Review Week 15

 Reviews Week 15

April 10th-16th

Book 63: The Great Gatsby

By F. Scott Fitzgerald

Read April 10th

Pages Read: 180

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April 10th, 2023- 

I decided to reread this wonderful book on the 98th anniversary of it’s publication. It’s been ten years since, I first read the book and I love it just as much as the first time. I will forever adore the beautiful writing. 

February 9th, 2019 reread-

This is the third time that I have read this book and I cannot help but adore it everytime. It's beautiful and heartbreaking. There are so many lines that I could pull out as favorites. Especially those about the green light.

I have still to this day never read another F. Scott Fitzgerald novel. I hope to this year.

Book 64: Alice Took a Detour

By Karen Georghiou

Read April 14

Pages Read: 78

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I enjoyed the first story in this collection which shows a different way Alice took her adventure down the rabbit hole. It feels like it could fit in the Wonderland world. But that was one of the only parts of this book that I liked. Everything else was just okay in my opinion and were not what I was expecting going into a Wonderland collection. I’m sorry to say that I did not like this the way that I thought I would.

Reviews Week 14

 Reviews Week 14

April 3rd-9th

Book 60: Scaredy Squirrel Gets a Surprise

By Melanie Watt 

Read April 7th

Pages Read: 84

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The Scaredy Squirrel books are a favorite among my preschool kids, and I like reviewing new ones to see if they would be good to add to my collection. I think this book would be great for older preschool and young school-age children. The graphic novel format fits well with the story being told. 

Scaredy gets a mysterious package in this one that he wants to send to penguins in Antarctica. Along the way, he makes new friends and has many silly adventures with them. The humor in these books is perfect for younger children who love how Scaredy acts. I’m sure that they would love this one too. 

*Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for my ARC of the book. All opinions are my own.*

Book 61: Scaredy Squirrel Gets Festive

By Melanie Watt

Read April 7th

Pages Read: 88

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Another cute addition to the Scaredy Squirrel series. My preschool kids have always loved listening to Scaredy’s stories, and I believe they would love listening to his Christmas adventure. Scaredy is trying to celebrate a perfect Christmas with his friends in this story. His plans don’t go quite as planned along the way, and he learns a lesson because of this. It was such a sweet story that I enjoyed quite a bit. I hope Scaredy gets some more adventures after this. Also, I love how Melanie uses the graphic novel format for these books. 

*Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for my ARC of the book. All opinions are my own.*

Book 62: A Slip of the Keyboard

By Terry Pratchett

Read April 5th-7th

Pages Read: 381

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Terry Pratchett was a man that I wish I had been able to meet. He has been my most-read author for quite a while, with about 60 books read. I enjoy his humor more than anything, and seeing that here was enjoyable. Also, I loved seeing his insights about life, death, and hats throughout this book. It had me laughing at times and sad near the end. 

I wanted to mention Neil Gaiman’s introduction to this book. One of my favorite things is getting an insight of Terry from those that knew him, and it is especially great seeing that from Neil. His introduction was great!

Terry’s writing is brilliant, and I loved reading his nonfiction pieces. He wrote great novels, but I also adore his short fiction and nonfiction. I dread the day I won’t have a new Terry Pratchett book or short story to read. I’ll always reread his books, though. 

Reviews Week 13

Reviews Week 13

March 27th- April 2nd

Book 58: In the Lives of Puppets

By TJ Klune

Read March 26th-30th

Pages Read:432

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 TJ Klune has a style unlike most other books I have read, at least in the two books I have read of his. I enjoyed how he took the parts of Pinocchio and created his own story with them. He breathed new life into a story I have known since childhood and had me enjoying it so much more than ever before.

Each character felt alive in ways many authors cannot even do. Nurse Ratched and Rambo were hilarious. Nurse Ratched is a sadistic nurse machine who enjoys saying how much she wants to hurt others. Rambo is a Roomba who enjoys friendship, love, and keeping everything as clean as possible. I love the found family aspects in the book, and the group worked so well off of each other. It was especially interesting to see where the story went with Victor, Gio, and Hap as the story continued. The love that Victor, Gio, Nurse Ratched, Rambo, and Hap had for each other was beautiful. They had my heart the entire time.

Most of this book is filled with androids and robots, but one of the significant messages is: What it means to be human. TJ surprised me with how much heart and humanity he gave to each of his characters. We learn so much about these characters as the story continues and get connected to each of them. You want them to succeed in their mission and just to be able to live happily together.

This book perfectly combines heart, love, humanity, friendship, and adventure. I loved that it felt like a cross between fantasy and science fiction. It had me feeling so many different emotions throughout, just like Under the Whispering Door did for me. A beautiful book with an entertaining story that I highly recommend. I preordered my copy of the book last year, so I will have a physical copy soon.

*Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for my ARC of the book. All opinions are my own. *

Book 59: The Secret of Safe Passage

By Martin Baynton

Read April 1st-2nd

Pages Read: 338

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 An interesting take on the world of Wonderland that I cannot wait to see more from. I love Alice's Adventures in Wonderland retellings, and this one was another great example. The Secret of Safe Passage had great originality in the way Baynton takes the elements from the original and reimagines them here. I cannot wait to see what happens next in the Taking Wonderland series and with Ali. 

April 2023 TBR

Along with my April TBR, I will also be doing Alice April, where I will be reading as many Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland retellings as I can. I cannot wait to spend my month in Wonderland.