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Category Archives: Fiction

Series alert: Something is Killing the Children

08 Jan

When I was making my top lists of 2022 and finishing up the year of reading, I noted that there were a handful of books on my lists (as I narrowed them down and that made the lists themselves) that were series. I have a love/hate relationship with series but I’ve learned to accept them as a natural course of publishing and creativity. Several years ago I decided that if I wasn’t completely obsessed with the first book in a planned series, that I wouldn’t continue reading the series out of obligation. Instead, I would have enough to be able to recommend the series to audiences. And with so many books out there to read, spending time reading ones I weren’t in love with wasn’t making anyone happy.

Enter this comic series, Something is Killing the Children, written by James Tynion IV, illustrated by Werther Dell’Edera, and colored by Miquel Muerto and published by BOOM! Studios. I have read up to the twenty-first issue through Hoopla and looking on BOOM!’s website, it says that issue 21 is available but then I see that there is a fifth published volume that includes issues 21-25, so I’m going to have to visit my local comic book store to check this out. To fill my time and the gap in waiting, it was introduced to me this weekend that House of Slaughter existed, telling the backstory of one of the Orders of St. George and the namesake house that main character, Erica Slaughter comes from in the series.

And Erica as a character is the strongest part of the series. Readers want to follow her journey of slaying monsters and sassing law enforcement. This is in addition to the creatively drawn monsters that haunt the woods and kill children, the gore of the action sequences that are dark and haunting but aren’t so ridiculously bloody that it is gratuitous. On a whim I borrowed the first volume and was shocked by how much I got into the characters, setting, and story because the comic series is a well-rounded mix of it all.

I’ll be over here waiting for the next issue and looking around the house to figure out what my totem would be.

 
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Posted by on January 8, 2023 in Authors, Comics, Cover Love, Fiction, Graphic novels, Illustrators

 

Last and first

01 Jan

Other bookish people likely do the same thing, right? They plan their last book of a calendar year and the first one of the new year. I have been doing this for a few years now and while they don’t always work out to the five-star reads I want them to be in my head, not all books can be winners and that’s life.

But this year I can confidently say I chose well.

My last book of 2022 was

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

I bought this about a month at my indie bookstore on a whim. I rarely buy books that I haven’t read before but the hype around the book has been so overwhelming that I went ahead and bought it. Then it was clear by the beginning of December that I would save it for my last book of the year.

Vacation reading is often trying to cram as many books in as I can while still being productive and extroverted for holiday activities, so I actually waited until December 30th to read the first few chapters and then I could roll into the rest of the book on New Year’s Eve. The problem is that we had company for the better half of the afternoon, but I hunkered down with my champagne and white cranberry and finished about 11:45pm- in time to watch the ball drop and be filled with the love and admiration of Garmus’s writing AND how she created the most loveable and unique characters. It’s as funny as it is sad reminding me of a combination of The House in the Cerulean Sea by Klune and Lab Girl by Hope Jahren.

So the clock strikes midnight, I toast my cranberry champagne with my husband and kids, get a good night’s rest and wake up knowing that my first book of the new year awaited.

My first book of 2022 was

The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston

In part, I chose this one because the color palette matched Garmus’s book. It’s a book that I saw a lot via social media and I also have read (and loved) Poston’s YA, plus it came in from the library several weeks ago so it was already on my TBR pile.

Just like Elizabeth Zott in Lessons in Chemistry, Florence Day is a main character I’ll remember. Her voice is unmatchable. With its mix of magical realism and new adult humor, it combines nicely with the sexy romance and Day’s day job as a ghostwriter of romance novels who does not believe that love wins anymore. As a book nerd, Day’s day job makes our word-loving hearts sing. In addition, I’m a cemetery walker who is curious about death, so Day’s family’s ownership of a funeral home and her unique upbringing is My Girl meets The Lovely Bones and would be something a Colleen Hoover reader should check out. The two twists in the last third of the book make it all the more indulgent and creative.

Now, onto a year filled with books in all their iterations with plenty of tea on the side.

 
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Posted by on January 1, 2023 in Adult, Authors, Fiction

 

Top 10 of 2022: Young adult books edition

29 Dec

And rounding out the last four posts is my young adult top 10 because that’s who I spend the most amount of time reading and recommending for as a high school librarian. I’ve had the best time reviewing all of my reading this year to be able to pick out the top 10 of each target audience and from conferences to reader’s advisory, telling people to READ THESE BOOKS. So here they are!

I get chills just thinking about my reading memories with these titles which run the gamut of graphic to nonfiction, memoir and historical fiction with some of the best darn authors out there. I think in each one of these books there were lines and pages that I Post-it’ed to go back and reread and experiences that made me into a better human being. Plus, the best kinds of books lead you to other discoveries and I can say that each one of them led me to at least one other book or Google search.

Cheers to the book memories of 2022 and the new ones I’ll make in 2023!

 
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Posted by on December 29, 2022 in Authors, Cover Love, Fiction, Graphic novels, Nonfiction, Verse, Young Adult

 

Top 10 of 2022: Middle grade edition

28 Dec

Middle grade needs it’s own category this year because I spent an inordinate amount of time reading the excellent selections of middle grade titles this year. It was a banner year for sure. Today I celebrate middle grade and tomorrow I’ll round out my four posts with the best of young adult.

When I look back at this titles as graphic novels, verse, manga, fiction, and nonfiction, I can’t help but celebrate the range, depth, and breadth of creativity and sensitivity for an age of transition. I should know since I have two thirteen year old boys myself. The message of perseverance; the power of individuality; the adventure; the need to remember the past and explore the future– it’s all here in these titles. If you’ve missed any one of these, you MUST pick it up.

 
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Posted by on December 28, 2022 in Authors, Cover Love, Fiction, Graphic novels, Illustrators, Middle grade, Nonfiction, Verse

 

Top 10 of 2022: Children’s book edition

27 Dec

And next up are my favorite children’s books of 2022, again from books actually published in 2022. Tomorrow I will share my favorite middle grade books before finishing up with young adult.

With a few words about these books– mind blowing, that’s all I can say! The skill of the power of an author and illustrator or when they are one person, the skill of reaching into a reader’s soul and pulling out the best (or worst) of the rainbow of human experiences and emotions is worth celebrating. Typically ones that touch me the most are ones that bring out a memory of my own childhood or a shared experience to reflect on as these all do.

 
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Posted by on December 27, 2022 in Authors, Childrens, Cover Love, Fiction, Illustrators, Nonfiction

 

Top 10 of 2022: Adult books edition

26 Dec

The last week of the year is here! I spent last week looking over my reading from this year to pick the best of the best. As always, my lists are books published in 2022, not everything I’d read in 2022 that would make it to my top 10 lists, which makes it a true listicle of the best books of the year.

For 2022, I have four lists I’ll share each day this week, starting with my top 10 adult books. It’ll continue with children’s books, then middle grade, and end with YA.

In a few sentences, I will sum up my top 10 adult books– a mix of fiction and nonfiction in all of the formats that I love from audiobooks to graphic novels. They are books that are escape or slice-of-life, they are true stories that will make you cringe and others that will help to celebrate the good in life. Either way, I can’t help but look over the covers and remember a time, a place, a favorite part that I will take with me from 2022.

 
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Posted by on December 26, 2022 in Adult, Audiobooks, Authors, Comics, Cover Love, Fiction, Graphic novels, Nonfiction

 

Readers advisory for October ’22

31 Oct

If there ever was a month to label as “mixed bag”, it would have to be October.

This is just a smattering of the books I read either in print, digitally, or audio and they range from a true crime audiobook of two women murdered in the Shenandoah National Park to the GOAT of horror manga, Juji Ito’s Uzumaki. Then there are middle grade fiction titles like Key Player by Kelly Yang and my continued obsession with Spy x Family. All told there were sixty-three books read for the month.

It was a result of several converging events, committees, and activities:

  • With a conference presentation a few weeks ago, at the beginning of the month I was trying to squeeze in some anticipated titles of 2023 while also reading a few 2022 titles to be ready to talk books.
  • Sitting on a “Best of” books selection committee for nonfiction so I had a few nonfiction titles that I didn’t know about to read to better argue which were the best!
  • A little countdown to Halloween on my Instagram, I read a spooky book a day for the last week that included the wacky spirals of Ito’s imagination to reliving the dramatic 1990 movie The Witches based on Roald Dahl’s The Witches which I had never read and decided to listen to the audiobook of today while traveling in the car. Plus I discovered the delightful Ghoulia.
  • And of course, fitting in the general love of certain series or titles that sit on my endless TBR that I pick up based on length, topic, and format.

November is my birthday month, so I’m planning a few personal reading challenges and organizing my own readathon. Any suggestions?

 
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Posted by on October 31, 2022 in Adult, Audiobooks, Authors, Book of the Month, Childrens, Comics, Cover Love, Fiction, Graphic novels, Manga, Middle grade, Nonfiction, Young Adult

 

Who would have thought?

04 Sep

If you would have told me five years ago that I would be listening to audiobooks while running or that I’d be running a half marathon and I would have told you you were lying. But here I am, running while listening to an audiobook and training for a half marathon.

This past weekend, I ran the longest I’ve ever run (well let’s not kid here, there were long pauses of fast walking) and I finished Roshani Chokshi’s Aru Shah and the End of Time before sliding into Dina Nayeri’s The Ungrateful Refugee.

I can’t tell you why I made the switch from listening to music to listening to audiobooks but I can tell you that a good audiobook keeps me running farther than music might. I’ve had that distinct feeling twice: Christina Tosi’s Dessert Can Save the World and Liz Nugent’s Little Cruelties.

If you haven’t tried walking or running with an audiobook, try it!

 
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Posted by on September 4, 2022 in Adult, Audiobooks, Fiction, Middle grade, Nonfiction

 

Readers advisory for July ’22

31 Jul

This past week I saw a tweet that had been passed around in which the question was “how do you read so many books?” and the response was “I avoid all other responsibilities.” For as humorous as it is and how much I’d love for that to be true, everyone has responsibilities, so my waking hours aren’t spent solely on reading (however glorious that would be), but I do try to squeeze in every opportunity to read that I can.

Plus, it’s summer! Reading is basically a requirement which means there were a lot of fabulous books for July some of which I’ve already discussed this month in other posts and on my Instagram account. Which ones were the hottest for the hottest month of the year???

  • Salt Magic by Hope Larson
  • The Weirn Books, Vol. 1: Be Wary of the Silent Woods by Svetlana Chmakova
  • The Road After by Rebekah Lowell
  • Flooded: Requiem for Johnstown by Ann E. Burg
  • Animal Architects by Amy Cherrix and Chris Sasaki
  • Space Trash, volume 1 by Jenn Woodall
  • The Blur by Minh Le and Dan Santat
  • The Obsession by Jesse Q. Suntanto
  • Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison
  • Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover
  • A Rover’s Story by Jasmine Warga
 
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Posted by on July 31, 2022 in Book of the Month, Fiction, Graphic novels, Middle grade, Nonfiction, Upcoming Releases, Young Adult

 

All the five stars I can handle

24 Jul

There will always be the diamonds in the rough, there will also be plenty of average books when you read a lot. So it feels special when in a weekend, you get a few five-star books.

This retelling of the Medusa myth was a book I read in one sitting. Partly because the storytelling was engrossing as was the bittersweet romance between Perseus and the isolated Medusa and the unique addition of illustrations by Olivia Lomenech Gill. Without giving too much away, Burton turns the myth around and encourages deep thought about the cruelty of the gods but also about our pasts.

This is Ogle’s third memoir, the first Free Lunch was groundbreaking, the second was equally heartbreaking and hopeful, and this third one is groundbreaking, heartbreaking, hopeful, and gut wrenching. As tweeted minutes after finishing the book, of the thousands of books I’ve read I can still only count on one hand the number of times I’ve cried while reading. This is one of them by the time I got to the last page in which Ogle’s command of verse and his lived experiences collide to express the deep gratitude he has for his abuela.

I will continue to think about the book long after I’ve finished it. And thank you go Ogle for being as open and forthright about his experiences for this audience.

How did I miss this superhero graphic novel when it came out several years ago? Either way, I’m glad I read it and everyone needs to get themselves a copy of the swapped bodies trope. Two very different girls end up in each other’s bodies and have to learn to collaborate in order to both 1) fix the current situation, and 2) attain their goals as superheroes.

The entertainment factor is high as is the colors and character sketches. Also a book I read voraciously in one sitting.

 
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Posted by on July 24, 2022 in Fiction, Graphic novels, Middle grade, Nonfiction, Upcoming Releases, Verse, Young Adult

 
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