Light My Fire

Nothing to See Here was just excellent.  So real and so surreal.  I didn't want it to end!  Unexpected and hilarious and painful, just like real life!

A Rare and Beautiful Bird

Birdie author, J.M.M. Nuanez is proof that writers just seem to have a certain something that others don't...besides the ability to write, I mean!  I have read some really great books this year.  Ones with characters who don't fall into "normal" places and spaces.  Books written a while ago, like Stripped, that were far ahead of their time.  And brand new books like Three Things I Know are True that have address real problems and issues with care and subtlety.  Oh and The Best at It.  Just some great, great stuff. 
Birdie is just beautiful.  I like the way in which the little goodread blurb refers to Birdie as being "gender creative."  Ah how I wish the world would try to be just a little more Jack-like.  Excellent, excellent book.

Journies

The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise is a very enjoyable book.  Dan Gemeinhart has quickly become one of my "watch for it" authors.  When he has a new book out, I want to try it!  This was a really good one.  It was funny when it was trying to be and also touching throughout.  It was just a little hard to get my attention at first but then I was into it.  I really enjoyed it.  I see that the group that I used to belong to that thinks about Newbery possibilities is reading it for this month.  I am not sure if I think it is Newbery worthy...certainly Newbery Honor worthy.  Good, good book. 

LOVE THIS!

Georgia Peaches and Other Forbidden Fruit was just soooo good.  It was just the perfect kind of book for me, as it showed people who follow Jesus, and in case, even professionally minister in His name, actually acting like Jesus!  And toward people who love people with the same body parts, even!  Can you imagine!  Heaven on earth!
And it also was honest in showing how some people who claim to be following Jesus aren't quite there yet when it comes to understanding that God does not care WHOM we love, God cares THAT we love!
Complicated, but simple and sweet and funny and heart-breaking and beautiful.

Forgotten

The Land of Forgotten Girls came out before Hello Universe, which won the Newbery last year.  Last year Kelly published You Go First which I actually liked better than Universe.  I also really liked TLOFG more than HU, but still these three are really great books.  This one was good even though I really didn't like the main character.  I could understand why she was so unlikable, having had a really raw deal all of her young life, but wow, she was just super not likable, which made her more real. 

I WANTED to like it.

But Inkling was just too long and too odd or sad or something for me.  While I really loved The Nest.  Really.  Really REALLY loved it.  But this was just too weird.  Now the thing is, I didn't like Flora and Ulysses because I listened to it and I thought, "THIS won the Newbery?  This is 1954!"  So maybe that is the case with this one!

Mr. Alexander

has done it again with Swing.  And I think that this one deserves a Newbery or a Printz.  As always, incredible story full of heart and truth and one that needs to be read, by everyone.  Are there "adult" books that are written so well?  This is also co-written with the poet Mary Rand Hess, like Solo.  Very funny and touching and heart-breaking.  It will appeal to well, everyone.  Baseball fans, poetry fans, people who grieve, people who fall in love.  People of every age. 

Discovering Poetry

When a character in a book discovers the beauty of poetry, it is a really, for lack of a better word, beautiful thing.  When a person in real life discovers the beauty of poetry, it is also a really beautiful thing.  I wonder if I am projecting, but I think that people who don't like poetry maybe are afraid of it?  Or had to read poetry at the wrong time in school?  I mean, I know this was my situation.  Or maybe they just have found the right poet for them.  Langston finds his poet, who happens to be the poet after whom he was named.  Langston Hughes.  Who was an amazing poet.  Loved this book.  Not just about poetry.  Finding Langston is not just about Langston finding Hughes by Langston finding himself, too. 

OMG - SPOILER

In this case stands for Oh My Goth.  And I knew nothing about it when I downloaded it for a listen.  While it had a lot of dark themes-- another filicide attempt in this one (that is the spoiler) it was still a lighter read.  Can that be true?  Maybe I just feel that way because death doesn't scare me.  Don't get me wrong, there is a lot of sadness in this book, but the main characters are endearing. 

Just Really Good!

Tiffany Sly Lives Here Now came out this year and is another example of what I think has been a really great year so far for new books.  I am so glad that I randomly spied this one on the downloads available from my local library!  Dana L. Davis is a new to me author and well, I guess she is new to many as this is her first book!  It made me super happy to see that she already has a new one coming out next year.  And while that seems so far away, it will be here before we know it.  So I will be patient!
This was quite good.  Quite good.  Dealt with hard issues in a very real way and wasn't a "problem" novel, formulaic, that kind of thing.  I have to say that this was just really well done from all perspectives. The faith perspective is always the most interesting to me and I thought this was really well done.  Very real.  Good, good stuff.  I loved Tiffany and I ached for her and admired her.  I also loved Mrs. Stone.  And I didn't know what the DNA test results would show but I had my hopes the whole time.  And I was very happy with the results.  I also thought that Mr. Stone was such a real character.  So well drawn.  And London, too.  Just a really good read. 

Just so well done

Rain is Not My Indian Name is a book I can highly, highly recommend for so many reasons.  It made me wonder why I have not read more from Cynthia Leitich Smith. One of places I always check when I read about with Native American characters is this site.  I was so pleased to see that this book is

A Secret Secret

A Secret Garden is one of those books that EVERYONE has read, right?  Well, I was not among the EVERYONE, until now.
I think.
I mean, I listened to the book, but I don't think, now that I think about it, it was the WHOLE book.  It was one of the BBC Full Cast Dramatization things. 
Yeah, no.  This was around two hours long and the full book is around seven.
So I guess I still haven't heard/read the whole book.
AND THAT IS OKAY!
It just didn't do it for me.  Though I was really surprised by the ending.  I guess.  I mean, the dad's reaction.  It was okay.  And the two hour version was enough.
A little more than enough, actually. 

Do you have any objection to naming a child Vladimir? Even a girl?

Sunny is the third in the Track series from Jason Reynolds and oh man it was awesome! I loved listening to it.  It was read by one of Reynolds friends, Guy Lockard and he also read the other books in the series for the audio.  It was neat to hear about this at the end.
If you aren't sure about the title of this post it has to do with the name Sunny and the fantastic movie, Arthur (1981).

Too Wild

I did love The Wild Robot.  But for me, it would have been a great stand-alone.  The Wild Robot Escapes is the sequel and I hope that will be it.  But for people who really enjoy a lot of descriptive action scenes, this might be much more enjoyable.  At first I really liked it but then it just seemed to go overboard with the action scenes.

Not What I Thought- So Much More!

Checked is not a sports book.  I mean I didn't really think it would be, just because I don't think of Cynthia Kadohata is a "sports fiction" author, but she is such a great author that she can write anything she wants and you just KNOW she will do it well!
This story just got so down deep, you know?  I don't know how to say it another way.

I just wished

I liked Locked in Time.  It was good, expected storytelling from Lois Duncan.  No complaints.  But I think I could have really liked it if the setting, New Orleans, had played a greater role.  That's such an incredible city and the culture (in books and movies and tv anyway) lends itself to adding a lot to a supernatural mystery like LIT.  Still, I did enjoy this.  Very quick listen.

Someday

when I'm awfully low...this is for-sure worth watching.    Someday Angeline is not a must-read.  It's not a must-skip either.  But for me it wasn't a must-read.  I probably won't read the second one.  But then again, I might.  I mean, it wasn't horrible at all.  It just wasn't all that exceptional or entertaining.  Not love, but not bad!

Jason Reynolds Love

I have LOTS of love for Jason Reynolds who has become one of my favorite authors in a short time.  The Boy in the Black Suit was excellent.  Very real and powerful and sorrowful and hopeful and joyful.  After hearing Reynolds on that podcast I fell in love with him and was not surprised at all by the bravery and honesty of his characters.  Once I had the honor of officiating at a funeral like one of Love's grandmother.  And it is something I will remember always and it is something that taught me a great deal and really makes me understand the whole "death where is thy victory" deal.  Because death, you ain't nothin'!

It-lee

I have never been to Italy and never had a desire to go, except to see all of the incredible art.     But after reading Love & Gelato I think I would like to go!  This was a very sweet story about love and parenthood and loss. 

Iris

I don't think I have ever known someone named Iris.  I mean I know of a gal named Iris, but I have personally never had a relationship with anyone named Iris.  And the book Irises is not about girls named Iris.  Rather it is about two sisters, neither or whom is named Iris.  But the one sister loves to paint and is a talented artist and she is painting Vincent van Gogh's Irises.  The book is by another new-to-me author, Francisco X. Stork and let me say that I want to read more from him because I found this book to be just excellent.  An excellent look at sisterhood and loss and the church and faith and the meaning of life and sacrifice.  I learned a lot, too.  I learned about PVS and the difference between a PVS and a coma.  Many people, myself included (is it me or myself here!) find the term "vegetative" when applied to human beings to be offensive.  It is not surprising that this term is much more common in the UK than in the US!  I mean, to me.  I am not a big UK fan!  Anywaaay...excellent book.