Gorey!

I think I was first exposed to Edward Gorey's art on the cover of the book The House with a Clock in its Walls by John Bellairs.  And then I remember the opening to the PBS show Mystery which I LOVED.  AND THEN I found the book The Shrinking of Treehorn!  It is one of my all-time favorite books and Gorey was the incredible illustrator.    When I saw and read Nonsense!  The Curious Story of Edward Gorey I found out that he not only was an illustrator, but also an author.  Shame on me for not knowing that before this!  The Wuggly Ump was wonderful!  As was Nonsense! 

WOW!

Because I LOVED The Selection series from Kiera Cass, I couldn't wait until The Betrothed came out!  And I have to say this was one of those times when there was NO disappointment even with such high expectations!  I can't wait until the next one!   Right now the pictures won't upload on Blogger, so I will have to do that later!  But even though this is romance and romance isn't my thing, I love these books by Cass!

I Swear

No, I am NOT a fan of David Levithan's view people who like I do.  And so if someone were to ask me, "Would you want to meet, have dinner with, hang out with David Levithan, I wouldn't even think about it.  No way.  I have had enough experience with bullying behavior in my life because of my weight na I am far too old to put myself in a position to experience any more!  But I have enjoyed his books.  Invisibility I didn't enjoy NOT because of Levithan.  Not because of Andrea Cremer (now Andrea Robertson)  It just wasn't my kind of book.  I wasn't expecting it to go the way it did. It reminded me of the Morpheus Road series.  While I loved the first, the second lost me and I never finished the trilogy!  Not because it wasn't good but because it just wasn't for me.
It seemed to me that there was an attempt at some deep stuff in here...about the main guy character not being able to see seen when he was concentrating too much on the girl.  It seemed to me a little lesson in "keeping your own candle it" when you do the unity candle at a wedding, not letting yourself disappear in your love for another, that kind of thing.  But then, I don't know...it was just not for me.  BUT I did like all of the character, I really did.  And Levithan didn't rip on anyone of size! Atta boy! 

Very Glad

When I read Summer Knight I thought the reason I didn't fall in love with it was the abundance of fairies.  And I think it was.  Because I really did enjoy, 5 stars worth, Death Masks.

I think it was the fairies....

I LOVE The Dresden Files.  And I am for sure going to read more in the series.  This one was only 4 of 5 stars for me and that is only because it was so heavy on the fairies. I thought that maybe it would be about Michael, because it is called Summer Knight and he's a knight and all, but no.  But I still really am looking forward to the next one!

Terrible Peril

Grave Peril was awesome!   I was so happy to finally get it!  I love this series to much and it just keeps getting better and better.  I especially love the character of Michael and wonder if faith will become a topic in future books.  Oh how I LOVE Bob!
Another thing that made me so grateful was that when Harry's Double was doing evil things, everyone saw that the double wasn't really Harry.  I would have been SO frustrated and also disappointed that Butcher had used such a common theme in a very uncommon series if it would have been one of those "we are all after Harry" thing of mistaken identity. 

Finally!

My hold on Fool Moon finally came through and I read it in one day.  I am so enjoying The Dresden Files.  I think that they are hilarious.  They have been around since 2000 and given the long list of holds for even the first few books, a lot of people feel the same way!  

When the first two books were written cellphones were around and used a lot, sure, but not in the way in which they are used today.  So I don't know if it was intentional that Butcher explains Dresden's lack of technology in such a brilliant and believable way!  I will definitely find out though, as I fully hope to read the whole series!  

Very Painful

I waited a long time on the holds list for Hazel Wood, the first in a series.  But wow, this was really not for me at all.  I just really didn't like it at all.  This is one of the books that my goodreads group has read this year for Newbery consideration and there are so many that are not in audio format so I try to listen to the ones that are.  For that reason I really tried to stick it out.  But man, I just couldn't find anything enjoyable about this.  I am so sorry! 

Oh Wow!

My dear friend, Everett Hitch (okay, that is not her name, but we often pretend we are Virgil and Everett and she has taken great care over the years to render herself unable to find on the internet, with great success) recommended The Dresden Files  by Jim Butcher to me.  Storm Front is the first. 
Because we both love Robert B. Parker, Stuart Woods and Dean Kootz's Odd Thomas, I was very thankful for the recommendation.  There aren't any Stone-ish qualities to Harry, but there are qualities off all of the rest, especially Odd.  And wow, wow, wow, I am so excited to have a new series!  This is great! 

As Wayne Spence said, "Some people are lifters and some people are leaners."

I know I am good leaner, unfortunately.  I hope sometimes I can be a lifter...but....
The Lifters didn't do it for me.  I don't know if maybe I am in a book slump, or an attitude slump!  I would give Dave Eggers another try though.  I am just not too much of a fantasy type person and well, while I guess this is more magical realism than fantasy, it was just a little too fantasy for me, without being exceptional, so I couldn't really get into it.  I would give Eggers another read though, because the parts of the book that weren't magical were great, I thought.  The real-life stuff. 

A movie!

Children of Blood and Bone took me a wee bit to get into, but man, man, man, once I did, it just pulled me in and kept me!  Tomi Adeyemi can be found on podcasts here and here and a bunch of other places!  This is the first in the Legacy of Orïsha trilogy.  And that is GREAT!  But I just wish that they were all out now!  It is also going to be made into a movie!

SO CUTE!

Some people find the word "cute" to be demeaning, but since Meet Cute is actually titled Meet CUTE, I figure it is okay to say that the book is cute!  And wow, it is.  So many short stories but ALL were excellent.  And such diversity in the stories.  Not just in that some people love people with different body parts, etc., but there is some fantasy here, some sci fi,  and they are REALLY great!  What a super book!

Whatever After for Older?

The Wishing Spell is the first book in the Land of Stories series and it has been around for a while, but I am finally getting to it and glad that I did.    Chris Colfer  is the author and he is a guy of many talents.  I have never seen Glee, but I know it was very popular.   I just realized he wrote Stranger than Fanfiction which I really loved!  I guess I am not surprised that I really enjoyed this one as well and look forward to reading the next! 

So this is...

Maresi.  The first in the Red Abbey Chronicles and it was published in Finland in 2014 but published in the US in 2017 and it's getting some Printz buzz.  It's hard for me to make a judgement call because this is SO out of my world of reading.  It has a fantastic cover.  And the description makes it sound so good.  But man...I just couldn't really get into it at all.  I started it one day and then couldn't finish it so went back and tried again.  And I have to say that by the time I finished it, I really could appreciate what the author, Maria Turtschaninoff did with the book.  Some books take work.  And I am a lazy reader sometimes.  I think this one took work for me.  But I am glad that I worked on it!  I gave it 3 stars, but it is more 3.5 and the lower rating of it is because of my personal feelings toward this kind of book, not a reflection on the quality of it.  I could recommend this book, for sure.  Printz worthy?  I honestly don't know.  

Great Wrap Up

Lauren DeStefano didn't lose any interest or ability when finishing up the Internment Chronicles series.  The third book, Broken Crowns, is just as good as the first. 

A LONG time ago

I read the first book in the Internment Chronicles by Lauren DeStefano.  I loved it.  And I loved Wither, from DeStefano.  Fantastic.  And then some how I forgot about the series!  And so now the series has been done for a while and I just finished the second one, Burning Kingdoms which was great.  Three years after reading the first I was able to enjoy this one, as DeStefano did a great job of reminding me what the first one was about (though I did remember a lot of it, it was just that good) without giving the sense that the book was just a rehash.  Great character and world building!  So good!  Reading the third one now!

Super Special!

Personally, I find all of Sarah Mlynowski's books to be super special.  Especially the Whatever After ones.  So Abby in Wonderland was TWICE as super special, being that it was an "official" Super Special edition from the Whatever After series!  I loved this book, I love Abby.  I love the way that she is.  I love Sarah Mlynowski!

Surprised

Siren Sisters took me a while because I had to read it.  It isn't available on audio.  I just don't know.  It was good.  I guess throughout it though, I kept wondering why it was chosen to be considered for the Newbery book group.  I just kept thinking it would get to that point where I would say, "Oh!  I see!" But it just never did, for me.  Don't get me wrong- I can totally see why this would be a well liked book!  I just didn't get that "Oh!  I see!" "Yes, this could be a Newbery!" feel.

Stranger than Fiction

My thoughts about Strange the Dreamer are very strange.   I tried to get into this book four times before I made it.  And there were times when I thought I would never finish it.  And I hated it, a lot.  But now that I have finished it, I find that I can't say I hated it.  I just think it was too long for me.  But it was very original.  And it was VERY quotable.  Especially for someone very much in love.  I don't think that I will read the second book.  But then again, maybe I will.  It has been a couple of days since I finished it now,  and I do find myself going back in my head to the world Laini Taylor created.  There is no doubt that she is a very talented writer.  This just isn't my usual book.  But yes, I can see why this would be wildly popular.   I don't know if it is Printz-worthy, but then again, it is hard for me to judge being that I am so very much not a fantay person.  Yet...because I did enjoy the book so much, while it being so counter what I usually like-- maybe that does make it more Printz-worthy?  That it pulled in readers with preferences so counter?
Again, super well written.

Good News and Bad News, but what can you do?

The Thickety is an outstanding series!
That is good news!
The Last Spell is the last book, I am assuming.
That is bad news!
Because this series didn't go on too long.
But now it is over!
So that is good news and then bad news!
But had it gone on too long, I mean, it would have ended with bad news! So I guess it had to end.
Read from the beginning!