Today I will be sending out the new issue of the Growing Bookworms weekly email newsletter. (If you would like to subscribe, you can find a sign-up form here.) The Growing Bookworms newsletter contains content from my blog focused on children's books and raising readers. There are currently 607 subscribers.
This week I have a couple of posts with Kidlitosphere news, a Children's Literacy and Reading News round-up, and a follow-up to my recent post about a campaign for encouraging read-aloud. I also have an announcement about a book previously reviewed that's now available (Fade by Lisa McMann).
No reviews this week, I'm afraid, but I have read a couple of MG/YA titles recently that I intend to review (Winnie's War by Jenny Moss and Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson). I'll get to those just as soon as I can find some clear mental space - I find I can't write reviews when life is particularly hectic. But I'll share some mini-reviews here.
I read a couple of adult titles while traveling last week:
- Big City, Bad Blood by Sean Chercover. This is an excellent, entertaining start to a new Private Investigator series set in Chicago. I rarely flag passages in my adult mystery reading, but this one had me getting out my post-its in chapter 1. I like the narrator's voice. I'll definitely be looking for the next book in the series (Trigger City), when it's out in paperback.
- Blasphemy by Douglas Preston. I don't quite know what to make of this one. I usually enjoy what I call the pseudo-science thriller sub-genre (Jurassic Park, Neanderthal, etc.), as a break from my other reading. I've read most of Preston's other books. But this one didn't quite work for me. It seemed a little agenda-driven. But I was intrigued enough to finish it.
I also finished two audiobooks (thanks to exercise bike time at the hotel):
- Rumors by Anna Godbersen. This is the second Luxe book, sort of a 1900-era Gossip Girl series. I with the first book, I thought that this one was very fun, though the ending surprised me. I'm curious to see what happens in Book 3, Envy. I thought that Rumors worked well as an audiobook - kind of a total immersion into the world of fancy dresses and balls - and I'm going to wait for the audio version of Book 3.
- Knucklehead by Jon Scieszka. Knucklehead is a laugh-out loud funny childhood memoir of Scieszka's life with his five brothers. It's bit more episodic than I usually prefer in books, but enjoyable in this case. I think, though, that this one would be better read in book format, because there are quite a few references to pictures that aren't (obviously) available in the audio format.
What have you been reading and enjoying? Thanks for reading the newsletter, and for growing bookworms!
