A reading journal… mostly.
I throughly enjoyed reading The Winning Ingredient. Mostly because I love scenes of Mia in the kitchen constantly experimenting and baking, and then having her friends be her taste testers. I’ve imagined myself on both ends as I too love to bake, and I love receiving home baked goodies.
The introductions to multiple Tamars and Fayards was something I easily got used to. They each have characteristics that got carried over through the different time periods, making their relationship evident, and simply inevitable. Also, in every life we get a glimpse of the push and pull between the two of them: one clearly being all in, and the other constantly hesitant. I also appreciated the little moments of recognition, because at some point it was the one thing I was waiting for.
From William C. Morris Finalist Nafiza Azad comes a thrilling, feminist fantasy about a group of teenage girls endowed with special powers who must band together to save the life of the boy whose magic saved them all.
Meet the Wild Ones: girls who have been hurt, abandoned, and betrayed all their lives. It all began with Paheli, who was once betrayed by her mother and sold to a man in exchange for a favor. When Paheli escapes, she runs headlong into a boy with stars in his eyes. This boy, as battered as she is, tosses Paheli a box of stars before disappearing.
What I enjoyed the most about this book are the nods to the fairytales and children’s story we all grew up with: Little Red Riding Hood, Aladdin, Hansel and Gretel, The Three Little Pigs to name a few. It’s fun seeing these on the first time Filomena steps into Never After. Even the name of the place, Never After, seems like a reference to Neverland from Peter Pan (or that could be just me, haha!).
Life In The Balance also dealt with more mature things that I would’ve expected. It talked of alcoholism and what it does to a family, and to a person. It talked of friendship and the different ways people could become friends. It also showed what pressure to perform and to fulfill a legacy can do to a kid.
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Release Date: January 26, 2021
Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Post-Apocalyptic
Unchosen follows Charlotte Holloway as she tries to keep her sisters safe in a world infected with the Crimson: a disease that pretty much turns you into some form of a zombie. Only when we finally meet present day Charlotte and her sisters, we also find out these “Vessels” (or the people who are infected with the Crimson) are evolving as we met a few who were able to keep their mind and person in one piece.
In Ming’s Christmas Wishes, Ming wishes for 3 things: to sing in the school choir, to fit in, and to have a Christmas tree.
The main story line in this picture book is that Ming wants a Christmas tree in their home for the holidays. Something her mother wouldn’t approve because it isn’t part of Chinese tradition. I am not Chinese, so I’m not well versed about their tradition and culture. However, I am an immigrant. I know how it feels to have to work around two different cultures for respect to be met in both ends.
Welcome to my stop for How To Remember Everything by Jacob Sager Weinstein, Illustrated by Barbara Malley!
Reading this, I realized I used some of the techniques presented in this book growing up: I still recite ROYGBIV to my kids when I’m telling them the colours of the rainbow; a teacher once introduced us to PEM-DAS; and a few weeks ago, in an effort to help my daughter remember directions, my husband taught her “Never Eat Soggy Weiners” (North, East, South and West).
Today’s episode was meant to be my Halloween episode. I’m sorry it’s a few days late.
I decided to read Bird Box by Josh Malerman specifically for the month of October. I’ve been wanting to see the movie, and this gives me the perfect opportunity to set the mood for Halloween, and to kind of make it a little easier for me to watch the movie. I get scared very easily which is why I don’t usually read horror / suspense books, or watch horror / suspense films.
This episode is NOT spoiler free so if you plan to read Bird Box and watch the adaptation spoiler free, then I would suggest to do those first before listening to this episode.
Happy listening, and I hope you all had a great Halloween.
WWW Wednesday is hosted by TAKING ON A WORLD OF WORDS where in we share our answers to these three questions:
What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?