Hello!
It seems like every time I sit down to write about the books I’ve been reading I just… blank. I don’t know why. Nothings changed with the books, even the ones I’ve loved. So I’m going to do a wrap-up of some Spring standouts (doesn’t mean the best of just some of the books that stood out to me) in hopes that maybe you can find some new favorites 🙂
I give this book points for the Due South reference which was especially weird timing since I dug that DVD up and purchased a new DVD player just to watch it.
But wait!
Molly of the Mall is pretty much perfect for me anyway. It’s about an English lit student who works part time summers and holidays at the mall. Other than her love for Austen I related so hard. (Also her co-workers are a bit much there was a lot of retail stuff I found in common but we never would have been allowed to get away with some of that stuff managers or not.) It’s a fun quick read and Molly is super likable.
I loved, loved, loved her school assignments though. An her deciding to rehabilitate the image of the cheese poet of Canada despite being warned: admirable. I could take or leave the romance but it’s such an easy read and I had so much fun otherwise that its worth it.
Recommend: Yes.
Storyland is a collection of retellings of the myths and legends that made Britain from pretty much from the creation to the arrival of the Normans and is probably my second favorite read of the bunch.
They are separated into relatively short stories and I appreciated that after each Jeffs does a modern aside of what they mean and where they came from an often how they relate to history. Like any short collection some are better than others and oddly as it gets closer to “modern” times it gets a little harder to keep track of whose who and where and names.
But overall really interesting and I liked being able to pick out some of the beginnings that have made it into stories and fairy tales that I’ve read without knowing where they came from. I’d love to read some of the source material here.
It was a little confusing at times but overall interesting- and I felt like I learned something.
Recommend: Yes.
Our main character in this is an overworked single mother who has a terrible day makes a terrible decisions and leaves her daughter alone for two and a half hours during which time neighbors call police.
Luckily the kid is okay. Unfortunately she falls into a new program in the state meant to help people (mostly mothers) who are deemed unfit become Good Mothers, in the eyes of the state. Whatever that means.
Actually at first this one was a real page turner. I was surprised to see how much this verged on like psychological drama and then somehow is almost torture to these people and it just went on so long. Both for the characters and me, especially at the school, that I couldn’t understand why so many lawyers were just rolling over. Where was the social media outcry? Where was the ACLU?
It’s probably a good thing I’m not a parent because I wouldn’t have stayed in that school. Sorry kid.
Trigger warnings: suicide and mentions of child abuse.
Recommend: 50/50
It’s a good idea and some good writing but I think it needed to be edited down. The length actually made it more unbelievable.
Dead Silence is about a deep space crew that’s about to be made redundant when they find a long lost luxury liner- the first of its sort to go into space with a whole lot of very rich people lost on board.
Naturally they think to go on over and stake the claim for themselves.
And this is overall a fine read. Good for summer to- it’s quick and has a horror movie aspect to it. The characters are all… fine.
The unspeakable horror bit- I don’t know. I wasn’t really feeling it. Most of the time where with one of the characters who blacked out and doesn’t remember much of anything or watching like tapes of what happened on the ship. It kind of reminded me of elements of Moon Knight that I didn’t really love in that respect.
Needed more horror.
I did appreciate the ending though and I’ll just leave it at that before giving away spoilers!
Recommend: Meh?
That’s it. That’s the best I can do on this one 🙂
Kaikeyi is another book not unlike Dead Silence where I’m just like, yeah… definitely a book. It’s got it’s moments but I don’t know the overall writing was so been there done that.
Kaikeyi is a retelling of the life of the Queen from the Ramayana (which I am interested in reading) her life is very God and magic heavy. Sold in marriage she basically uses the fighter training her twin brother taught her as well as some special magic that she seems to have gotten… from reading a text (if only life were that easy) to become very powerful and respected to her husband, her Kingdom and her family.
I think a lot of people will love this and I wish I did. But thinking about it the writing bothered me and the sense that it all almost happens to fast… as much as I can appreciate a standalone we probably could have used some more depth here some more time especially with the events that transpire at the end that don’t really feel like they have time to breath.
Also perhaps another character perspective could have helped.
I also didn’t love her magic.
Recommend: Meh? This ones hard. I’d say as an introduction to the subject sure or maybe look up other information on her.