Wednesday, July 31, 2019

Tackling the TBR Week 28: July 22 - July 31, 2019


I am desperately trying to get my TBR under control. I have a huge backlog of books and often end up reading new books that are not even on my list, instead of trying to whittle down the list that continues to balloon up on Goodreads. Chuckles had the idea first, and we are going to use this as a chance to encourage each other to get those books read instead of always grabbing new ones and thus never making a dent in the physical and digital stacks we already have. It will also give us a chance to take a good look at our lists and see if there are ones we are no longer interested in. We will be posting on the 7th, 14th, 21st, and the last day of the month.


Previous Week's TBR Total: 3,346

Books Added to TBR: 8

Books Removed from TBR: 115

Currently Reading: 8

Books Read: 2

Books DNF-ed: 2

New TBR Total: 3,231

We've been home in Minnesota since last week, so I have not read as much as normal. Our whole family lives here and we have spent a lot of time visiting my grandparents. I have been able to go through my TBR though to remove books I am no longer interested in reading, so that's a big time bonus. Naturally we also visited the library here in town and I found a couple books of interest, and Eleanor snagged a ton of Magic Tree House books we have not read yet, so we are plowing through those.

Eleanor Says...Magic Tree House Edition V


I started this feature in order to not only give children's books more time and space, but to hear from a child about the very books they should (or should not) be reading. Eleanor often pretends to be blogging on her own 'laptop' and I thought this would be a fun way to combine the two things I love most: my daughter, and books.

While I try not to blog too much while Eleanor and I are both home, she knows that I write about books I love and loathe, and that I have a blog. I asked if she would like to tell people what she thinks of kids' books, and if we could put her ideas on my blog too. She liked this idea a lot. I explained to Eleanor what the star-rating means, and that she can say anything she thinks about the book, that nothing is wrong; she can talk about things she did or did not like, as well as how the story made her feel. She now asks as soon as we finish a book if we can talk and write about it.

Here are Eleanor's thoughts on a few of our recent reads, straight out of her six-year-old brain:

 3058503⭐⭐⭐⭐
Mom says: This is actually my least favorite of all we’ve read so far, which is a bummer because I like reading about pirates.

Eleanor says: I liked when the pirates put Jack and Annie on the ship because they wouldn’t tell the pirates where the treasure was. But they couldn’t tell the pirates because they didn’t know. The cabin was stinky. Annie found the whale. Seeing Morgan was awesome, because we got to see how they met (Mom note: we’ve read the books out of order). Mommy and I thought Morgan helped them on their trips and we were right. Morgan was the pteranodon, and the knight and the cat and the parrot. She kept them safe. We know they will have more adventures.

 8856364⭐⭐⭐⭐
Eleanor says: I liked when the two boys gave Annie and Jack the message they carved. The message was about having hope. I would have been totally scared in the earthquake. Annie and Jack were scared but they still wanted to help, so they gave the two boys their shoes. Annie fell in a hole in the earthquake, but Jack helped her by bringing bricks for her to stack so she could get out. I would be so scared of the fire burning up all my books. This was a good story.

584822 ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Eleanor says: I liked learning about how the mummies got put into tombs. There was a funeral procession. First they went the Beautiful House. Then they went to the pyramid. The pyramids and tombs got robbed by tomb robbers. The tomb robbers got beaten and they died if they got caught. They wanted to steal the mummy treasures. I also learned how the mummies get wrapped. It looks like toilet paper, but it is strips of linen. It took a long time to make the body into a mummy. I think this is a good book to teach kids about ancient Egypt. I learned a lot.

41954916. sx318  ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Eleanor says: The Ice Age people isn’t have electricity so they had to use fire to see. When lightning struck it might have started fires. Neanderthals skulls were bigger than ours and it’s forehead was down to its eyes. Homo sapient like us, our teeth show better and don’t stick out like Neanderthals. Our eyes are bigger. The Cro-Magnon people made instruments and forts with animal tusks, skulls, fur, and with branches. I learned a lot, like how they put drawings on their cage walls. We learned about sabertooths, they were big. The people drew pictures of animals on the face walls. I liked this book. I learned new stuff about the ice age.

460119⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Eleanor says: Five stars because I love the ship so much and I missed it really much. I love learning about Titanic. It’s my favorite ship. I was sad when it sank, because so many people died. The people didn’t have to die but there were not enough lifeboats. That was not the people’s fault. The owners didn’t put enough lifeboats on. My mom likes to sing me the Titanic song and it gets too noisy. She sings it too loud and is so dramatic. This is a good book for kids to learn about Titanic. There is a lot of information.

State of the ARC #18


State of the ARC is a monthly feature hosted by Avalinah's Books. I am so glad I stumbled upon it, because it helped me so much in tackling my ARC list in 2018. Now things are under control, and this post doesn't cause me as much worry as it used to. Links go to Goodreads, unless I have finished the review, in which case it goes to that. All ARCs are from NetGalley unless otherwise noted.

Pending/Wishlist = One
Crusaders: The Epic History of the Wars for the Holy Lands by Dan Jones


Not Started = Two
You be You! by Jonathan Branfman


Something Bad Happened by Dawn Huebner

Started = Zero

DNF = Zero

Finished/Review to Come = Zero

Review or Feedback Sent = One
My Dad Thinks I'm a Boy?!: A Trans Positive Children's Book by Sophie Labelle

What does you ARC situation look like for this month?

Happy Reading!
Sarah

Monday, July 29, 2019

Top Ten Tuesday | Freebie Time: Five Star Reads of 2019 (So Far)



Welcome to another Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.

This week is a freebie, which means we can do whatever topic we want. I am choosing to show off the really excellent books I have read so far in 2019.

I started the year with some pretty heavy topics - racial, gender, and social inequality, abortion rights, rape, politics, and patriotism - you know, the usual. That continued for much of the first part of the year.

I also read some books that will surprise people because fiction is SO not my thing. And given the fact that some of those managed to get five stars also...it is kind of a big deal.

32075671. sy475  36424668 35397036 33606119 36854706. sy475  38923643
39706735. sy475  43708708 38746485
37956892 39939208. sy475  35959786
34964905 41154327. sy475  36525023. sy475
36342140 35721620. sy475  38225791. sy475
32740061 36840299 8013682
38532207. sy475  35998937. sy475  9267564. sy475
35805861 17836520. sy475  35297089
37822613 24911006. sy475  32333197. sy475
41939872. sy475  2539800 43885930
34145295 41224082. sy475  855727
17571543 31287693 37545347. sy475  38495946. sy475

As I put together this post, I realized I have read a lot of really amazing books so far. I think this is more five stars in seven months than I have had in some years total. I have also read A TON of books though. Not counting the Magic Tree House ones that I am reading with my daughter, I am already over 200 books for the year. So, I think this is a good thing that I have had SO MANY awesome reads and the year isn't even over yet.

Have you read any of these? Are any on your TBR? Leave a link to your TTT also and I will be sure to visit.