Skip to main content

Week in Review

       aaa1

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you had a nice week. Work has been very busy but I got a lot of time for reading in the evenings, which was nice.

Giveaway
I have a giveaway running for a few more days. If you enjoy memoirs, check it out! It's a memoir written by Nelson Mandela's personal assistant, Zelda la Grange, called Good Morning, Mr. Mandela. I haven't read it yet, but it certainly sounds interesting. There aren't many entries yet, so check it out and enter today!

Reviews
Last week, I managed to write one review (I was hoping to write two). The one I completed is for The Curtain Call Caper by Christy Barritt and Kathy Applebee. It's a fun middle-grade detective novel.

Reading
I finished reading Identity Crisis, a detective novel by Jean Hackensmith. That review will be up next week for the book tour.

Now I'm about halfway through Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline. I'm really enjoying it and am disappointed I won't make it to my July book club discussion about it.

Next up, I think I'll read a couple children's books I have for review, and I hope to start The Bookman's Tale: A Novel of Obsession by Charlie Lovett.

Update on the kids' reading
I haven't updated about the kids recently. C has done a lot of reading this summer. I often find him rereading books from his shelf, but he has also gotten a few new books. Most recently, he read the first two books in The Land of Stories series by Chris Colfer. He loved them and wants to read the next in the series, so we'll likely get that soon.

M isn't such a voracious reader. She did finish a Junie B. Jones book that she had been reading, and she's about halfway through the Frozen Junior Novel. Last night, I started reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone to her. She has seen the movie, but hasn't read the book. I must admit that I haven't either, so I'm hoping we make it through the whole thing and maybe move on to the next one this summer.

What are you reading this week? It's Monday! is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey, so hop over there if you'd like to see what others are reading too. You can also check out the younger version of It's Monday!
Labels:

Comments

  1. Sue JacksonJuly 14, 2014 at 6:59 PM

    Hey, exact same situation with me and Orphan Train! My book group was reading it, and I was so looking forward to it and then the meeting was scheduled for the day we were flying back from Oklahoma so I missed it. A friend was having trouble getting a copy, so I lent her my Kindle...so I still haven't read it, but I definitely want to!

    Sounds like your kids are enjoying some summer reading. As usual, my oldest is reading nonstop through hefty tomes while my youngest has not touched a book! lol He does have a summer reading assignment (Water for Elephants) so he will have to do a little reading before summer is over.

    Sorry I haven't been by in a while - really hectic, rough summer here so far. Nice to "talk" books with you!

    Sue

    Book By Book

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. JulieJuly 15, 2014 at 3:58 PM

      We'll have to have a discussion of our own about The Orphan Train! I hope your youngest gets through Water for Elephants. I loved it but I can't see a teen who isn't into reading loving it...

      Delete
  2. Joy Weese Moll (@joyweesemoll)July 14, 2014 at 8:07 PM

    Looks like some great reading for the whole family. I's like to read Orphan Train -- good for you for reading it, even though you're going to miss the book club meeting.

    ReplyDelete
  3. MarceJuly 15, 2014 at 2:33 PM

    To bad you will miss the book club discussion on a book you are enjoying.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Myra Garces BacsalJuly 16, 2014 at 7:23 AM

    I saw a few photographs of my former book club member (who just moved to Chicago) of Chris Colfer doing book signing of his latest book in their area. She was so thrilled having her book signed. Would have to check the series out soon. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. JulieJuly 16, 2014 at 8:45 AM

      I really want to take the time to read it myself. Perhaps I'll block some time in August. :-) Have a good week!

      Delete

Post a Comment

Thanks for stopping by! I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Popular posts from this blog

Getting back to blogging

It seems that blogging has dropped to the bottom of my list for the past year, and was pretty low for the year or two prior to that. I love to read, and am continuing to do so, but as my regular readers know I haven't been around much. My last blog post was almost a year ago!!

There are many things that have taken me away from blogging. Work has been much more challenging and interesting these past few years, but that means I really don't want to get back on the computer when I get home at night - or on the weekends.

Family life has been more busy with kids having multiple activities in the evenings, leaving little time to just hang out and write about the books that I read.

I will admit to a bit of a Facebook addiction, which means way too much time spent scrolling through my newsfeed instead of doing something more productive. This is one of the things I'm working on and hoping that this will free up some time for getting back to the blog.

Overall, life is good. Work is …
Post a Comment
Read more

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…
10 comments
Read more

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…
3 comments
Read more