Thoughts
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June Reading: Some Great Fiction About Children and Childhood for Adults
Hello all, It’s been a busy couple weeks, but I am taking some time this week to settle into summer. After a summer spent hiking 20+ miles a day last year, I find it hard to fully articulate the level of joy I take in having summer days to sleep in, get on the water, get a good dinner and still sleep in my own bed! Today, I will be sharing two of my best books of June with you. Unintentionally, they both have LGBTQ+ characters and themes (which feels fitting for pride month), but also, they both do something I find really compelling, which is that they approach themes…
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Summer Reading: What Makes the Perfect Road Trip Audiobook?
I am fascinated by the idea of “summer reading”, mostly because I don’t quite know why it is such a big deal. It feels like this time of year, more than any other, is the time when adults (and children) are inundated with book lists and reading challenges. Is it a holdover from our years in school, when summer was our time to take a break? I find that as an adult, summer is often when I am at my busiest and have LESS time for reading. Personally, I am the most interested in books are in the fall and winter, with a cozy fire, blanket and tea. My favorite…
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Happy April Fool’s Day: It’s Tricky Puzzle Book Time!
Happy April Fool’s Day! Quite honestly, I am not much of a prankster, although I do love seeing what people pull off as long as it isn’t directed at me. The community I live in has a tradition of high production pranks (think UFO on the local lake) that I have helped with in the past, and I do enjoy those! In honor of the “holiday”, I wanted to explore a fun, odd book niche with you all. Today, I am sharing a few puzzle books that set out to trick readers or need to be “solved” in some way. “Puzzle” mysteries and books told in non-traditional ways are fairly…
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Book Bans: Why We Need to Care
Hello Everyone, Did you know that in 2022, there were over 2000 individual book bans implemented in the United States, covering over 1500 titles? Today, I am hopping on the soapbox a bit to talk about the alarming level of book banning that is currently happening right now in the United States. We should all be angered by this, and even if we don’t live in areas where this is an issue, it is still something we can help fight. Before I share some articles which do a much more comprehensive and well-researched job of talking about this than I can, I wanted to share a personal story about this,…
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More Award Winning Books: Adaptations, Interesting Narrators and More.
Hello everyone, Today I wanted to share a few books that have come out in recent years and received awards. I am always surprised by the number of books that I have never heard of when I look at award lists, and while it does get a big overwhelming, it also sometimes pushes books I have wanted to read higher up my TBR. Below are some of the ones I am interested in – if you want to learn more about the prospective awards, or find some books you might want to read, you can check out my full database of Current Book Award Winners as well. A Memory Called…
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Better Book Challenges for 2023
Every year, I see New Year’s resolutions that focus on reading more. It may surprise folks, but I think the idea of setting yourself a goal of “reading more books” isn’t actually a great idea, especially if you are setting a number goal that is significantly more than you normally read. In fact, although I do faithfully put in my Goodreads reading goal and follow my own reading challenges, I usually set my goal to be a little less than I read last year, and I often add additional list challenges later in the year only when I realize I have already almost completed them. I don’t “challenge” myself, as…
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Bookish Connections: Travels around Great Britain
I always love it when things line up suddenly, and today, I have a fun story about a surprise book connection, and with it, a couple very back-list books that may interest you. To start with, when I was 13, my family moved to England for a year as part of a Fulbright teacher exchange. As was usual for me, I read everything I could get my hands on, and as we traveled that was often whatever books were at the rentals and places we stayed. Somewhere in our travels, I picked up an old trade paperback called The Kingdom by the Sea, which was written by a travel writer…
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What I’ve Been Reading Lately: Deep Connections
I have spent the last couple months trying to figure out a way to get “back into” my blog, and I think the easiest way is to simply dive in with a general update and a sense of what I have been reading lately! This past summer, my husband and I spent 5 months hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, which was the experience of a lifetime. We documented it over on Instagram at @emma_mike_pct if you want a little more about that, and I do have a book related PCT post in the works! It was impossible, wonderful and generally the hardest and best thing I have ever done. Nowadays,…
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Miss Marple: 4.50 From Paddington
Hello everyone, Sorry for the late post. I am going on vacation this weekend, forgot my personal computer, and didn’t get this out in time. Instead of a 5 fun things this week, please enjoy reading about my latest Miss Marple book! Miss Marple continues to be the BEST. Today’s installment is great, but I have to say this is the first time when my clear favorite was not the book but one of the TV adaptations (and it was amazing). The book I have today is called 4.50 From Paddington (also sometimes called What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw). The Book Overall, this was really enjoyable. One of the things that…
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March 2021: When characters are more important than plot.
Hello everyone, This past month, I read (or listened) to a LOT of books, but most of this was books I either have or will talk about elsewhere on the blog (including one which I am VERY excited to share with you all), so I don’t have a ton to share with you all for the month. A lot of these were Tamora Pierce books, who wrote my favorite childhood stories which still hold up, and should be at the top of the list for every parent/adult who ever buys books for kids! I do have a few books to discuss, all of which have a fun connection – these…
