As the Page Turns (the Book Thread)

[A.H.Black]

I feel like I do this every year, and I always get good suggestions. I’m looking for books for my niece for Christmas. She’s 12, comfortable reading anything up to and including adult books but is somewhat sheltered so as far as content goes, I’d keep it pretty Pg-rated. She likes fantasy, especially if the protagonist is female. Thoughts? I personally like to challenge her a bit with characters a lot broader than her very white cis-het circle, but it doesn’t have to.

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, https://gracelin.com/where-the-mountain-meets-the-moon/by Grace Lin. I read this with a 6th grade reading group and they all loved it.

 

[Allskate]

I feel like I do this every year, and I always get good suggestions. I’m looking for books for my niece for Christmas. She’s 12, comfortable reading anything up to and including adult books but is somewhat sheltered so as far as content goes, I’d keep it pretty Pg-rated. She likes fantasy, especially if the protagonist is female. Thoughts? I personally like to challenge her a bit with characters a lot broader than her very white cis-het circle, but it doesn’t have to.

If you've done this before, I probably answered and some of this might be repetitive. My niece is 12 and loves to read. For fiction, she reads everything from middle grade fiction, to YA, to adult books. Like your niece, she likes female protagonists and is not into anything that would be more than PG rated. (Profanity might be the biggest issue with some of the Andy Weir books.)

Some of her recent favorites are "The Good Girl's Guide to Murder," "Honor Among Thieves," and the "The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl." (All have female lead characters.)

"Daughter of the Deep" by Rick Riordan is another one I'd recommend. (Indian-American female lead.)

Although fantasy is not her favorite genre, there are some she likes a lot, including some with female protagonists. Her favorite fantasy series has been "Keeper of the Lost Cities." It's for 9-12 year olds but she's still looking forward to the next book in the series, and I read the first book and liked it. She also really liked "A Curse So Dark and Lonely." "Atlantis" by Gregory Mone is another one of her fantasy favorites. "The Inheritance Games" is very popular and there's always the Narnia books and Hobbit books.

Although my niece is not generally a big sci-fi fan, she is into space and has liked these books: "The Countdown Conspiracy," "Honor Among Thieves," "The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy," "The Martian," and "Project Hail Mary." There's also "A Wrinkle in Time."

Her favorite historical fiction books probably are "Refugee" and "The Book Thief."

Her favorite classics probably are "Little Women" and "Call of the Wild."

Some of the non-fiction she has read (other than books about space) are "I Am Malala" (there is a young person's version) and "Chinese Cinderella" (which is a memoir for young people by Adeline Yen Mah, who also wrote her "Falling Leaves" memoir for adults).

 

[morqet]

I feel like I do this every year, and I always get good suggestions. I’m looking for books for my niece for Christmas. She’s 12, comfortable reading anything up to and including adult books but is somewhat sheltered so as far as content goes, I’d keep it pretty Pg-rated. She likes fantasy, especially if the protagonist is female. Thoughts? I personally like to challenge her a bit with characters a lot broader than her very white cis-het circle, but it doesn’t have to.

Has she read any Diana Wynne Jones? Chrestomanci & Howl's Moving Castle are the best known ones, but at 12 she'd also be ready to try the Dalemark Quartet (fantasy in a medieval-type society with teenagers getting caught up in power struggles between warring earls and Undying Gods) or Fire & Hemlock, which is a retelling of Tam Lin set in southern England in the 1980s, where normal life overlaps and get tangled with the magical world - it is fantasy, but also with some of the best & most accurate representations of friendsips between teenage girls I've ever read.

 

[genevieve]

It's been several years now since I read them, so I can't recall the language level, but the Gemma Doyle series from Libba Bray is a really fabulous YA series. Magical realism with a dash of fantasy, and definitely female-driven.

A Great and Terrible Beauty is the first book

Going Bovine is a stand alone book by the same author and it's honestly my favorite of hers, although the protagonist for this one is a teenaged boy.

 

[quartz]

Just finished what I thought was the third and final book in Philippa Gregory’s Fairmile series and realized halfway through there was no way she was going to be able to tie up all the storylines with this book. And I want the next book right now! Not sure she’s even writing it yet as she was working on a non-fiction book instead.

 

[Prancer]

I feel like I do this every year, and I always get good suggestions. I’m looking for books for my niece for Christmas.

The Inheritance Games, maybe? It's a series, so if she like the first one, you have future gifts all lined up.

For @tony, you were looking for mysteries in the Christie vein. Have you ever read this one?

 

[tony]

The Inheritance Games, maybe? It's a series, so if she like the first one, you have future gifts all lined up.

For @tony, you were looking for mysteries in the Christie vein. Have you ever read this one?

I read the first novel in the Inheritance Games series and I hated it. I know I’m not the target audience and I’m also in the minority by hating it, but the story is just so outlandish. It started with reading in the opening pages about the protagonist being exceptionally bright, but then repeatedly not being able to figure out the twists of the mystery.

I didn’t hear about that one! I’ll add it to my list. I have a major backlog now that I started a new job and have much different work hours.

 

[Prancer]

I read the first novel in the Inheritance Games series and I hated it. I know I’m not the target audience and I’m also in the minority by hating it, but the story is just so outlandish. It started with reading in the opening pages about the protagonist being exceptionally bright, but then repeatedly not being able to figure out the twists of the mystery.

Sort of the same for me, but it was just too much of a YA book for me. I gave up well before any twists came along. But it's really popular with tween/teen girls.

I didn’t hear about that one! I’ll add it to my list. I have a major backlog now that I started a new job and have much different work hours.

Work really interferes with reading .

 

[Prancer]

‘It never ends’: the book club that spent 28 years reading Finnegans Wake

Starting in 1995, between 10 and 30 people would show up to monthly meetings at a local library. At first they read two pages a month, eventually slowing to just one page per discussion. At that pace, the group – which now meets on Zoom – reached the final page in October. It took them 28 years.

That amount of time “could well be a record”, said Sam Slote, a Joyce expert at Trinity College, Dublin, and one of the editors of How Joyce Wrote Finnegans Wake. His own weekly Wake group in Dublin, which is made up of about a dozen Joyce scholars, is on track to read through the text in a brisk 15 years.

I just cant imagine.

 

[LeafOnTheWind]

My sister introduced me to BookBub so I tried it out and got Peter Pan in Wonderland: A mixed fairytale retelling (Mystery Islands book 1) for free. I liked the idea of a fairytale mashup. It starts off in our world. Peter was abandoned and adopted by a couple who thought they couldn't have children. Then later miracle baby Alice is born. Then of course the whole magic portal thing happens and Peter's story begins.

I imagine book 2 would be Alice's story because this one centered around Peter and his friend Jillian. The chapters switch between their POV. There is some gender reversals. The Lost Boys are the Lost Girls and I wish the author had carried that onto the pirates. See spoilers about Jillian below.


It started off fine but Jillian is completely ruining this for me and making me rethink finishing it.

Spoiler

Of course Peter and Jillian have to like each other and don't want to admit it so they act like they can't stand each other. Jillian is so adamant that she hates Peter that she's willing to stay abducted on a pirate ship where all of them have threatened to rape her. She just won't let her enemy rescue her. She'll rescue herself.

REALLY?????????? Why? Why? Why? Her dad's last name is Hook (guess where that is going) and has taught her she should never rely on other people and taught her a lot of self defense. Ok, I can buy fending off 1 man but a whole ship of rapists?

I was willing to put up with the love/hate romance trope and then that. I just can't with her.

 

[LeafOnTheWind]

BookBub redeemed itself after my next pick still in the same type of genre.

Snow So White by C. Cockel

It's a dystopian future of our world as well as a retelling of Snow White and Jack Frost. This one is much better than the Peter Pan retelling but it took a few chapters to really get into the story. I'm not sure if I was just sleepy from NHK or if it was the writing but I had trouble getting through some of the details at times. The author pulls from all mystical fairy tales, demons and fantasy lore. At times it feels like too many. I think I enjoyed Grendel the vampire the most though. She's a side character that eventually gets her own book in the series. I enjoyed this one enough to get the 2nd book and will probably invest through at least book 3 for Grendel.

 

[Prancer]

A Certain Hunger came to me highly recommended, but it's definitely not a book for everyone. Erudite, acidly witty, and completely psychopathic food critic Dorothy Daniels details her adventures cannibalizing her lovers in a memoir penned from prison. I learned some new words and some tips for removing a human tongue that will undoubtedly come in handy should I ever decide to remove a human tongue. Feminist, gory, and often shockingly funny--again, definitely not for everyone.

I read this book right after watching Fresh; it wasn't intentional but it made for both an interesting contrast/complement and, er, some nightmares .

 

[made_in_canada]

A Certain Hunger came to me highly recommended, but it's definitely not a book for everyone. Erudite, acidly witty, and completely psychopathic food critic Dorothy Daniels details her adventures cannibalizing her lovers in a memoir penned from prison. I learned some new words and some tips for removing a human tongue that will undoubtedly come in handy should I ever decide to remove a human tongue. Feminist, gory, and often shockingly funny--again, definitely not for everyone.

I read this book right after watching Fresh; it wasn't intentional but it made for both an interesting contrast/complement and, er, some nightmares .

Oh, that sounds perfect for my bff. Thanks!

 

[Cachoo]

Interesting list:

The 10 Best Books of 2023 (Published 2023)

The staff of The New York Times Book Review choose the year’s standout fiction and nonfiction.

www.nytimes.com

 

[MsZem]

Interesting list:

The 10 Best Books of 2023 (Published 2023)

The staff of The New York Times Book Review choose the year’s standout fiction and nonfiction.

www.nytimes.com

I saw their 100 Notable Books list a couple of days ago, and there was only one book that I definitely want to read (Cobalt Red from the non-fiction). But then I'm terribly uncultured and don't really read literary fiction.

Apparently the only romance worthy of inclusion is by Cat Sebastian - having read her work in the past, I find this unlikely.

 

[Cachoo]

I saw their 100 Notable Books list a couple of days ago, and there was only one book that I definitely want to read (Cobalt Red from the non-fiction). But then I'm terribly uncultured and don't really read literary fiction.

Apparently the only romance worthy of inclusion is by Cat Sebastian - having read her work in the past, I find this unlikely.

You know they probably simply submit their lists and then it is compiled into the article. But I like to think of them in a room, raging about choices, flinging texts at one another.

 

[rfisher]

I forgot why I quit reading Patricia Cornwell's Scarpetta series and got her latest Unnatural Death from the library. Could she be any more tedious? Jeeze. 144 pages in and she could have covered it all in about 10. If one of the other new releases on my library list pops up before it's done, I'll just read the last chapter and send it back. Her early books were great, but now she just goes on and on and on....I assume she just ignores her editor at this point.

 

[A.H.Black]

I generally read older stuff. Not classics, really, but books that still command a sort of respect. Today I finished On the Beach by Nevil Shute. I remember seeing the old movie with Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, and Fred Astaire (non-musical role). I found the book haunting. Every time I put the book down I would find that mood pervading my day. I kept trying to decide if I thought that's what it would really be like if the world ended in that manor. I found it an excellent book, but now I need to pull out something like Miracle on 34th Street or I will be stuck in the end of the world quagmire for Christmas.

 

[her grace]

I recently read The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters and thought it was very good. Ruthie, a four-year-old and the fifth daughter of First Nations parents goes missing one day and then the book covers the fallout from that fateful event. It's a thoughtful look at trauma, loss, and family relationships.

Another book I enjoyed was One Day All This Will Be Yours by Adrian Tchaikovsky, a sci-fi novella featuring time travel and war. It's hard to say much more without spoilering, but I appreciate this author's clever ideas.

 

[rfisher]

Rachel Maddow's Prequel is absolutely terrifying. It is about the historical roots of fascism in the US. I can only read a chapter at a time without wanting to run outside and scream. She's an excellent storyteller (which you know if you watch her show on MSNBC) and her ability to put well researched facts into a narrative is riveting. I only wish said facts didn't give me chills about the present and future.

Liz Cheney's book is in the pipeline then I'm back to nice safe fantasy.

 

[rfisher]

Book reviews and how they go wrong

A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats - ILONA ANDREWS

By now some of you have probably heard about the Cait Corrain controversy. To summarize the facts: Cait Corrain was a debut romantasy author. Was being an operative term here. Cait Corrain seems to have dealt with her pre-release anxiety by creating numerous fake accounts on Goodreads and using...

ilona-andrews.com

 

[Baby Yoda On Skates]

What sucks about the Corrain mess, was that she probably had a hit on her hands. Early (valid) reviews were favorable and arcs were out. She was the May Illumicrate book box pick and I know I was excited to get my hands on it.

Idiot.

 

[genevieve]

I read about that mess last night. Way to completely get in your own way (while causing harm to others for no reason).

 

[sk9tingfan]

Rachel Maddow's Prequel is absolutely terrifying. It is about the historical roots of fascism in the US. I can only read a chapter at a time without wanting to run outside and scream. She's an excellent storyteller (which you know if you watch her show on MSNBC) and her ability to put well researched facts into a narrative is riveting. I only wish said facts didn't give me chills about the present and future.

Liz Cheney's book is in the pipeline then I'm back to nice safe fantasy.

Bagman, one of her previous books is being made into a movie directed by Ben Stiller:

Focus Features To Develop Rachel Maddow’s Bag Man As A Feature, Directed By Ben Stiller

Based on the Rachel Maddow podcast of the same name

www.focusfeatures.com

 

[oleada]

I recently read The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters and thought it was very good. Ruthie, a four-year-old and the fifth daughter of First Nations parents goes missing one day and then the book covers the fallout from that fateful event. It's a thoughtful look at trauma, loss, and family relationships.

Another book I enjoyed was One Day All This Will Be Yours by Adrian Tchaikovsky, a sci-fi novella featuring time travel and war. It's hard to say much more without spoilering, but I appreciate this author's clever ideas.

I just got Berry Pickers from the library and I’m not very far in, but really enjoying it so far!

 

[Matryeshka]

I am reading American Wife by Curtis Sittenfield, which is a novelization of Laura Bush and her marriage. The names are changed, it's Wisconsin, not Texas, but it's pretty clear who it's about. The book is excellent but I have really mixed feelings about Laura/Alice. Sittenfield clearly did her homework and changed just enough to not have repercussions, and the writing itself is good, so no complaints there, but uggghhh, the characters. I feel a lot of sympathy for Laura/Alice and can accept why W/Charlie is the way he is, but I feel no empathy for either and am not really sure I like any of them as Sittenfield has written them. I love history and talking about social/cultural issues, but the political lifestyle is beyond me. Why would anyone in their right mind do this to themselves and their family?!

Overall great book, but not sure if it's an enjoyable book. I need something with a really hot creature of the night.

 

[VALuvsMKwan]

The Witching Hour and Lasher?

 

[Prancer]

Grades are in--let the reading begin!

Some books I squeezed in during the semester (besides some really depressing books on poverty):

This is Going to Hurt--a medical memoir recommended by SHARPIE. The doctor quit medicine and became a comedian, so there are a number of amusing stories in this one, but mostly it all made me pretty terrified of going to the hospital. Apparently there is a series.

The Secret Hours--I absolutely love Mick Herron's Slough House series; this one is technically supposed to be a standalone and not part of the series, but it explains a great deal of the backstory for some of the main characters in the series. I've read all the Slough House books and am working my way through his others (which so far aren't as good). I have been known to whine that we don't have Apple TV so I can watch the series, even though I read some plot summaries and saw that they changed some of the stories .

They Never Learn--story of a sociopathic English professor who kills men who abuse women (not a spoiler, as a murder is the opener) alternating with the story of a young woman on the same campus. Sharp and angry and occasionally funny. I did often find myself wondering when the professor has time to grade papers, what with all the stalking she does as she plans her next kill, but she teaches class only once throughout the entire book, so I guess it wasn't an issue (and yes, I know it is beside the point, but verisimilitude!)

Losing Our Religion: An Altar Call for Evangelical America--recommended by @Wyliefan because of a comment I made about the author, Russell Moore, in PI. I generally like Russell Moore and what he has to say, but I realized immediately that I am not the target audience for this book and after a while, I found it rather hard to read for that reason. I finished it, but I think it's a book that would be best read by Christians (as it was intended to be).

The Good Ones--smalltown girl who didn't make good returns to her Appalachian hometown a failure and becomes obsessed with trying to find out what happened to her childhood best friend, who disappeared one night after the protagonist had gone off to college. I disliked just about everyone in this book and was glad when it ended just to get away from them all, so much so that the big twist at the end was a relief because it meant the end was near. Apparently a lot of people like this one and consider it a great Gothic story, so someone else would probably like it more than I did.

The Final Girl Support Group--most classic horror movies end with a killer chasing a virginal young woman, only to have the young woman kill the killer and survive--a final girl. What if the plots of those movies were based on real life killing sprees and the actual final girls met for group therapy for several years? And someone starts stalking them and trying to kill them all in the ways they were originally intended to die? I don't remember what prompted me to read this book, but whatever it was, I missed the point of the book, which is that it is something of a love letter to horror movies, with all sorts of references to characters, scenes, and bits from classic horror flicks. Since I haven't watched any of the movies, a lot of things flew right over my head. But if you are a horror movie fan, you would probably love this one.

I also read some of Julie Ann Long's Palace of Rogues series and generally enjoyed them, but she misuses the word "enormity" several times in the books and that is the first thing that comes to mind when I think of them.

 

[genevieve]

They Never Learn--story of a sociopathic English professor who kills men who abuse women (not a spoiler, as a murder is the opener) alternating with the story of a young woman on the same campus. Sharp and angry and occasionally funny. I did often find myself wondering when the professor has time to grade papers, what with all the stalking she does as she plans her next kill, but she teaches class only once throughout the entire book, so I guess it wasn't an issue (and yes, I know it is beside the point, but verisimilitude!)

When I read books that feature characters whose work I have a lot of knowledge about/experience in, I get completely distracted by all the professional incongruencies.

I am currently reading The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese. I don't know how it got on my library list, since it's not a Peak Pick - either from a recommendation here, on Goodreads, or possibly it showed up on an early "favorite books of 2023" list. It's about a million pages long and I'm barely into it but love it. Bonus for taking place in Kerala, India, which I visited earlier this year.

My last book was The Centre by Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi, which is partly a dramedy about a 30-ish woman dealing with dating and adulting as a Pakistan-born Londoner, with some good bits about cultural identity, relationships (romantic and platonic), and adulting in general, and partly a thriller about a shadowy organization that can teach full fluency in any language to any person in 10 days. There is a lot going on here, but maybe trying to be too many things by the end.

 

[mattiecat13]

I am reading American Wife by Curtis Sittenfield, which is a novelization of Laura Bush and her marriage. The names are changed, it's Wisconsin, not Texas, but it's pretty clear who it's about. The book is excellent but I have really mixed feelings about Laura/Alice. Sittenfield clearly did her homework and changed just enough to not have repercussions, and the writing itself is good, so no complaints there, but uggghhh, the characters. I feel a lot of sympathy for Laura/Alice and can accept why W/Charlie is the way he is, but I feel no empathy for either and am not really sure I like any of them as Sittenfield has written them. I love history and talking about social/cultural issues, but the political lifestyle is beyond me. Why would anyone in their right mind do this to themselves and their family?!

Overall great book, but not sure if it's an enjoyable book. I need something with a really hot creature of the night.

I loved this book and tried to read a couple of Sittenfeld’s other books but couldn’t get into them.