'll admit, the first time I read (listened) to the book, it was a three star. A "hmm, that was pretty good." But then when my son asked me to tell him the story, I think I got more out of it than I realized and it went up to a four star. I love any fractured fairy tale, any story that embellishes on a fable or myth. And this one focuses on not King Midas, but his daughter who he turned to gold. And that gold has rocked her world ever since. I can't say there were any moments that I was flabbergasted, as the typical twists in YA tend to now be tropes. But overall, it was full of adventure, fairly good characters, and blessedly clean (not a YA normality, by the way). I look forward to the second book, Curse of Gold. Thanks, Annie!
4/5 stars
'll admit, the first time I read (listened) to the book, it was a three star. A "hmm, that was pretty good." But then when my son asked me to tell him the story, I think I got more out of it than I realized and it went up to a four star. I love any fractured fairy tale, any story that embellishes on a fable or myth. And this one focuses on not King Midas, but his daughter who he turned to gold. And that gold has rocked her world ever since. I can't say there were any moments that I was flabbergasted, as the typical twists in YA tend to now be tropes. But overall, it was full of adventure, fairly good characters, and blessedly clean (not a YA normality, by the way). I look forward to the second book, Curse of Gold. Thanks, Annie!
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4/5 stars Independent reading is not utilized enough in the majority of classrooms, but this book will get the ball rolling for at least having discussions about it. The premise is amazing- just have students read books in their reading class. That's the majority of what they do. They have certain goals they need to make such as genres and number of books, and then authentic questions are asked by the teacher. Revolutionary. But not always practical. But maybe a good middle point for high school.Independent reading is not utilized enough in the majority of classrooms, but this book will get the ball rolling for at least having discussions about it. The premise is amazing- just have students read books in their reading class. That's the majority of what they do. They have certain goals they need to make such as genres and number of books, and then authentic questions are asked by the teacher. Revolutionary. But not always practical. But maybe a good middle point for high school. 4/5 stars
Once I finally figured out what was going on, I really enjoyed this book. It's a sweet story about the importance of family and how everyone needs help. A young ghost help a teen who is sadly in charge of her family's laundry business after her mother dies and her father is suffering from depression. I appreciated that this book showed resilience can be found in young people. It showed that sometimes rules of crossing social boundaries (i.e. cool people vs. uncool people) really should be broken. And it showed that when help is needed, sometimes rules need to be broken. Oh, and never trust an extremely overweight lazy yoga instructor. 4/5 stars Please keep in mind with this review that I don't typically read anything with the word erotic in it. But, this was a Reese Witherspoon book club choice, so we decided to see what the hype was. It was definitely nothing that 50 shades would be (I'm assuming), but rather it was more about women from the Punjabi culture who are widowed and proving they should not be forgotten. I love learning about other cultures and this one did not disappoint. It was set in London, with a bit of a mystery which was tied into the Indian culture. Two sisters are both looking for a romance (sort of) but from different viewpoints- one by arranged marriage, another by self-choice. Another cool thing I enjoyed was just how similar the cultures are starting to meld- the Indian and the western culture. Thanks to my friend who has first hand knowledge of India, she backed up the fact that what were once strictly traditional (such as arranged marriages or women's lack of freedom to work) are no longer social mores. And I giggled a few times, which was always fun. Definitely not going to read this with my 11 year old daughter, but I don't think it's about smut. 4/5 stars
I will not compare this book to any other book. I want to, but the fact is that I don’t think that’s fair to either the original book or the one discussed. With that in mind, here is my review, If I had to completely rid myself of clutter based on what other people consider clutter to live in a house that is monitoring my lifestyle from the temperature of the shower to what I wear or eat, then maybe that would prove that I’m a bit bizarre myself, much like the two women who lived in this house. Their degrees and types of weirdness were different, but there were some twists in the book that were pretty good. Actually, I can honestly say that every character surprised me in some way. I don’t know that I would have had such a positive review if it hadn’t been for the book club that discussed it. It was such a great discussion, that it actually increased my star rating for the book. 3/5 stars So who knew about the liaison between Jack London’s wife and the illusive Harry Houdini? And who knew about the extremely unique physicality , or lack thereof, of Harry’s sweet, albeit somewhat odd wife!? I didn’t, and so that pearl was pretty fascinating in the book. However, the majority of if seemed redundant. Amazing author with the secret muse of the tortured wife who lives her life to inspire her genius of a husband. Yet the reader finds out that the muse has talent of her own. So like Zelda Fitzgerald, at least one or two of John Steinbeck’s wives, and now London’s wife, we see that to be the wife of a famous author only breeds angst and hurt. And can I just say the description of London’s wife and the pictures I saw didn’t really match up. She is written as an athletic beauty, but her pictures showed her as normal. Could be my own personal idea of what beauty is, though. Interesting book as I read it, but not super memorable. 4/5 stars Ah, another feel good book. It's like watching Hallmark movies. Actually, I think this would make a terrific Hallmark movie. It's predictable, but you still want to go on the journey with the three main characters. You want an Arthur Truluv in your life. And while I could say it's about a young girl who befriends an elderly gentleman and goes to his house and eventually lives with him, it really wasn't creepy at all in the book like I just described it. And please don't think it is anything that resembles Harold and Maud, because it doesn't. It's a book about family, commitment, and where we can find happiness. Oh, and throw in a pinch of the importance of patience, and you've got yourself a good book. Not 5 stars because apparently one character cooks extremely well. I was therefore expecting some good recipes at the end. Sorely disappointed, as I want to try the orange blossom cookies that were apparently heavenly. And I don't have Lucille's recipe, and so I cannot completely connect with the book until I have that recipe. I may have to email the author for it. 3/5 stars
I think my elementary kiddos will enjoy this. I also kind of thought that the kid in the book had a good outlook and positive demeanor that will be an example to my kids that despite being turned into a mouse, life can still work out ok. But this book wasn't my favorite. Perfect for Halloween, though, so that's good. 5/5 stars This book kind of rocked me to my core. I was afraid for the characters, and I physically grimaced and some of the parts. And to actually think that these white supremacy groups are lurking in many of our backyards is just chilling. This book helped me feel like there is hope, though, for some people. I'm sure there are people like Nate who was born into the supremacy commune, "The Fort", but still had enough decency to realize it is completely wrong. But of course, he can't come out unscathed, especially in the way he did escape. And that reporter! I won't spoil it, but I will say it again, That reporter! There were a couple of parts I wasn't keen on in the book (aside from the nazism, of course), but overall, I do feel like this book kicked something inside of me to wake up a bit and realize that not everyone wants to sing Kum-Ba-Yah just yet. 3/5 stars
Hmm, I sometimes have issues with some books that deal with psychopaths. Just how aware are they that they are psychopathic? And with this book, in particular, how is it that a young girl/, 5ish years old, can't understand that her mommy loves her and totally goes ballistic when mommy does something any other mother would do? And then this young girl turns around and creates a creatively fiendish plot to kill her mother? And at what point do parents (or in this case one parent) completely disregard what several different schools say about your daughter? So while I enjoyed the cat/mouse game the girl had with her mother and vice versa, I can't say that I completely found it plausible. It was entertaining, and we'll leave it at that.Hmm, I sometimes have issues with some books that deal with psychopaths. Just how aware are they that they are psychopathic? And with this book, in particular, how is it that a young girl/, 5ish years old, can't understand that her mommy loves her and totally goes ballistic when mommy does something any other mother would do? And then this young girl turns around and creates a creatively fiendish plot to kill her mother? And at what point do parents (or in this case one parent) completely disregard what several different schools say about your daughter? So while I enjoyed the cat/mouse game the girl had with her mother and vice versa, I can't say that I completely found it plausible. It was entertaining, and we'll leave it at that. 3/5 stars
I can say that I was the one person who really enjoyed this book from my book club. For most it was just a story that they had to read, but I have to say that I truly enjoyed all the little nuances of the book. In fact, I told our creative writing teacher about the premise of the book, that a man authored stories about lost objects that he kept, and so the writing teacher brought in random things and had his students write stories about an object. At least, I'm assuming the blender was for that, since margaritas are illegal on school grounds. Anyway, I would like to say that I wasn't particularly excited about the ghost aspect of the story. I was caught very unaware of the fact that there were extra characters in the story that I couldn't see or distinguish. I did, however, love the relationship between Bomber and Eleanor? (I'm horrible with remembering names). I thought that their relationship was just so sweet. She loved him, and he her, but it was to be forever platonic. But they were a fun couple, and they were family to each other, with the dogs as their kids. I loved Sunshine and her ability to surprise everyone with her amazing sense of awareness despite the fact that she had down's syndrome. It was a feel good book, and one I needed to read after some heavy-hearted books, and it came at just the right time. So I truly enjoyed the book. Just not the ghost part. I thought that part was kind of stupid. |
AuthorI'm a high school librarian. I love to read. Really. Love. To. Read. Archives
December 2023
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