May has been an extremely busy month for me. I didn’t have time to take book photos for Bookstagram so I am just posting the regular book covers this month. I also didn’t meet my goal of reading five middle grade books for Battle of the Books. So I may have to do some extra credit reading in June. HAHA, my June calendar is just as busy as my May Calendar.
I was so excited to read Shipwreck At The Bottom of The World by Jennifer Armstrong. I have a fascination about Antarctica. I LOVE penguins.
I guess I should have thought about the title a bit more before I
jumped into it. SHIPWRECK means you are going to read about
extreme living. These men went on an
expedition to be the first team to cross Antarctica in 1914. Needless to say things did not go as
planned, the men of this ship survived ONE year in Antarctica on their
own. They had to be very resourceful and
depend on one another in order to survive.
However one day they had to kill 600 penguins for meat and fat. It was a necessity for them but I was
horrified.
Moon Over
Manifest by Clare Vanderpool is a
wonderful story about a young girl who is sent to Manifest for the summer by
her father to live with one of his friends Abilene finds a old cigar box hidden in the floor boards of
her new room it full of someone’ old letters that hint that there is a spy
known as the Rattler in Manifest. Abilene and her new friends Lettie and
Ruthanne decided to figure out who the spy is.
As Abilene learns the secrets of Manifest
she wonders how her father fits in the town.
What could be wrong with a book
entitled, Paris for One by Jojo
Moyes. Paris and Jojo Moyes, this book
combination has two great things going for it.
But don’t be fooled there is some small print, and other stories. I enjoyed the first story about Nell and her
first trip to Paris. It is a wonderful
little love story. I did not care for
the “other stories.” I give this book
***/5 stars.
It
was time for a classic and Little Women
by Louisa May Alcott was next on my
list. First of all I just bought this
book with the beautiful cover for under $100 bucks. I had to wait a long time for the price to
come down. Second it was a PBS series
this month. The story is about four sisters, Meg, Jo,
Beth, and Amy March who are very close to each other. The story follows the
sisters as they develop from young girls into adulthood. The story begins
during the American civil war, and their father is away at war. The girls and their mother must endure great
hardships, often times going hungry. Despite the daily challenges the girls
must also overcome their personal flaws. For Meg it is vanity; Jo, temper; Beth,
shyness; and Amy, selfishness. Throughout the story Alcott writes many trials
for the girls to overcome their flaws and turn into beautiful, caring young
women. This classic book is a *****/5
star book. I think my favorite character
is Jo, because she tries so hard to be there for her entire family. She is not perfect but she continues to
strive to do better.
I’ve had A Circle of
Quiet by Madeline L’Engle on my TBR list for a long time. I was really excited when I had a moment to
read it. I was thinking I really need a
relaxing book right now that will help me focus my priorities. This was not that kind of book. The book was all about Madeline’s life and ups
and downs as she submitted and received rejection letters from A Wrinkle In Time. I was so disappointed. She just rambled on about her this that in
her life. I would give this book **/5
stars.
Believe it or not I was on the waiting list for A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle
for several months and I finally got it at the same time I was reading A Circle of Quiet. I was looking forward to this book
because I had read so many good reviews about it on Bookstagram and it just
came out as a movie as well, so a lot of hype around this story. A
Wrinkle in Time won the Newberry Medal in 1963. This unique book is about Meg, her younger brother Charles Wallace and
Calvin O’Keefe who travel in time and space to find Meg’s father. He is a scientist working for the government
and he disappeared while working on a secret project. It is up to the kids with the help of some
unlikely characters to save him and bring them all home. To be honest this was not my genre, to much
fantasy with some sci-fi mixed in I
would give this book ***/5 stars.
#Newberry Winner #middlegrades
A
Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles was a great book. I listened to the audio version and I am glad
I did because there was no way I could pronounce the Russian names
correctly. In 1922, Count Alexander Rostov is sentenced to house arrest
in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin for writing a
poem. Rostov is moved from his suite in the hotel to an attic room. He accepts his fate with dignity and continues
each day with purpose. He makes friends
with everyone in the hotel. He goes out
of his way to be polite and kind, even to a little girl named Nina. Years later Nina returns and asks Rostov to watch
her daughter, Sophia, for a few weeks while she finds her husband. What I like the most about this book is how
Rostov finds ways to be useful to everyone in the hotel. He learns how to sew, he helps with the wine
list, he becomes a waiter. He engages in
conversation with everyone. He is
definitely a role model of someone who makes the most of the hand he is
dealt. I
The last book I read this month was Love & Gelato by Jenna Evans Welch. This book was absolutely adorable. It makes me want to run out and book tickets
to Italy now. The story is about a young
girl Lina, whose mother passes away and wants her to go live with Howard in
Italy. Lina has never met Howard and she
assumes he is her father, whom she has never met. Upon arriving in
Italy she receives her mother’s diary and suddenly has Lina’s discovering Italy
through her mom’s eyes. She seeks out art,
and a hidden bakery that her mom went to.
She meets a cute Italian boy named Ren, who helps her on her
adventure. . After reading this book I
went out and purchased different flavors of Gelato for the first time. It is delicious. I think Mango is my favorite. I would give this book ****/5 stars.
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