Yep, I read that.

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[yepireadthat]

Harry Potter meets The Brothers Grimm. This book is dark and delightful. I'm not sure if it's more middle grade, or young adult. I'd tend toward placing it in the young adult category, although at most bookstores you find it in the six and up section. There is a lot in this book that boarders on the straight up horror that is original fairy tales, and a lot that just edges close to more well defined ideas of older romance. The next two paragraphs of this review deserve a spoiler warning as they do get into a bit of the plot, and said plot is pretty twisty turny. The main protagonist in this book is a man they call the Schoolmaster. While it could seem that the characters in this book are fighting a simplistic battle of good versus evil, it's actually a bit more complicated than that. We're introduced to girls who just want to be pretty and find their prince, and boys who want to rescue their helpless princesses in the School of Good. In The School of Evil we meet very stereotypical villains with warts and scraggly hair who aren't allowed to love. There have been some reviews that indicate that the author is writing commentary on what is beautiful being good, and evil having to be ugly (there is even a point of the book where good turns ugly, and evil turns beautiful). However, that's not really the point, nor does it accurately acknowledge the subtleties of the plot. Behind it all is a man manipulating the situation towards his own end. He's created the schools specifically for his own purpose, and has pushed each group to act how they do. He creates situations that remove the children from their protective teachers, and has devised the entire program to help him find a specific person from (of course) a prophecy.  Overall I really, really enjoyed this book. It definitely does a good job of portraying fairy tales in their original, terrifying form. It also does a pretty great job with the magic school trope, which is, admittedly, one of my favorites. There are a few characters that get a little tiresome, and a few places where I wished the author hadn't gone back to a very specific point of conflict that is revisited a few too many times, however, in the end, this was an excellent read. I will definitely be moving on to the next book in the series.

[yepireadthat]

I bought this book for the same reason I think most people buy this book: Alice in Wonderland, but zombies. Also, this cover?! I loved Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, so when I saw this I immediately added it to my TBR. Here’s the thing though, this book is not an Alice in Wonderland retelling, and it’s not really about zombies either. But, as it turns out, I don’t even care? I still really enjoyed it! The Wonderland references are really subtle. Chapter titles, a white rabbit theme, a bit of that feeling of your life changing in an instant, and waking up somewhere that feels entirely unfamiliar and just a little bit wonky. Where learning how to survive becomes top priority. I got it, and I dug it. Subtle is sometimes better than in your face. Since I don’t particularly love zombies, the zombies being not really zombies didn’t bother me either. And, to be honest, I kind of like it when an author takes really old lore, and just turns it over on its head. Taking the expected, and turning it into the unexpected is fun. We all complain about tropes, so why not celebrate it when authors try and break free from them? I 100% understand why people do not like this book. It has so many things that people love to hate. A slightly misleading cover and title. Teenage girls. Boys. Feelings. Kissing. Teenage girls feeling things, and kissing boys. It’s not going to make it to the top of a lot of lists for those (pretty ridiculous*) reasons, but I think that, maybe, you should give it a shot. Because I really enjoyed it. It was a good time, a weird time, but a good one. Frankly I don’t know if I’m going to finish the series, but I absolutely do not regret reading this first book**.  --- *You don’t have to like every book. Clearly. I hate plenty of them. But I wish people wouldn’t undervalue things specifically because they have characteristics typically attributed to young girls. I’m not nearly as eloquent on this topic as Lindsay Ellis is in her video about Twilight, so I’m just going to link that here, and recommend you watch it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8O06tMbIKh0 **There isn’t really a cliffhanger ending, so there isn’t that feeling of getting hooked into something you have to finish if you don’t want to. Which, I mean, THANK YOU GENA SHOWALTER.

[yepireadthat]

This book came to me highly recommended, and, to be honest, the recommendation wasn’t really necessary. I’m not a hard sell when it comes to Mister Rogers. As a kid with the world’s worst anxiety, he was a calming presence, and he continues to be such for me in my adult life. I was looking forward to hearing more about how Fred Rogers’ faith informed his life. Especially due to the fact that, as the author took pains to remind us by inserting this quote by Bob Faw, "The real Mr. Rogers never preached, never even mentioned God on his show. He never had to." Unfortunately, the author didn’t take the importance of that observation to heart, and that’s where this book went absolutely wrong for me. This is not, as the title would lead you to believe, a book of spiritual insights from the world’s most beloved neighbor. It is, instead, a preachy book of ideas somewhat messily cobbled together by a heavy handed author, who uses the words of Mister Rogers to justify, and expound her own theology. Where Fred Rogers is gentle, the author is brusque. Where he is subtle, she is relentless. His grace is entirely overshadowed by her legalism and dogmatic adherence throughout the book to the idea that good in humanity is a by-product of conversion. As a quick example, I’ll point to the way she editorializes an anecdote about Fred not liking how cartoons solved problems with gun violence, “It is possible to see the best in our neighbor because of one thing: forgiveness. It’s possible to solve problems without machine guns because of one thing: forgiveness. That’s not a concept unique to the Neighborhood of Make-Believe but to the kingdom of God.” There are other issues as well. The writing was in need of a more thorough editor. There were multiple times when the same exact phrasing, or anecdote would be recycled. It was distracting, and made me assume that the author did not have enough content to fill the book. Which actually leads right into another issue I had: While I believe that Ms. Hollingsworth did have a genuine relationship with Mister Rogers, I do not believe it was as close as she tries to play it off in the book. She interviewed him twice, and many of her stories come from those two interviews. The rest come from letters, and phone calls shared between the two. The evidence given is that they were affectionate acquaintances, but Hollingsworth tries to sell the friendship as much deeper. I do not want to take away from what the two of them did experience while Fred was alive as I do believe that people can have meaningful relationships from a distance, however, it does come across in the book as a bit awkward, and forced. Overall, I was entirely disappointed. I now know plenty about the author’s faith and theology. I know where she stands on many, many issues. Unfortunately, that’s not what this book is sold as to the consumer. The best bits were the direct quotes from Mister Rogers. (There is an especially poignant story about a commencement speech he gave that I truly adored.) But I didn’t need to spend money on this book to have access to that information. In the end, there is very little I learned from it, and I walked away feeling like I’d wasted both my time and my money. As I said to a friend, “I’m still thinking about how mad that Mister Rogers book is making me. A Book about Mister Rogers should never make anyone feel anything other than constructive things. The author totally missed the point.”

[yepireadthat]

Look, I’m a sucker for kissing books. They may not have been Fred Savage’s jam in The Princess Bride, but they are very much mine. And this book? It’s a really good kissing book. What is there to say about Dimple and Rishi other than that they’re both two of the best cinnamon rolls put into print in a while. Well written, strong, wonderful humans who seem too real to be fictional. Ugh. I love them both, and I love them together. I would have read a whole book where these two were the entire focus, and I would have been entirely happy. But here’s the thing, they aren’t the only wonderful characters in this novel. Nope. There are parents, and friends, and siblings, and bullies, and that one girl who hangs with the bullies, but who you think may secretly be kind of great. It’s the kind of book that gives you more than you deserve, but still leaves you wanting more. I promise I’m almost done gushing, but I have just a little more. Stick with me. This is, at it’s core, a love story. The best kind. It builds, and it grows. There is conflict, and catharsis. Whatever insta love is, this is the opposite. Strangers become acquaintances become friends become more, and it’s perfect. I don’t know why you haven’t read it yet (if you haven’t). You should probably get on it.

[yepireadthat]

“Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people who never knew each other, citizens of distant epochs. Books break the shackles of time. A book is proof that humans are capable of working magic.“ -Carl Sagan, Cosmos

I spent my younger years in an environment where I learned very little about evolution, or the science of the stars. Most of my education on the subject, ironically, came from Ken Ham. Although he was a staunch creationist, I saw him speak once in person, and I left with a lot of questions, and with the certainty that whatever he was saying the opposite must be the truth. It took me years to leave home, finish school, go to University, and decide it was time to finish my education through personal study, but I did get there. Which is how I ended up reading Cosmos. I’m going to be honest, I loved this book until the last threeish chapters. I loved the way Sagan talked about the beginning of the universe, and how he explained evolution. His description of natural selection, and how the process works was easy to digest for a person who has very little background on the subject. When I started, I couldn’t consume his writing fast enough-- But then came the part of the book where the stories kind of stopped, and suddenly it was all physics, and chemistry, and the end of the world. As I so eloquently put it on twitter, “"Oh my gosh! I do not care about other universes, and other physics, Carl! I barely care about this universe, and our physics." Me. Reading Cosmos. (I am very deep.)” Frankly, I lost interest. Which I think is fine! This was a great book. I’m ever so glad that I took the time to read it! There were just parts of it that were not as engaging for me. (For instance, I don’t want to read about how dumb we are for nuclear weapons, and mutually assured destruction at this exact moment. We all know we’re doomed. I don’t need a reminder.) Carl Sagan was a wordsmith. The man could turn a phrase. He managed to take incredibly complicated concepts, and ideas, and turn them into digestible material for the masses. His passion for the subject was so evident through his words, that I couldn’t help but feel excited for each new chapter, and sorrow for the fact that he didn’t live to see the progress we’ve made in space exploration since his passing. My personal hangups, and flaws aside, I think this book was pretty close to perfect.

[yepireadthat]

I knew next to nothing about this book going into it, and, to be honest, there’s not much more than that to know now that I’ve read the entire thing.  This is a book about a girl who dies, and who doesn’t want to cross over. This is a book about a girl who has to find herself, and grow up even though she no longer lives on Earth, and even though she is, presumably, frozen in the state she died. This is a book that had so much dang potential... Riley goes to dead person school, and gets a dead person job. She has a boss who seems to be around her age, and who is responsible for her ability to do her job correctly, but who also seems to be failing at his own. There’s some weirdness here. It seems like there may be consequences for being bad at the thing you’re assigned to, but they’re never laid out. There’s just an ominous cloud hanging over a potential failure. We never find out what happens if they do, because they don’t.  I wish there had been more meat to this story. It was always right on the edge of being super engaging, but it never quite got there. I would get so excited thinking that something big was about to happen, and then the story would just kind of fall flat again. There is a lot of good middle grade fiction in this world, and then there are the books that feel like they’re phoning it in a little since they’re just for kids. I really dislike it when I read a book that I feel is selling the intelligence of its intended audience short, and this one, sadly, falls into that category. Sure, this is the first book in a series, and perhaps some of the problems I have with it are addressed in greater detail as the story progresses through the other books. However, I do not believe that a book is successful if it cannot also stand on its own merit. I’ve read many series where I felt like I still had questions, and wanted to continue the story, while also feeling like I had just finished a complete book. Anyhow, this book was fine. I probably won’t continue on to see what happens to Riley next.

[yepireadthat]

I picked this up last year on a whim. I was looking to try something different, and this was a daily deal on audible. It took me a bit to get through. I think this is likely because I’ve never been all that interested in meditation as a concept. (I’m guessing that has something to do with the fact that meditation was classified right under devil worship by a lot of my evangelical/fundamentalist Sunday school/Christian school teachers, so my brain has an ingrained negative response.) But here is the thing, this year I started seeing a therapist who has introduced me to the idea of bilateral stimulation to help me deal with my anxiety. She recommended trying it while also practicing deep breathing. This all happened when I was at the part of the book that was talking about breath counting, and suddenly the whole idea of meditation clicked for me. I actually started the whole book over, and decided to listen a bit more carefully. I’m glad I grabbed this book, and that I was slogging through it. I’m glad I came to realize how perfectly it slotted into my current personal health goals. I think I’ll probably be looking for more books that talk about meditation practices in the future. While this was a great overview, it didn’t quite satisfy my new curiosity. (If you have recommendations, please send them my way!) My experience with this book has reminded me why you should always be willing to give things a chance, and not write off an idea, or a book, because of prejudice, or assumed knowledge. The truth is, I knew very little about meditation before I completely dismissed it, and now, thanks to an impulse decision, I’m looking forward to seeing where my new interest in this practice takes me.

[yepireadthat]

This review will contain spoilers. You’ve been warned! This is a book about Robert Neville. If, in the first few pages, you do not enjoy Robert Neville as a character, I cannot imagine that you will enjoy the book. It’s a tale as old as time. Civilization ends. All that remains is a white man who can somehow survive everything thrown at him, and who adapts to thrive. He picks up new skills like he’s a character leveling up in Dungeons & Dragons. He figures things out that no expert has been able to deduce. He learns things rapidly that would take most people years of dedicated study. Look, I hate the term Mary Sue, however... But wait, there’s more. Neville is uninteresting, and has unrelatable motivations. He really likes his own boner, and moans frequently about how much he wishes he could just give in to his desire to go at the vampire ladies while they are in their daylight coma. When he sees anything that resembles a woman’s body, he loses all reason. When researching at an abandoned library, Robert feels terrible for the imaginary maiden librarian he dreams up, and how she died not knowing what it felt like to be loved, since she died not knowing what it was like to have sex. Really, Neville is a gross, insufferable dude, and also a murderer. From the beginning, I was rooting for the vampires. Specifically Ben Cortman. Honestly, the real tragedy of this book is that Ben didn’t get to snack on Robert.  Technically speaking, this was well written. I can even see why people love it as much as they do. And, look, I know that there’s metaphor, and it was written in ‘54, and was so groundbreaking. But for metaphor to really work, you have to care about what is happening, and I could not get past how much I wanted to punch the main character in the face. Since most of the story takes place in his head, and with him as the sole focus, it made any brief moment of brilliance (the dog bit was pretty great) not enough to redeem everything else. When it got to the end, the story I really wanted was Ruth’s. Forget Robert. I want to know how Ruth became a badass warrior lady in the upper ranks of her new civilization. I want to know how she, and her new species plotted against the weird hermit who spent his days killing them. Heck, I’d rather even have read a story that just followed the dog as it hid from the vamps. Really, if I’m being honest, anything else would heave been better. I gave this 2 stars. It was bad, but not unreadable.

[yepireadthat]

This is neither my favorite Atwood, nor my favorite comic, but it was fun. The jokes were mostly puns, which is just fine by me, and the characters were as fleshed out as any in issue one comic superhero stories I’ve read. I liked the heroes, and I didn’t hate the villains. I could have done with fewer catty cat sidekicks, but I didn’t hate them either. I loved Cate Leone. She was the best character in the story. I’m a little worried she’s going to follow the path of so many other comic heroines and become primarily a character for the hero to save, but fingers crossed that doesn’t happen. Really, at this point, it could go either way, so I’m choosing to remain hopeful! The villain is very Doc Ocesque. Angel Catbird is pretty much older, less tragic Spiderman. I can see Cate filing out the Mary Jane archetype as well. Basically, this follows a very old-school comic feeling arc. It’s full of nostalgia, and thought bubbles. It’s a throwback to the early years of comics. Which, I think, makes sense given Atwood’s own introduction to the form. And it isn’t bad. It’s actually pretty refreshing to read something that isn’t just dark for the sake of darkness. There was so much lightness, humor, and fun in this book! Which is really appealing to me. Definitely the strongest bits of this comic are the bits that draw a laugh.  The introduction to the book has drawn a fair bit of criticism. Mostly pointing to Atwood’s remarks feeling condescending toward comics, and those who read them. However, I don’t think that’s what was going on at all. In the intro, she brings up the fact that many could be wondering why a “nice literary old lady” would write comics, and, honestly, I think it’s valid for her to bring that up, and explain why, at the age of 77, and known primarily as an award-winning novelist, she would venture into something else. I have no problem with her explaining herself, and telling a comic loving audience, such as myself, why we should trust her to write for us. I think it’s totally fair. It didn’t offend me in the slightest. Anyhow, what’s my verdict... Overall, I liked this. I thought it was silly at times, but not necessarily in a bad way, and I thought it was campy overall, but not in a way that bothered me. I’m definitely in for Volume 2 when it comes out.

[yepireadthat]

Oy. Yep, I read this. I read this entire book. This is the story of Adrian and Emma, and you are supposed to care about them. You’re supposed to care that Adrian doesn’t want to marry a girl that he feels his mother, the queen, is pushing on him. You’re supposed to care that Emma’s job photographing stuffy dignitaries kind of bores her. You’re supposed to, but I just couldn’t. I don’t know if it was just that I felt like The Royal We was a way better The Prince and The American Girl story, or if this just wasn’t very good. Either way, I found myself skimming a lot. There is a moment in the story where Emma’s parents end up in bed with a naked Prince Adrian, and that’s kind of funny, but even that scene was a little too long, and got a little too awkward. Oh, and this is a total insta-love tale. Where they really know nothing about one another, but end up together super fast because, I don’t know, I guess because he’s a prince, so might as well! Anyhow, I didn’t like this. I’m glad it was a free (thanks, Book Bub!) book.

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You know how it’s kind of a *big thing* right now for authors to go back and write books from the perspective of other characters in their stories? Well, this is that. This is book 1.5 in the Lux series. Basically, it retells the first three books from the main dude’s perspective. I’m not sure if that’s a thing that needed to happen, but I did really like this world (I read the entire series in a matter of days, and then was upset that I had to wait for the last book to come out to finish it), and so I thought I’d give it a try. In a less bad way than Grey, this book was kind of frustrating. Basically, I’m not sure you ever want to know what is going on in the heads of the guys in the books you read. Because if you don’t know, then you can just assume the best, and that makes them more likable, and I think it’s just better that way. I have to be honest, this wasn’t something I particularly worried about with this, because the last two books in the Lux series switch back and forth between Daemon and Katy. So I thought I kind of knew him well enough not to get upset with his brain, but... Daemon isn’t nice to Katy in the first part of the Lux series. He pulls the whole, “I’m going to push you away by being a jerk,” thing. Which isn’t my favorite trope, but it was okay. Because Katy is strong as heck, and she just doesn’t take his shit. But when you take her voice out of things, and it’s suddenly just what’s in his head, then it’s less great to read. When it’s just him perving on how hot her legs are (like, all of the time, it’s a constant “damn her legs tho” commentary), while calling her names, and watching her in a kind of stalkery way, it makes him suck, and I really didn’t want Daemon to suck. The first section is probably the worst, and by the third he wasn’t as bad, but by then I already didn’t like him as much, and I already thought she could probably do better. I liked this well enough that it made me want to read the end of the series again. So, I guess that’s something? But I have to say I don’t think this is a thing that even fans of the Lux books need to read.

[yepireadthat]

There is something about alternate histories that really gets me. I love the what ifs. What if the Civil War had ended in a divided nation? What if we had kept going hard with steam power? What if President Kennedy hadn’t been assassinated? What if the Axis powers had won World War Two? There’s just no way to know. Things could be better. (Maybe Trump wouldn’t be running for president right now!) Or things could be worse. (Maybe Trump would already have declared himself supreme ruler of everything.) Books like Wolf By Wolf let us explore the things that might have been. In this instance, what might have been if Hitler had won. First off, I didn’t read this book, I listened to it. I think that was actually a benefit here, because the reading was pretty fantastic. I will fully admit that reading a book, and listening to an audio book version of said book, are two very different experiences. I can’t really speak to reading this, but I LOVED listening to it. The story was engaging. The characters were real, and heart breaking. So, yeah, maybe pick up Audible and give this a shot on there. So, the story. Yael. My word. This girl has had more put on her in her life than anyone deserves. Her name has a lot of weight. From the trains taking her and her mother to the concentration camp seeming to say it over and over with every mile, to the fact that she ends up living under dozens of different identities. Dozens of faces. Her name, her past, who she is, those are all a pretty hefty theme woven throughout the book. The story is told in a pretty choppy fashion. Which is good. Even though that sounds like negative commentary. It isn’t. It opens with Yael having her series of wolf tattoos finished. Each wolf represents a different person in her life, a different part of her story. They cover up her numbers, and they remind her why she fights. Throughout the book, we learn a little about each tattoo, and about how the person behind that tattoo impacted Yael. How they made her the person she is. It’s an incredibly powerful device, and it makes you anxious to learn the next bit. It also allows the story to progress without getting bogged down by the details of the now. (Spoiler alert: This entire book happens during a motorcycle race, so the flashbacks help break up the monotony of the road...) I really can’t say a lot about this story without giving things away that you really wouldn’t want to be given away, but the general point is that Yael is out to kill Hitler. She has an opportunity, but she has to make it to a specific place and time first. This story is 100% hers. The struggles, the motivations, all of it. It’s pretty great to see a story where the girl at the center is in control of what’s going on. Sure, some of what happens is done to her, without her having any agency or choice, but the bulk of it is about a girl who has survived her past, and who is now in charge of her own destiny. Which is great. Pretty dang great.  Oh hey, and warning, this is not a stand alone. It’s the first book in a series, and it is killing me that the next one isn’t coming out for a bit. So, if you’re not a big fan of having to wait for the next part of a story, then maybe don’t get this yet? Because you’ll probably be mad when it’s over that you can’t keep going. I was. I am. HURRY UP, OCTOBER! ---- If you’re curious about passages that I found particularly neat, you can check them out here: http://underlinedandhighlighted.tumblr.com/tagged/wolf-by-wolf

[yepireadthat]

If you want a non-biased review about a book featuring Han Solo, then you should probably look somewhere else. If you aren’t acquainted with me personally, and you aren’t in the know about my love for this handsome, roguish pilot, then just click here and you can get the full skinny on how amazing I think Han is. Anyhow. Yeah. Disclaimer accomplished. I’m incredibly conflicted about this book. Because, on one hand, there is Han Solo, but on the other hand there is Bria Tharen. I mean, let’s just start with her. Because that’s where I want to start. And this is my review. So I do what I want. Bria may be the most distressed damsel I’ve ever encountered in a book. Which is pretty impressive. Maybe I just wasn’t in the mood for her. Or maybe I read all of the bits about her in the wrong tone. Who knows? But, here’s what I can say, from the first second that we encounter Bria in the glitterstim factory, slaving away, she drove me bonkers. She has zero sense of self-preservation. From the beginning of the book to the end, she is constantly running toward things that want to destroy her. She is supposed to be of an age where she should be attending university, but she tends to interact with her world like she’s about 15. Then, the one time she has the chance to communicate like an adult, and make things right, she makes Han’s choices for him, and throws everything into a giant furnace full of fire and... grumble, grumble, grumble. Okay. Rant over. Really. I’m done with her, and not all of the characters in this book annoyed me. Han Solo was fantastic. Even when he wasn’t fantastic. Which means that there were moments when he made bad decisions, and acted like an idiot, and used the word honey one too many times... but who cares? Han Solo can do no wrong in my eyes. Sorry. He’s fantastic, and I want to be his copilot. Also, I kind of want to boop his nose. Oh. And hey. Togorians are way cool. They are giant cats that ride around on flying lizards. Which is, in and of itself, awesome. But then, on top of that, they are a matriarchal society. Boom! The dudes run off into the woods alone, and the ladies stay in the city, develop technology, and are just giant badasses. I would read an entire book about them. Is there an entire book about them? If there is, let me know. Finally, Ylesia is the worst planet ever. Don’t go there. And don’t listen to missionaries who offer to fill the void in your life by allowing you to come to their creepy planet where they make you work in their factories so that you can experience some sort of psychic nirvana. Okay? Okay. I’m definitely going to read the other two books in this trilogy, and I’m hoping to read them soon. I’m actually a little annoyed that Barnes & Noble only had the one when I was there, and I need to get on finding the other two. Which is what I’m going to do RIGHT NOW! Happy Star Wars!

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If you haven’t heard of bookbub, and you like inexpensive electronic books, then I am your new favorite person. True story! Because bookbub will send cheap and free ebook offers to your inbox, and you will be suddenly flooded with so many things to read! Anyhow, all of this to say, that’s how I found this book. It showed up in my inbox, it was free, and the cover was all dark and raveny, and so I grabbed it! This is a vampire book. Shocking, I know. Me. Reading a vampire book. I wasn’t expecting this to be a good book, and I mean actual good not so bad it’s good. However, it turns out that it is! At some point I’ll be reading the rest of the series. (And not because I have an issue with needing to complete series, but because I genuinely *want* to.) Free books tend to be a bit hit and miss, and it’s always a nice surprise when the hits come.  So, anyhow, let’s get to this!  This is a very vampy vampire book. No sparkling. Very little angst. Dark shadows. Deviant behavior. SO MUCH BLOOD. The actual story is solid. The world building is pretty good, although it does have a bit of a Sookie Stackhouse vibe. All in all though, I can’t really recall this exact treatment of vampires popping up anywhere else. In this word there are basically three kinds of people: humans, vampires who are born, and vampires who are bitten. The born are royalty, and their vampirism is triggered by their human death. These vampires are immortal. The bitten are, GASP, bitten. They are not immortal, but they do live longer than your average human. Humans are clearly just human, but some of them are vampire hunters, and vampire hunters tend to be brooding, and cool. The pacing of the book is a bit on the slow side, but not so much that it’s unbearable, it’s actually kind of a nice, ride. Like driving down country roads on a Sunday. (Which is a thing that more people than just me do, right?) It was consistent in the way it was written, and I have very few complaints about style. Nothing really worth mentioning, actually. The only major issue I had was that the big twist ending was pretty darn predictable. I smelled it from a mile away. I don’t have an issue with the twist itself, I’m pretty curious to see where it takes the story, but it wasn’t the surprise to me that I think it was supposed to be. If you like vampire books, I think you might like this read. If you don’t like books where people are constantly covered in copious amounts of blood, then you probably won’t. And that’s about it. Happy vampire hunting!

[yepireadthat]

Okay, so, this is a follow-up review to the one I wrote about the Little Golden Books that recounted the original trilogy. Remember how in that review I said, “Little Golden Books generally put out quality,” and then went on to talk about how much I didn’t regret buying those books? Well... these ones are a bit of a different story. My feelings about these three books are pretty varied, so let’s just break each one down. I Am A Pilot: You guys, this book is bad. Don’t let all of the shiny spaceships (ahem, Millennium Falcon, mmmm), and awesome pilots (HAN SOLO AND POE DAMERON) distract you from the problems. Because they almost kept me from noticing what exactly was wrong, which would be that there are exactly ZERO lady pilots in this book. None. In a book that is new enough to mention how amazing of a pilot Poe is, you’d think that, just maybe, Rey would also be present, but nope. In this book, pilots can be young, old, evil, good, droids, so many things... but they can’t be girls. That’s a really big deal. Enough so that I just can’t recommend picking this one up. I Am A Jedi: Okay, so, there is one girl in this one. Which isn’t much better than zero girls. Especially since, once again, they are just leaving out one of the main characters in the Star Wars franchise by not including Ahsoka Tano from The Clone Wars prominently. I *think* she’s the one girl I mentioned, who is just kind of standing in a group on the first page, but they don’t actually talk about her by name. Also, there is a giant spoiler in this little book. If you want your kids to find out who Darth Vader is by watching the movies (which is really the best way, and if you don’t believe me, then go watch all of the reaction videos parents have uploaded to youtube, they’re great), then make sure you watch Empire Strikes Back with them before they read this one. I Am A Droid: This is by far the best of the three of these. It’s an easy read, and is a less engaging than the Trilogy books, but the illustrations are fun, cute, and colorful. Also, let’s face it, droids are just really cool, and there are A LOT of them in this book. There aren’t really any glaring faults to point out here, other than maybe the fact that a few of the drawings are just a bit off. However, of the three of these, if I were to recommend one, this would be it. Am I being a little nitpicky about these? I mean, after all, they are only children’s books... right? Here’s the thing. I hold children’s books to an incredibly high standard. Kids are smart, and they deserve to be given quality reading material. There is no reason to present them with subpar stuff just because they are young, or even not able to read on their own yet. I think we should really only give our kids books that we would, or do, enjoy. So, yeah, I’m going to be hard on books that I think could have done better. In fact, I am probably harder on not-so-great books for kiddos, than on not-so-great books for adults. Also, It’s a HUGE problem to not give girls representation in books like this. Star Wars is for everyone, so maybe make the merch for everyone too, mmk?

[yepireadthat]

I am a sucker for anything Star Wars. Which is really good news for the Disney merchandising department. I saw these books in a tumblr post a few days ago, and then when I was at the grocery store getting supplies to make alfredo sauce, I saw a glorious display with six of the books from this series. I couldn’t help myself. Really. There was zero holding myself back. They went in the cart, and came home with me. I’m splitting my review of these into two sections, because it made sense. I’m going to start with the ones from the original trilogy. I’ll admit that there are some pros and some cons to these. So. Let’s get to it. Pros: Little Golden Books generally put out quality. Condensing an entire movie into a tiny book for kids is a lot to ask, but they really did a good job. Each book starts with, “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...” Which is, you know, perfect. They give a little rolling title style preface, and then get into the story. Iconic scenes from the movies are recreated into colorful illustrations. The character representations are pretty true to life, with a few exceptions, and I don’t think any major plot points, or important bits are missed. (Unless you consider the murder of Luke’s Aunt and Uncle, or Han shooting Gredo essential. Neither of those scenes are present. So, not charred remains, and no Gredo... like, at all.) Cons: Remember how I said that there were a few exceptions to the character representations being spot on? Well, those exceptions are pretty major. There are parts where C-3PO is truly wonky, and a few places where the faces of the Leia and Han are a jarringly odd. There is one drawing of Chewie that is also just kind of bizarre. It was frustrating to me that there were a few inconsistencies in how characters were drawn, but still, overall, nothing was so terrible that I felt like I’d made the wrong decision picking these up. And, in fact, I’m going to try and track down the other four Star Wars books that Little Golden Books has put out. I have to say, if your kids like Star Wars, then chances are they will like these. Both of my Goblins sat down and read through all of them immediately. However, these aren’t for every adult. There are definitely picture books out there that I think every grown human should read, if not own, but these aren’t necessarily on that list. If you’re a Star Wars fan who can’t get enough, then definitely at least give these a look, but if you are just looking for a solid picture book, then I have other things I’d recommend first.

[yepireadthat]

I knew nothing about The Last Unicorn going into this. I seriously just wanted it because of the illustrations. So, I didn’t know what to expect, really, but still I can tell you that this was not even close to anything I could have maybe expected. This is a weird story. Not weird bad though. Weird in the way that makes you really excited, and also curious. I should start off by saying that I’ve never really been a big unicorn fan. In fact, my mild interest in unicorn stories really only developed in the past year or so. I don’t know much about unicorn lore, and I’m not sure if this story sticks close to the Truth™, or if it deviates. That said, I’m not sure if it matters because it was so engrossing! At the beginning of the tale, The Unicorn leaves everything comfortable. Everything familiar. She has this great forest full of cute little animal buddies, but she isn’t sure if there are other unicorns out there, and she can’t just sit and wonder if they are all gone. So she sets out on the hard road (the author wants you to know that the path is, indeed, a hard one, pretty on the nose metaphor usage). Anyhow, she goes on this quest to find more unicorns, and on the way she meets a chatty butterfly that is AMAZING, and a wizard who is sub-par, and a band of ne'er-do-wells, and a pretty great lady. She runs into a village full of jerks, and a giant, raging bull, a king who is super evil, and his son who is super not. I wasn’t prepared for this book to break my heart, but it did. I also wasn’t prepared to feel bad for an immortal unicorn, or a super rich king, but I do. Since the graphic novelization was so good, I may give the whole book a try eventually. It’s definitely at least going on my to read list.