Bloggin 'Bout Books Blog

Hello Lovelies! So as you know, I've spent the last 31 days of March reading only middle grade books. I felt like I was a little deficient in the area, and I wanted to see if I could find some good recommendations for people who visit me at work. And boy did I! I honestly thought I would get bored reading middle grade books. I thought I'd be dying to return to the land of YA books--and it was a little bit hard, I'm not going to lie. I kept seeing books on my floor (overflowing shelves might be a problem at my house) that I really wanted to read. But I as I rolled along, I kept adding to my middle grade selection stack as well. And I was really bummed when I realized I only had 5 days left in March and several books I still wanted to finish! And then I realized I'm a moron, and just because I dedicated a month to a book age range didn't mean I couldn't read it outside of that month. That's when I realized that I was enjoying myself. I wanted to read m...

Hello Lovelies!! It's been a crazy couple days for me, so I'm running a little behind schedule. So here's Top Ten Thursday! You all might remember TTT as hosted by The Broke and the Bookish , well Top Ten Thursday is literally the same but just hosted by my inability to get it posted on Tuesday. So for your persual: My Top Ten Gateway Books! 1. Gateway to Sci-Fi 2. Gateway to Adult Fantasy (Round One) 3. Gateway to Adult Fantasy (Round Two)  4. Gateway to Reading as Adventure 5. Gateway to Reading as Obsession 6. Gateway to Redevotion to Reading 7. Gateway to Zombie books (possible Zombie books??) 8. Gateway to Graphic Novels 9. Gateway to Middle Grade (as an adult) 10. Gateway to Paranormal Romance I'm sure I could come up with several more gateway books but these definitely stick out to me in some way or another. What do you think lovelies? What books were your gateway?

Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren is an adventure from beginning to end. Pippi might be an orphan with no respect for proper civilization, but I think she's a fantastic role model. The book follows Pippi and her next-door neighbor and friends Tommy and Annika through Pippi moving in, trying to attend school, an visiting the circus amongst other events. Pippi was raised on a ship with her father, but after he was blown overboard during a storm she goes to Villa Villekulla (the house her father had bought for them) to wait for her father's return. She's convinced that he managed to find an island and become king of the cannibals that live there. As soon as he has built a ship, he'll come home. Pippi is perpetually optimistic. She just wants to have fun. And the adults and children around her don't always understand that. But really when you're an orphan, there seems to be two ways you can go. Either you become optimistic and look at life as an adventur...

I miss homework. There I've said it. Now you're all thinking, who is this crazy lady and why am I reading her blog?? Okay, I'll admit that it's a little weird  to miss homework. But how unusual is it really? All of you in school right now are probably saying that you can't wait to be done with school and homework and just live life like you want to. But I have the sneaking suspicion that some of you other graduates who are out of school might just be thinking okay, I can get where she's coming from. I stopped into my local college campus for a few minutes today with my roommate, and I was reading while she was running an errand, and it just hit me how much I miss homework. I miss having a list of things to do which would have consequences if I didn't complete. I was a very organized student--I'd write down all my homework assignments in my planner and highlight them as I completed them. I wanted to pull out my planner and highlighter. I wanted...

Hello Lovelies! I got really ridiculously behind on my reviews and since my reviews have been fairly short this month (can't make the review longer than the book!! :D ), I decided I wanted to just review the five that I'm behind on in one big swoop. I might also be a little ( teensy ) bit lazy, and it's way easier to format this way. So here goes! The Tiger Rising by Kate DiCamillo  is the story of a boy filled with sadness and a girl filled with anger. It's the story of a freedom plot and a rebellion. It's a moving story packed into just 116 pages. I can definitely understand why it was a National Book Award Finalist. I just continue to love and be moved by DiCamillo's writing. She wrings emotions out of the sparsest phrases. I really think this was her most compact novel, I've read so far, even though it's aimed at the higher end of middle grade (honestly more toward the young adult level but it says ages 10 and up). The simplicity is astou...

As always, TTT is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish : This week we're looking at Top Ten Bookish Bucket List. So here we go: 1. Get a book published. I believe in myself!! 2. Have a library. Like an actual room to house my books. Cause like I physically have enough books for a library but I don't have the space for them :( 3. Read all the books I own!! Don't I own like 300 books I've never read and don't I work at a bookstore where I buy like a handful of books a week?? YEP. BUT I WILL PREVAIL. (Or I'll get rid of them eventually, but like I hope to read them first.) 4. Read 100 books in a year. Yes this is a goal for this year. But I'm never sure if I'm actually going to reach it or not, so it's a lifetime goal as well. 5. Visit the Moors in England. Because Wuthering Heights. 6. Meet JK Rowling?? I'm not actually sure if this is a goal or not because while I would love to meet her and talk t...

The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo is a heart-wrenching tale of love and mistakes and regret camouflaged as a middle grade novel. I loved DiCamillo's Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane and I loved Tale of Despereaux. They're both clearly by the same author but Despereaux is written a bit differently as the whole story is directed to the Reader. I really appreciated this technique as it gave the whole novel a Jane Austenian flare. From the outside the story sounds incredibly silly: a mouse falls in love with a human and is sent to his death but instead escapes to rescue the human? Silly. Appropriate only for those who still believe in miracles and mysterious creatures who bring presents to your house. But DiCamillo's anthropomorphism of animals is incredible. Despereaux becomes real. Even though he's clearly still written as a mouse, it's possible to suspend disbelief and really believe that all mice can talk and think and feel as clearly as humans do. A...