Summer Reading Celebration

Solid 4 stars. That was quite good. Very French(?) So it was a little hard to get through. I liked the fantasy element and the forbidden romance plot. I also liked the competition aspect of it. Very Hunger Games x Top Chef (or...some other cooking competition show). Lol liked it

It was such a good book! Can’t wait for Love Arranged.

Great story about a gay romance and international intrigue.

It was good. Very fast paced graphic novel.

I loved this book. Set during WWII in London during the year of the Blitz, this book shares so much more than a ring side seat to the Blitz. This was a fresh take on telling the story of the Blitz. Two friends are forced to set off for London when one is ousted from her place of rest (unfairly). In London they stay with the best friend of the ousted girls deceased mother, Mrs. Weatherford. Mrs. Weatherford is a kind soul and she gets Grace a temporary job in a bookstore with a cratchedy owner. Grace is great in business, but she isn't a reader. Enter a patron who introduces her to reading just before he goes off to eat. Grace falls in love with reading and the bookshop turns around under her able hand, as does the owner. But then begins the Blitz, and we follow this bookshop and the others in London throughout that harrowing experience.

Really had me guessing until the very end. I must admit, there was quite a twist I never saw coming.

4.5 stars. It was such a good book.

** spoiler alert ** I liked this book. I would give it a 2.5 though, not a 3. Was it as good as the first book in the series, no. Was it still entertaining and fun, yes. The plot just wasn't there. Bella and Mina spent the first 20 pages looking for their supernatural roller derby teammates, who were forced to look for a new home. It is not a big town so not sure why they spent months doing it. The next 30 pages cleaning an asylum. They don't even have their first practice back together til 62. Then they immediately have to take part in a to the death showdown playing roller derby and they have 3 measly days to prepare. Not to mention Mina's inter turmoil over fighting with her best friend, dealing with her parents impending divorce AND still being hung up on feelings of not belonging. I'm sorry. You need more than three days to prepare for a roller derby game, human or supernatural. Also, Mina left her little brpther unattended a lot and all she had to do was make sure he had dinner. Irresponsible much amd the parents didn't even question where she was. Maybe being a parent gives me some perspective but, even being out of sorts, these parents lack of concern always concerning at best but negligent at worst. I wanted to read more about roller derby but got a lot more drama than I cared for. However, looking forward to the plot twist with the zombies for the next book

Alien Rik and the Ingergalactic Waffle Protocol was pure and unadulterated chaos and hilarity. Rik, an alien, crash lands on Earth with his robot assistant Glubax. He befriends Debra, Bud and a goat named Clarity, forms a cult around breakfast and toasters, and reforms a Pentagon agent assigned to shut down his cult. Rik even manages to befriend DJT amd gain a nemesis in an evangelical pastor by the of Lyle Grindle. There are waffles, syrup, guru enlightenment and only a little chia seeds in this romp into one aliens journey to found family, pancakes and a world wholly different from anything he ever experienced on his home on Astralara. The first book in this book was funny, irreverent and entertaining if not equally confusing all at once. Here, Somehow was a little more straightforward but not without equal parts humor. Assistant to Nicola Tesla, Stefan Petrovic is accidentally transported through time from 1895 to current times in an experiment gone wrong. Stefan blindly stumbles through Times Square, New York City until NYC cops pick him up and introduce him to Mira, an NYC Civil outreach coordinator. Mira decideds he is mostly harmless amd takes him into her home until Stefan and Tesla can figure out how to get him home. Stefan meets a lot of people, finds out more than he ever cared to about Instagram while also falling in love. This book reminded me of the 1994 movie IQ where Albert Einstein, played by Walter Matthau, tries to set up Meg Ryan, his niece, with a mechanic played by Tim Robbins. IYKYK. I really enjoyed the relationship between Mira and Stefan and was glad that Stefan decided to stay in the future with Mira.

This history of the influenza pandemic of 1918-1920 was written for young adults, but is informative and even engaging reading for adults as well. It captures the horror of the flu pandemic and the First World War, and puts it into context using photos, letters, songs, art, and even children’s games. Science didn’t have a clear understanding of the differences between bacteria and viruses at that time, and the book chronicles the research of the day as well. When the book was published in 2018, 100 years after the events it describes, the cover depicting a woman wearing a cloth mask was quite arresting. Even though the mask is commonplace now, I recommend this book as a must read for anyone wishing to learn more about pandemics and their effects on various aspects of society and culture, and how the current pandemic was expected any time, by epidemiologists.