WWW Wednesday

WWW Wednesday November 14, 2018

silverbuttonbooks18 Comments

WWW

Between taking down the Halloween decorations and pondering when precisely was too early to put up the Christmas decorations I have made an absolute mess of my book piles. I spent the last week trying to re-organize everything using the Libib.com app and I found three (THREE) books I didn’t even realize I was still in the middle of reading.

Now it’s WWW Wednesday to the rescue. Thank goodness for Sam at Taking on the World of Words for this post and its ability to get me back on track!

What did I just finish reading?

insicknessandinhealthThe only book I can say I have finished is In Sickness and in Health by Ben Mattlin. It is a frank discussion about the advantages and disadvantages of a interability relationships. Ben Mattlin himself is in an interabled marriage. His insight into what issues arise and face couples in a similar situation made for an extremely interesting read. I highly recommend it and you can read (slightly) more on my post here.  I know I read more but this is how unorganized I have been.

What am I currently reading?

It is more like, “what aren’t I currently reading?” Here are my books.

Grace and Fury by Tracy Banghart was found abandoned with only 20 pages remaining. The Alice Network by Kate Quinn I left only half completed. And, I think everyone knows I stopped helping the Hobbits get to Morder when Galdalf the White returned. Meanwhile, I started reading The Problim Children by Natalie Lloyd because I lack self control.

What do I plan to read next?

I have Paperback Crush, the Totally Radical History of 80’s and 90’s Teen Fiction by Gabrielle Moss and The Radium Girls by Kate Moss. I have been trying to prioritize nonfiction for Nonfiction November and I have really been enjoying the wonder that is nonfiction publishing lately. I cannot wait to finish some of my current reading and get started on these two books.

Tell me, please!

What books made your list this week?

nonfiction

Nonfiction November: Fiction and Nonfiction Book Pairs

silverbuttonbooks1 Comment

The second post for nonfiction November gives you a choice. I have selected to pair a fiction book with a nonfiction book as in, “If you liked that, you might like this.” You can see many other pairings on this weeks hosting site Sarah’s Book Shelves.

My pairing takes the fiction story Me Before you by Jojo Moyes and pairs it with the nonfiction collection of stories In Sickness and in Health, Love, Disability, and a Quest to Understand the Perils and Pleasures of Interabled Romance by Ben Mattlin.

In the off chance you haven’t read Me Before You, watched the movie or read the sequel, the story features Louisa and Will. Louisa takes a job caring for Will who has been in an accident. Prior to his accident, Will was an adventurous individual and full of life.  Since his injury has made him a quadriplegic he is questioning whether he can continue to live when he feels so limited. Louisa learns that he has some drastic plans and sets to change his mind.

Initially, I didn’t want to read about the story of an able-bodied, typically developed individual “rescuing” a person with disabilities. Still, people praised the book and, in the end, I did enjoy it. You can read my full review here.

In Sickness and in Health is written by Ben Mattlin. Ben is a self described crip who has experienced life from a wheelchair since the age of 4. He is married to ML who does not have a disability. He wrote about their marriage in his first book Miracle Boy Grows Up and the overwhelming response resulted in his second book. Ben interviews many different interabled couples in order to gain insight into how and why their relationships work.  Throughout, he interjects his thoughts, feelings and reflections about his relationship to ML.

If you enjoyed Me Before You I encourage you to pick up In Sickness and in Health. Ben Mattlin writes not just from experience but with the lens of understanding that is key to gaining insight into interabled marriages. And, he is funny.

Tell me, please!

Do either of these books interest you? Would you rather read a fictional or nonfictional account of an interabled relationship?

nonfiction

Nonfiction November: My Year in NonFiction

silverbuttonbooks3 Comments

I am woefully behind in participating in nonfiction November but today I turn it all around! Actually, I have been reading non-fiction all month, I have just been terrible about sharing my books and blogging my thoughts.

The first assignment is hosted by Sophisticated Dorkiness and is to look back over your year in nonfiction. I made nonfiction a priority for the first time this year and featured a number of wonderful books on my Non-Fiction Fridays. Below, you can see the covers of nearly all the books I read.

A large black cat sits in the middle of a red and white book with other silhouettes of a ram and a crow.

What was your favorite non-fiction read this year?

I would have to say Canada by Mike Myers was my favorite. I listened to the audiobook, which was read by the author, and was fascinated. If you follow me you will know that I have an enormous crush on Canada. I read this when I returned from my first trip through Canada and it both fed my crush and deepened my interest.

Do you have a particular topic you’ve been attracted to more than others this year?

This year has absolutely been full of autobiographical memoirs and humorous books. I think everyone needed more things to laugh about in 2018.  I have also, as you can see above, been deep into some weird science books.

What nonfiction book have you recommended the most?

poisonhandbook

Above all others I recommend The Poisoner’s Handbook by Deborah Blum. It reads like a procedural crime novel and is the gateway drug to nonfiction.

 

 

 

What are you hoping to get out of participating in Nonfiction November?

Truthfully, I want the opportunity to prioritize nonfiction in my book selection and read about other people’s love of nonfiction!

Tell me, please!

How do you feel about nonfiction?

FrighteninglyGoodRead · Middle Grade · YA

The Last of the Frighteningly Good Reads

silverbuttonbooks1 Comment

Happy Halloween!

My favorite of all holidays is today! Dressing up (Edna Mode, thank you very much) and festive candy eating is the only thing that will distract me from the end of Frighteningly Good Reads 2018. I have had a wonderful month reading spooky, scary and suspenseful stories and I hope you all have found one or two that have tickled your terror needs.

I do have two more I finished just yesterday that I would like to highlight. The first is a middle grade book Small Spaces and the second is The Bone Witch. Both were excellent reads and were a perfect way to wrap up FGR!

smallspacesSmall Spaces is a middle grade story by Katherine Arden. In it, a girl names Olivia (Ollie) meets a distraught woman tearfully attempting to toss a book into the water. Like any good and dedicated reader she bravely saves the book. When her class goes on a field trip to a local farm she is surprised to see the woman from the edge of the water there – and she is the farm’s owner! Soon terrifying things begin to happen. Is it the book? Or the woman?

Small Spaces may be for middle grade readers but I thoroughly enjoyed every page. Ollie was a complicated character and watching her befriend two classmates, Coco and Brian, while running for her life was great scary fun. The author kept the tension going long enough for it to be delightfully spooky and never boring or repetitive, a difficult feat! I loved it.

The Bone Witch by Rain Chupeco is the first in a YA trilogy. In this story, Tea (pronounced Tee-ah) accidentally raises her brother from the dead. After doing so she is labelled a bone witch and is carried off to meet the King and be placed in school that will train her to become an Asha – more specifically – a Dark Asha. Since Tea and only one other Dark Asha exist, it is their sole responsibility to raise and order back to the dead eternal creatures of the enemy.

This book, as is true with many YA series, is set in a complicated world. The first third of the book is full of wonderful other-world explanations and adventures and while the middle third of the book lags, it more than makes up for it in the ending. Now, as is also true of most YA series, I feel the strong need to read the next two books. I foresee a complicated romance for young Tea as well as an adventure fraught with peril!

And so completes Frightening Good Reads 2018! Next Month is Non-Fiction November and I am thrilled to be participating. You can look forward to seeing a number of new non-fiction books here.

Tell me, please!

What do you prefer, spooky or non-fiction?

WWW Wednesday

WWW Wednesday October 24, 2018

silverbuttonbooks23 Comments

WWW

It’s time! Make sure and check Taking on a World of Words to see all of the other participants in this weekly meme which answers the questions:

What did you just finish reading?

What are you currently reading?

What do you plan to read next?

What did I just finish reading?

A figure in a hooded red cape holds a scythe looking like a futuristic grim reaper.
A large black cat sits in the middle of a red and white book with other silhouettes of a ram and a crow.
A blue cover with gold writing featuring an antique headstone and a golden Newberry sticker.

I have had an excellent past two weeks of reading. I finished Scythe by Neal Shusterman which I have owned and shelved for at least two years. This first book in a series introduces the reader to a world without pain, hunger or death. The overpopulation issue is handled by Scythes, individuals with the power of death. Two young people have been chosen as Scythe apprentices and their lives are forever altered by the entrance of death into their existence. I had no intention of enjoying this book and it won me over completely. For a more comprehensive review, check here.

I also found this adorable non fiction book, Black Cats and Evil Eyes, a Book of Old Fashioned Superstition by Chloe Rhodes. This slender book holds the history for phrases and actions that are based on superstition. Some are absolutely weird (drinking out of an animal skull will cure epilepsy) and some I do all of the time (see a penny, pick it up!). This book is perfect for stocking your brain full of fun tidbits and my review is here.

My last book has probably been read by everyone save me, The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. Another book that I have owned for years but hadn’t read, this book is wondrous. I loved the story of Bod, the boy growing up in the graveyard, and the circumstances surrounding his unusual life. This book is a five star, 100% huggable book and I cannot stop talking about it. My review is here if you are interested.

I also consumed all 8 issues of The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. If you have run out of Riverdale episodes or are wanting to get a jump on Sabrina related works before the show debuts on Netflix, this are fantastic. They are NOT the Sabrina the Teenage Witch of my childhood. These are horror comics and they are dark. But, since I am consumed this month by Frighteningly Good Reads they were utterly perfect reading.

What am I Currently Reading?

I am nearly half way through the sequel to Hocus Pocus. It is a very light read which does not keep my attention very long but is still fun for an end-of-October middle grade book. I am obsessed with The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco. This book tells the story of a magical girl who can raise the dead. She discovers her powers when she accidentally brings her brother back from the grave and the action doesn’t stop there. I only have 100 pages remaining.

What do I plan to read next?

huntingdracula

The only book I have left for Frightening Good Reads is Hunting Prince Dracula by Kerry Maniscalco. I did not realize that it was a sequel to Stalking Jack the Ripper and so the conundrum is: do I read this book or save it until after I read the first in the series? If anyone is familiar with the books I would love some advice!

Tell me, please!

What is on your WWW list?

not a review

Dewey’s Readathon October 2018

silverbuttonbooks10 Comments

Dewey’s 24 hour Readathon was this past weekend. It happens twice a year. I was so excited to participate again this time (my second) because I learned about it far enough in advance to plan my reading and food and schedule. Ahh, the best laid plans and intentions…

From 8 a.m. until noon I was reading steadily. I started with The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco and the pace of this book was gratifyingly adventurous. In about three and a half hours I had more than half of the book read but I found that I couldn’t sit still anymore. I had consumed my maximum level of coffee and done some serious snacking and so I knew that I needed a break. I really wanted to enjoy this book and perhaps start a new one today so I had to keep going!

I tried everything but I couldn’t sit still anymore. Eventually I managed to enjoy Andre the Giant, a decent graphic novel about the larger than man that Andre was, but I couldn’t return to The Bone Witch.

As this was my second Readathon I thought I had a better handle on what to expect and how to be successful. But, as readers we are always growing and changing. And now I know that sitting down to consume a book in entirety has never really been something that I could force. After four hours I started to feel like I had a test approaching and instead of enjoying my reading time it because very stressful.

Dewey’s Readathons also provide a plethora of social media platforms in which to participate and socialize. While I loved reading through other people’s process I found trying to keep up with Facebook, Goodreads, Twitter and Instagram overwhelming.

The next Readathon is April 6, 2019. Now I know I need a variety of books to read and audiobooks to keep my momentum going. I should probably also cut back on the snacks…they caused a massive nap. Finally I plan to pick one or two social platforms instead of trying to follow along with every single one.

Read and learn I guess!

Tell me, please!

Have you participated in a readathon? What are your tips?

Fantasy · fiction · FrighteninglyGoodRead · YA

FGR #8: Scythe by Neal Shusterman

silverbuttonbooks1 Comment

I am going to confess something. I didn’t want to read this book. I believe that I purchased it two years ago and started it only to quit three chapters in and shelf the book. If not for a combination of Frighteningly Good Reads and my 2018 Resolutions I probably would never have forced myself to read what turned out to be a phenomenal story.

scythe
A figure in a hooded red cape holds a scythe looking like a futuristic grim reaper.

Scythe by Neal Shusterman takes place in a world without hunger, disease, general misery or even death. Unfortunately, without natural death the world’s population must be controlled. Scythes are the only ones with the ability to take a life and Citra and Rowan have just been selected as apprentice Scythes. Now, only one can rise to the rank of a full Scythe. Citra and Rowan must master the “art” of death. As they do so they learn that living in a perfect world comes with a price.

Initially, I didn’t really find any of the main characters appealing. Which is why I put the book away for so long. However, as the story unfolded I began to comprehend the apathy to which these people must be acclimated in a world where there is no reason to worry, no purpose in hard work and the ability to die only to be whisked off to a revival center and brought back to life. If there is no threat of old age then do you lose the thirst and hunger of youth? Certainly when Citra and Rowan are faced with a permanent cessation of their lives their personalities change dramatically into characters that I grew to love and genuinely cared about.

And there in lies the magic of this story. At first glance I believed this was another annoying futuristic tale and the cautionary story of a world without death. Instead, I became slowly aware along with the characters of the importance of death in giving life value and purpose. As I watched Citra and Rowan struggle with that realization and the lengths they would go to in order to continue to live, even if that meant taking lives, I found myself completed immersed in the story. And now, as so frequently happens, a book I thought I would enjoy has become a series I cannot wait to continue!

Tell me, please!

Have you ever started a series determined to hate it only to be won over?

FrighteninglyGoodRead · series · Sunday Morning Comics

Sunday Morning Comics – FGR#7

silverbuttonbooksLeave a comment

I remember watching Sabrina the Teenage Witch on Friday night television as a kid. Sabrina was a delightful teenager, her cat Salem was scheming and snarky and her Aunts were wacky but well intended. In The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Sabrina is still a teenager but the rest of the story is as dark and different as Riverdale is to the Archie Comics of my childhood. I mean, helllloooo Betty!

This series, written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Robert Hack with artwork by Robert Hack is dark, scary and thematically grown up. Currently there are 8 issues of this horror sub-print. The 9th issue set to debut sometime this year.

Volume 1 (Issues 1-5), The Crucible, is the factual basis for all Sabrina-related stories. It introduces Sabrina’s parents, her childhood in the 1950’s and 1960’s and brings us up to Sabrina’s 16th birthday where she must choose between becoming a full witch or a mortal.

Volume 1 had me riveted. Everything in this volume is, as promised, chilling. Even though I was mildly shocked by the material (I really had the wholesome Sabrina deep in my psyche) I could not stop my speedy consumption of the storyline. As I am featuring Frighteningly Good Reads this month, this version of Sabrina was an ideal comic book series. But I was not mentally prepared for how dark this series was going to go!  I have so many story line questions but I would never spoil it for future readers. But, I am dying to know if anyone else see Zac Efron as the basis for Harvey Kinkle. Below is not the best example but it is the only one that doesn’t disclose plot points.

harvey
Volume II (Issues 6-10), Witch War, only has two issues out right now. Issue 7 and 8 focus on Sabrina’s witch father, Edward Spellman and his banishment and mysterious return to the land of the living. I was happily tearing through Issue 8 and I cannot even form the words to describe my disappointment when I realized I was going to have to wait for the next issues!

If you are looking for a dark and horror-filled version of the (formerly sweet) Sabrina look no further than The Chilling Tales of Sabrina. Just be warned, this is absolutely not TGIF Sabrina!

Tell me, please!

Are you into the whole Riverdale / dark turn on this old comics?

Fantasy · fiction · FrighteninglyGoodRead · Middle Grade

FGR #6: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

silverbuttonbooks5 Comments

This book came into my hands highly recommended and I only wish I could, in turn, place it directly into your hands. The characters alone have me cuddling the book tightly in my arms as I type. But the story…this story. Sigh. Well, there is a reason this book won both the Newberry Medal and the Carnegie Medal.

graveyard
A blue cover with gold writing featuring an antique headstone and a golden Newberry sticker.

The Graveyard Book gives us the story of Nobody Owens and, much The Jungle Book, Nobody Owens is as unique as Mogli because his home is unique. He is being raised by ghosts, taunted by ghouls, and protected by magical beings. Bod, to his friends and family, has the blessings of the graveyard and many of the unusual gifts of his long dead family and friends. In short, Bod is the very coolest of characters.

It is why he is in the graveyard that matters. He doesn’t belong there but he is only safe while he remains inside. But safe from what? Or who? And for how long?

Neil Gaiman is a prolific and talented writer. I have enjoyed several of his other books. But I doubt that any other story of his will remain with me the way The Graveyard Book is sure to from this day onward. I loved it like so many others before me. It is, without a doubt, a perfect Frighteningly Good Read.

Tell me, please!

Have you read this book or others by Neil Gaiman? Which is your favorite?

FGR #5: Black Cats & Evil Eyes, A Book of Old-Fashioned Superstitions by Chloe Rhodes
FrighteninglyGoodRead · nonfiction

FGR #5: Black Cats & Evil Eyes, A Book of Old-Fashioned Superstitions by Chloe Rhodes

silverbuttonbooks4 Comments

I love to be obnoxiously in the know regarding little tidbits of information. I’ll never be smart enough to win a game of Jeopardy and I frequently miss major news headlines but I delight in sprinkling conversations with little know facts. And, since I also adore Halloween, a book that focuses on old-fashioned superstitions is perfect for me!

blackcats
A large black cat sits in the middle of a red and white book with other silhouettes of a ram and a crow.

Black Cats & Evil Eyes, A Book of Old-Fashioned Superstitions by Chloe Rhodes is a slender book stuffed full of superstitions and the history and basis for the belief. Each superstition is covered quickly – perhaps two or three pages – but so completely as to allow me to sound knowledgable about the subject. Perfection!

I immediately gravitated to superstitions that I actually practice. For example, picking up pennies. I have heard a lot of reasons to pick up or leave a fallen penny by now but the most prevalent one is certainly, “Find a penny, pick it up; all day long you’ll have good luck.” However, the saying was originally, “See a pin and pick it up, all day long you’ll have good luck. See a pin and let it lie, you’ll feel want before you die.” Whether this saying originates with the encouragement to take pride in small tasks or the idea that pins are used in witchcraft remains a debate. But just think how much fun I will have throwing this little bit of information into everyday conversation!

Black Cats & Evil Eyes is the perfect book to read if you have always wondered why we believe things like; covering your mouth when you yawn is polite, putting shoes on the table is rude, burning cheeks means someone is talking about you, and (my favorite) the gift of a purse or a wallet should always include money. There are some really fascinating superstitions in this book and only a handful were unfamiliar to me.

Chloe Rhodes has written a book that makes me truly happy when I flip through it page by page. It is the perfect delightful mix of fascinating non-fiction information with a healthy heaping of Halloween feeling. An ideal Non-Fiction Friday Frightening Good Read!

Tell me, please!

What is a superstition that you hear frequently?