Reading with a Griffin

Reviews Weeks 28-29

July 10th-23rd

Book 112: World’s Collide

By Chris Colfer
Read July 10th
Pages Read: 448

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World’s Collide is one of the best endings that I have ever read for a series. I love how Chris brings everything from the rest of the series together to culminate in his finale. One day I hope that Chris will continue on with Alex and Connor’s story in some capacity. I would love to see more adventures with them and the gang in The Land of Stories.

Book 113: Cat’s Cafe

By Matt Tarpley
Read July 1oth
Pages Read: 168

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I adored this set of comics and cannot wait to read the second book sometime soon. These were funny and oftentimes heartwarming. A sweet collection of stories that I cannot wait to read again and again. I will definitely get a copy for my collection.

Book 114: Make You Mine

By E.M. Lindsey
Read July 11th-12th
Pages Read: 288

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I was a fan of how sweet and genuine Noah and Adriano’s relationship felt. There was not a minute that I didn’t feel that they were not a good match. This book did drag for me near the middle but picked up again towards the end. I enjoyed the sweet moments that they had as a couple. There are also a lot of family elements that are hard hitting.

Book 115: I Hate Fairyland, Vol. 5: Gert’s Inferno
By Skottie Young
Read July 13th
Pages Read: 128

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I have been hoping that Skottie would return to Gert and Fairyland and was excited to read Gert’s new adventures when he announced them. This was a lot of fun and had me laughing. Love the references as usual. The one thing this made me want to do is reread the rest of the series again. Can’t wait to see what happens next after that ending.

Book 116: Hans Christian Anderson Lives Next Door
By Cary Fagan
Read July 19th-21st
Pages Read: 160

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The title of this book was what intrigued me about it from the beginning. Then, the premise had me wanting to pick it up and learn more about Andie’s story. Andie’s voice feels authentic, and you believe that she is a middle school girl throughout. The first-person perspective fits so well with the story. It did drag for me throughout the narrative and pulled me away from the events a bit.

Andie is an aspiring poet who is drawing inspiration from Hans Christian Anderson’s fairy tales. At the beginning of the book, she meets her new neighbor, whom she believes is Hans Christian Anderson. She spends most of the book believing this fact. The story focuses on her friendship with this neighbor, gaining new friendships along the way, and growing as a poet. I enjoyed seeing her growth as a poet throughout the story and how it felt like a middle school girl’s first attempt at poetry. They were not perfect, but they again felt authentic to her voice, which I loved.

Overall, this was a book that I enjoyed, but not as much as I wanted to. I would recommend this to middle grade readers, especially the aspiring writers out there. Also, the illustrations were cute and fit well with Andie’s narration.

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

Book 117: Twelfth Grade Night

By Molly Horton Booth, Stephanie Kate Strohm, Jamie Green
Read July 21st
Pages Read: 160

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This was a cute retelling of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night set in a modern-day high school setting that I loved. It had many references to some of his other plays, which is probably going to set up further adventures in this series. I particularly loved the A Midsummer Night's Dream and Hamlet ones. The scene with Polonius behind the curtain was hilarious. Also, the illustrations throughout this graphic novel were stunning. I adored it and will definitely pick up the future books in this series.

Book 118: The Quite Nice and Fairly Accurate Good Omens Script Book

By Neil Gaiman
Read July 2th-23rd
Pages Read: 512

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To get ready for Season 2 of Good Omens, I decided to rewatch Season 1 and finally read this script book. This is basically the entire show just written out as a script, along with the deleted scenes. I know that script books are not for everybody, but they always bring me back to my college days of reading a ton of plays. I loved this book along with the show, which I surprisingly forgot some of the details about. Cannot wait to watch the next season at the end of this week!

Book 119: The Time-traveling Caveman

By Terry Pratchett
Read July 23rd
Pages Read: 315

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I love Terry’s short story collections and this one was quite a lot of fun. Again this is a collection of his earliest writings from when he was a teenager working for the newspaper. Even at the age of 17, Terry had a way of writing that draws you into his stories. His sense of humor shines through repeatedly throughout this collection.

Monday, August 7, 2023

Reviews Weeks 30-31

Monday, July 24, 2023

Reviews Weeks 28-29