Month: March 2024

February in Review

/ Kristi / Leave a comment

I read 15 books last month, a slightly higher-than-average month for me. This is probably mostly due to taking part in a reading challenge at my local library, which not only pushed me a little to read some books I might not otherwise have read, it also pushed me to try to finish books a little more quickly than normal for me. The challenge is based on the board game Ticket to Ride and involves reading different genres of books and marking them off for various “routes” to get entries into a drawing based on how many books the route requires. I actually finished the initial booklet full of routes and got the challenge sheet, which had a lot of the same genres as the original booklet (I was hoping for more variety). It also meant reading something like 25 more books, with only about a month left in the event at the time, so I have been choosing younger-audience books for a lot of them now (I made sure the rules do not say what length or for what age group the books have to be). The event ends mid-way through March, so I’m sure I’ll end up with a higher-than-normal number in my March wrap-up as well.

Here are the books I read in February:

carpenter-2
anne-frank
good-girl-2
hatchet
beyond-the-wand
39-9
raven
runaway
Battlemage
giver-gn
dragonback-4
escape
jeeves-8
39-10
Swans

First Degree by David Rosenfelt (5 / 5)
The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank (4 / 5)
Good Girl, Bad Blood by Holly Jackson (4.5 / 5)
Hatchet by Gary Paulsen (4 / 5)
Beyond the Wand by Tom Felton (5 / 5)
Storm Warning by Linda Sue Park (4 / 5)
The Raven by Mike Nappa (5 / 5)
The Runaway King by Jennifer A. Nielsen (3 / 5)
The Battlemage by Taran Matharu (5 / 5)
The Giver: Graphic Novel by Lois Lowry, adapted & illustrated by P. Craig Russell (5 / 5)
Dragon and Herdsman by Timothy Zahn (4 / 5)
Escape from Warsaw by Ian Serraillier (3 / 5)
Into the Gauntlet by Margaret Peterson Haddix (4 / 5)
The Mating Season by P.G. Wodehouse (3.5 / 5)
The Summer of the Swans by Betsy Byars (4 / 5)

This list includes 0 ARCs and 3 re-reads. My favorite book from February was The Raven. I started 0 series, continued 5 series, and finished 4 series*. My ever-changing short list of to-be-reads, as well as a flag for the book I’m currently reading and an ongoing list of those I’ve read and posted about can be found here.

*This includes 2 series I didn’t reach the end of, but decided not to continue reading, after being at least 2 books into the series.

I’m also keeping my Goodreads page updated with a more extensive list of to-be-reads. Despite my almost too-long TBR list, I’m always looking for more to add. Feel free to offer suggestions of your favorites or just recent reads you enjoyed.

Book Review: The Mating Season

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The Mating Season
Jeeves #9
 by P.G. Wodehouse
Read by Jonathan Cecil

My rating: 3.5 / 5
Genre: Classic British humor

This book isn’t bad any any means, but for me, after listening to the entire series up to this point, it’s too little Jeeves, too little new, too little funny. There are still funny moments here and there, and certainly Jeeves perpetrates some kind of scheme to solve a problem, but overall, the fact that the main conflicts continue to involve friends of Wooster who have some kind of romantic entanglement that has run into trouble makes the stories feel a bit tedious. Wooster is yet again forced to bend over backwards to try to avoid an engagement with a woman who assumes he’s pining after her. Maybe this situation is normal for this culture and time period, and maybe other people find it funny, but it mostly just makes me roll my eyes. In the end, though I have been enjoying my first time with Jeeves, I plan to put an end to it here. I know I’ll re-visit this world in some way again, but I don’t know if I’ll re-read the first half-dozen or so or continue with the series after the rest aren’t as fresh in my mind. 

Find out more about The Mating Season

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If you’ve read this book, or read it in the future, feel free to let me know what you think!

Weekly Writing Update: 3/3

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Last week was messy, with a last-minute, all-day babysitting stint for my sister, a meeting for work, and other uncommon situations that leave me looking back and wondering how the time got away from me. I did work 20 minutes a few days out of the week, but I couldn’t even tell you how many days or which ones. I’m going to try to be a lot more intentional about getting at least 20 minutes work in every day this week.

I’ve paused the character interview I’ve been working on for weeks now, which is part of my brainstorming process to work out part of the plot of book #4 in the Pithea series (currently titled “Morano”), to go back and do a little more work on book #3 (“Power”), which is currently waiting for my sisters to read it and give me their feedback. A conversation with my 13-year-old daughter early in the week led me to remember that a vital revision step near the end of the process for me in the past has been reading through the near-final draft out loud, because that helps me notice dialog that is awkward, prose that could use adjusting, or even errors and typos. So that’s what I’m in the middle of right now, and it has already produced some very important adjustments.

While I work on continuing the series, if you’re interested in reading where it all starts, Pithea is available on Amazon in multiple formats (e-book, paperback, and now in hardcover) as well as Kindle Unlimited.

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Book Review: Into the Gauntlet

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Into the Gauntlet
The 39 Clues #10
by Margaret Peterson Haddix

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Children’s mystery, adventure

Spoiler notice: The following review will contain some spoilers for the previous books in the series, starting with The Maze of Bones.

The Cahill family has been split for many generations, and now it’s up to Amy and Dan to reunite them. But the fighting only intensifies as all five branches race toward the final clue.

The finale was both as exciting and as messy as the rest of the series. Taken on its own, I probably would have actually rated this book 3-3.5 stars, but I really enjoyed the series overall, so I’m leaving it at 4. But the finale just didn’t seem as smooth and well thought-out as I’d hoped for from this set-up. That might be an issue with having mostly different authors throughout, or more specifically with bringing in an author for the final book that wasn’t part of the rest of it at all.

One thing in particular that made me scratch my head is the inclusion of a team that has been out of the hunt since the very first book. If it was planned all along to bring them back at the end, I would have appreciated a reminder of them here and there throughout the series, because my aging brain had a very difficult time remembering that they ever existed when they suddenly showed back up. If it was not planned all along to bring them back…why do it? Their branch is already well-represented by someone who’s been a pretty big part of the series all along. Having him and this returning team part of the final showdown sort of bloats it in a way I don’t understand.

In the end, the finale isn’t a whole lot different than I expected, and it’s a bit saccharine, but I do think the author does a decent job of building on the minor changes in mindset in some of these characters in the latter books to culminate in an ending that doesn’t just come out of nowhere. If one can look past the characterization or continuity issues caused by multiple authors, this series is a lot of fun. And those in the age range it’s meant for, around 10-14, who like adventure and mystery will probably enjoy the series.

Find out more about Into the Gauntlet

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If you’ve read this book, or read it in the future, feel free to let me know what you think!

Book Review: Escape from Warsaw

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Escape from Warsaw
by Ian Serraillier

My rating: 3 / 5
Genre: Middle grade historical fiction

I thought this book might be a sort of introduction to fiction set during WWII and the Holocaust for my daughter, since these are subjects I’ve been very interested in since I was a teenager. However, while the book isn’t bad, it’s very shallow overall. Most of the story takes place after the war has ended, jumping forward 2 years from when the children’s mother is arrested early in the book. And the title implies that the children struggle to escape their home city, but the story is more of a journey across a war-torn landscape, through multiple countries from Poland to Switzerland, where they’re sure their dad is waiting. It’s a story of survival and relying on the kindness of strangers, of family helping each other at all costs, and of children who are displaced by the war. It’s almost a series of vignettes, which makes sense, since the author used real accounts of things that happened to people around this time period, piecing them together into a mostly cohesive story of one family trying to reunite. However, at 13, I would say my daughter is already too old for this book, though I can see it being a decent one for younger kids. As a side note, apparently the book was originally published under the title The Silver Sword, which I think was a much more apt name for the story (especially considering that the actual escape from Warsaw was quick and not super difficult).

Find out more about Escape from Warsaw

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If you’ve read this book, or read it in the future, feel free to let me know what you think!