Non-fiction book review - Wilderness Adventure Camp

 

Wilderness Adventure Camp by Frank Grindrod

I like that these directions aren't reduced in the name of excess caution. The idea is that a kid who is old enough to look for these sorts of directions is old enough to be trusted to use a knife and safely start a fire. Not that thees directions are given haphazardly. There are copious safety warnings. It's just better to give a kid complete, safe directions, than to leave them to experiment unaided. While not every subject is covered in depth, Grindrod gives primary focus on basic survival skills: recognizing and carrying what you need, finding clean water, building a survival shelter. Give this book to kids who want to go camping beyond a campground.  

Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley

Book review - Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry

 

Title: Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry

Author: Joya Goffney

Genre: romance

Similar books:  This Train is Being Held by Ismee Amiel Williams

                      The Infinite Moment of Us by Lauren Myracle

Rating:

 

substance behind the obvious

 

Summary (provided by publisher): Quinn keeps lists of everything—from the days she’s ugly cried, to “Things That I Would Never Admit Out Loud” and all the boys she’d like to kiss. Her lists keep her sane. By writing her fears on paper, she never has to face them in real life. That is, until her journal goes missing . . .
Then an anonymous account posts one of her lists on Instagram for the whole school to see and blackmails her into facing seven of her greatest fears, or else her entire journal will go public. Quinn doesn’t know who to trust. Desperate, she teams up with Carter Bennett—the last known person to have her journal—in a race against time to track down the blackmailer.
Together, they journey through everything Quinn’s been too afraid to face, and along the way, Quinn finds the courage to be honest, to live in the moment, and to fall in love.

My opinion: Let's be honest: I don't exactly love this book, though I do like it more than I expected. The love story element is exactly what we expect. Quinn and Carter hate each other but that hatred is built on assumptions and is covering up attraction. Having to work together forces them to face their true feelings, etcetera etcetera. The mystery of the blackmailer is pretty straightforward as well. And I found Quinn to be not entirely sympathetic. She's pretty self-centered and her lies are stressful (not to mention hard to believe - how was she going to explain away her fake acceptance letter?). Two things make me give this book a second thought. 1) The resolution isn't all smooth and happily ever after. It's a way forward, the notion that once you face the things that have troubled you there is a potential for things to get better. 2) There are bigger issues addressed. Race and financial privilege are interwoven into the plot. They don't get a lot of page space but they are essential elements that affect the love story and the character's friendships.

More information: Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry releases May 4.
Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley

More interesting shoes

 I bought some shoes for cheap. On their own, they were fine. Just a little boring.

I figured I'd give them a bit of an update. I had a little bit of multi-surface paint left over from another project, so I used it to make these shoes a bit more dynamic.

Book review - The Murder Game

 

Title: The Murder Game

Author: Carrie Doyle

Genre: Mystery

Similar books: Scared Little Rabbits by A.V. Geiger

                      The Girl in the Picture by Alexandra Monir

Rating:

 

definitely not my favorite

Summary (provided by publisher): What if your best friend and roommate killed a teacher at your prep school? Or what if he didn’t do it, but he’s being framed, and you’re the only person who can save him? What if you aren’t sure which it is?
Luke Chase didn’t mean to get caught up solving the mystery of Mrs. Heckler’s murder. He just wanted to meet up with the new British girl at their boarding school, and if that meant sneaking out to the woods after hours, then so be it.
Little did he know someone would end up dead right next to their rendezvous spot, and his best friend and roommate Oscar Weymouth would go down for it. With suspects aplenty and a past that’s anything but innocent, Luke Chase calls on his famous survival skills to solve the mystery and find the true killer. With plenty of suspects, Luke will need to use all his skills to solve the mystery and find the true killer.

My opinion: I frankly don't understand the fixation on boarding schools in teen fiction. They don't reflect the experience of most readers. Is it aspirational? In the case of this book, the school has a lot of rules and supervises students more than is typical of these stories. That means that this book could as easily have taken place in any small town, no boarding school needed. I could accept the setting if the mystery were more compelling. But we don't meet the victim before her death. We have no emotional connection to her, or to any of the characters really. There are no stakes in the mystery. And while the police are not shown as useless (a frequent problem in novels) their plan is needlessly convoluted. On the whole, this one didn't make enough sense to me.

Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley

Pick 6: grief

 I'm always interested to see how novels treat sensitive topics. They explore an issue like grief from a number of perspectives. Here are six novels written in the last six months that have grief as a central issue.

Six new novels about grief:

1. The Sea in Winter by Christine Day
2. Many Points of Me by Carline Gertler
   
3. Just Like That by Gary D Schmidt
4. Wider Than the Sky by Katherine Rothschild
5. Bump by Matt Wallace
6. Bruised by Tanya Boteju
   

Non-fiction book review - The Magic of Sleep

 

The Magic of Sleep by Vicky Woodgate

Most of us don't put much thought into the science of sleep. We are told that it is vital to our physical and mental health but that's typically the extent of it. Woodgate goes much further, presenting us with a wide collection of facts about sleep in humans and in animals: the how, sh where, and even who. All of these facts are accompanied by explanatory illustrations featuring a charming cat. A fun book to flip through.

Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley.

Book review - What Beauty There Is

 

Title: What Beauty There Is

Author: Cory Anderson

Genre: realistic fiction

Similar books: Some Kind of Animal by Maria Romasco-Moore

                      Bad Call by Stephen Wallenfels

Rating: 

 

doesn't quite live up to its literary aspirations

Summary (provided by publisher): To understand the truth, you have to start at the beginning.
Winter in Idaho. The sky is dark. It is cold enough to crack bones.
Living in harsh poverty, Jack Dahl is holding his breath. He and his younger brother have nothing—except each other. And now Jack faces a stark choice: lose his brother to foster care or find the drug money that sent his father to prison.
He chooses the money.
Ava Bardem lives in isolation, a life of silence. For seventeen years her father, a merciless man, has controlled her fate. He has taught her to love no one. Now Victor Bardem is stalking the same money as Jack. When he picks up on Jack’s trail, Ava must make her own wrenching choice: remain silent or speak, and help the brothers survive.
Choices. They come at a price.

My opinion: This is a story largely reminiscent of The Lovely Bones, though this one is a bit more pedestrian. We have poverty, drugs, and the constant struggle for survival. Jack's struggle to keep himself and his brother alive and out of the system, his dilemma about the drug money, would be enough to make this compelling. But Anderson adds in romantic entanglement, constant action, and some needlessly graphic gore. While the story was initially interesting, I found it tiresome as the book progressed and the criminals played a larger role in the plot. Criminals who were more parodies than complex characters.

Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley