Becky's Book Reviews: November 2024

Saturday, November 30, 2024

November Reflections

In November I read twenty-five books.

Books reviewed at Becky's Book Reviews:

91. Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret. Benjamin Stevenson. (Ernest Cunningham #3) 2024. [Source: Library] [adult fiction, adult mystery, series book] [4 stars]

92. Uglies. Scott Westerfeld. 2005. 425 pages. [Source: Library] [4 stars] [YA dystopia, YA fiction, YA speculative fiction]

93. Superman: The Golden Age #1 Jerry Siegel. Joe Shuster. 2016. (Comics are from June 1938 through December 1939.) 392 pages. [Source: Library] [5 stars] [comic books; graphic novel; superheroes; action]

94. The 100 (The 100#1) Kass Morgan. 2013. 323 pages. [Source: Library] [3 stars, YA dystopia, YA fiction, YA romance]

95. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. (Harry Potter #7) J.K. Rowling. 2007. 759 pages. [Source: Library] [4 stars] [YA speculative fiction]

96. Out of My Dreams (Out of My Mind #3) Sharon M. Draper. 2024. 320 pages. [Source: Library] [4 stars, MG Fiction, MG Realistic fiction]

97. Lifeboat 5. Susan Hood. 2024. 272 pages. [Source: Library] [4 stars, verse novel, historical novel, based on true events, world war II]

Books reviewed at Young Readers

146. Mr. Santa. Jarvis. 2024. 32 pages. [Source: Library] [picture book] [4 stars]

147. Chicka Chicka Ho Ho Ho. William Boniface. Illustrated by Julien Chung. 2024. 40 pages. [Source: Library] [4 stars]

148. Christmas at Hogwarts. J.K. Rowling. Illustrate by Ziya Gao. 2024. 48 pages. [Source: Library] [4 stars]

149. The Tree of Life: How a Holocaust Sapling Inspired the World. Elisa Boxer. Illustrated by Alianna Rozentsveig. 2024. 41 pages. [Source: Library] [nonfiction; j nonfiction] [5 stars]

150. Fox Plays Ball (I Can Read!) Corey R. Tabor. 2024. 32 pages. [Source: Library] [5 stars] [early reader, I Can Read, series book]

151. Santa's First Christmas. Mac Barnett. Illustrated by Sydney Smith. 2024. [October 22] 40 pages. [Source: Library] [4 stars] [picture book, Christmas, Santa]

152. The Man Who Didn't Like Animals. Deborah Underwood. Illustrated by LeUyen Pham. 2024. 40 pages. [Source: Library] [5 stars] [picture book]

153. Board book: Persuasion: A Colors Primer. Jennifer Adams. Illustrated by Alison Oliver. 2024. 22 pages. [Source: library] [3 stars]

154. The Most Boring Book Ever. Brandon Sanderson. Illustrated by Kazu Kibuishi. 2024. 48 pages. [Source: Library] [picture book, 4 stars, unreliable narrator, read between the lines]

155. Board book: Dog's First Christmas. Natalie Nelson. 2024. 28 pages. [Source: Library] [board book, Christmas, pets, babies] [4 stars]

156. Santa Mouse Finds a Friend. Michael Brown. 2024. 40 pages. [Source: Library] [picture book, Christmas] [3 stars]

Books reviewed at Operation Actually Read Bible

52. The Seaside Homecoming (On Devonshire Shores #3) Julie Klassen. 2024. 400 pages. [Source: Review copy] [5 stars]

53. In the Lord I Take Refuge: 150 Daily Devotions Through the Psalms. Dane C. Ortlund. 2021. 416 pages. [Source: Borrowed]

54. The Coming Golden Age: 31 Ways To Be Kingdom Ready. David Jeremiah. 2024. 240 pages. [Source: Library] [4 stars] [christian nonfiction]

55. Daily Doctrine: A One Year Guide to Systematic Theology. Kevin DeYoung. 2024. 432 pages. [Source: Library] [4 stars] [theology]

56. Cloud of Witnesses: A Treasury of Prayers and Petitions Through the Ages. Jonathan W. Arnold (editor) Zechariah Carter (editor). 2024. 345 pages. [Source: Library] [Prayer, devotional, christian nonfiction, history] [5 stars]

Bibles reviewed at Operation Actually Read Bible

24. Topical Chain Study Bible. New American Standard Bible. 1977. 1983 for the Topical Chain Study features. God. Thomas Nelson publisher. 1660 pages. [Source: Bought]

25. ESV Large Print Personal Size. God. 2016 edition text, 2020 publication. 1952 pages. [Source: Bought]

Books Read in 2024	336
Pages Read in 2024	101994
January
Books read in January	36
Pages read in January	6875
February
Books read in February	38
Pages read in February	9731
March
Books read in March	39
Pages read in March	6730
April
Books read in April	32
Pages read in April	9367
May
Books read in May	21
Pages read in May	10246
June
Books read in June	24
Pages read in June	8253
July
Books read in July	25
Pages read in July	3980
August
Books read in August	23
Pages read in August	8603
September
Books read in September	34
Pages read in September	7874
October
Books read in October	39
Pages read in October	21829
November
Books read in November	25
Pages read in November	8506

Tuesday, November 26, 2024

97. Lifeboat 5

Lifeboat 5. Susan Hood. 2024. 272 pages. [Source: Library] [4 stars, verse novel, historical novel, based on true events, world war II]

First sentence: It's not safe inside.
It's not safe outside.
I close my eyes
and try to turn off the noise
in my head.
Stop!

Premise/plot: Lifeboat 5 is a companion novel to Susan Hood's Lifeboat 12. (I believe). Bess Walder, our heroine, is one of many child refugees fleeing England for the safety of Canada during the Second World War. Joining her is her younger brother. But new friends are easily made on board the ship Benares. But while the promise of safety provides much hope, the ship has to arrive before all is well....

You can [easily] deduce from the title that all does not go well aboard the ship. It is war time, and, though the ship has many escorts, anything can happen during war time. Will Bess survive? How many will lose their lives in their pursuit of safety?

My thoughts: I am so glad this one was a verse novel. This one was an intense read, and the format helped keep the pages turning. I would definitely recommend to readers who enjoy survivor historical books. Or for those that seek out all things world war II.

Friday, November 22, 2024

96. Out of My Dreams

Out of My Dreams (Out of My Mind #3) Sharon M. Draper. 2024. 320 pages. [Source: Library] [4 stars, MG Fiction, MG Realistic fiction]

First sentence: I walked to the podium, tall and confident.

Premise/plot: Melody returns in her third novel. In this one, Melody--who speaks through Elvira (a Medi-talker)--saves the life of a neighbor who falls. No one else witnessed her collapse nor witnesses her lack of movement, her failing to get back up again. Melody is persistent despite the 911 workers thinking her call is a prank. As a reward, Melody ends up heading to London with some new friends.

Most of this one is experiencing a series of new firsts--all travel-related, mainly. Melody is traveling places, making new friends, learning to interact in the wider world without the aide of a parent. Melody as tourist would sum this one up.

My thoughts: I enjoyed this one more than the second book. I enjoyed her London trip. I'm not sure either the second or third book are as amazing as the first book. But I am glad I read this one. No regrets continuing on with this one.

Monday, November 18, 2024

95. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. (Harry Potter #7) J.K. Rowling. 2007. 759 pages. [Source: Library] [4 stars] [YA speculative fiction]

First sentence: The two men appeared out of nowhere, a few yards apart in the narrow, moonlit lane. For a second they stood quite still, wands directed at each other's chests; then, recognizing each other, they stowed their wands beneath their cloaks and started walking briskly in the same direction.

Premise/plot: Harry Potter is on his final quest(s) in this final fantasy novel starring Harry Potter and company. (In particular, Ron and Hermione are his companions for most of the novel.) He is preparing day and night (night and day) for that final battle, the big showdown. He's also trying to decipher (uncover, discover) the mysteries of Dumbledore. There's so much he doesn't know, and he's still grieving the loss of his mentor.

My thoughts: This was my SECOND time to read the series. I will say I don't do the absolute best with super-intense action sequences. I more anxiously skim than stay present in the moment. I thought a reread would slow me down so I could appreciate everything more--especially towards the end. But even though I knew how things ended up, I just couldn't handle it!

When I read the series the first time, I wasn't sure I would ever revisit the series. I did decide to reread and I am so glad I did. I can't say the series will ever be at the top of my favorite series. But I do feel like I better grasp the characters and the story. There were things I noticed the second time around that I didn't quite appreciate or get the first time around. I would imagine the more times you read the books, the more you notice the small things. Also little things might become quite meaningful to you.

Will I read the series a third time? Only time will tell. Maybe. Maybe not. I still don't own the books. There are so many other series books that I would love to read--some would be new-to-me series, and some would be rereads. So I may not get to it again for a while--if at all.

This last book is quite different from the others in the series. But that is okay--this series grew with its original audience which is nice.

Thursday, November 14, 2024

94. The 100

The 100 (The 100#1) Kass Morgan. 2013. 323 pages. [Source: Library] [3 stars, YA dystopia, YA fiction, YA romance]

First sentence: The door slid open and Clarke knew it was time to die.

My thoughts (preview): I picked this one up to reread it after binge-watching the television show The 100. I watched ALL the seasons. It had its ups and downs. It had its wild moments. (Though nothing like Riverdale, which I gave up on after three or four seasons). There were things I loved. There were things I didn't love. But what I appreciated MOST of all, were the character arcs. The characters that are sent down to earth, are NOT the same by any stretch of the imagination by the end of the series.

Premise/plot: 100 teenage prisoners--all nearing their eighteenth birthdays--are sent to Earth to recolonize it after a hundred plus years after nuclear war. Will it be safe? Who knows! They are prisoners who would be executed upon reaching their eighteenth birthday anyway. That's what the powers that be reason anyway. The space colony is beginning to falter and sacrifices must be made.

Clarke, Bellamy, and Wells provide perspective from earth. Glass provides perspective from the space ship. Each has a back story of how they became prisoners. (The other main character from earth, though we don't have her perspective, is Octavia).

My thoughts: I am curious about the timing between the book series and the television series. The two share a premise but are 99% different. Clarke, Bellamy, Wells, and Octavia exist mostly in name only. Is that fair to say? I don't care if it isn't. Clarke and Wells--they keep that Clarke is seriously angry at Wells who is the son of the Chancellor. Bellamy and Octavia--they keep the brother-sister relationship being super protective. But everything else is gone...gone with the wind.

For example, in the book Clarke's parents are BOTH dead. Both were executed. The powers that be are definitely bordering on evil. In the show, Clarke's father was executed trying to be a hero and warn everyone of imminent danger. Clarke's mother is alive and remains the main perspective from the orbiting space colony. She is our perspective into the powers that be. There is a large cast of characters on board ship and on earth. (In the book, there might be two or three other characters mentioned on earth--out of the one hundred. And two or three other characters mentioned on ship--out of thousands.)

Glass and her boyfriend Luke do not exist on the television show. Their story is interesting perhaps because it did not make the cut. Glass is ARRESTED because she gets pregnant. The father that she named (there is a twist) is EXECUTED for getting her pregnant. Apparently, population control is so strong that it becomes illegal for anyone to have any child without permission.

If I had recently read the book before starting the series, I might have cheered when differences occurred. Wells is SUPER, SUPER, SUPER, SUPER, SUPER, SUPER incredibly creepy and a huge jerk. I probably would have been angry that they turned Bellamy into season-one Bellamy.

Friday, November 08, 2024

93. Superman: The Golden Age Volume 1

First sentence: As a distant planet was destroyed by old age, a scientist placed his infant son within a hastily devised space-ship, launching it toward Earth!

Premise/plot: What you see is what you get. This book is a collection of the earliest Superman comic books. The comic books include Action Comics (where he first appeared), New York World's Fair Comics, and the self-titled Superman comics. The main villain in these--appearing more than any other villain, I mean--is Ultra. But more often than not, each comic book has its own villain, or "villain." Sometimes the villain is a greedy businessman who takes shortcuts with the quality of his products, and sometimes they are out-and-out villainous. Ultra, for example, is out for world domination. Superman also at least once--maybe a few more times--does some "aggressive negotiating" with countries at war. He is not above beating out a confession from a villain either.

My thoughts: A handful of these are extremely moralistic and didactic. To those that have read this book, a handful might not come across as the right word. There are super-incredibly-obvious didactic tactics at play. There are direct moralization at play. There are more subtle and indirect moralization at play. There's a range of spectrum. Even at its worst--it's enjoyable for a giggle. The writing is SO over the top and "special." My new favorites being SHORTLY LATER which appears more often than not in most of the adventures followed up by SHORTLY AFTER. The second half of the book, the writers seemed to have switched up the phrase. IF readers got paid a penny for every time the word "muscles" was used, then they'd be able to afford a LOT of comics.

I can definitely see the appeal of Superman. Though it's not necessarily a visual appeal in the comics. I think this might just be the times in which they were written, but, it is almost like there were essentially three male faces and one perhaps two female faces that appear. Everybody looks the same, or same-ish. There are no details, no expressions. I thought it was funny--perhaps ironic--that Superman was able to take the place of at least two different people and masquerade as someone else. Once as a football player and once as a boxer??? Honestly, the way these characters are drawn, I believe it. That being said, I enjoyed the vintage-ness of it.

Wednesday, November 06, 2024

92. Uglies

Uglies. Scott Westerfeld. 2005. 425 pages. [Source: Library] [4 stars] [YA dystopia, YA fiction, YA speculative fiction]

First sentence: The early summer sky was the color of cat vomit.

My thoughts (preview): I first read this one the year it released. It was LOVE, LOVE, LOVE. I thought it was fabulous. I reread it as an audio book in 2018 and hated the narrator. I didn't blame the book, just the narrator for throwing me out of the story. Now that there is a movie adaptation, I was curious to revisit the book.

From the original review in 2007 for my blog:

I have nothing but good memories surrounding Uglies. My first introduction to Miss Tally Youngblood, trickster fifteen year old, was in the fall of 2005. From the early summer sky was the color of cat vomit to I'm Tally Youngblood...make me pretty, I was hooked. So much so that I went out to buy my own copy of the book the very next morning.

From the original non-blog review in 2005:

Set three to four hundred years in the future, Uglies, a dystopia, focuses on a global community of pretty people. Tally Youngblood introduces readers to this picture-perfect community where appearances are not a matter of one's genes but a matter of extensive plastic surgeries planned by the Community of Morphological Standardss. Tally and Shay are best friends awaiting their sixteenth birthdays and their surgeries after which they'll leave Uglyville behind and join the New Pretties. But Shay doubts that the "Pretty Committee" is as concerned with equality and justice as it appears, suspecting that ulterior motives may lay behind the surface. Days before her sixteenth birthday, Shay runs away leaving a cryptic message for her friend to find the way to Smoke, the rebel community of "ugly" outsiders. When the authorities discover Shay's disappearance, Tally is asked to make the hardest decision of her life: betray Shay and the rebel community to the authorities or face living life ugly.

Uglies is a fast-paced novel taking a typical YA topic--self esteem, conformity, and the perception of beauty--and treating it in a new and ultimately satisfying way by speculating about where current values of beauty and perfection might lead us as a society if taken to the extreme. By setting Uglies in the future instead of a contemporary high school, Westerfeld is able to provide reflection and commentary on a serious topic in a new and original way.

My thoughts: The book is decidedly better than the movie--no surprise. Though I will admit that possibly movie-Shay is better than book-Shay. I don't know if I found book-Shay super-incredibly annoying the first time around, but in this recent reread and in the audio book reread, I found her almost insufferable. The plot is DIFFERENT. I haven't decided which changes were for the best and which weren't. Some things do seem to make better sense. But mostly it just felt rushed and like there wasn't much depth or substance. I also think that it might make for a better animated adaptation. It was hard for the concept of "pretties" and "uglies" to come across since this everyone is already glam.

I definitely don't love-love-love it the same way all these years later.

Tuesday, November 05, 2024

91. Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret

Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret. Benjamin Stevenson. (Ernest Cunningham #3) 2024. 161 pages. [Source: Library] [adult fiction, adult mystery, series book] [4 stars]

First sentence: There are quite a few differences between an Australian Christmas and the stereotypical Northern Hemisphere fare seen in most books and movies. For one thing, we don't get snow down under. What we do get, in my specific experience, is more murders. But before the killing starts (or the recounting of the killings, to be more precise), allow me to introduce myself. My name's Ernest Cunningham.

Premise/plot: Ernest Cunningham narrates his third misadventure. He is an author-detective of sorts. He's lived a CRAZY life and has had plenty of opportunities to live out golden-age mysteries. The previous books include: Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone and Everyone on This Train is a Suspect.

In this third adventure, Ernest has gone to help his ex-wife who has been arrested for murdering her boyfriend. He is unofficially-officially-unofficially on the case to find out what really happened. And as it turns out, there's more than one dead body...but is there one killer or more?

It is set during the holidays. Most chapters are an "advent door" to open to reveal clues.

My thoughts: I definitely enjoyed this one. I love the narrative style. I've enjoyed all three books. I would love to reread all three books again--close together--to see if it changes my thoughts. It was a fun Christmas-y read. Definitely think you need to read at least book one before reading this one. (Of course to read all three would be ideal.)