U Give. Since I started reading more, I didn’t think it was a great idea for me to purchase the books, so I made use of both my public library and my school’s library. In fact, I can’t think of a single book I have read over the last many years that wasn’t a library book, so this should be a pretty fun list.

#1 – The anniversary paperback Harry Potter Series. Okay, so this one isn’t completely following the prompt because I technically own the Harry Potter series, and I have started collecting the large books illustrated by Jim Kay. But I really love the cover art of the anniversary set that was released this year.

#2 – Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo.

#3 – Property of the Rebel Librarian by Allison Varnes

#4 – Dear Martin by Nic Stone

#5 – Miles Morales: Spider-Man by Jason Reynolds

#6 – Forget Me Not by Ellie Terry

#7 – Animal Farm by George Orwell

#8 – Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds (should I just say “anything by Jason Reynolds?”

#9 – Long Walk to Freedom – Nelson Mandela I have wanted to read this for a very long time, so it would be nice if it were on my shelf, and I could grab it anytime.

#10 – A first edition copy of To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee