Audiobooks
Currently listening to Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein. I am currently on disc 5 out of 9 so I should be finishing up soon. This audiobook, so far, is amazing and could become my favorite audiobook of all time. Wuthering Heights and The Book Thief were fanstastic, but Elizabeth Wein’s WWII drama is blowing me away. The narrator does perfect accents, inflections, and I am totally engrossed during my commute. I can’t wait to see how it ends!
On waitlist for Allegiant by
Veronica Roth. I am number 5 on the
waitlist and there is only one copy. I see this taking a while.
Finished And the Mountains Echoed
by Khaled Housseini. I won’t spend time writing an individual post for this
one. This was for my adult book club meeting later this month. I liked the book
in general, but the audiobook was difficult to follow sometimes. All the
narrators had a strong Arabic accent which works for the setting of the novel,
but not for the listener. All in all, I
should have just grabbed the novel. The pieces of the story throughout the book
were nicely woven together and I enjoyed many of the characters. Not a YA book.
Books
Currently reading A Natural History of Dragons: A Memoir by Lady Trent by Marie Brennan. I saw this novel posted on a friend’s GoodReads review. She seemed to like it and after I read the plot summary I figure I might like it too. I am not too far into it, but I am looking forward to finishing it. Lady Trent is not your typical medieval lady. Though she is pressured by her family to behave appropriately, she is more fascinated at following and researching dragons more so than anything else. I am enjoying reading about this medieval nerd and her obsession to be treated like one of the boys. This is not a YA book.
About to start reading The
Selection by Kiera Cass. This is a book that I have been semi-excited to
read. About once a month I write a book review for the local newspaper and in
general I have gotten some positive responses. I generally review YA books. I
am excited for this one because there has been so much controversy over it.
People either really liked it or people really hated it so I want to read it
and make the decision for myself. The tag that many reviewers on GoodReads use
to describe The Selection is Hunger Games meets The Bachelor. Sounds cheesy enough for me!
On waitlist for Attachments
by Rainbow Rowell. Since I fell in love with her YA novels, I figure her adult
novel will be amazing…right? Please be right!?
And the ones I just gave up on
Starcrossed by Josephine Angelini. This is the selection for Massachusetts in my challenge and after reading the first 50 pages, I could not get into it. So I had to let it go.
Taste Test by Kelly Fiore.
Again I got 50 pages into it and it wasn’t what I was hoping for so I had to
let it go back as well.
Personal note about reading. Here is the thing folks. You may notice
that I tend to not finish a lot of books I check out or list here. You may
think that I have a problem and could be labeled a
chronic non-finisher. I firmly believe that if you are reading a book and
you have gotten to a point around the 30-70 page mark where you just can’t take
it anymore, then you need to let that book go. Pushing yourself to read
something that you are not enjoying takes the joy out of reading.
This philosophy is also applied to when I do reader’s advisory at the
library. I tell every kid to get as many books as they can and that if they do
not like a book after the first two chapters it is ok to return the book
unfinished. It is tough to force a kid to read something they are not enjoying
and the fear is that it may turn them off from reading anything. I know some
titles are required and I am not talking about those. I am referring to when
children need to read something at home for 30 minutes every night. This is
usually (not always) the only time they can read for fun. So my advice to
parents - let them read what they want. Do not force them to read classics if
that is not what they are interested in or they may just not want to ever read.
This is why we librarians exist. If your child does not like the
classics and you have no idea what to suggest to them that will be good for
them, but also something they will enjoy, talk to your local children’s
librarian ASAP. It’s why we are here.
That’s all for now. Later peeps!
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