Summer Reading Celebration

Reading the Dragonslayers' Academy series with my grandson. He likes dragon stories, and this includes a lot of humor.

I liked it in general but Olivia wasn't my favorite protagonist so I was just a bit more out of the book than normal

That was really good and quite digestible for a fantasy

I enjoyed this book! I found the information about tardigrades amd bar-headed goose to be the most interesting animals highlight in the book. Tardigrades could be, for all intents and purposes, be dead. Add some water amd tada alive again. Crazy! Then, bar-headed geese not only fly over Mount Everest but thrive in one of the harshest environments in the wprld with little to no oxygen. The book also described some of the harshest environments including animals that thrive in deserts, Arctic Circle and even the bottom of our oceans. Alex Riley narrated the book and I enjoyed his British accent and his nerd jokes like 42, the answer to Life, the Universe and Everything. If ypu enjoy learning new things about animals and harsh environments, read this one!

The fascinating Hildegard was a composer, seer, nun, and spiritual leader in the 1100s, in Germany. In this historical fiction account of her life the “illuminations” referred to are less about her mystical visions and more about her personal enlightenment and growth. It is about her growth in understanding people, connections, relationships. She grows to understand that some can help and enrich the world and others hinder and harm. Hildegard’s naivety evolves through experience to wisdom. Though her life was nothing like ours, her wants, needs, and desires are as real as yours or mine. Read this book to learn what it is to be a woman ahead of her time.

This was a great book if you like historical fiction, particularly WWII history. I have read many different historical novels set around the arena of WWII, but this one had a unique perspective. It is seen through the eyes of a young woman who goes to London with a friend after losing her own accommodations in the country. A good friend of her deceased mother puts her up and helps her land a job in a bookstore run by a crotchety old man (think, crotchety people are that way for a reason...but that is secondary to the story). She becomes very successful at what she does even though she is not a reader at the start of the book. The story unfolds against the backdrop of Hitler's blitz on London and England. So you get a front row seat to that harrowing year. I always learn new things and perspectives about the war when I read these books. This was a charming and generally heartwarming read based on real events including the impact of literature during the war.

My grandson really enjoys this series as we read each book together.

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.

Well written historical novel that portrayals what it might have been like for a woman in the medical profession in England in the 1800's.

Loved the lecture at CHQ and loved the Bones vibes