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Beautiful Creatures Review
I’ll admit I’m not coming to this blind as I read the sequel series first (I know, I know but Link and Ridley’s prologue for Dangerous Creatures was so much more intriguing to me than this one) and I saw the film adaptation when it first came out which is why I read said sequel series and um. . kinda skimmed these.
Well now, I’m starting a true read and I must Garcia and Stohl really know how to craft a world.
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Ranking Main Street
1. The Secret Book Club: I think I first read the Main Street series around the same time as The Mother-Daughter Book Club and thus I was very interested in book clubs. It sounded like so much fun to discuss major themes and plots with your friends as you read the same book together. Martin makes it even more intriguing by having it started by a mysterious benefactor. Plus it covers several books that I would go on to read for middle school so I felt ahead of the curve.
2. Special Delivery: It’s a classic trope, a new baby! But it gets me every time as the Northrop family prepares for the arrival of Aunt Allie’s adopted baby. Additionally, Ruby gets some much-needed charcter develpment when her bratty cockiness costs her a solo in the children’s choir.
3. Keeping Secrets: I was always excited to read this one when I reread the series in one sitting because it features a new family in the Row House. One with its unqiue secret. While Willow Hamilton is friendly, she’s also shy. Same with her brother. They seem to live on edge of their mother whose quirks and made-up rules overtake every aspect of their lives. Martin builds up the intrigue delicately until it culminates in a late night trip from the police. While Mrs. Hamilton’s mental affliction is never specifically named, she does a sensitive job depicting what it is like for Willow to live with a mental-unbalanced parent and how it affects her life as well as the looming sense of something wrong that the other girls notice when they initially visit the Hamilton to welcome Willow.
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Top 5 Beacon Street Girls
1. Scavenger Hunt: As a double length book, this one gets number one for the three plots it juggles as the class goes on a scavenger hunt using clues of enviromental and auatic nature befitting their Cape Cod location. However, two groups get diverted. Isabel and Maeve’s group accidentally stumble upon a movie set with Maeve’s old friend Orlando Plume and they all get cast as extras. Between seeing the class know-it-alls duke it out as historic consultants and the Lindsey Lohan substiute having diva-worthy freakouts, their movie magic mishaps are the best part of the book. Avery’s group ends up bumming it on the beach, soaking up the rays and having fun rather than work much to Chelsea’s (my fav supporting character!) charign. Charlotte and Katani are the only ones taking the hunt seriously but Katani is having problems with her older sister chaperoning and her ultra-competitive nature serving a good lesson on sportsmanship. Plus it has the added bonus of giving some extra depth to the Empress of Mean, Kiki Underwood. Just a summer read that instantly gives me nostalgia vibes.
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Thoughts on Allie Finkle
So I did my reread and I think it holds up for the most part. It is definately too young for anyone who reads it after lower-school. It’s almost quaint to read how Allie’s biggest problems are eating foods she doesn’t like and the worst insult is “crybaby.” Simpler times. Especially as she and her friends don’t quite understand things like romance and “going with” someone as a boy/girlfriend. Though you might get a little chuckle when Cabot slips in things the adults say that goes over Allie’s head.
In fact, after reading the Boy quarter and this soon after, I recognize a pattern in Cabot’s writing. The protagonists have a rambling, stream of thought voice that often goes into diatribes and digressions before getting back to the point. It’s interesting how it manages to fit a 9 year old girl and a 20 something single. With the former it fits the easily distractible mind of a kid, and the latter makes the rom-com leads quirky.
I also come to the idea that maybe just maybe Allie might be autistic.Between how she feels like she’s going to gag whenever eating something red, having a special interest in animals, needing to write down rules because the complexity of girlworld and trying to navigate the messy emotional landscape, trying to put her rules on others once or twice.
True, you could just chalk all that to being a kid who tends to see things in black and white and is more organized and studious but it did pop into my head.
So yeah, a cute series that shows Cabot can write for kids, teens, adults and any in between.
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Author Highlight: Julie Murphy
This bold and body-positive author always manages to hit the right note in her YA novels of being true to you no matter your size or sexuality.
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New Year, New Books
Happy 2023 everybody! Hopefully this year will be more positive than the last. Not that we can control the events of the world but the decisions we do control, try to choose one of kindess and respect to others.
Now off my metaphorical soap box, what new books am I eager to read? And for the few who are following, eager to read my thoughts on these books.
Well some new (well new to me. They’ve been out quite a while) books that I plan to read are Julie Murphey’s books. I saw the netflix movie version of her book, Dumplin which was entertaining enough. And as we all know the book is almost always better than the movie so now I’m going to check that out as well as her other YAs that seem to follow similar themes of identity, body positivity, pagents etc. Puddin and Pumpkin. This should be fun as I already like her romance, If the Shoe Fits.
I will also be reading Sandya Menon’s Dimple Meets Rishi series since I’ve only heard good things about that.
I’ll finally get into The Rose Years series since I finally finished Little House on the Prarie. I can’t wait since I do enjoy the turn of the 19th-20th centuries.
In the YA fantasy vein, I will be getting to the Beautiful Creatures quartet by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl (I know I read the sequel series first and skimmed the original, but come on! Villains are so much more interesting) and Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games trilogy (yes another bad bad reader mark for me, I only saw the movies).
In romance I plan to get to Eloisa James’ Desperate Duchesses series and maybe a Tessa Dare or Sabrina Jeffries series since I’ve heard conflicting reviews of how good their romances are.
And I’ll be rereading some old favorites like Ruditis’ Drama! and Secrets of My Hollywood Life by Calonita. As well as Cabot’s Allie Finkle’s Rules for Girls. It’s been like 14 years since I read that series, let’s see if it still holds up. Additionally, I’m eager to get back into Sam Ellis’ nonfiction again.
In the reread section, I also plan on getting to finish my Princess Diaries reread and start Nancy Drew, Warriors and the American Girl series (I’m only 6 away from finishing my collection. 6!!!). Not to mention the School of Good and Evil of which I read the first trilogy when I was little and though I forgot most of it, still mindboggled at how badly Netflix butchered it. Plus the second trilogy will be an new adventure for me.
As for actual new releases, I will be getting to that too. Ana Maria and the Fox is coming out this month as well as the lates Twisted Tale by Lim and the new Disney Villains Dark Ascension series. Not to mention the final books for Clare’s The Eldest Curses and The Last Hours trilogies.
Comics-wise, I’m interested in the latest Avatar tale, Azula Alone as well as getting into Fables and Empowered but first I will see if they’re available through the library loan.
That’s all the plans I have for now. Drop a comment if there’s a book you think I should get to or any other suggestions. Happy New Year!
#alliefinklesrulesforgirls, #anamariaandthefox, #avatarthelastairbender, #beautifulcreatures, #darkascension, #desperateduchesses, #dimplemeetsrishi, #disneyvillains, #drama!, #dumplin, #empowered, #fables, #fantasy, #hungergames, #nancydrew, #newyearnewreads, #puddin, #pumpkin, #rachelreads&reviews, #realisticfiction, #secretsofmyhollywoodlife, #theeldestcurses, #thelasthours, #theprincessdiaries, #theroseyears, #twistedtales, #warriors, #YA -
Reading Log 2022
Well I feel pretty proud of myself this year from starting up this blog, getting up to 292 posts (woot woot) and being able to interview at leat 20 authors I admired. It has been a pretty good
Now this list is a list of books I read from cover to cover, including acknowledgements. Each period read. Which isn’t to say I didn’t read the other books I have written about, but it was more getting the gist of the story rather than intense concentration.
I’ll admit I did not start this year documenting my reading. Heck, I hadn’t started this year planning this boo blog. I only started this list around school time as this blog provided a helpful list of everything I read and since I was around 276 or something I decided to make a goal of reading 365 books. One for every day of the year. And when I surpassed that, my new goal was 400 and when I surpassed that, 500! And I did it! Sure, some may not count all the comics since they’re quicker to read but this is my blog and I do. I split it into several sections, YA, adult, nonfiction, Archie Comics, comics and so on. Here we go!
(more…)#ababybookforwillybobthesquirrel, #acarribeanheiressinparis, #amatchmadeinmehendi, #americanpanda, #archieamericana, #archiecomics, #artofavatar, #artofkorra, #artoftheanimatedseries, #awrinkleintime, #balletshoes, #beastboy, #beastboylovesraven, #beautyqueens, #becauseIwasagirl, #betty&veronica:senioryear, #bettyandveronica:thebondoffriendship, #bettyandveronica:vixens, #bigmoose, #blackgirlsrock, #bloodyjackadventures, #bobbiefayesveryveryveryverybadday, #bookofmormon, #boxers, #boyseries, #bravely, #browngirldreaming, #camp, #catroyaladventures, #channelkindness, #chillingadventuresinsorcery, #chillingadventuresofsalem, #concreterose, #confessionsofaslightlyneurotichitwoman, #constantine:distortedillusions, #cosmothemightymartian, #covertaffairs, #crazyhorse'sgirlfriend, #dangerouscreatures, #dccomicbombshells, #dccomics, #dcink, #dearjusticeleague, #dickgraysonandthelostcarnival, #don'taskmewherei'mfrom, #dorkdiaries, #ellaenchanted, #emmieandfriends, #extraordinarymothersanddaughters, #fantasy, #fearthefunhouse, #fierceyoungawesome, #flipthescript, #forever, #fruitsbasket, #fruitsbasketanother, #fulldisclosure, #gamoraandnebula, #geekgirl'sguidetocheerleading#shutin, #gildedagegirlsclub, #girlsoflighthouselane, #girlswhogreentheworld, #girlswhoruntheworld, #girlwhorodeashark, #grandesdreamers, #graphicnovels, #grishaverse, #groundbreakingguys, #harrietthespy, #hattiebigsky, #hattieeverafter, #heartsunbroken, #heroesformydaughter, #heykiddo, #historicalfiction, #honorgirl, #hudaf.areyou?, #i'llbetheone, #iamnotalabel, #immigrantstoriesforrebelgirls, #inheritance, #inuyasha, #jackofhearts, #jinx, #jinx'sgrimmfairytales, #josieandthepussycats, #josieandthepussycatsinspace, #jughead, #jughead'stimepolice, #kataraandthepiratetreasure, #kidgloves, #kiki'sdeliveryservice, #kpopconfidential, #kpoprevolution, #lawbreakingladies, #legendofkorra, #littlehouseontheprarie, #littlepinkpup, #loki, #longlivethepumpkinqueen, #loreolympus, #loyalleague, #lumberjanes, #martitaIrememberyou, #marypoppins, #meangirls, #megjobethandamy, #misfitinlove, #modernherstory, #monsterhigh, #mymostexcellentyear, #natashapierreandthegreatcometof1812, #nativewomenchangingtheirworlds, #nexttimewillbedifferent, #noisemakers, #notablenatives, #nuestraamerica, #offtherecord, #onceuponatoad, #onewoman'sjunk, #onthecomeup, #paperbacksfromhell, #parisdaillencourtisabouttocrumble, #piercingittogether, #plainjanes, #poisonivy:thorns, #powerinnumbers, #prettylittleliars, #princceofsongandsea, #princessacademy, #rachelreads&reviews, #radgirlsatoz, #rainatelgemeier, #rainofghosts, #raisingthehorseman, #raven, #realfriends, #realisticfiction, #realitycheck, #reggieandme, #revolutionarywomen, #ruinsofanempire, #rupikaur, #s.a.s.s., #sabrina'sanniversaryspecial, #sabrinatheteenagewitch, #saints, #saintsandmisfits, #sherepresent, #sincerely, #sleepawaygirls, #smithhigh, #somethingnew, #songofthelioness, #spiritsofashandfoam, #stupidcupidtrilogy, #supermansmashestheklan, #takethemonkeysandrun, #thearchieencyclopeda, #thearchies, #theavatarchronicles, #thebestarchiecomicever, #thecuckoosister, #thedirtybookclub, #thegoodmaster, #thehateugive, #thehathaways, #thehollywoodsisters, #thehouseofspirits, #theinheritanceoforquideadivina, #themagicofsabrinatheteenagewitch, #themagicwithin, #themotherdaughterbookclub, #themysteriousbenedictsociety, #theolympians, #theperfectionists, #thepretenders, #theradicalelement, #theshadowhunterchronicles, #thesisterhoodofthetravelingpants, #thetaleofdespereaux, #theturners, #thriller, #thrillseekers, #tigerthemonarchbutterfly, #travelogue, #turfwars, #turnitup, #twistedtales, #twitches, #tyrannyofpetticoats, #unscripted, #unsungheroinesoftheholocaust, #w.i.t.c.h., #wearedisplaced, #wearehere, #weirdermysteries, #whenyougetthechance, #wherestarsarescattered, #whodiditfirst, #witthefireonhigh, #womenwhodare, #wonderfulwomenoftheworld, #xmenevolution, #YA, #yaquidelgadowantstokickyourass, #yearoftherabbit, #youngjustice, #youngsalem, #zatanna:thejewelofgravesend -
Superduck Review
Tieri and Flynn bring Superduck to the 21st century as part of Archie Comics’ general reboot of all its properties and what a reboot it was! The original Superduck harbors a lot of similarities to Donald Duck being hotheaded avians with hen-pecking girlfriends and mischievous nephews. However, Superduck gains his powers from biting super vitamins that allow him to be the cock-eyed wonder and champion of Ducktropolis. Though some of the messes are of his own making as well.
Anyway, this reboot is not for kids as the original was. Innuendo and cursing abound as it has its fun lampooning cliche villain tropes and leaning into the Donald Duck confusion. The villain is even named Dapper Duck, a scheming captalistic money-monger that hates the poor and charges old ladies for crossing the street.
However, after a brutal fight with a giant robot, Super Duck passes out and recieves the fatal diagnosis that those super vitamins have been slowly killing him while he basked in his industrictble feats.
It’s quite fun but unfortunately cancelled after this one issue so one will never how Super Duck deals with this downgrade in life nor the rich Scottish uncle who is going to help him (no it’s not Scrooge as many are expecting). Too bad, I wanted to see more, maybe a gofundme campaign will get their attention.
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Winter Books
Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams
Someone said that this was like a modern Bridget Jones Diary but I’d say this was a bit deeper than that.
Yes, the titular Queenie does have a bonkers love life and sometimes she doesn’t know how to put the oven on and her personal and business life cna get messy but it’s also has the hard edges of a dysfunctional family, microaggresive work collegues and a clear drinking problem.
Living as a black woman anywhere is tough and highlights that portraying Queenie’s stress and sometimes feelings of paranoia that no one else will support her or just get that she isn’t acting out or out of control, she’s hurting. Some of this comes from her immigrant background that is peeled back layer by layer, granting more insight to Queenie’s issues which. . .
Well that would be a spoiler so I just say, this isn’t your average chick fic. You can still sip a glass of wine but you’ll also appreciate the nuance and complexitiy woven into this tale.
Just Like Home by Sarah Gailey
Now this is the book I wanted to read during Halloween. Vera’s home is haunted by monsters but Bailey keeps things off-kilter as readers will wonder if this monster is a beast or a human or some freightening possession of the two concocted by the house.
You see, Vera’s old home was the resting places for the many victims her beloved father killed. Her father may be gone but the secrets linger as a new parasitic man enters the house only adding to its sinister atmosphere. And it’s up to Vera to tackle its secrets although Vera may not be so pure herself.
I was kept guessing the whole time and if you love those gothic horrors that combine gore with domestic abuse as an echo of real life horror that vampires cannot give, then you’ll enjoy this old haunted house of a novel.
Ariadne and Elektra by Jennifer Saint
Since I so enjoyed Miller’s take on Achilles and Circe’s mythologies, I immediately jumped to another classicist turned author, Jennifer Saint. Here she brings the women’s roles in mythology to the light and revels in the sorrow and horrow of mortals living among gods and monsters. And sometimes you don’t know which is which.
Ariadne would be better titled Ariadne and Phaedra as this is a story about sisters. I believe most know the myth of the minotaur but you may have missed that Theseus’ story did not end there. He may have taken Ariadne away from Minos but he did not wed her. Rather he abandoned her on a island where she would have rotted to death if not for Dionysus. Yes, Theseus is one of the most monsterous of Posidon’s children (Guess which author I’m quoting there!)
Not only does Saint explore Ariadne’s feelings of abandonment as well as how swept she was when she initially meets Theseus but expands on the entire minos family. There’s Queen Paispha in a rare depiction of her as a grieving lost mother than evil witch. Ariadne dispairs of her mother’s weak grasp on reality and her father’s cruelty, finding solance and comfort with her younger sister, Phaedra who is the only one who understands their life in a loveless palace. But Phaendra falls for Theseus too and she’s the one to wed him when he returns to Minos, telling her that Ariadne is dead. Yep, a man splits the sisters a part but not in the usual tropy way. Both feel guilty as Ariadne believes this is punishment for leaving her sister and Phaedra feels guilty for ever wishing Ariadne gone so she may have the prince.
I won’t spoil how things get resolved between them but men as monsters is a reoccurring theme in this book and the next. For as Ariadne finds solace and healing from the god of revelry, the most human of the Olympians as a demigod, she also finds that the vulnerabilities that attracted her to him in the first place have their limits as he grows into his godly power and his madness (bonus that she depicts the Dionysian rites!). Once more she wonders if she will ever find a home again.
There were a few things that threw me off. But perhaps it can be filed under artistic license so maybe these are nitpicks but for some reason she has Dionysus’ former lover, Amphelos be a mortal boy instead of a mortal satyr. Don’t know why she made that change exactly as the result would be the same for he and Ariadne to have a conversation about godly views on mortality. Also I understand her choice to make Paispha more sympathetic as the view of her as a heinous witch could be Ancient Greek mysigny (They are the ones who give Hera a bad rep after all even though she was well beloved by the female population), it also felt like it was weakening her since she made no mention of her powers and relation to the equally powerful Circe.
As for Elektra, once again, it’s more than Elektra’s story. It’s the story of three women in the midst of the Trojan War. Clytmnestra, Cassandra and Elektra. Clytmnestra is the wife of Agamon one of the great victors of the Greeks and Elektra is their daughter. Cassandra is the doomed oracle of Troy who fortells their destruction but is unable to convince anyone of her prophacy. Honestly, Clytmnestra is the protagonist of this piece but I suppose everyone knows Elektra better for the whole Elektra complex. Don’t worry, Saint does show harrowing scenes of rape, murder and sacrifice but she doesn’t go so far as incest. Well maybe some light imaginings. But Elektra is more of a Daddy’s girl than a Daddy’s lover here as she has been kept in the dark of her father’s more monsterous deeds and fully believe in the propoganda of his glory.
Clytmnestra knows better as she comes in close contact with the curse of Agamom’s family line. A curse that hurts her more directly than Agamom when he kills her daughter. A women scorned. . . No a mother losing her child is the worst sort of enemy as Agamom is about to find out. Meanwhile Cassandra’s POV is heartbreaking as you know how her story will end with the destruction of her city and her family so it’s harrowing to see her repeated attempts to save the world she knows.
Like Miller, Saint does a grand job in creating a scale of epicness befitting the source material, expounding on themes such as mortality, pride, glory and familial legacy as Greeks had contextualized through the world. The gods are appropriately human yet unknowable. The women are fully realized as not props to their husbands but women trying to survive in a man’s world and coming to terms with the monsters that surround and betray them at every term.
I don’t have many nitpicky thoughts here, probably because my knowledge of Elektra, Clytmnestra and Cassandra mythology is so poor but I did wonder why Saint chose to portray Cassandra’s curse as something that she misconstrued as a gift from Apollo when in the original myth he cursed when she had refused his advances. I thought it would fit right in with the whole men are monsters theme that she has been working through.
I’m eager to see what Saint’s next book on the myth of Atlanta. That’s one is rarely retold for adults nor from Atlanta’s POV so I can’t wait.
(more…)#alyssasheinmel, #amatchmadeinmehendi, #anathology, #ancestorapproved, #andrealrogers, #annameriano, #apartment1986, #ariadne, #artcoulson, #awrinkleintime, #balzerandbray, #beachblondes, #bloomsbury, #bothsidesnow, #bradburybooks, #brianyoung, #candicecartywilliams, #candlewickpress, #carolelindstrom, #christinaday, #cynthialeitichsmith, #davidarobertson, #dawnquigley, #delcourtpress, #elektra, #elisebryant, #ellenhagan, #ericgansworth, #erikatwurth, #firstgeneration, #forever, #greekmythology, #happilyeverafters, #harpercollins, #harrietthespy, #heartdrum, #heathervogelfrederick, #horror, #ifyoudon'thaveanythingnicetosay, #indigenous, #inkyardpress, #inspiringpublishers, #isaacblum, #iwgregorio, #jackofheartsandotherparts, #jasminezumidehneedsawin, #jennifersaint, #jennihendriks, #josephbruchac, #judyblume, #juslikehome, #katherineapplegate, #kathrynormsbee, #kimrogers, #leilasales, #levacrosen, #lisapapademetriou, #littlebrownbooksforyoungreaders, #louisefitzgerald, #luckofthetitanic, #macmillan, #madelinelengle, #megmedina, #moniquegreysmith, #nandinibajpai, #noneoftheabove, #onceuponatoad, #penguinrandomhouse, #peytonthomas, #philomelbooks, #putnam'ssons, #queenie, #realisticfiction, #rebeccaroanhorse, #reneewatson, #sandraneilwallace, #sarahgailey, #scholastic, #seoulmates, #simon&schuster, #sohoteen, #sohoteens, #sourcebooks, #stacylee, #susanazimboyer, #susanlee, #tashheartstolstoy, #tedcaplan, #thedownstairsgirl, #thelifeandcrimesofhoodierosen, #theproblemwiththeotherside, #thisishowwefly, #timtingle, #tracisorell, #unpregnant, #vikingbooksforyoungreaders, #watchusrise, #whatkindofgirl, #YA, #yaquidelgadowantstokickyourass -
Dork Diaries ReRerad
I’ve been rereading the Dork Diaries since I remembered stopping over #10 because I think I grew out of it. But I also think it changed somewhat. It felt too hard trying to be hip with hashtags and such but that might just me being an old old person. Again, I guess I grew out of it.
However, now rereading it I’m struck by how nostalgic it is and some things I wished that stayed the same.
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Rachel Reads & Reviews 