Week in Review: January 4-10

El Deafo. Cece Bell. 2014. Harry N. Abrams. 233 pages. [Source: Library]
Audacity. Melanie Crowder. 2015. Penguin. 400 pages. [Source: Review copy]

The Girl With The White Flag. Tomiko Higa. Translated by Dorothy Britton. 1989. 130 pages. [Source: Bought]
Twelve Drummers Drumming. Father Christmas Mystery #1. C.C. Benison. 2011. Doubleday. 384 pages. [Source: Library]
Eleven Piper Piping. Father Christmas Mystery #2. C.C. Benison. 2012. Delacorte. 474 pages. [Source: Library]
Ten Lords A-Leaping. Father Christmas #3. C.C. Benison. 2013. Delacorte. 512 pages. [Source: Library]
The Question of Miracles. Elana K. Arnold. 2015. HMH. 240 pages. [Source: Review copy]
It's The End of the World As We Know It. Saci Lloyd. 2015. Hachette Books. 288 pages. [Source: Review copy]
Eva's Treetop Festival (Owl Diaries #1) Rebecca Elliott. 2015. Scholastic. 80 pages. [Source: Review copy]
Glamourpuss. Sarah Weeks. Illustrated by David Small. 2015. [January 2015] Scholastic. 40 pages. [Source: Review copy]
The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins. 1938/1965. Random House. 56 pages. [Source: Library]
Meeting God in Mark. Rowan Williams. 2015. Westminster John Knox. 108 pages. [Source: Review copy]
Like a Flower in Bloom. Siri Mitchell. 2015. Bethany House. 384 pages. [Source: Review copy]
How To Worship Jesus Christ. Joseph S. Carroll. Foreword by John F. MacArthur, Jr. 1984/1991. Moody Publishers. 90 pages. [Source: Bought]

This week's recommendation(s):

I was surprised by how much I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED El Deafo. I think everyone should read this one. Even if you don't do graphic novels. Even if you don't do memoirs. Even if you don't do "kids books." It's just a GREAT book. 

Ask me if I like verse novels, and, I'll probably tell you: not really--only sometimes. Yet. I have read two GREAT verse novels this month. (I'll be reviewing the second later in the month.) This verse novel is historical fiction. It's set in Russia and America at the turn of the twentieth century. The narrator is a young woman who DREAMS of an opportunity where she'll be allowed to learn to read and write and speak her voice and have OPINIONS. I loved it so much more than I thought I would. Granted, I thought I would find it fascinating. And I WANTED to read it as soon as I learned the premise. Still, I didn't expect myself to get so swept up into it and FEEL it.

Another historical novel I was expecting to like but not especially LOVE was Siri Mitchell's Like A Flower In Bloom. I have no interest in botany or gardening. Yet there was something about this book that kept me READING. Perhaps it was the depth of the characterization? Perhaps it was the dialogue? I don't know, but it was just SPECIAL.


© 2015 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews