Tag: Books

Book Review: The Girl Who Drank the Moon

On By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Reviews3 Comments

I’m continuing a strong push with the Newbery Medal winners in my reading, and I recently read the most recent winner, 2017’s The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill.  And we have a serious contender for favorite Newbery–at least of the ones I’ve been reading for this challenge!

The story starts in a very sad village in the Bog, where every year on a certain day, the youngest baby is left in the forest for the Witch, so that she won’t destroy everyone else.  We swiftly meet the Witch, Xan, 500 years old and quite unaware that anyone thinks she wants to harm them.  She rescues the babies every year, taking them through the forest to happier towns where they are adopted and cherished.  She feeds them starlight on the journey and they grow favored.  But one year she is especially taken by a baby, and mistakenly feeds her moonlight instead.  The baby grows full of magic, and Xan decides she must adopt Luna herself, adding her to a little family including Fyrian, a Perfectly Tiny Dragon, and Glerk, a grumpy, poetical bog monster.

This is a delightful story, full of fantasy, whimsy, humor and heart-tugging moments.  I knew this was going to be good as soon as Glerk and Xan appear, Xan scolding him about apologizing to Fyrian.  I love fantasy that takes the tropes (swamp monster, dragon, witch) and turns them upside down in a funny, human way. Continue reading “Book Review: The Girl Who Drank the Moon” →

Blog Hop: Genre Specific?

On By cherylmahoneyIn Blog Hop2 Comments

book-blogger-hop-finalToday’s Book Blogger Hop question is: Do you prefer to blog about (a) specific book genre(s), or do you have an eclectic blog?

 

The funny thing is, I began this blog, seven (!) years ago with some intention of being genre-focused.  My genre was young adult fantasy, although I never intended to be solely that.  I was also writing young adult fantasy at the time, with my Beyond the Tales series.

Well, life, reading and writing have all evolved.  I still read a fair amount of young adult, or fantasy, or both–but I’ve shifted to read more in other genres, and I seem to do more reviewing lately of nonfiction or Newbery Medal winners (kids lit, by definition).  I’m also writing historical fiction now, working on revisions of my Phantom of the Opera reimagining.

At this point, I don’t think the blog is focused on any particular genre, and really my reading isn’t either.  Fortunately, readers seem to have stayed through the evolution, and I appreciate that!

Bloggers, do you have a genre-focus for your blog?  And readers, do you typically prefer blogs that focus on a specific genre?

Book Review: What She Ate

On By cherylmahoneyIn Reviews1 Comment

I have a friendly coworker who reads a lot of nonfiction—not usually my style of books, but she recently had one that sounded fascinating.  Happily, the audiobook wait list at the library was short (apparently the physical book list was long…) and I got to enjoy listening to What She Ate by Laura Shapiro, six essays on six women in history, their stories told through the food they ate.

Of the six women, the only two I recognized were Eva Braun (Hitler’s mistress) and Eleanor Roosevelt (no introduction needed, surely!)  The other four are Dorothy Wordsworth (the famous poet’s sister), Rosa Lewis (Edwardian-era caterer), Barbara Pym (novelist) and Helen Gurley Brown (Cosmopolitan editor).  Their lives vary wildly, in circumstance, era and character, the essays tied together by the focus on food and each women’s relationship to it.

I like history and I like psychology, and this combined a bit of both, while putting the focus squarely on one of my other favorite narrative elements: an engaging heroine.  While three (two and a half?) of these women are best known for the primary man in their life (Eleanor is the half), these essays are still squarely on the women in a way I found very satisfying.  Obviously Hitler, William Wordsworth and Franklin Roosevelt figure largely, but it’s still about the women and what they’re doing, thinking and eating.  I started reading Ladies of Liberty and found it was so focused on the men (!) that I stopped.  That wasn’t a problem here.  And three out of six were clearly independent women getting things done (though Helen Gurley Brown might deny it). Continue reading “Book Review: What She Ate” →

Blog Hop: What Has Been Written…

On By cherylmahoneyIn Blog Hop2 Comments

book-blogger-hop-finalToday’s Book Blogger Hop question is: Do you ever go back to older posts and change things?

Basically, no.  I only rarely look back at older posts, and when I do it’s to read, not revise.  If I notice a clear typo, I might correct that (if it’s a moment when I have time and easy means to do so!) but that’s really just changing it to what my original intent was.  I don’t change actual content.

I sometimes read a post and think I’d write it differently now…but while this is a chronicle of reading, within that category it is a bit journal-like, and I’m nearly compulsive about not changing journals at a later time (because then it’s not an accurate record of its original time!)

Once in a while I’ll do a Classic Post, putting an old review up again, but I don’t generally change things even then.  I think I’ve occasionally taken something out, if  a paragraph was really only relevant at the time (maybe it was more about blog business than the actual book, for example).  I add things, but only as an introduction before the post proper.  So what I have written, I have written!

Do you make revisions on old posts?  Or are they a kind of historical record that you leave intact?

Blog Hop: Bending Covers????

On By cherylmahoneyIn Blog Hop5 Comments

book-blogger-hop-finalToday’s Book Blogger Hop question is: When reading a mass paperback book, many people fold the cover back, as if they were reading a magazine. Doing this will eventually create creases in the spine. How do you feel about this common bookish habit?

I may have actually shuddered when I read this.  I just…the poor cover!!  I’m trying not to judge anyone who does this, truly…but I’m not sure I’ve ever done this.  I’m not actually worried about creases in the spine.  I’d be more worried about bending the book out of shape and damaging the cover–either by bending it so it won’t lie flat, or actually ripping the cover off because of the wear.

Although.  The emphasis on “mass market paperback” seems to suggest these are very cheap books, and perhaps the people reading them in this way view them as a disposable, one-use-only commodity.  There we differ, because I don’t really view any book that way.  Most books I read are from the library, so they’re not even mine and, by definition, are expected to hold up for many reads.  And I only buy my books if I plan to keep them for rereading.

Some of my books have cracked spines (notably, Maskerade by Terry Pratchett, which I swear cracked on my favorite page, one of OG’s maniacal notes) and I love them anyway and so far they’ve all held up reasonably well.  But I try to treat my books with care.

Should I even ask if anyone out there folds their covers back…? 😉