WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Sam @ Taking On A World of Words where you answer three fixed questions:
What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?Read More »
Category: Book Review
Book Review: A Spark of Light by Jodi Picoult
5 disco balls
Publish Date: October 2, 2018 by Ballantine Books
Category: Contemporary Fiction, Family Life
Jodi Picoult is my favorite author so I know I may be a bit bias, but trust me when I say that this book was one of her most compelling and thrilling reads. She is known for addressing controversial subjects, but does extensive research to present both sides in an authentic, realistic way.Read More »
Audiobook Review: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith #HSReadingRedo
5 disco balls
Published: August 12, 2005 by HarperAudio (book first published 1943)
Narrator: Kate Burton
Length: 14 hours 55 minutes
Category: Classics, Historical Fiction, Young Adult, Coming of Age
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn was Book 7 out of 8 on my September Reading Challenge High School Reading Redo list. As we approach the new month, I am proud to report I did most of my homework and only need to read the Cliff Notes or watch the movie of one unread book (The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck). 😉
Set in Brooklyn in the early 1900s, we fall in love with the Nolan family; whom are poverty stricken but resourceful. Francie Nolan became one of my favorite literary characters.
Goodreads Synopsis: 4.25 average rating
The beloved American classic about a young girl’s coming-of-age at the turn of the century, Betty Smith’s A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a poignant and moving tale filled with compassion and cruelty, laughter and heartache, crowded with life and people and incident. The story of young, sensitive, and idealistic Francie Nolan and her bittersweet formative years in the slums of Williamsburg has enchanted and inspired millions of readers for more than sixty years. By turns overwhelming, sublime, heartbreaking, and uplifting, the daily experiences of the unforgettable Nolans are raw with honesty and tenderly threaded with family connectedness — in a work of literary art that brilliantly captures a unique time and place as well as incredibly rich moments of universal experience.
Book Review: Lord of the Flies by William Golding #HSReadingRedo
2 disco balls
First published: September 17, 1954 by Faber & Faber
Category: Classics, Fiction, Young Adult
Lord of the Flies was Book 6 on my September Reading Challenge High School Reading Redo list. All I know is that after this one I am reading a book for leisure before I pick up another book from my “homework” reading list. I need a classics break!
The following 28 second video will tell you all you need to know about Lord of the Flies. Thank you, Running Out of Pages for reminding me of this scene, it perfectly summed up my reading experience.
Audiobook Review: Harbor Me by Jacqueline Woodson
4 disco balls
Published: August 28, 2018 by Listening Library
Narrators: N’Jameh Camara, Jose Carrera, Dean Flanagan, Angel Romero, Toshi Widoff-Woodson, Mikelle Wright-Matos, Jacqueline Woodson
Length: 3 hours 50 minutes
Category: Realistic Fiction, Childrens, Young Adult
When I requested to read and review Harbor Me through Penguin Random House’s Volumes app I didn’t realize it was a middle grade book; BUT, don’t let that put you off from this story. It is for all ages; and would be a great book for families to read/listen to together. The content would spark discussions on topics such as bullying, grief, racism, classism, and immigration.
Author, Jacqueline Woodson, carefully crafted a story that addresses these major issues without forcing them into place; it was an authentic take on what is going on today and impresses upon our youth to talk more openly about their feelings and try to understand each other. We are all the same in that we want to feel that we belong. Even though the story is rather short, the character development was strong and you can’t help but feel for this group of children. I want to see them 20 years from now.Read More »
Book Review: Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller #HSReadingRedo
2.5 disco balls
First published: February 10, 1949 by Viking Press
Category: Classics, Play, Theatre
Pulitzer Prize for Drama (1949), New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best American Play (1949)
Death of a Salesman was Book 5 on my September Reading Challenge High School Reading Redo list; I can say I’ve done my homework but that’s about all. Reading it certainly felt like homework.
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee #HSReadingRedo
5 disco balls
First published: July 11, 1960 by J. B. Lippincott Co.
Category: Classics, Historical Fiction, Coming of age
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (1961), Audie Award for Classic (2007), National Book Award Finalist for Fiction (1961), Alabama Author Award for Fiction (1961)
To Kill a Mockingbird was Book 4 on my September Reading Challenge High School Reading Redo list; I’ve reached the 50% mark!
How does one even review a book of this notoriety? In my honest opinion, you can’t: or I certainly can’t. All I can say is that I waited way too long to read this book. I think I took the easy way out in high school and watched the movie or read the Cliff Notes, but never dove right into this gem. Well, I can finally mark this Great American Read off my list! Phew.
Goodreads synopsis: 4.27 average rating
A gripping, heart-wrenching, and wholly remarkable tale of coming-of-age in a South poisoned by virulent prejudice, it views a world of great beauty and savage inequities through the eyes of a young girl, as her father—a crusading local lawyer—risks everything to defend a black man unjustly accused of a terrible crime. Compassionate, dramatic, and deeply moving, To Kill A Mockingbird takes readers to the roots of human behavior – to innocence and experience, kindness and cruelty, love and hatred, humor and pathos.
Instead of reviewing, I thought I would share some TKAM fun facts and the like. Read More »
Book Review: The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
5 disco balls
Published: April 20, 2006 by Speak (first published 1967)
Category: Classics, Young Adult, Fiction
The Outsiders was Book 2 on my September Reading Challenge High School Reading Redo list; two down, six to go! Reading this in one day sure made up the time it took me to read Rebecca, phew. I am back on pace but still have Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck ahead so hope I give myself enough time to finish my overdue homework 😉
I don’t know what more to say than I should have read this for homework when I was a kid. I’ve missed out on this incredible story all these years! Never mind that this book was written by a teenager, Susan Eloise Hinton used her initials to hide the fact she was a female so male readers wouldn’t dismiss her. Knowing she was an impressionable youth herself blows my mind. The insight and care she had given to the character development is beyond 5 stars: beyond!Read More »
Book Review: Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier #HSReadingRedo
4 disco balls
First published August 1938 by Doubleday Doran
Category: Classics, Mystery, Romantic Suspense, Gothic
Rebecca was Book 1 on my September Reading Challenge High School Reading Redo list; one down, seven to go. This one took me much longer to read, clocking in at 8 days! I could have read two books in that time. Well no use crying about it now.
Let’s discuss why it took so long:Read More »
Audiobook Review: To All the Boys I Loved Before (Book #1) by Jenny Han, narrated by Laura Knight Keating
5 disco balls
Published: April 16, 2014 by Recorded Books, Inc.
Narrated by: Laura Knight Keating
Length: 8 hours 22 minutes
Category: Young Adult, Contemporary, Coming of Age
Pennsylvania Young Readers’ Choice Award Nominee for Young Adults (2016), Lincoln Award Nominee (2018), Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Young Adult Fiction (2014)
Author Jenny Han is brilliant! She delivered a story reminiscent of Pretty in Pink. She’s the modern day John Hughes.
What a delight: a great read/listen for all ages. It made me want to relive my high school days and that is no small feat. Who wants to be a teenager again? Certainly not me; no way, no how. I don’t even want to remember the teenager I was – I like myself much more now – BUT, this book brought me back to that time and I can feel the butterflies in my stomach for youthful crushes as if it were yesterday. I found myself thinking who my fifteen year-old self would write letters to, and what I would have said. It would probably look a little like this: Read More »
Audiobook Review: My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh, narrated by Julia Whelan
Overall Story:
2 disco balls
Narration:
5 disco balls
Published: July 10, 2018 by Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
Narrated by: Julia Whelan
Length: 7 hours 14 minutes
Category: Literary Fiction, Contemporary
What did I just listen to? If it weren’t for narrator Julia Whelan I probably would have canned this one. (She was brilliant!) Well actually who am I kidding, no I wouldn’t. It was a book club pick and I don’t like showing up to book club unprepared so I would have suffered reading this one (thank goodness it was an audio instead).Read More »
Saturday Nite Reader 