This is strictly a reading update!
Giant Days, Vol. 5 by John Allison
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This was so fun. A plagiarism plot, a mean professor, Susan being a stalker, Esther dabbling in pens, Daisy being the all-around best, and a trip to Ikea. Did I mention Daisy is the best? I love her. I mean, they’re all pretty great IN GENERAL, but specifically in this volume Daisy is the best.
Continue reading “It’s Monday, and I’ve read some books since the beginning of the year”
This is it! My last weekly roundup of the year because tomorrow will be all about wrapping up the WHOLE YEAR. Whew. 2018, man. I had a lot of personal ups and downs this year, and they were all very keenly felt. Many were good and a lot more than I would have liked were emotionally intense and draining. It will be interesting (in a good way, I hope) to see what 2019 brings.
I have been in super vacation mode for the past week. In fact, I’ve been so in the vacation zone that I only made it to the gym once (on Christmas Eve) for low impact exercise, which was me and a bunch of elderly people. It was a pretty good workout–especially considering I didn’t do any other exercise last week–and I should probably repeat that tomorrow since this upcoming week looks to be more of the same. Except I’ll be taking a short trip to San Diego, so that may include more walking.
Continue reading “It’s practically Monday, so here’s what I’m reading”
Wow, so much happened in the past week that I don’t know where to begin.
1. The big thing is that the semester ended! I gave final exams, I graded graded graded and then graded some more.
My friend sent me the end of semester bingo card from social media, and I asked her if every square could be “Grading until you cry” and “more grading.” Because that was my main mood.
Oh, and also this:
Continue reading “It’s Monday! What are you reading? on an actual Monday! + #AMonthofFaves”
I started this post yesterday and was all excited I would get my Monday post done on a Monday, but I got sleepy before I finished it and went to bed. Oh well.
Anyway, this month has been a month. End of the semester, beginning of the summer session, my birthday, a work conference. I mean, it’s been a lot. But I am here and it’s all good.
School started last week, and my students are blogging this semester. You know what that means! Back to a regular posting schedule. So let’s do this.
1. Since I am in what I’m going to call the hazing period at my new job, my earlier class starts at 7 a.m. on Monday/Wednesday and 7:30 a.m. on Tuesday/Thursday. This is…not ideal to say the last. I am a night owl, so acclimating to this new schedule is something that’s going to take some time. For now, I’m forcing myself to go to bed early, so I can figure out what will work. This has so far included getting up early on today (my day off) as well.
I’d say it’s going pretty well considering I went to bed too early so woke up an hour before my alarm went off, and I just woke up from a nap about 20 minutes ago. I am making this deep sacrifice because I was absolutely horrendous (okay, crabbier than I wanted to be) to my class on Wednesday because I was so exhausted, and I do not want to be that person. It’s a challenge.
Continue reading “And now…back to our regularly scheduled programming”
I had nothing on my calendar this weekend. NOTHING.
Continue reading “It’s Monday and I actually had a relaxing weekend.”
I’m supposed to be writing up my yearly self-evaluation, so now seems as good time as any to write a blog post.
1. I continue to be in love with The Good Place. Jason Mendoza is the dumbest person alive (well, dead), and I may love him for it. Also, he died in the most Florida Man way possible. I mean, seriously. I can see the headline (highlight to read because spoilers): Florida Man Suffocates to Death in Failed Robbery Attempt. I laughed, but also: Jason. Seriously.
Like most boys, he’d grown up believing girls were emotional and fragile little things. Since moving to Kansas it was obvious the women he’d interacted with didn’t know that.
Stepping to a New Day is the seventh book in Beverly Jenkins’s Blessings series, set in the fictional (and delightful) Henry Adams, Kansas.
I have to confess that I haven’t read the other books in the series, which meant it took me a little while to get into the rhythm of the story and the rules. However, once I figured out that it’s basically a soap opera with rotating frontburner and backburner characters, I was ALL IN.
Ender’s Shadow by Orson Scott Card
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
This was fine, but a little dry mostly because it’s very interior and about a kid who thinks he’s smarter than everyone else thinking about how much smarter he is than everyone else. The only problem is that set up leaves little room for interaction with other characters and is, you know, kind of boring. But it was interesting enough for me to finish, so.
Sister Carlotta’s sections were pretty great, though. And I wasn’t that fond of the chapter beginnings. They were unnecessarily vague in places and would have worked better as actual scenes.
Royal Wedding Disaster by Meg Cabot
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Suuuuuuper cute with lots of laugh out loud moments. I am extremely tickled that Olivia finds Grandmère to be a comforting presence, but that’s the benefit of a different POV.
These books are just similar to and different from the original Princess Diaries series to delight old fans like me. Although, I do wish Olivia’s nemesis wasn’t basically a mini-Lana.
[wrap-up-posts week=”20″ year=”2016″ listtype=”ul”]
I’m already smashing my stack because I totally pulled Ender’s Shadow right off my shelf. (It was gifted to me several years ago–so long ago that I actually can’t remember when. And, yes, I just got around to reading it. That’s just how I roll.)
In more #SmashYourStack news, I have decided to tackle A Hero Ain’t Nothin’ But a Sandwich by Alice Childress (which I just found out was made into a movie starring Cicely Tyson and Paul Winfield! So there’s that).
My daughter is so confused by my reading choices right now. Most of the books I’ll be reading from my own shelves are from the ’80s, and I had a small pile of them on my bed.
Her: “Why are you reading all of these old books?”
Me: “Because we’re moving, and I want to read them so I don’t have to pack them.”
Her: *makes a face*
Linda Cooney is up next, basically. Ah, nostalgia. (I bought almost all of these books from the Friends of the Library book sale so will re-donate them to be re-sold to raise even more money for the library.)
Call it the Hamilton effect, but I totally just started listening to Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz because Lin-Manuel Miranda mentioned on Twitter that he narrated it. I can’t find the Tweet, so here is the FB post:
I had started this book a couple of years ago but didn’t finish because I had hit my no assigned reading during the summer wall (my book club selected it). However, I always planned to get back to it. Turns out LMM was just the boost I needed. And now I get to take him on my morning walks with me.
(And I just found out LMM narrates The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, which I finished earlier this year. I totally would have listened to that one, too!)
Anyway, I’m enjoying it so far, so that’s nice.
Happy reading, everyone!
The Hidden Oracle by Rick Riordan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This was super fun. Apollo is a great narrator because his arrogance is beyond belief, yet he’s also kind of likable because he is hilarious. To wit, this is a thing he actually thinks: “If she could do it, then so could the brilliant, fabulous Apollo.” And that’s AFTER his character has exhibited some growth. So.
Lots of laugh out loud moments and two of my favorite characters in the whole series showed up (as well as Percy Jackson, naturally).
[wrap-up-posts week=”19″ year=”2016″ listtype=”ul”]
Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo and Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson are both selections for my summer book club. I told myself I would give any of the book club choices 50 pages to grab me before moving on. I just started both today so have no real opinions on either yet. But I have heard good things about both of them, so I’m hoping I enjoy them.
So far Brown Girl Dreaming reminds me of Woodson’s picture book Show Way, which is amazing if you haven’t read it.
Happy reading, everyone!
The Englishist 