It's getting to be that time of year when seniors are dropping off grad photos...and today this lovely mug from a student I taught for one semester. This is a kid who was sitting in my regular grade 10 class and was so clearly smarter than me that I did everything in my power to push him into AP English...which he did. ❤️

#bookhaul10
Because 25% off is a siren call.
I had a $50 birthday gift card and $50 worth of Plum points, so with the discount this stack cost me $25. 🤩

Let‘s see how we go.

I have never read a book as dark and disturbing as this one. Michael Morrow lives with his family in the Appalachian woods. They are NOT like other families, and that is pretty clear from page one. Michael is a sympathetic character even as he commits acts of atrocity and there are zero moments of levity, but holy moly, what a read. Reader beware.
This is my first completed book for the #14books14weeks2023 challenge
@TheHeartlandBookFairy

#WondrousWednesday posted on Thursday because I was at book club last night.
1. Probably something by one of the Greeks, Oedipus Rex or Antigone.
2. I do not generally read series because it feels like too much of a time commitment. That said, I read and loved the Chaos Walking trilogy by Patrick Ness.
3. See #2.
@Eggs
Thanks for the tag @dabbe

I missed May, but here are June‘s #bookspin and #doublespin picks.
@TheAromaofBooks

I know I am in the minority because everyone seems to love this book, but I would have stopped reading if it wasn‘t a book club pick. It was easy to read, but preposterous and eye-roll inducing. I think it did have some interesting ideas, but I felt it was just clunky and full of characters who were either saints or villains…and, hey, I am all for more stories about women in STEM careers but I didn‘t believe any of this.

Thanks for the tag @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks and @dabbe
I think this is a reminder we can all use sometimes.
#ThinkPositiveBePositive

Reminiscent of My Sunshine Away and various books by Thomas H. Cook, this is the story of Rocky Askew looking back at the events of his life from ages 8-16. Takes place in the 70s and 80s and features Rocky's hero worship of his older brother Paul. It's a coming of age story, but also has a mystery. It's over stuffed, but still slow-moving, but it was well written and I enjoyed it.

This was a strange but also strangely compelling novel about a reclusive romance writer who disappears and leaves a tale for her niece and nephew to explain her life and some family secrets. Is the story she tells the truth or is it the tale of a mind twisted by trauma?

Jumping on the #14books14weeks2023 bandwagon. I am not sure how strict I will be about only reading from the 14 titles I‘ve chosen -completely random selections- but we‘ll see.
@TheHeartlandBookFairy

This is a soft pick because I had the same problems with this one as I had with Every Summer After. Loved the Canadian setting and references, loved the stuff in the past, loved some of the characters and the Dirty Dancing vibes. But some of it was clunky, especially the ending. I didn‘t quite buy the whole thing and I felt the reasons for the misconnect were kinda lame. Probably 50 pages too long. But a perfectly fine book for your beach bag.

Jacob and Stevie are high school sweethearts who are reinventing their lives on a remote island in Africa. They meet Leo and Tamsin en route, but something is just not right. This novel started strong but wasn‘t quite able to maintain its momentum or believability. A pick because it was still a quick, fun read.

Thanks for the tag @dabbe
@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

#bookhaul9 consists of (mainly) non fic titles for my class library. My grade 10 students are about to start multigenre projects based on a topic they're interested in.

#FirstLineFridays
@ShyBookOwl
“A hand over my mouth wakes me, the skin of it tinny with metal and salt.”
And we‘re off!

Up early this morning to make cookies for today‘s school-based book chat where we are discussing award winners. This story of a teenage clairvoyant, and a 20- something spa receptionist who form a strange bond in Atlantic City. This was well written but S-l-o-w.

First day it is warm enough to sit outside and read. ☀️📚😁

Thanks for the tag @dabbe
1. I laugh whenever possible and am mostly optimistic.
1. Not moving enough. I am a happy slug.
2. Literary fiction.

@Eggs

Just a handful of new books. Hardly worth calling it a #bookhaul8. None of them were on my TBR 🤣

I have read all of Kuehn‘s YA novels and this is quite different from anything else she‘s written. Dani and Camila end up as roommates at Peach Tree, a facility for girls with mental health/addiction problems. This is the story of their road to recovery, which is not smooth sailing. Easy to read, but it lacked…something. #ownvoices

This is a tough one to review. It was easy to read, but the writing wasn‘t anything special. I loved some of the characters, but sometimes they sounded too modern for a story set in the 30s in the Dustbowl. The ending felt manipulative and like it was trying to get me to cry…which I did not. It‘s a soft pick, but I am looking forward to next week‘s book club discussion.

Perhaps just a tad too much going on in this YA supernatural thriller…but a fun read nonetheless.

Beautifully written debut about a middle aged English professor who becomes obsessed with a younger man…but that‘s really only part of the story. The book is about motherhood, aging, academia, marriage. It takes a rather strange turn near the end, but I really enjoyed it.

But not in the Maritimes.
My walk to school this morning. 🙄

A woman claims Blackfoot as her nationality at the border between Canada and the US and neither side knows quite what to do with her. Easy to read and a thoughtful look at how we view ourselves.

Just under the wire with my April #bookspin and #doublespin selections.
@TheAromaofBooks

An 18-year-old tries to overcome a traumatic adolescence at an isolated farm in Northern California. This is a lyrical, quiet novel that was somehow a page-turner, too.

Sadly, this book was just okay for me. I felt like I was being told everything and it jumped around so much I never felt attached to any of the characters or even as though I knew them. Should be an interesting book club discussion tonight, though. (Although I have already been told we will not be having any black cake.)

I have not read this author‘s adult romances, but her first YA romance is delightful. Former besties Celine and Brad now hate each other with a fiery passion. Yeah, sure they do. These are smart, funny, characters and they are each keeping secrets from themselves and each other. It all makes for charming, sweet and often laugh-out-loud reading.

Beautiful Saturday afternoon = #bookhaul7 and a cup of tea at The Art Warehouse (where my son works). Two graphic novels for my classroom and two books for me from my local second hand bookstore.

#bookhaul6 #sorrynotsorry
First three books from a local used book store.
Next four from Indigo‘s 25% off sale
Final two from Big Brothers, Big Sisters fundraising bookshelf which is conveniently placed at the coffee shop where my son works.
#noregrets

@Deblovestoread gifted me this book eight (eight!) months ago. It was this month's #doublespin. I enjoyed the story about gay uncle Patrick tasked with looking after his young niece and nephew after their mother's death. A bit schmaltzy, but lots of fun, too.
@TheAromaofBooks

My teensy March Break #bookhaul. I mean, does it even count?

Tagged by @dabbe ❤️
1. Tagged book. I have also been reading Redemption Prep by Samuel Miller
2. Carolyn Slaughter, Helen Dunmore, Helen Humphreys, Nikki Gemmell, Kathryn Harrison, Lisa Reardon, Lisa Jewell, Ann Patchett, Celeste Ng
3. Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly

@rachelsbrittain

Current situation on the second to last day of my March Break. 😢

A young woman is attacked on her way home and in an effort to put it behind her, she takes a job as a Creative Writing lecturer at a university outside of London. That proves problematic for her marriage; her creative life and her relationships with her grad students, particularly Nicholas, only makes things more difficult. The creative process and the blurred lines between fiction and reality make this book a winner.

March Break here I come.
@TheAromaofBooks

#bookspin and #doublespin for March.
@TheAromaofBooks @TheAromaofBooks
March Break is coming, too.

This is a retelling of Stephen King‘s novel Carrie and it was hard to get that book out of my head while reading this one. 16-yr-old Maddy Washington lives with her controlling father. She has a secret; she‘s bi-racial and NO ONE can know. When her secret gets out it sets off a series of events which culminate at the school prom. This book does have interesting things to say about racism and was readable, for sure, but it‘s not ‘original‘.

LOVE!! This is the first book this year that I can honestly say I loved. It made me cry more than once; it made me stop and think; it gave me all. the. feels. On her 40th birthday Alice time travels back to her 16th birthday and tries to recapture some part of her life …not her youth exactly because she perfectly happy at 40…but she wonders how some things might be different. It‘s just a fabulous, big-hearted book.

This YA author lives next door to me in NS. I very much enjoyed this locked-room mystery which is told from three different perspectives, all young adults who attend a wild party at Heartwood Homes, renamed Heartbreak Homes because it was the first home of a proposed development that subsequently fell through. Someone is murdered at that party & so the plot is whodunnit. The book tackles abuse, homelessness, poverty and was a page-turner to boot.

I found this book slow, but I did enjoy the story of six-year-old Lark and her parents who live in the train depot and dream of one day owning their own home, a dream which is constantly undermined by Lark's father's gambling. A glimpse into family life during the depression. #doublespin @TheAromaofBooks

Finally arrived from the UK, Seventeenth Summer is considered by some to be the first example of YA fiction, although I think it‘s really The Outsiders. I thought I really needed a copy for my classroom library, so I am glad it finally got here.

#bookhaul4 including but not pictured the tagged book, which is not for my class library.

A bleak novel about power and abuse. Georgia Avis, 16, is beautiful and all she's ever wanted is to be an Aspera girl. Aspera is a private club where the rich and famous go to party. She soon learns that what she wants is dangerous. This is a YA book for mature teens. Summers is one of my favourite YA writers and this book is not an easy read.

This is a pretty bleak and brutal book featuring a father and his two sons who leave Kansas for New Mexico to start a new life. The narrator, the youngest son, has lied to authorities about his mother so that she‘ll lose custody, but it turns out his father is a much bigger threat. Is this YA? Despite its adolescent narrator, the book‘s content would definitely skew mature teen.

Lisa Reardon has written three novels and now I have read them all. This one is concerned with Mary Culpepper, a school bus driver who is waiting to testify against a woman accused of killing her daughter. Mary is plagued with guilt & doubt & her life is in shambles. Reardon herself is an interesting character. She spent four years in prison for shooting her father. Her novel Billy Dead has stuck with me for many years. Blameless is also terrific.

February reads loaded for #bookspin and #doublespin @TheAromaofBooks

Our book club at school will be discussing graphic novels tomorrow so I read this one. It‘s a story about a teenager who accompanies his father to his workplace at a jail and all hell breaks loose. It‘s a violent coming of age story about lost dreams. Not really my cup of tea.