Month in Review: January 2012

My first monthly review of 2012 is a bit late, but better late than never!

Books Read in January: 5
I read five books in January.

The Art of Life by Sabin Howard and Traci L. Slatton ~ nonfiction
Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand ~ nonfiction
No Story to Tell by KJ Steele ~ contemporary fiction
The Secret of the Sacred Scarab by Fiona Ingram ~ middle-grade fiction
Nate Rocks the World by Karen Pokras Toz ~ middle-grade fiction

Reviews Written: 6
I wrote six reviews in January. The first is for a book I read in December: Shanghai Girls by Lisa See. I also reviewed all of the books I read in January. You can click on the links above to read the reviews.

Year-to-Date Totals:

Nonfiction: 2
Contemporary Fiction: 1
Historical Fiction: 0
Mystery/Thriller: 0
Middle-Grade Fiction: 2

For review: 4
For book club: 1
For me: 0

Non-Fiction Non-Memoir Reading Challenge

I read two books toward this challenge during January: The Art of Life and Unbroken. I'm keeping track of my progress on my sidebar.

Narnia Reading Project

I have not started this challenge but hope to read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe sometime during February. I'm keeping track of my progress on my sidebar.

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Banned Books Week: Junie B. Jones by Barbara Park

This is the end of Banned Books Week and unfortunately, I haven't had a lot of time to write about banned books this year. But I did want to include at least one post about it, so today I wanted to share one of the book series that it seems most people are surprised to find on the list: Junie B. Jones by Barbara Park.

According to Wikipedia:
The Junie B. Jones series came in at #71 on the American Library Association's list of the Top 100 Banned or Challenged Books from 2000-2009. Reasons cited are poor social values taught by the books and Junie B. Jones not being considered a good role model due to her mouthiness and bad spelling/grammar. This is an interesting example of a banned book. Many times there are serious, controversial topics featured in books that are challenged. Things like homosexuality, drugs, vulgar language, etc. You can actually understand why people may not want their children to read those books, and why they may challenge their inclusion in school libra…

April Reading Review

Where exactly did April go? I swear it was just the middle of March and now it's May. Once again, I'm going to provide a quick review of each of the books I read last month. For the last two weeks of the month, I participated in the Spring Into Horror Readathon hosted by Michelle at Seasons of Reading. The only rule was that you had to read at least one book that was horror, thriller, etc. I read one book that qualified. With the exception of the first book in my list, the books I mention below were read during the readathon

My book club's May selection was Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson. I had started reading this nonfiction book about the author's work representing men, women and children who were on death row in March but finished the book in April. This is an eye-opening story that everyone at my book club discussion agreed should be required reading for law schools and police officers and even legislators who are making the laws related to judgements. I learned to…

Book Review: The Darkest Corners by Kara Thomas

Title: The Darkest Corners
Author: Kara Thomas
Genre: Young Adult Mystery
Published: May 9, 2017
Format: Paperback
Source: Random House Children's Books
Buy on Amazon (affiliate link)

Tessa Lowell left Fayette, Pennsylvania, when she was just 9 years old, moving to Florida with her grandmother. Now she's a recent high school graduate and heading back to town to say goodbye to her dying father. With no family in town anymore, Tessa stays with the family of her former friend Callie, which is pretty awkward since she and Callie haven't spoken since they were little. Being with Callie also brings up questions that Tessa has held onto for the years since she's been gone. Questions about the testimony the young girls gave that sent a man to death row.

I don't read many young adult novels, but The Darkest Corners by Kara Thomas was touted as "the next twisted psychological thriller," so I decided to give it a try... and I'm glad I did. While the story moves r…

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