Sunday, February 28, 2021

State of the ARC #32

 

State of the ARC is a monthly feature hosted by Evelina at Avalinah's Books - and now me, too! I took over temporary hosting duties back in early 2020. A couple months ago Evelina asked if I would like to co-host and of course I said yes! If you are new to the meme, you can check out the guidelines HERE.

Links go to my review. The majority of the ARCs I receive are through NetGalley. Some have come from publicists, or were offered to me from a publisher who specifically approved me for it on NetGalley; I will always note in the review how I acquired the ARC.

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January was terrible in terms of reviews - I did none for ARCs. But I have at least FINISHED many, so that is a plus. Now I just have to get out of this reviewing slump and these numbers will look much better in February.

Currently Reading
Valcour - April, 2021

DNF
45046797
The Founding Fortunes - January, 2020
I have tried to read this book for over a year. it is not the book or the writing or anything of that nature. I have come to the conclusion that I have simply burned out on reading about the same men over and over. The book is fantastic and I highly recommend it, I just need a break from the Revolutionary War. I will come back to it in the future.

Finished, Review to Come
53084465. sx318 sy47548910903. sy47552754197. sx318 sy475
The Twists and Turns of Living in Shanghai - Dec, 2019
(Held off on posting this review for a long time, will explain in review)
race against time - February, 2020
Anna Komnene - April, 2020

5135206552756711. sx318 sy47551542229The Lost Pianos of Siberia
Hunting the Last Great Pirate - May, 2020
The Brothers York - June, 2020
The Deviant's War - June, 2020
The Lost Pianos of Siberia - August, 2020



Juror Number 2 - November, 2020
Satin Pumps - February, 2021
Between Two Kingdoms - February, 2021

Review or Feedback Sent
45046716

When I first started blogging my monthly State of the ARC I felt like I was drowning in ARCs. My main goal was to get my NetGalley feedback ratio above 80% and thanks to this meme, I slowly but surely clawed my way up. At my highest I was at 97%. I am currently at 92%.

How are you doing with your ARC goals? Let's talk ARCs!

Happy Reading
Sarah

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Tackling the TBR Week 8: Feb 22 - Feb 28, 2021

  

I am now entering year three of Tackling the TBR. Slowly but surely I have made big strides in getting by TBR under control. When I first started in 2019, my TBR was topping out at over 5,000 books. I don't know that I will ever get below 500, but a #BookDragon can dream!


I will be posting on the 7th, 14th, 21st, and the last day of the month. Feel free to join in if you'd like!


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Announcement: I have added a linky to this post and will do so for future Tackling the TBRs as well. A few people expressed interest in this in one of my 'goals' posts so I thought this would be an easy way for us to all connect. I post weekly, but feel free to do whatever works for you - weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, whatever!


The link will be open the entire week.


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Previous Week's TBR Total: 2,943


Currently Reading



Books Added to TBR




Books Removed from TBR


Books Read


Books DNF-ed: 0




Duplicates Removed: 0


New TBR Total: 2,942


Any of these catch your eye? Have you already read any? Let me know!


Happy Reading!

Sarah



You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Eleanor Reads! February Edition

 


Each month Eleanor and I share the chapter books we've read in that period. We've been reading chapter books since before Kindergarten and her attention span as a four year old was definitely something to brag about. Eleanor was born a reader and that makes my heart so, so happy.

Read

#BookDragonsForever

Do the kiddos in your life have an interest in any of these?

Happy Reading,
Eleanor and Sarah

Saturday, February 27, 2021

Stacking the Shelves #135

  


Stacking the Shelves is a weekly feature co-hosted by Tynga's Reviews and Reading Reality. It is a chance to showcase all the goodies you've collected throughout the week, whether they're bought on-line or in-store, an ARC or a final copy, borrowed from a friend or the library, physical or digital, etc.

Library Treasures

Happy Reading!

Sarah 

Thursday, February 25, 2021

First Line Friday #122

 

First Line Friday is brought to you by Hoarding Books. Playing along is easy: open the book nearest you and share the first line. Then check out the link to see the other first lines posted this week.


"This is a book about racism."

After George Floyd was murdered and our country was on fire with rage and pain and trauma, I began explaining more and more to Eleanor what racism is. This is something that has never occurred to her in her entire seven and a half years. She has had a lot of questions - especially because her best friend has beautiful caramel skin and she can't ever imagine anyone not liking her BFF because of that.

Teaching kids to be colorblind is not the answer. First of all, it is impossible. You can't not see someone's skin color. If you ignore it, you are ignoring a lifetime of their experiences. Teaching kids to love all colors and appreciate their beauty and uniqueness is the answer. We can fight racism with books like this, start those hard conversations with our children, and raise better humans.

Leave a comment and let me know what you think, and leave a link to your FLF so I can stop by to see what you've posted this week.

Happy Reading!
Sarah

Kid Lit Must-Read | A Kid's Book About Racism



Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I love this whole series, but this one might be my favorite so far. Simple text and imagery with the words themselves, as well a differing colors, make this a must for school and public libraries, and personal ones as well. It is a great starting part to talk to your kids about racism because it is a hard conversation that must happen. As my good friend Daryetta says, if her Black sons are old enough to experience racism, white children are old enough to learn about racism.

After George Floyd was murdered and our country was on fire with rage and pain and fear and trauma, I began explaining more and more to Eleanor what racism is. It could not have been avoided even if I had wanted to. This is something that has never occurred to her in her entire seven and a half years. She has had a lot of questions - especially because her best friend has beautiful caramel skin, and she can't ever imagine anyone not liking her BFF because of that. Eleanor knew that I had attended multiple protests at times when she was at her dad's house, and she had many questions about the protests as well. We also attended a smaller women's rally/march at the courthouse on a beastly hot afternoon over the summer with her BFF, plus BFF's siblings and their mom. Eleanor and her BFF stood there talking to news crews, holding hands, trying to explain to grown-ups just how absurd and wrong it is to judge people by the color of their skin. Nobody coached them on what to say, they simply answered the reporter's questions as regular seven-year-olds who so clearly saw then and still see now, what too many adults can or will not. Most of the women in attendance that day were in tears, including the reporter herself.

Teaching kids to be colorblind is not the answer. First of all, it is impossible. You can't not see someone's skin color. If you ignore it, you are ignoring a lifetime of their experiences. Teaching kids to love all colors and appreciate their beauty and uniqueness is the answer. We can fight racism with books like this, start those hard conversations with our children, and raise better humans.

Sunday, February 21, 2021

NetGalley ARC | Thames Mudlarking: Searching for London's Lost Treasures

 

I received a free digital ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

This is exactly the kind of thing I would love to take Eleanor off to London to do. I mean, we'd obviously see many other sights too, but imagine it! Mudlarking! You have to get a special permit and everything, but I can not imagine a better way to spend an afternoon in one of my favorite countries, than searching for lost bits of history. Of course, the chances of finding something rare or centuries-old is slim, but I also think those ordinary bits are just as important - an item dropped by accident, forever lost to the Thames, the owner thinks. Yet the objects discovered sometimes end up memorializing those every-day individuals who crossed the Thames time and again just going about their daily lives.

Obviously I really liked he book.

My only complaint is no fault of the publisher. I prefer my plain old regular Kindle to the Kindle Fire, so the images were all in black and white. Even when viewed this way, they were gorgeous and so much detail was preserved, thanks to the everlasting secret-keeping of the Thames and her mud. I can only imagine how stunning the objects would be in color - or in real life, even better. This is definitely a book to own in physical form, if this subject interests you. Many will probably call it a coffee table book, but this one really is meant to be read. I also found myself Googling more images as I read, and found some neat treasures.

Until I read this book, I did not know 'mudlarking' was a thing, or that it even had this delightful name. I mean, it probably occurred to me at some point in the beginning of my love affair with the UK that the Thames would hold untold windows to the past, and you could easily go down and poke around to see what there is to be found. But aside from that, it is not something I gave much more thought to until this book popped up on a friend's reading shelf over on Goodreads.

The authors are mudlarkers themselves and the book opens by talking about who mudlarkers are and what they do. Each section following this was broken up by the kinds of items found, into categories. First the authors provide context for the items in brief histories of the periods discussed, which is helpful. I found that this way worked quite well, instead of dividing it up by the time periods to which the pieces belonged. The author provides information at the end of the text about how to get involved in mudlarking, as well as associated places to see around London, which I appreciated.

I was also interested to learn that a Thames Museum will be opening in the future. Currently objects found are often displayed in the Museum of London. It is also required that mudlarks must report finds to the authorities on any object three hundred years or older. It is comforting to see some regulation in this; just imagine what treasures might have disappeared into private collections were permits and such not required. Of course, we will never know all that was found by those early mudlarks - those Victorians who still seem to be a step ahead even though they're two hundred years behind us now.

There are so many treasures detailed in this book, I hardly know where to begin. We are treated to an assortment of beautiful objects, some for special occasions and some for daily use. Coins and market tokens are heavily represented here and I loved looking at the various designs - especially the Celtic coins and Hadiran's as well.. Also on display are various children's toys depicting knights, glass beads, clothing pins, clay pipes, and those specially designed Victorian-era hexagonal glass bottles that once contained poisons of many kinds. 

The heartbreaking discovery included here was that of the skeleton of a twelve year old girl. Though the details of her short life are lost to history, experts determined that she had suffered from rickets, stunted growth especially evident between the ages of one and two. This poor child suffered from hunger and I want so badly to know more about her. I looked up further information about this discovery and what the area would have looked like when she died. I felt much better in knowing that she was not simply tossed into the river, and that she had been buried there, based on the findings of the research team. You can read more here and here.

I also learned of the floating prisons that once dotted the Thames, and how terrible the conditions were. That information made the discovery of an 18th century ball and chain all the more interesting. The lock was still closed, so what does it mean? Was it tossed carelessly into the river one day when no longer needed? Or did a prisoner attempt an escape, only to drown due to the weight? We will never know.

Highly fascinating and absolutely recommended.

Publisher Gift (via NetGalley) | Prisoners of War: What Monuments to World War II Tell Us about Our History and Ourselves

 

I received a free digital ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. (In this case, the publisher contacted me by email, and directed me to NetGalley if I was interested.)

Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐

The importance of this book cannot be overstated. it is a timely look at our relationship with statues dedicated to history. One only has to look at the arguments made against removing confederate statues from public spaces to see the relevance. (Side note: pull all that bullshit down and stick it in a museum, with context, where it belongs. There are no heroes of the confederacy and not a single one of those men should be honored for their actions. They fought to keep slaves and no amount of supposed 'good' they ever did can make up for that fact. Fuck THAT bullshit narrative.)

Anyway.

Addressing this issue of accepting statues at face-value of being accurate representations of a moment in time in our history of war is done quite well within these pages. The author not only looks at how these monuments are written about, talked about, and viewed in the US, but looks at various monuments to the very same war and how they are viewed in countries around the world. In total he discusses 25 different monuments, from the US, to Italy, to Jerusalem, China, and many in between.

The photographs are stunning and for once I was glad to have received the file for my laptop only instead of my Kindle. Even though I hate sitting at my laptop to read, the photos alone were nearly enough to make it worth it. This truly is a book to have a physical copy of to peruse at your leisure. I don't feel it is a book meant to be read quickly or in just a couple of sittings. It will definitely give anyone pause who has visited these sites, and perhaps grapple with how one originally interpreted the monument, compared to its original and intended purpose.

One of the biggest take-aways from this book is the vast difference in how World War II is memorialized. Here in the US, our statues are to honor the heroes and our triumph over true and despicable evil. Yet around the world, monuments are most often dedicated to the victims - such as Italy's Shrine to the Fallen or The A Bomb Dome in Hiroshima. I think this again confirms the fact that the US often equates winning and patriotism - though it must also be remembered that aside from Pearl Harbor, World War II was not fought here. The monuments to the victims and the fallen are most often literally on the site of the atrocities they represent.

Lowe provides much context for the various events being commemorated by each statue. The research is thorough and he writes in an engaging way. He certainly gives the reader a lot to think about - both regarding those he is writing about, and the specific issue in the US regarding confederate monuments still standing.

When we come upon these monuments, either because we've specifically taken a trip to see them or we stumble upon them by accident, we must not stop asking ourselves to look beyond the scenery as it being another pretty picture for photo ops. We have to consider the original intended purpose of the statue, what aspect of history is being told, and whether or not it is actually accurate in its depiction.

Highly recommended.

Tackling the TBR Week 7: Feb 15 - Feb 21, 2021

 

I am now entering year three of Tackling the TBR. Slowly but surely I have made big strides in getting by TBR under control. When I first started in 2019, my TBR was topping out at over 5,000 books. I don't know that I will ever get below 500, but a #BookDragon can dream!


I will be posting on the 7th, 14th, 21st, and the last day of the month. Feel free to join in if you'd like!


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Announcement: I have added a linky to this post and will do so for future Tackling the TBRs as well. A few people expressed interest in this in one of my 'goals' posts so I thought this would be an easy way for us to all connect. I post weekly, but feel free to do whatever works for you - weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, whatever!


The link will be open the entire week.


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Previous Week's TBR Total: 2,952


Currently Reading

45046797



Books Added to TBR




Books Removed from TBR: 7


Books Read



Books DNF-ed: 0




Duplicates Removed: 0


New TBR Total: 2,943


Any of these catch your eye? Have you already read any? Let me know!


Happy Reading!

Sarah

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter