WWW Wednesday

 What are you currently reading?

Lost Girls of Hollow Lake by Rebekah Faubion - Eight girls went missing at Hollow Lake. Five returned. Now girls are starting to die and something wants the truth about what happened to be revealed.

What did you recently finish reading?

Winter White by Annie Cardi - Pia has lived an isolated life on a Maine farm with her father and brother since she was six. When she starts interacting secretly with people in town, she starts to question everything her father has ever told her.

What do you think you'll read next?

Sundown Girls by L S Stratton

Book review - Mercy

 

Title: Mercy

Author: Patricia Ward

Genre: mystery

Age range: teen

Similar book: Starlings by Amanda Linsmeyer

Summary (provided by publisher): Mercy was named for her mother’s hopes.

Mercy, in the hope that the Sorrowing—the curse that Mercy and her family had lived with for generations—might take pity on them.

But Mercy’s name never did her any good, and it certainly didn’t save her mother.

The Sorrowing ensures that Mercy, her family, and the core families in Arbor Falls aren’t able to grow, dream, or prosper. It makes sure they stay exactly as they are—mired in the mud. Mercy has learned to live with the truth: the only way to escape the Sorrowing is to accept it.

Until the Bowens move back to town.

The Bowens are a cursed family, too, and they should know better than to test the Sorrowing. Instead, their ignorance sets off a wave of fury that promises to destroy everything.

Now, Mercy will have to unearth the horrors that unfolded that terrible night the Sorrowing was born—to face the despicable secrets of her town and break the curse before it breaks everything she has left.

What I liked: Mercy is a strong character. Her history explains her approach to her reality, creating a believable world. The realities of the curse are carefully balanced with the mystery elements, creating a rich atmosphere and enough questions to make for compelling reading and a spooky air. The truth behind the curse leaves some elements that are applicable and worth discussing for a modern reader.

What I didn't like: The pacing is a bit unbalanced, with some points dragging. Secondary characters are okay, thin at first but largely gaining a little depth as the book reaches it's climax.

Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley

Non-fiction book review - The Big Book of Pi

 

The Big Book of Pi by Anita Lehmann, Jean-Baptiste Aubin, and Joonas Sildre

You might think that a book about Pi would be a math text. And certainly math plays a mjor role in in this text but it is also much more than that. We learn a fair amount of history in learning about pi. This is a very readable book, easy to consume both in small bites and in large chunks. It's a book one might return to many times with lots of illustrations supporting the text.

The Big Book of Pi releases February 3.

Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley

Christmas cow

 Every Christmas I receive at least one craft kit as a gift. This year I got a little plaster highland cow to paint. 

I used acrylic paint for this project and here's how he turned out.

Listen with me

 

K-Jane by Lydia Kang

This story of a Korean-American girl who sets out to make herself an expert in Korean culture to "save" her baby brother and impress the boy of her dreams gives me some hesitation. It has the potential for a lot of second-hand embarrassment, something I can't always handle. At the same time, it could really dig into some issues of culture and identity so I'm willing to give it a shot. Let's give it a listen and see what we think.

WWW Wednesday

 What are you currently reading?

I Don't Wish You Well by Jumata Emill - Everyone thought that they knew the truth about the murders that happened in Moss Pointe but five years later new evidence is coming to light and Pryce is determined to find out the truth.

What did you recently finish reading?

The Big Bad Wolf Murder by P.G. Bell - When her rival in a game of Tooth and Claw dies suddenly on the field and Ruby is framed for his murder, it's a race against time to find out what really happened before the police catch up with her.

What do you think you'll read next?

Winter White by Annie Cardi

Book review - Down a Dark Path

 

Title: Down a Dark Path

Author: Daniel Mayeri

Genre: mystery/graphic novel

Age range: middle grade

Similar book: the Bad Machinery series by John Allison

Summary (provided by publisher): Lucy and Frida Buford have never stepped foot outside their family farm in the Carolina Inner Banks. It’s the dead of July, and in the midst of yet another boring summer making jam for the family business, the girls are clamoring to be taken to the elusive town they’ve never been allowed to visit. Their father has always said that the outside world is a dangerous place, but danger is closer to home than they even know.

 There’s something in the nearby woods uprooting trees, scaring fish from the water, and scratching at Lucy’s window in the middle of the night. Lucy can’t shake the feeling that there’s a monster out and about—one with two pointy fangs who only comes out at night.

 It's up to these two sisters to discover what this monster wants. But the further they stray from home, the weirder things become. What’s really going on beyond the Buford family farm?

What I liked: This book finds a careful balance between the mysterious and the humorous. We have the central plot of Lucy and Frida which is largely atmospheric and spooky. But we also have the narration of the proprietors of the Bazaar and short bits of their narrative. This combination keeps the more serious central story from becoming too much for young readers. That central story is carefully paced and seeds small bits of the final reveal throughout.

What I didn't like: While the Bazaar story was interesting, the placement of those sections was at times disruptive. Because some of these sections are long it broke the flow of the farm story and I occasionally found it difficult to get back into the main story. 

More Information: Down a Dark Path is the second book in the Bizarre Bazaar series.

Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley