Adult | Readers Be Advised

The 31 Days of December: Blinding me with science

Today is the second anniversary of my now-thirty nine year old cousin’s heart transplant. I blogged about it here. And I shared a book that I read pretty soon after that called The Man Who Touched His Own Heart: True Tales of Science, Surgery, and Mystery by Rob Dunn. I want to celebrate her two years with a new heart and having her on this planet still.

Plus give a little love to the nonfiction writers out there who blind us with science. I seek out nonfiction regularly for every type of audience from picture books like Tiny Stitches to middle grade like Breakthrough! to young adult like Jane Against the World to adult like Pump. Simply because I’m fascinated by science. I’m in awe of it, the developments over time, and the people who make it happen. I still get a little teary thinking about my LASIK surgery in October, correcting my fairly horrible eyesight (since fifth grade) in the matter of 15 minutes. I think about our school’s valedictorian last year who was going to become a surgineer– she didn’t want to *just* be a surgeon but she wanted to design the robots that aided in that surgery, the engineer too.

Cheers to STEM and the books that explain it to those who love reading about it.

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Posted by Alicia Abdul on December 4, 2021 in Adult, Blogging, Childrens, Middle grade, Nonfiction, Reflections, Young Adult

The 31 Days of December: Morning reading joy

02 Dec

A few years ago I decided that I wanted to incorporate 15 minutes of reading into my morning routine. It’s looked different each year, especially last year but it gave me a sense of accomplishment along with my workout and first cup of tea to have at least 15 minutes to read. This year, I tend to do it through Hoopla on my tablet since I’m already using my tablet to read the newspaper. Usually Hoopla is reserved for my graphic novel titles because they have an awesome selection but I like how their comics reader is done that if the full page is too small, double-tapping will allow you to scroll panel by panel.

I didn’t need this feature yesterday morning for my reading and I wanted to share my morning reading joy on a humdrum Wednesday. It was In Love & Pajamas: A Collection of Comics About Being Yourself Together by Catana Chetwynd which had come to my attention during the Goodreads Choice nominations. And I fell in love. Because Chetwynd’s story is a celebration of connection with a loved one. The characters are as adorably delightful as the communication (verbal and nonverbal) between the couple. I chuckled. I sighed. I felt warm and tingly. It was the perfect side for my morning *three* cups of tea. Then I proceeded to borrow the other two that were there as well.

I sat and finished it before getting ready for the day because I had the time and the want but whether it was a simple 15 minutes or a whole comic collection, I find joy in the bit of time I do spend to read because if something is important, we make the time for it. What is that for you?

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Posted by Alicia Abdul on December 2, 2021 in Adult, Blogging, Cover Love, Graphic novels

Outstanding book of the month for September 2021

30 Sep

The launch of a new school year always means there is so much to get organized even when you felt organized right from the start. Therefore, my reading has been disjointed; a cobbling together of an audiobook while doing housework and driving to and from work in addition to my obligations on a book committee and interspersing that my literary lunchbox features. There seems to be no fluidity yet. However, even disjointed reading is reading and I was able to review September’s books (that I CAN talk about) to pick my favorite of the month:

The Lost Spells by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris

But not the print version because I didn’t read it in print. Instead, I listened to the audiobook of the collection of poetry via Hoopla and was ensconced in the sounds of the forest and animals added to the audio with a multi-cast set of readers during a walk. It’s a brief collection. One that I wished was longer because it captured the essence of nature in ways that the print on the page might not have. This is an audiobook done right. One that uses the format to its fullest and it was not disappointing.

Don’t wait until April to read this collection of poetry. It can be read it any season. It’s warmth on a winter’s night or a heightened sensation of all of spring’s beauty. An amplification of nature for nature lovers everywhere.

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Posted by Alicia Abdul on September 30, 2021 in Adult, Book of the Month, Poetry

Outstanding book of the month for July 2021

31 Jul

I’m cheating a little for this month and choosing one graphic novel, one adult nonfiction, and one fiction title for my outstanding book(s) because I had some fabulous reading material (including the secret kind that I can’t tell you about). So here goes for the month:

This memoir is spectacular for its honesty and storytelling. Rosser grew up in West Philadelphia in a large single-parent family and discovered his love and talent for polo when his brother stumbled upon the Work to Ride program set up nearby. Rosser shares the discrimination he and his teammates faced as a Black team but also the resilience of a love of a larger community that wanted to see kids succeed.

I stayed up way past my bedtime to finish the finale to Lee’s Montague Siblings trilogy because it had all of the spectacular action and adventure, wit and tenacity as the first two. It was a delightful end as you follow the much younger Montague sibling (who didn’t know Monty and Felicity existed until the start of this book) on a fact-finding mission about his mother’s death and the spyglass that she had once carried everywhere.

You’ve got to appreciate sass and Charlotte’s got it in spades. She’s a teen detective on her way to *hopefully* win an award for her work until she’s caught up in a plot to frame her and take her down. Boom! Studios is always a favorite of mine with much of what they put out because I vibe with their artistry and bright colors, but also their spunky characters. This one didn’t fail as I continue reading the issues via Hoopla.

What were your favorites of the month?

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Posted by Alicia Abdul on July 31, 2021 in Adult, Authors, Book of the Month, Cover Love, Fiction, Graphic novels, Nonfiction, Young Adult

Outstanding book of the month for June 2021

30 Jun

I knew I wasn’t going to create my book of the month post yesterday to post for today because I was in the middle of the book I was going to bestow that title to. I would carve out time today after an early morning walk with my librarian friend, Stacey, a little food shopping, and some other reading, to finish this book. And I was not wrong. And I was not disappointed. Behold, my June selection!

Published this past August, I have been on the wait list at the public library for quite some time. Once it came in, I brought it home and immediately felt the apprehensiveness of cracking the spine because I could feel the magnetic pulse of a book that would move me.

Nezhukumatathil is a poet, so it’s without question that she has a command of words. And as an avid lover of nature as evidenced by these vignettes, she has a command for sharing it with others. She’s like a literary Sy Montgomery and I say that as kindness for both. Montgomery is a scrapper, woman’s woman scientist who gets her hands dirty, her armpits sweaty in the forest, and rolls up her sleeves for the work. Who then parlays that into fascinating books for kids (and adults) about her adventures and learning from tarantulas to octopus. Nezhukumatathil is an explorer and an observer who won’t shy away from the experience, but isn’t in it for the scientific study but rather the enlightenment it will provide. And that is equally beautiful.

The vignettes of birds, plants, and animals are only several pages in length but leave a life lesson within each that pulls the reader closer to nature and asks the existential questions along with it. The writing was magical. The descriptions were breathtaking. And the muted illustration was a cherry on top to this tiny but powerful book.

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Posted by Alicia Abdul on June 30, 2021 in Adult, Authors, Book of the Month, Cover Love, Nonfiction

Outstanding book of the month for May 2021

31 May

More novella than novel, Sy Montgomery wins my heart over again with her magical storytelling about the most nonmagical magic– the natural world. Clocking in at 96 pages or just about two hours on audiobook, her newest: The Hummingbird’s Gift: Wonder, Beauty, and the Renewal on Wings is a special gift for readers and why it’s my favorite for the month.

Her deep connections to the animal world allowed her to weave her scientific escapades with her art of writing that allows the couch scientist to experience animals hidden deep inside jungles or the ones that we rarely think about right outside our windows. This story is a rescue mission; the rehabilitation of several hummingbirds by a friend of hers while she was able to help caretake alongside. The interwoven history of hummingbirds and their significance to groups worldwide is evidenced by their names in other cultures is given equal status in the book with the health of the bird’s of the story.

My recommendation would be to listen to Montgomery tell you the story via the audiobook version as I did because nothing can replace the emotional and logical approach to keeping the hummingbird’s alive. It’s an action-adventure in real life– will they or won’t they survive? What is the ethics of saving them? How do they experience the world? It’s all packed in this slim volume that feels as luxurious as a bite of dark chocolate.

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Posted by Alicia Abdul on May 31, 2021 in Adult, Authors, Book of the Month, Nonfiction

Outstanding book of the month for March 2021

31 Mar

Is it that time again? Looking at my calendar, it is! My outstanding pick was a recommendation from a kindred book friend who said I must listen to the audiobook. Now I’m recommending it to anyone who will listen that you must listen to the audiobook.

I was crushing on Barrie Kreinik and Peter Ganim who narrate Nancy Wake and Henri Fiocca. Kreinik brought the French accent by way of New Zealand perfectly along with the zest and spunk of the real-life Nancy Wake that Ariel Lawhon presents to readers in Code Name Helene. Wake was a woman on a mission of resistance living many lives at once at the onset of World War II. And Fiocca was the man she fell in love with and married. Ganim brings the sex appeal to their romance through the ears from the pages.

It’s not often that I feel a certain way about narrators as my friend Stacey Rattner does, but when they’re good, I can see how it can happen. Yet their presentation can only be built from the impassioned foundation of Lawhon herself to approach this subject matter. I was lost in the details, the adventure, the romance, the espionage. It was dangerous and it sometimes had to be funny. It needed to be bawdy but also indulgent. And the treachery!

If I’ve said nothing that has stuck, remember this: listen to Code Name Helene by Ariel Lawhon.

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Posted by Alicia Abdul on March 31, 2021 in Adult, Authors, Book of the Month, Fiction

Dolly, country music, and books

21 Mar

Before it went defunct, I contributed to the local newspaper’s books blog online and had shared my recent audiobook recommendations under the title Audiowalking. This title sums up when I’m often listening to audiobooks as was the case today with Dolly Parton, Storyteller: My Life in Lyrics. I don’t think there could be a better way to engage with the book other than the audiobook spoken by Dolly herself. But this post isn’t only about recommending the audiobook but my realization in listening to her explain her life’s experiences and turning them in to poetry and songs that the reason I’m a reader and a country music listener is for exactly that reason: it’s all about the story.

Yes my first exposure to country music was from my parents, but I loved it all the same. And, I was an avid reader from the get-go remembering fondly my insistence in re-reading Heidi, the American Girl books, and The True Adventures of Charlotte Doyle. And, I also started my first two books when I was in fourth and fifth grade- one about a pirate ship and one about an Indigenous girl and her younger brother. Then I became a librarian. And all of these have a commonality- storytelling.

Even now when I read, I often take pictures of the text or Post-it a passage to keep in a folder on my computer to revisit when the mood strikes me because words have power. But the story the words create is stronger. Dolly knows it. Country music creates it. I get lost in it. Dolly’s audiobook re-centered my gratitude to authors and songwriters for being able to weave the magic of words into the stories that embed in our lives. Aside from asking everyone to listen to her audiobook, I’ll also leave you with one of my favorite country songs. You be sure to let me know if you missed the story in this song.

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Posted by Alicia Abdul on March 21, 2021 in Adult, Authors, Nonfiction, Poetry, Reflections

Outstanding book of the month for February 2021

28 Feb

Why does this not get easier? Too many amazing books, that’s why!

Without further delay, here is my pick for the outstanding book of the month read in February 2021. Unlike my Top 10 lists at the end of the year that focus ONLY on books published within that year, my outstanding book of the month picks are anything that I’ve read in the month that may be a little older or yet-to-be-published.

Lives of the Stoics: From Art of Living from Zeno to Marcus Aurelius by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman

This book is a game-changer. I would add this to my list of books that changed me (a post for another day) because I didn’t really know Stoicism. I knew of the oft-quoted men (and none of the women) in the book. I had read quotes shared on social media that they had written or spoken, but I didn’t know it was a life philosophy. This is my life philosophy and I didn’t know it, until I read this book. Now I’ve got others coming from the library both from the Stoics themselves and by the authors to do a deep dive. And isn’t that the way the best kind of learning happens?

Like my colleague always said, it’s like pulling the thread of the sweater. I pulled the thread… and I’m excited to see what I discover next.

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Posted by Alicia Abdul on February 28, 2021 in Adult, Book of the Month, Nonfiction

#24in48 whirlwind

10 Feb

I often post about my participation in the Dewey’s 24-hour readathon. It’s a break from reality which involves snack planning and stack prepping in addition to the amazing experience of focusing on your reading life for 24-hours (or as close to that as you can get).

Well from great ideas come more great ideas. One of the participants was inspired by her participation in Dewey’s but also knew that 24-hours straight was an unrealistic expectation for her so she created #24in48 in 2012 which expands upon the concept: in this one you strive for reading 24 hours over a 48 hour weekend that begins at 12am Saturday morning and ends at 11:59pm on Sunday night.

This was my first participation and I’ll now keep these events on my calendar alongside Dewey’s. Did I manage at least 24 hours this weekend? Yes, I managed more than 25 and probably could have done more but I did take the time to enjoy the Superbowl on Sunday night. I filled the time with audiobooks and unadulterated print books throughout the weekend which included finishing two audiobooks and several e- and print books.

What I liked most was the inclusion of social media posts to include in an Instagram story centered around current reads and progress but my favorite was the “quotables” where readers could share a quote from a book they were reading with the book cover. I’m a quote lover, so it’s something I’m going to take from the readathon and share more of on social media: quotes that resonated with me in the hopes they lead to discussions with other readers.

Here’s what I read:

The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist by Balko and Carrigan
Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by May
Witch Hat Atelier #7 by Shirahama
Hunting Whitey: The Inside Story of the Capture and Killing of America’s Most Wanted Crime Boss by Sherman and Wedge (audiobook)
Reef Life: An Underwater Memoir by Roberts
A Song of Wraiths and Ruin by Brown
Troop 6000: The Girl Scout Troop that Began in a Shelter and Inspired the World by Stewart (audiobook)
The Low, Low Woods by Machado and DaNi