SEPTEMBER - DECEMBER 2019

Louisiana's Way Home by Kate DiCamillo / JF / **** / Hard Copy
This book was chosen by my friend Susan as our book group read. It tells the story of young Louisiana who is woken up in the middle of the night by her eccentric granny and taken on a road trip to find a new home.  A series of adventures and mishaps occur before they end up in a small town in Georgia.  There Louisiana meets a beautiful array of people with big hearts and down-home wisdom. This was a fantastic story reminiscent of "Pictures of Hollis Woods" by Patricia Reilly Giff and "Missing May" by Cynthia Rylant


Book of Mormon X 2
Love this book the more I read it.





The Lost Girls of Paris by Pam Jenoff / A / *** / Kindle
Read this one as we had our trip to Paris planned. It was interesting in that it I learned more about the French resistance during WWII.  But it was kinda choppy to me and didn't engage me as much as I hoped.




Stormcaster (Shattered Realms #3) by Cinda Williams Chima / ***1/2 / YA / Kindle
These books are set in the same "world" as the Seven Realms series that I read and loved years ago.  This new series takes place later in time and does not involve many of the same characters. 
Stormcaster is the third in the new series. Each of the previous two has been about a distinct set of characters within an overarching story line.  My only problem with this book was it started out following one person (Evan Strangward) and then all of a sudden left this character and went back to the others. I understand the difficulty of gathering all the stories  ogether but it wasn't as masterfully done as the other two. It felt like too many points of view.





Underworld (Abandon Trilogy #2) by Meg Cabot / YA / ** / Kindle
Why did I read this? It was even worse than the first.  I love Cabot as she writes fun and strong female characters but this one was just off. The main character is no longer strong but now is manipulative and whiney. It feels super weird to give Cabot a "meh" book review....






The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life by Mark Manson / A / *** / Kindle
I normally don't read self-help books but this one was part of some challenge or another. 
Despite the title, Manson basically admits you HAVE to care about things.  He points out that humans are flawed and limited and we are not all going to be extraordinary.  He advises us to embrace our faults, confront painful truths, and live an honest (and thus more fulfilling) life.  He also teaches that we can only care about so many things, so pick the ones that really matter.
The language bothered me but the book itself spoke a lot of truth.




On the Come Up by Angie Thomas / YA / ****1/2 / Kindle
Bri is 16, black, and poor.  She has dreams of following in the musical footsteps of her father - a rap legend in the neighborhood before being killed by gang violence. The odds of stardom are stacked against her as she is young and female and has a mother that wants her to just get a good education and stay away from street life.
As Bri's family faces job loss, problems with welfare, and mounting bills, Bri also feels the obligation to make money to provide for her family. 
This is one of those powerful books where you can feel the want / the dreams / the drive.  Bri has a flawed but poignantly beautiful support system.  She has to make a lot of hard choices in this book and has some amazing growth including her realization of the responsibility of the words she is speaking as she raps.  Amazing writing.




The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang / A / ** / Kindle
I read this for the 2018 Best of the Best reading challenge. This was the winner for romance. I'm not a prude but this book was too much.






The Trials of Apollo, Book One: The Hidden Oracle by Rick Riordan
Another of the Good Reads Challenge for 2018 was the third book of this series. In order to read the third I need to read one and two :).  I admit I have kinda lost interest in Riordan as his stories were all running together.  But this one has a fresh new twist in that they are narrated by the disgraced god Apollo.... whose punishment from angering Zeus is a new life as a pimply teenaged boy with none of his godly skills or powers.  Apollo, however, has not lost his zingy wit tinged with sarcasm.  So much fun.