Monday, November 4, 2024

*Top Ten Tuesday* Covers with Cats on Them



Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. Joood - Hooligan of Platypire reviews bossed me into doing this, so I guess this is a thing I do now. 

This week’s theme is Covers with (item of my choice) on them. I was really struggling with this prompt, so I asked my 13 year-old what I should feature, and she chose cats for me. Now just going with covers with cats would be way too easy, so I had to make it harder for myself. I very briefly considered limiting it to books I own, but even that would be fairly simple, because my daughter LOVES The Warriors series, so we own several of those books. I finally landed on books I still need to read through Netgalley with cats on the cover. So here we go!


The Witchfinder's Sacrifice by Rande Goodwin


Madrigals and Mayhem by Elizabeth Penney


A Harvest of Hearts by Andrea Eames


I'll Be Home for Mischief by Jacqueline Frost


Sleep in Heavenly Pizza by Mindy Quigley


Shock and Paw by Cate Conte


Daughter of Fire by Sofia Robleda


Nine Lives and Alibis by Cate Conte


The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward


Judah's Scepter and the Sacred Stone by D.A. Brittain

So there we go, 10 books from Netgalley with cats on the cover that I still need to read. And sure, a few of these feature danger kitties, not house cats, but this is my post and I'll do what I want with it. And let's be real, we all know that danger kitties are still cats. 

What item did you feature on your covers this week? 

If you're stopping by from the linkup, please be sure to drop a link to your post below so I can be sure to check out your list. I should have more time to blog hop from the linkup this week than I did last week, but I do have a school thing for my son tonight, and I want to be sure to visit the people who have visited me. - Katie 

Join the 12 Books of Christmas Challenge Here

Posted by at 11 comments:

Sunday, November 3, 2024

*Review* Paper Wishes by Tara Knudson

 

Genre: Children's 4-8
Published: January 1, 2024
Pages: 36


Being together with loved ones is a gift, but it’s not always possible. So what can you do when you are missing family and friends? Channel all your love into a heartfelt paper wish! Tara Knudson pens a sweet, poignant story about a child’s use of origami to stay connected to loved ones in this comforting picture book.


I received a copy of this book through Netgalley. This is my honest review. 

This is a rhyming story about a child who desperately wishes to see his grandparents, but they live too far away for that to be feasible. So in order to show them that he's thinking about them and loves them, he mails them an origami heart. 

In the age of FaceTime and Zoom, distance isn't as limiting as it was before. My youngest was born in Germany and didn't meet her grandparents in person until she was 3, and even that was a fairly short trip back to the states for the holidays. But she talked to some of her grandparents pretty much every day on FaceTime. She's 13 now, so we've had these options for a while. Not that sending physical letters and gifts is bad, but if you're wanting to see each other, you can do that without actual physical presence, so I'm kind of torn on this story. 

The illustrations were very origami looking, which is fitting for a story about an origami heart. And there are instructions at the back of the book for how to make your own origami hearts. Overall I give Paper Wishes 3.0473 out of 5 stars. - Katie 


Amazon


Kirsti Beautyman is an author and illustrator from the North East of England. After studying at Edinburgh College of Art and graduating in 2016, Kirsti turned her hand to illustrating children's books and partook in the Picture Hooks Mentorship scheme in 2017. At the end of the scheme, Kirsti exhibited alongside her Mentor in the National Gallery of Scotland and was named "Picture Hooks Illustrator Of The Year". Since then, she has continued to build on her career as a children's book illustrator, and works from her studio, nestled away on the outskirts of Newcastle. Kirsti predominantly uses a culmination of digital, dry and wet media to create her illustrations... and is prone to leaving a vibrant jumbled mess in her wake.

Tara Knudson is the author of multiple picture books, including Christmas Cookie Day, Fun Fall Day, and Valentine's Day Treats. Tara is a former teacher who has been writing poetry since she was a young girl growing up in Chicago.
Posted by at No comments:

*Review* The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren

 

Genre: Romantic Comedy
Published: May 14, 2019
Pages: 429


Olive Torres is used to being the unlucky twin: from inexplicable mishaps to a recent layoff, her life seems to be almost comically jinxed. By contrast, her sister Ami is an eternal champion...she even managed to finance her entire wedding by winning a slew of contests. Unfortunately for Olive, the only thing worse than constant bad luck is having to spend the wedding day with the best man (and her nemesis), Ethan Thomas.

Olive braces herself for wedding hell, determined to put on a brave face, but when the entire wedding party gets food poisoning, the only people who aren’t affected are Olive and Ethan. Suddenly there’s a free honeymoon up for grabs, and Olive will be damned if Ethan gets to enjoy paradise solo.

Agreeing to a temporary truce, the pair head for Maui. After all, ten days of bliss is worth having to assume the role of loving newlyweds, right? But the weird thing is...Olive doesn’t mind playing pretend. In fact, the more she pretends to be the luckiest woman alive, the more it feels like she might be.


I borrowed this book from the library because I had a few book club friends tell me it was really good. Then I ended up buying a copy of it because a different book club was reading it, and I thought I might need to re-read to refresh my memory some. This is my honest review.

I really enjoyed In a Holidaze by this lovely writing duo, so I had high hopes and possibly even higher expectations, they weren't quite met. I was expecting a lot more com than I received in this rom-com. There were definitely funny points, but they felt few and far between. 

Areas where this book ate, however, were the snark between the main characters. I am a sucker for enemies to lovers stories because of the snark that usually accompanies that, and this definitely hit the mark there. It also showed the thaw really well so that the relationship progression felt reasonable, even though it happened quick. But in the end I was very disappointed by Olive's behavior and how readily she accepted certain things. I just want better than that for my friends, and Olive is my friend now. 

Overall I give The Unhoneymooners 3.1782 out of 5 stars. - Katie 


Amazon


Christina Lauren is the combined pen name of longtime writing partners and best friends Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings, the New York Times, USA TODAY, and #1 Internationally bestselling authors of the Beautiful and Wild Seasons series, Dating You / Hating You, Autoboyography, Love and Other Words, Roomies, Josh and Hazel’s Guide to Not Dating,The Unhoneymooners, The Soulmate Equation, Something Wilder and The True Love Experiment. You can find them online at ChristinaLaurenBooks.com, @ChristinaLauren on Instagram, or @ChristinaLauren on Twitter.
Posted by at No comments:

*Platypire Read-A-Thon* November 2024


It's November, and that means it's time to update my TBR. I realize it's the 3rd already, but I'm still pretty much on top of getting this done this month, especially because I was out of my house almost all day yesterday for book club events (two book club meetings, a book group silent reading, and then karaoke last night after my second book club meeting). And on Friday, I was busy trying to finish my books for the meetings yesterday and working at my new job. So this is really the first time I've had to work on this. Let's get into it.

Reviewed
Read
Currently Reading
To Be Read

Reviewed

Read

Currently Reading

The Big Sugar by Mary Logue (August '24) 1%
The Princess Bride by William Goldman (August '24) pg 7
Lizzie by Edward Rand (August '24) 18%
Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi (August '24) pg 208
Chain Gang All Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (August '24) 22%
Hitler's Aristocrats by Susan Ronald (August '24) 37%
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara (August '24) pg 56
Scarlet City by Rebekah Haas (August '24) pg 21
Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr (August '24) 17%
Credence by Penelope Douglas (August '24) 1%
You Like it Darker by Stephen King (August '24) 5%
Darling Girls by Sally Hepworth (August '24) 5%
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin (August '24) pg 171
By Any Other Name by Jodi Picoult (August '24) 6%
Dune by Frank Herbert (September '24) pg 15
When We Flew Away by Alice Hoffman (September '24) 9%
The Magus by John Fowles (October '24) Pg. 162
The Witchfinder's Sacrifice by Rande Goodwin (October '24) 2%
Killer House Party by Lily Anderson (October '24) 14%
The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner (October '24) 23%
No Exit by Taylor Adams (October '24) 5%
If Walls Could Talk by Juliet Blackwell (October '24) 23%
Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson (October '24) 6%
Five Brothers by Penelope Douglas (October '24) Pg. 12

To Be Read

Songlight by Moira Buffini (September '24)
The Stone Witch of Florence by Anna Rasche (September '24)
Crow Moon by Suzy Aspley (September '24)
The False Pawn by A.E. Asavi (September '24)
Camp Lanier by Sylvester Barzey (September '24)
Nightbirds by Kate J. Armstrong (September '24)
The Thirteenth Child by Erin A. Craig (September '24)
Sunderworld, Vol. 1 by Ranson Riggs (September '24)
Lonely Places by Kate Anderson (October '24)
The Kiss of the Nightingale by Adi Denner (October '24)
Potions and Proposals by Kate Callaghan (October '24)
The Party by Natasha Preston (October '24)
Legend of the White Snake by Sher Lee (October '24)
Gentlest of Wild Things by Sarah Underwood (October '24)
This Girl's a Killer by Emma C. Wells (October '24)
Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein (November '24)
One Last Breath by Ginny Myers Sain (November '24)
The Book Club Hotel by Sarah Morgan (November '24)
Daydreamer by Susie Tate (November '24)
My Husband the Murderer by Charlotte Barnes (November '24)
Killing Me Soufflé by Ellie Alexander (November '24)
A Tale Told by Traitors by Renee Dugan (November' 24)
A Story Spun in Scarlet by Renee Dugan (November '24)
The City and Its Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami (November '24)
Whirly World by Brandon Jones (November '24)
Try Not to Die in a Dark Fairytale by Mark Tullius and Evan Baughfman (November '24)
House of Marionne by J. Elle (November '24)
The Mirror by Nora Roberts (November '24)
This Will Be Fun by E.B. Asher (November '24)
The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood (November '24)

Although my TBR list is gradually growing longer, I'm currently doing an okay job of keeping it under control (at least what you can see of it). I am adding 10 books from Netgalley every month, but all the book club books that I also add and have to read for meetings are really helping me to keep things moving, and I feel like that makes me more motivated to read the other books from the TBR list too, because I feel like I'm accomplishing things. But I also might just be imagining that. This month I expect to read significantly fewer books than I did in October as I did start a new job which is really going to cut into my reading time, and since I'm still training I can't audiobook while working quite yet. I'd still like to get 15 books read, ideally all of them from this list, and at least 20 reviews written and posted to the blog. How well do you think I'll do on those goals? - Katie 

Join the 12 Books of Christmas Challenge Here

Posted by at No comments:

*Platypire Read-A-Thon* October 2024 Results


October is over and that means it's time to see how I did with my reading. As far as sticking to my TBR, I don't think I did great, but I did read 32 books in October, 15 of which were from the Goosebumps series by R.L. Stine (which was one of my reading goals, so mission half-way accomplished). I also got several reviews posted to the blog, although I think I completed fewer reviews than books, which is not so great because that means my review hole is bigger than it was at the beginning of the month. But let's dive in and see the numbers. 

Reviewed
Read
Currently Reading
To Be Read

Reviewed

Text Appeal by Amber Roberts
Casalvento by Gudrun Cuillo
Blue Ribbon Radishes by Kimberly Derting and Shelli R. Johannes
Treasures of the Lochs by Hunter White
The Auction by Maggie Cole
Kitten Ninja by Colleen AF Venable, Marcie Colleen, and Ellen Stubbings
Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman
Go As a River by Shelley Read
The Kindness Booth by Laura K. Murray
Son of the Salt Chaser by A.S. Thornton

Read

The Rose Code by Kate Quinn (August '24)
10 Things that Never Happened by Alexis Hall (August '24)
The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher (September '24)
Anxious People by Fredrik Backman (September '24)
Wished by Sarah Ready (September '24)
A Sea of Unfortunate Souls by Jay R. Wolf (September '24)
The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride (September '24)
Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak (October '24)
Home is Where the Bodies Are by Jeneva Rose (October '24)
The Dead Guy Next Door by Lucy Score (October '24)
Hallowpeen by Holly Wilde (October '24)
Tryst Six Venom by Penelope Douglas
The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket
The Debutantes by Olivia Worley
The Dream Haunters by Megan Mary (October '24)
Damsel by Elana K. Arnold
Frankenstein's Dog by R.L. Stine
Welcome to Dead House by R.L. Stine
The Ghost Next Door by R.L. Stine
Monster Blood by R.L. Stine
Beware the Snowman by R.L. Stine
One Day at Horrorland by R.L. Stine
You Can't Scare Me by R.L. Stine
How I Learned to Fly by R.L. Stine
Escape from Horrorland by R.L. Stine
Ghost Camp by R.L. Stine

Currently Reading

The Big Sugar by Mary Logue (August '24) 1%
The Princess Bride by William Goldman (August '24) pg 7
Lizzie by Edward Rand (August '24) 18%
Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi (August '24) pg 208
Chain Gang All Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (August '24) 22%
Hitler's Aristocrats by Susan Ronald (August '24) 37%
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara (August '24) pg 56
Scarlet City by Rebekah Haas (August '24) pg 21
Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr (August '24) 17%
Credence by Penelope Douglas (August '24) 1%
You Like it Darker by Stephen King (August '24) 5%
Darling Girls by Sally Hepworth (August '24) 5%
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin (August '24) pg 171
By Any Other Name by Jodi Picoult (August '24) 6%
Dune by Frank Herbert (September '24) pg 15
When We Flew Away by Alice Hoffman (September '24) 9%
The Magus by John Fowles (October '24) Pg. 162
The Witchfinder's Sacrifice by Rande Goodwin (October '24) 2%
Killer House Party by Lily Anderson (October '24) 14%
The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner (October '24) 23%
No Exit by Taylor Adams (October '24) 5%
If Walls Could Talk by Juliet Blackwell (October '24) 23%
Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson (October '24) 6%
Five Brothers by Penelope Douglas (October '24) Pg. 12

To Be Read

Songlight by Moira Buffini (September '24)
The Stone Witch of Florence by Anna Rasche (September '24)
Crow Moon by Suzy Aspley (September '24)
The False Pawn by A.E. Asavi (September '24)
Camp Lanier by Sylvester Barzey (September '24)
Nightbirds by Kate J. Armstrong (September '24)
The Thirteenth Child by Erin A. Craig (September '24)
Sunderworld, Vol. 1 by Ranson Riggs (September '24)
Lonely Places by Kate Anderson (October '24)
The Kiss of the Nightingale by Adi Denner (October '24)
Potions and Proposals by Kate Callaghan (October '24)
The Party by Natasha Preston (October '24)
Legend of the White Snake by Sher Lee (October '24)
Gentlest of Wild Things by Sarah Underwood (October '24)
This Girl's a Killer by Emma C. Wells (October '24)

So I'd wanted to get 20 books from my list read this month (I read 12 from the list). I also wanted to get 20 reviews written and posted (I got 16 reviews posted, which is just one less than the number of non-Goosebumps books I read, so that's almost a win). While I started reading 8 books that weren't originally on my list at the beginning of the month, three of them are book club selections, so that's really only five off list books started, which is also pretty good for me, and two of those are library holds that came in. Overall, I'm fairly pleased with how October went, in spite of not meeting any of my originally stated goals. - Katie 

Join the 12 Books of Christmas Challenge Here

Posted by at No comments:

Friday, November 1, 2024

*Book Blogger Hop* November 1, 2024



We are on to a new week for the Book Blogger Hop hosted by the lovely folks over at Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer. This weeks questions is: 

Have you ever participated in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) in November, and do you have any favorite books that were born from this writing challenge? (submitted by Billy @ Coffee Addicted Writer)

I have participated in NaNoWriMo. In fact, the first year I participated I managed to get to the 50,000 word goal and everything. I did absolutely nothing with the story afterwards because it was hot garbage and ran away from me, and I'm not even sure if I still have the draft anywhere. I've tried again a couple other times, but one of those years a blogger hosted BookBlogWriMo in November too, and I took part in that as well, and trying to keep up with those blog posts, writing 50K words, and take care of two young children meant that something had to give, and it was the story that was giving me writer's block anyway. 

I'm not sure if I have any favorite books that were born from NaNoWriMo. I know I've read some, because I've read a lot of indie books, and I know NaNo tends to be a starting point for indie authors, but I don't have any books that I can point to them and say, "I loved that book, and I KNOW it was started during NaNo." 

What about you? Have you ever participated in NaNoWriMo? Any favorite NaNo books I should definitely check out? If you're stopping by from the linkup, please be sure to drop a link to your post below so I can be sure to pay you a visit. - Katie 
 
Join the 12 Books of Christmas Challenge Here

Posted by at 2 comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)