Born out of a desire to get a family of book lovers to connect more over what they’re reading, Family Reads is an occasional feature where my mom, dad or sister and I read and discuss a book. Why we chose David A. Robertson’s The Theory of Crows typeitytypetype summary Goodreads Our Discussion Breakdown with level 3 subheadings Final Thoughts I gave this book ★★½ and Dad gave it ★★★★★. Recap. Recommended for… Further Reading Read an excerpt Author website Interview @ MG Book Village Reviews: … Related: Other middle grade works by Oppel I’ve reviewed include The Nest, Inkblot and ..read more

Born out of a desire to get a family of book lovers to connect more over what they’re reading, Family Reads is an occasional feature where my mom, dad or sister and I read and discuss a book. Why we chose Seanan McGuire’s Lost in the Moment and Found TBH, we wanted to do R.F. Kuang’s Babel but it was seemingly impossible for us both to acquire a copy and read it within an acceptable time frame. Meanwhile, we both adore the Wayward Children series. Since we each preordered a copy and knew we would read it in January, we decided to discuss Lost in the Moment and Found instead for January’s ..read more

Title by Author Source: ebook/library Published: ## Mon. Publisher: Imprint (House) Length: ### pages Series: … Genre: … Target Age: … Representation: … Summary The invasion begins–but not as you’d expect. It begins with rain. Rain that carries seeds. Seeds that sprout–overnight, everywhere. These new plants take over crop fields, twine up houses, and burrow below streets. They bloom–and release toxic pollens. They bloom–and form Venus flytrap-like pods that swallow animals and people. They bloom–everywhere, unstoppable. Or are they? Three kids on a remote island ..read more

So, January’s done, hey? It was a solid start to my year in terms of reading and blogging. Still sad about the state of Twitter. Now that Tweetbot’s gone (RIP), I find it less useful than ever. Grateful to everyone who checks out these posts even if they never see my tweets! Books Finished Babel, Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution by R.F. Kuang Alice Austen Lived Here by Alex Gino Poppy & Ereth by Avi Lost in the Moment and Found by Seanan McGuire Joyful: The Surprising Power of Ordinary Things to Create Extraordinary Happiness by Ingrid ..read more

Hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl Preamble Today’s Top Ten Tuesday is Freebie. Time to bust out a topic I’ve had in my drafts since 2020! That topic is the Shikoku Henro (四国遍路), or Shikoku Pilgrimage. The pilgrimage consists of 88 temples on the Japanese island of Shikoku which are associated with Buddhist monk Kōbō Daishi, the founder of Shingon Buddhism in Japan. From Aug 2014 to Aug 2015, I lived in Shikoku. I completed the pilgrimage in different parts throughout my time there, visiting about half of the temples in a roadtrip during my final two weeks in the country. I have 10 books ..read more

Once a month, I curate a small list of books that make me think, “I can’t believe I haven’t read that”.  Then, you vote on which book I should read in the following month. I hope that I’ll be able to ‘catch up’ on certain books that I ‘should’ have read ages ago and finally be able to discuss those books with my fellow book lovers. September’s Result – Poppy and Ereth by Avi Back in 2017, I added the reamining Dimwood Forest books I’d yet to read to my TBR. Chronologically, Poppy and Ereth is the final book in the series. In 2020, Avi published Ragweed and Poppy. So that leaves Ereth’s B ..read more

I always say I’m not chuffed about how many books are on my TBR… but it turns out I don’t like having over a thousand books on it Looking back in my book blogging folder, I’ve done this at least three times, creating docs to track which books I removed in Dec 2020, Jan 2018, and Dec 2015. However, don’t think I’ve ever shared this process publicly. So that’s what today’s post is about! When I started this project on December 29, I had 1,028 books on my TBR. Ideally, I’ll hack it down to about 990. I started with my to-read comics shelf. I decided to remove only one book from there: Harley Qu ..read more

Here are a couple more reviews that have been languishing in drafts for almost a year. Both of these were Cybils 2021 finalists. My memory’s falling short here, so these are mostly point form reviews based on the notes I took while reading. I wasn’t even sure these were worth posting but… they’re something. Onto another short pair of reviews! Kiki Kallira Breaks a Kingdom by Sangu Mandanna Source: Hardcover/library Published: July 2021 Publisher: Viking Books (PRH) Length: 352 pages Series: Kiki Kallira #1 Genre: Action/adventure portal fantasy Target Age: Middle ..read more

This post contains: Preamble: My reasons for writing this post A Brief History of Falling Letters: notable changes I’ve made to how I manage this blog over the years My Stats – Year Over Year: views, visitors, comments, likes, most viewed posts, and top referrers for each year from 2019 to 2022 My Stats – Month Over Month: views, visitors, comments, likes, and most viewed posts for each month from Dec 2021 to Dec 2022 But What Does it All Mean?: My analysis and takeaways from the statistics shared (skip to this section if you don’t care to review the numbers) Conclusion: What’s the takeaway ..read more

Spell Sweeper by Lee Edward Födi Source: Hardcover/library Published: Nov 2021 Publisher: HarperCollins Length: 368 pages Genre: Fantasy Target Age: +9 Summary Most students at Dragonsong Academy spend their days practicing spells and wielding wands, but after flunking her sixth-grade standardized tests, Cara Moone is on the fast track to becoming a MOP (a.k.a. Magical Occurrence Purger). See, when a real wizard casts a spell, it leaves behind a residue called spell dust—which can be dangerous if not disposed of properly. It’s a MOP’s job to clean up the mess. And ..read more