Monday, March 9, 2020

It's Monday! What are you reading?


It's Monday! What are you Reading? is a meme hosted by Kathryn at Book Date. It's a great way to recap what you read and/or reviewed the previous week and to plan out your reading and reviews for the upcoming week. It's also a great chance to see what others are reading right now...you just might discover your next “must-read” book!

Kellee Moye, of Unleashing Readers, and Jen Vincent, of Teach Mentor Texts decided to give It's Monday! What Are You Reading? a kidlit focus. If you read and review books in children's literature - picture books, chapter books, middle grade novels, young adult novels, anything in the world of kidlit - join us! We love this meme and think you will, too. We encourage everyone who participates to visit at least three of the other kidlit book bloggers that link up and leave comments for them.

If you go to my Goodreads account, you can see what I have read recently & click on the books to learn more.

On the Blog:

Last week in books:

The most exciting book I read was Astrid and Apollo provided by the publisher via Netgalley. I've been eagerly awaiting this first book in a series of early chapter books. I will formally review it later this week. It comes out on August 1st and features a Hmong American family. The first book is a camping trip adventure, the second is a fishing trip, the third is soccer, and the final one is Hmong New Year. I am so happy to have this series coming since we have a large Hmong American community in our area. I can't wait for it to be in our school library and in classrooms. 


These five are my favorites of the piles of picture books I read this week. This Book is Gray is a fun book about color or lack thereof. Eek You Reek! is an amusing series of poems about smelly animals.  Ona Judge Outwits the Washingtons is a very interesting book about the enslaved woman who *spoiler* escaoed from George Washington and his family. You Loves Ewe! is another hilarious word play book from Cece Bell. A Ride to Remember: A Civil Rights Story is a memoir of a girl who was the first African American child to ride the carousel in a segregated amusement park. The carousel is now in Washington D.C. 


I've been loving my time at the climbing gym and one of the college students recommended Girls on the Rocks. It's a great intro to climbing for women and girls. I found it very informative and encouraging. The other two books are very definitely written for adult readers. Funny Boy is about a young gay Tamil boy growing up in Sri Lanka. There is violence being perpetrated on citizens based on whether they are Sinhalese or Tamil during that time so he is questioning his sexuality, but is also living through some major racially motivated violence. Funny is what his father calls him due to his behavior. This is not a comedy by any means. The Kiss Quotient on the other hand, is a romantic comedy. And by romantic, I mean romance, but also some serious amounts of physical contact between the couple. Descriptive. I don't want anyone jumping in without knowing that. This is inspired by Pretty Woman, but has a role reversal with the woman being the wealthy person in the relationship. Also, the main character, Stella, has an Asperger's diagnosis and her love interest is Vietnamese American. I heard a podcast episode about it from Books and Boba and was intrigued. It's way out of my typical reading zone, but was very fun and I stayed up waaaay too late reading it. 
The Coming Week:
I just started to listen to the Advance Audio Copy of Tigers, Not Daughters on Libro.fm. Have a good week full of reading.

Reading Challenge Updates: 
#MustReadin2020 - 13/36
#YARC2020 - 18/55
#YARC2020 Update

One more I forgot for Feb: b, Book and Me
March: Song of the Crimson Flower, Funny Boy & The Kiss Quotient

4 comments:

  1. Thanks for all, Crystal! Although it's for women, I have two granddaughters, 10 & 8, who already have been climbing, will be doing more after ski season. I've done a bit with students in the past & it is exhilarating! Thanks for A Ride to Remember, too, new title to me!

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  2. Thanks for all the introduction to all these Crystal. I have The Kiss Quotient as an audiobook, but still need to get to it.

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  3. I can't wait for my community to get This Book Is Gray. I'm also looking forward to reading the biography of Ona Judge -- thanks for reminding me of it! I also agree with everything you shared about The Kiss Quotient. I was anxious to get to the ending, for sure, but definitely not a young kid book (thought my 16 year old picked it up and read it after I did, telling me that her teen friends were all talking about it - lol). I'm SO impressed by your challenge updates, Crystal!! Wow. Have a great reading week!

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  4. Looks like This Book is Gray should be on my radar. Thanks for sharing.

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