Skip to main content

Week in Review

       aaa1

Good morning. I hope you had a nice week. Unfortunately, mine was rather sad as my brother passed away on Friday. He has had a lot of health issues for many years, but it was still a bit of a shock. He was a huge Stephen King fan, so I've decided to honor him by reading a Stephen King novel. I've only ever read one book by King, and it was his memoir, On Writing. So now I need help choosing the right novel to read. I'd prefer something that isn't 500+ pages long! Any suggestions?

Reviews and Blog Posts
I managed to write a few blog posts last week:
New Release: Gooseberry Island by Steven Manchester
2014 Reading Recap
Saturday Snapshot: Ice on the pond
Book Review: Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

Reading
I have been reading Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty (and it's only $3.99 on Kindle right now!). I'm really enjoying this novel about a bunch of kindergarten moms. It's funny and suspenseful and though-provoking all at once.

I haven't shared the kids' reading in a while, but they finally started doing some more reading after a bit of a break in the month of December.

C, who is 10, read The Giver by Lois Lowry. He really enjoyed it and we are now planning on reading the rest of the series together.

M, who is almost 8, is reading Maleficent by Elizabeth Rudnick. She's a slower reader, so it's taking her a while. But she seems to be enjoying it. She loves the movie, and I believe the book is a retelling of the movie storyline.

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. Sam (Tiny Library)January 12, 2015 at 11:12 AM

    I'm so sorry to hear about your brother, my thoughts are with you and your family.
    I don't know what sort of Stephen King book you are after, but I have enjoyed Misery and Salem's Lot, both of which are on the smaller side. Whatever you choose, it's a beautiful tribute.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Katie @ Chalk it up to Better LuckJanuary 12, 2015 at 11:15 AM

    I was thinking about adding Big Little Lies to my list for 2015. Now that I've read this, I think I will! It's one of my goals to read a lot more this year and I think your blog will really help me out! Thanks for sharing in the BOBB group!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. JulieJanuary 13, 2015 at 9:03 AM

      I'm really enjoying it. It's long, though, so taking a while to get through!

      Delete
  3. AnonymousJanuary 12, 2015 at 1:51 PM

    So sorry to hear about your brother! I like it that you're planning to read a book in his memory. I like some of King's novels, but mainly the bigger ones (The Stand or 22/11/63). I hope you'll find one you like.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. JulieJanuary 13, 2015 at 9:04 AM

      Thank you. 22/11/63 looks good but I think I'm going to go with one of his earlier books.

      Delete
  4. westmetromommyJanuary 12, 2015 at 2:12 PM

    Hmm, I didn't know that there was a book of Maleficent. I might read that to my daughter--she enjoyed the movie (although I have to say I was just so-so about it)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. JulieJanuary 13, 2015 at 9:04 AM

      We all enjoyed the movie a lot. If she liked it, I'm sure she'd like the book as well!

      Delete
  5. Linda @ A La CarteJanuary 12, 2015 at 4:07 PM

    So sorry about your brother! I don't read much Stephen King but did love 11/22/63!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. JulieJanuary 13, 2015 at 9:05 AM

      Thanks. It does sound like a good one. Maybe I'll get to it at some point!

      Delete
  6. Cheriee WeichelJanuary 12, 2015 at 9:18 PM

    I am sorry about your brother. Grieving is hard work. I just finished rereading The Giver. I haven't read it for a long number of years, but am astonished all over at how good it is, and how it endures as a novel.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. JulieJanuary 13, 2015 at 9:05 AM

      Thank you. I really enjoyed discussing The Giver with my book club. I'm looking forward to reading the other books in the series.

      Delete
  7. GatheringBooksJanuary 14, 2015 at 11:54 PM

    My daughter and I also read The Giver together, when she was around 10 or 11 too I think. We have already finished Gathering Blue and we hope to start reading the third novel soon. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. JulieJanuary 16, 2015 at 1:01 PM

      That's great! C is making his way through Gathering Blue and then it will be my turn. We also put in requests for the other books at the library. They all have waiting lists!

      Delete
  8. Lori MartinJanuary 17, 2015 at 3:02 AM

    Sorry for the loss of your brother :( As a Kindergarten mom myself, I decided to check out "Big Little Lies" and it looks interesting, so I bought it and will start it soon.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. JulieJanuary 19, 2015 at 8:54 AM

      I hope you enjoy it! And I hope your experience as a Kindergarten mom is nothing like theirs!

      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