I like a good time travel book. They’re usually exciting and learning about a new time and place in a fun way is a bonus.
My personal favorites… Outlander by Diana Gabaldon – It’s been a long time since I read the first four books of this series back to back to back to back 🙂 Once day I may start from the beginning and read through the whole series. Or maybe I’ll watch the tv show. It’s a toss up.
Kindred by Octavia Butler– This was an interesting look at travelling back to the time of slavery and becoming enslaved. It left me with many conflicting feelings, something I quite enjoy in a story.
The Winter Sea AND Mariana by Susanna Kearsley – two of my very favorite books from one of my favorite authors. Both historical fiction with satisfying romantic storylines.
A few days I read Captive by Brenda Joyce and was disappointed in it. I couldn’t imagine a less strong, modern woman than the heroine. The Tripoli setting and her eunuch slave/best friend kept me reading til the end. But now I’d like a good one.
June has been a good reading month, 6 fiction books, 2 nonfiction, and 10 picture books. I’ll do another post about the the 74 books I’ve read so far in a few days, but let’s get to my favorites of the month.
Favorites
I already wrote a post about this being on my favorites list here. This was a reread for me.
Don’t worry, be happy! Everyone could use some tips on how to increase the happiness in their lives and this fun book is just the thing. I loved it and have a few new tips and resources to check out. The illustrations and short entries make it perfect for daily reflection time. They cover the obvious (excercise, laugh, be grateful, turn of screens) and the unexpected (develop discipline, understand buddhist theory, get in flow, seek internal goals).
She was such an inspiration! Joining the Navy at 37 and retiring at 80, there probably won’t be another like her. Answers the question of why we call it a computer ‘bug’
It’s about the 1931 case Roberto Alvarez v. The Board of Trustees of the Lemon Grove School District. I loved the story and the art and the 6 pages of photos and extra information at the end.
It starts with Ruth’s mother wanting more for her daughter and ends with her friendship with Antonin Scalia and showed everything she did in between to make this country one that treats women more fairly.
Also Good
The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James. 4 stars, Spooky thriller, 327 pages, 2020.
There is a creepy, sinister, and forgotten feeling you get when reading about Fell, NY and The Sun Down Hotel. There are ghosts, killers, and missing and murdered girls. The book is a whole vibe.
One storyline is about Viv in 1982 and the second is about her niece Carly in 2017. Lots of parallels and mystery that will keep you reading. There are even a few boys! It didn’t love this one at first, but it didn’t take me long to be hooked.
I saw it all over my feeds, my husband told me I had to read it, my book club read it (I missed that month), and it’s STILL taken me over a year to read it. A talking octopus wasn’t really calling to me. But, dang, if I didn’t fall for that eight armed smarty, Marcellus!
Alternating, but connected, storylines about several struggling humans and one bored cephalopod make this a sweet, healing debut novel. Did I love Marcellus? Of course! Did I read through the other parts to get to Marcellus? Yes! Did I like the rest of story? After reading all of the parts I did indeed like the book, BUT it didn’t quite live up to the hype for me. The small mysteries kept the plot moving along.
I had a hard time getting into this one, but as it went on and I embraced the ridiculousness of a divorced mom with so little money her electric gets shut off becoming an inadvertent killer for hire. It ended up being fun, although I’m unlikely to continue with the series.
The colorful illustrations brought this story about Sam to life. This talks about so many aspects of being on the autism spectrum, but all to highlight Sam. I loved this one and it starts before he even gets diagnosed with tips for neurotypical kids in the back.
Peace by Baptiste Paul, Miranda Paul & Esteli Meza. 4 stars, fiction picture book, 40 pages, 2021.
efinitely for the younger child. I loved these gorgeous illustrations so much! So many great things showing what peace is, like pronouncing your friend’s name correctly and giving far more than you take. The last page talked about how war and violence around the world affects wildlife and nature. A wonderful discussion starter.
Good information for a younger girl to help understand her autism diagnosis.
She’s Not Sorry by Mary Kubica. 3.5 stars, Thriller, 330 pages, 2024
I took nurse Meaghan on a few walks this week and followed her story of caring for a coma patient while being concerned about Chicago’s serial attacker. I had a hard time connecting with Meghan and so the book was only okay for me. I liked the few twists in the second half of the book, but the end fell a little flat.
These were okay
Papa’s Mechanical Fish by Candace Fleming & Boris Kulikov. Fictional picture book about the man who made the first submarine.
Yetta the Trickster by Andrew Griffing Zimmerman and Harold Berson. Four trickster stories for younger kids.
The first of the Lucas Davenport series, Rules, of Prey, was published in 1989 and the most recent, Toxic Prey, this year. If you like police procedurals and thrillers, this is the series for you. I’ve read them all and there’s not a dud in the bunch. The last one felt especially timely and scary since it seems like it could actually happen.
He started as a Minneapolis detective, then worked special cases for politicians, and now he’s a US marshal. I love that he’s a tough guy, but he always has me rethinking moral decisions. He talks politics in relation to his job, but takes no side, a rarity. We’ve watched him meet his wife, adopt a child from a case, and have kids of his own. His friend Virgil Flowers and daughter Letty each have their own series, but I don’t read them. They both show up in this one so I don’t have to.
You can jump in anywhere in the series, but this is one that’s fun to read from the beginning.
I didn’t start reviewing them on here until book #24, but here are a few things I’ve said about the series…
Lucas, a detective, handles only those cases that the politicos need to have disappear. His role is more of a mentor as he works with the police all over Minnesota, but he still manages to get his hands dirty. He is great at what he does and possesses an authority that others look to in a time of crisis.
In this 25th book of the series, there is a shift of sorts that signals changes are afoot and it’s been this progression of Lucas that has made this a standout, must read series for me. As he turns 50 and the winds of local politics change direction it’s clear that Lucas has some decisions to make. This case involves his adopted daughter, Letty, and I love that she has had larger roles in the last few books.
This is a place of mystery, Daniel, a sanctuary. Every book, every volume you see here, has a soul. The soul of the person who wrote it and of those who read it and lived and dreamed with it. Every time a book changes hands, every time someone runs his eyes down its pages, its spirit grows and strengthens….When a library disappears, or a bookshop closes down, when a book is consigned to oblivion, those of us who know this place, its guardians, make sure that it gets here. In this place, books no longer remembered by anyone, books that are lost in time, live forever, waiting for the day when they will reach a new reader’s hands. In the shop we buy and sell them, but in truth books have no owner. Every book you see here has been somebody’s best friend. Now they have only us, Daniel. Do you think you’ll be able to keep such a secret?” (p 5)
This is my review from when I first read this in 2010…
This is a book for book lovers just in case you couldn’t tell from the passage above. In 1945, Daniel is just a boy when his father takes him to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books hidden in the back streets of Barcelona and when his obsession with the mysterious author, Julian Carax begins. Daniel chose The Shadow of Wind to take home and he soon began to search out other Carax titles. Only there weren’t any. Someone had been destroying them all one by one. Daniel was sixteen when he began to search out the books in earnest and he was aided in his quest by the cagey and charming Fermin.
I couldn’t help but fall in love with Daniel and Fermin and I was drawn into the mess they got themselves into when they started asking questions about Carax. Why were so many people trying to keep the truth hidden? And who were the good guys? The characters they meet along the way heightened the suspense and I loved them all (well, I loved their addition to the story!).
I have the attention span of a gnat these days, but this book kept me reading every spare moment I had, even if it was only a few minutes at a time. I loved the drama, the mystery, the love, the Spanish setting, the wide cast of characters, and the love and respect of books shown in the story. This book has a little bit of everything and I loved it. Since I’m rating this a 5 it is obviously one of my favorites this year!
I’ve spent the last week listening to the audio and much of what I loved the first time was still there. The atmosphere, the characters, the stories, the mystery, and the absolute devotion to the written word all combine to make this a great read. I liked experiencing the book a second time and think the reading the words on the page is the way to go with this one. I’m keeping the book on my favorites list for now as I try to work through what belongs there and why, but I’m not sure it will stay.
“Books are mirrors – you only see in them what you already have inside you.”
“In the shop we buy and sell them, but in truth books have no owner. Every book you see here has been somebody’s best friend.”
I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Harlan four times, once in Houston and three times when he’s come to Cleveland. He is ALWAYS a hoot. He is charming, smart, and quick with the humor. You will never regret seeing him in person. I’ve read all of his books and have liked them all, some more than others. I first read Tell No One, a great place to start if you’ve never read him, and then read his first book and haven’t looking back.
Even if you’ve never read his books, you’ve probably seen at least one of his book adaptations on Netflix or Amazon Prime. They are always well done.
His thrillers are always full of twists and turns, humor, and fantastic dialogue. If you love thrillers, the kind that you can’t put down until you’re finished, this is the guy for you.
Myron is a smart ass, but one with a certain humanity and goodness and I am always rooting for him and his even bigger smart ass friend, Win, to save the day. And they usually do, but they do not come away unscathed. Myron is the heart and Win is the muscle and both are whip smart and loyal to each other. This series has a fantastic cast of characters and I love that time does go by and they are showing their age, but still kicking ass. I love all of these books.
Win got his own first person book.
And Myron’s nephew Mickey has his own trilogy. This was made into a fantastic series on Amazon Prime.
Wilde series
So far this only has two books, but I loved them both.
Jack Reacher is an iconic character. Even if you’ve never read a book in the series (28 books and counting) you may have heard of the two Tom Cruise movies where he played the antihero and divided a rabid fanbase. For me, Tom Cruise is no Reacher. Jason and I just finished season 2 of the Amazon series, Reacher, where Alan Richson deftly plays the larger than life killing machine with his own moral code. The series is good.
Jack Reacher is an ex-military cop who is roaming the United States, seeing the country he barely knows after a lifetime (36 years) spent on military bases around the world. From one of my reviews, “Jack Reacher is a man’s man, but one that women are drawn to because of his sheer masculinity and unavailability. He is who he is, take him or leave him and that confidence and physical presence makes him a force to be reckoned with.”
Why should you be reading the Jack Reacher series? Because he’s alpha male dreamy. He isn’t held back by rules but is ruled by what is good and just and he’s not afraid to get his hands dirty in the pursuit of justice. He’s a tall, commanding man who, if you count the number of women he’s charmed out of their clothes, knows his way around a woman’s body.
Read if you like – Drifters with a hero complex, larger than life characters who say as little as possible, justice being served no matter how many get hurt, and don’t mind lots of violence.
Like most readers of Harry Potter, I love JK Rowling books and when I started seeing the reviews for this series I knew I’d have to give her a post HP chance to win me over. And she did. I love this series.
I love Cormoran Strike. I loved him in the first of the series and I’ve loved him in every one since. He’s smart, grumpy and a hero who came back to London after losing a foot in Afghanistan. He could have milked the media because of his being the (illegitimate) son of a famous rock star, but he chose, instead, to live a life of purpose. He’s a bit of a mess but an honest and earnest one. He and his partner Robin’s relationship is the heart and soul of this this series.
I love the narration by Robert Glenister. He became Strike for me so I’ve listened to all 7 books (so far) on audio. I totally recommend trying the first one and seeing if you like it.
Read if you like– well plotted thrillers, disability front and center, the possibility of a workplace romance, grouchy yet smart private detectives, big big books, or mysteries set in London.
I do think that you need to read these in order to appreciate them.
That title is a bit misleading. I watched 49 movies this year and these are my 5 favorites. Only two of them came out in 2023.
I’d like to watch some really good movies in 2024, so please leave me a few of your favorites in the comments.
Peanut Butter Falcon, 2019 (Shia LaBouf, Zack Gottsagen. Dakota Fanning, John Hawkes, Bruce Dern, John Bernthal, Thomas Haden Church, Yelawolf) Grade A
Everyone deserves to be seen.
Air, 2023 (Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Jason Bateman, Marlon Wayans, Chris Tucker, Viola Davis, Chris Messina) Grade A
Is MJ really MJ without his Jordans?
Joker, 2019 (Joaquin Phoenix, Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz, Frances Conroy) Grade A
So many good books this year! You can find my picture book recs here, here, and here. My middle school recommendations here. My adult fiction 5 stars here.
Now for my nonfiction, graphic novel, and high school favorites.
These 4 boys were in high school when they beat college teams, including MIT, in a national robotics competition. It starts with telling you how they came to be in the US, how they found family in the robotics room, and where they are now 20 years later. Middle school/teens. Highly recommend for adults too.
Many of you may have heard of Zion Clark, a short documentary on his life was number one on Netflix. He was born with no legs to a mother in jail with an unknown father. He got bounced around Ohio’s foster care system before finally being adopted at the age of 17. He made headlines in his senior year of high school when he started winning wrestling matches.
Zion grew up in the Canton/Massillon area, less than an hour from where I live so this was a local story for me. But even if it wasn’t I would’ve been so moved my his story and spirit. I think that all teens would benefit from reading such a powerful story of perseverance. And adults should read it too!
This was my first book of 2023 and there were my thoughts when I first posted about it on IG.
My first book of the year is also perfectly suited for today, January 6. On Tyranny, Graphic Edition: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Professor Timothy Snyder, illustrated by Nora Krug is an important read, especially as we reflect on this day 2 years ago when our democracy was under attack from within. Drawing in the histories of Hitler, Stalin, Churchill, and others, Snyder provides stark similarities to things happening in the United States.
An important read for every American, no matter your political leanings.
#10 “Believe in truth. To abandon facts is to abandon freedom. You submit to tyranny when you renounce the difference between what you want to hear and what is actually the case. Post-truth is pre-racism”
I’ve posted more excerpts on my blog so I recommend clicking over there. Get your eyes on a copy and learn, dissect, and come away with a renewed sense of what it means to be a citizen of a functioning democracy and what that demands from us in return.
“Natural warmth has the power to heal all relationships-the relationship with ourselves as well as with people, animals, and all that we encounter every day of our lives.”
“We’re like an ostrich sticking its head in the sand in hopes of finding comfort. This running away from all that is unpleasant, this continual cycle of avoiding the present, is referred to as self-absorption, self-clinging, or ego.”
“We’re all looking for a permanent reference point, and it doesn’t exist. Everything is impermanent. Everything is always changing- fluid, unfixed, and open. Nothing is pin-down-able the way we’d like it to be. This is not actually bad news, but we all seem programmed for denial. We have absolutely no tolerance for uncertainty.”
Joan Chittister, a Benedictine sister, writes with such grace and wisdom about topics perfect for my meditative time. Vision, an understanding heart, humility, soul, holy indifference, gentleness of spirit, imagination, questioning, emotional stability, purity of heart, inclusion, and nature of the heroic in life are the chapters you’ll find.
I’ll leave you with a few quotes… “Compassion is the ability to understand how difficult it is for people to be the best of what they want to be at all times.”
“We’re not here to suppress the gifts of others in order to make room for our own. We’re here to put all the gifts of humankind into the great pool of humanity so that, because of the gifts of each of us, we can all live better in the end.”
“There are too many people trying to get into Heaven who have yet to muster the amount of soul it takes to appreciate all the life there is on earth.”
“People who refuse to question all of the assumptions that underpin the way they live-on the grounds that to ask is a violation of faith-are people, ironically, who want cheap answers, not hard faith at all.”
“The societies we live in are increasingly making our minds ill, making it feel as though the way we live is engineered to make us unhappy. When Matt Haig developed panic disorder, anxiety, and depression as an adult, it took him a long time to work out the ways the external world could impact his mental health in both positive and negative ways. Notes on a Nervous Planet collects his observations, taking a look at how the various social, commercial and technological “advancements” that have created the world we now live in can actually hinder our happiness.” from Goodreads
I’m sure most of you have seen Humans of New York online. Brandon Stanton started taking photos of people in various cities along with a caption or story and his blog gained traction. By the time his camera found the humanity and exuberant essence of NYC, people were paying attention. And still are. This book was originally published in 2013. I loved every bit of it. The people, the quick story, the quote, the photos.
I can stare at these faces for days. In this over sized picture book, James & Other Apes, James Mollison exquisitely captures these 50 apes found in sanctuaries around the world. They are seen on all of their primate glory. The eyes are the window to the soul, after all. They are each identified by names with short bios at the end of the book.
The graphic biography all ‘ladies’ and the people who love them need to read. Even if you don’t read graphic novels you will want to get your eyes on this one.
I LOVED the art, but also the women included. I knew many, like Temple Grandin and Hedy Lamar, but there so many new names to me, like Agnodice, Clementine Delait the Bearded Lady, and Nazis Al Abid. I learned more about Margaret Hamilton and Mae Jemison.
This is a graphic bio of the time when she wrote Strangers on a Train and the lesbian thriller A Pinch of Salt under a pseudonym. A Pinch of Salt was later retitled Carol and is known for having the first happy ending gay characters had gotten in books.
Loved the book and recommend it. It was the Author’s Note at the beginning that hooked me. I left out more good stuff for brevity.
“This is a story I believe is worth telling. That being said, I want to be clear: The protagonist of this story is not a good person. She was deeply anti-Semitic, racist, and misogynistic, even by the standards of her time. I’m not being hyperbolic when I say that many of her beliefs were nothing short of evil…
What a fun book this is! If you love Steve Martin’s humor and New Yorker covers you are going to get many chuckles at the mostly single panel funnies in this collection.
Interspersed amongst the rest is the story of Steve Martin and Harry Bliss, told in comic style, and how they came to put together this book. My favorite is when they were checking each other for ticks. It’s a great 20-30 minute read, sure to make you chuckle.
It’s been another crazy year of reading, with my current total at 343. Much of that has been kids/teens reading through homeschooling and Cybils Awards first round panelist reading. So, like last year, I’m not picking favorites but highlighting my 5 star reads by category.
Since I read over 100 nonfiction picture books for Cybils alone, this will be two separate posts (part one is here) SO MANY fantastic books!
This little forgotten story was made great fun by the humor of the words and illustrations. The mother and her son lived in the house as it was being rolled to a different location – for a whole month!
An American Story by Kwame Alexander, illustrator Dare Coulter. 56 pages, 2023
It’s a beautifully illustrated book that will generate great discussion no matter how old your child is. Alexander wrote this book after a conversation with his daughter’s teacher when he asked why she was teaching about the 13 colonies without talking about slavery. It belongs on all of the shelves! The illustrations were a mix of sketches, paints, and clay figures.
We Are Branches by Joyce Sidman, Beth Krommes illustrator. 40 pages, 2023
I’m obsessed with the illustrations in this book! Perfect for early elementary nature lovers.
Stacy's Books 