Farmer Boy Goes West Review

 

Farmer Boy Goes West Review

If you know me you will know this is one of my favorite stories when I was growing up.

This book is about Almanzo Wilder and his family. It talks about his time in Spring Valley, Minnesota. It is only about his first two years there. They go there to help his mother's brother on his farm. He is ill and is unable to keep up. His father is liking the area and decides he wants to move there. His older brother and sister are in Malone, New York taking care of the farm there. As they wait for his uncle to get better (which he doesn't) they make a home there in Minnesota. He gets interested in a girl from school and tries to court her but finds out things about her to change his mind. He makes friends and enjoys being close to town to have fun with the other boys. There is a lot in this book and the author tries to keep the information true to his life even though it is a fiction book. I would say you need to read this book to learn a little more about Almanzo if you enjoyed the little house books.

September 2017 thrift store haul

 

Arc Book Haul

These are the books that I picked up at the thrift store we call The Arc.

Every Saturday the store has 50% off on certain colored price tags.

I also bought some yarn that they had besides the books. I only go about once a 

month. Out of the seven books I have only read two of them. I read the books by Mary Higgins Clark and her daughter Carol. I am trying to gather all of Sue Grafton's books in this series before I read them. I don't like waiting for books in a series. Memoirs of a Geisha I wanted because several people have read it and liked it so I decided to pick it up and give it a go. I enjoy looking for a good bargain on books. Sometimes when I go there I don't find anything and sometimes I find a lot.

I probably have a big problem books but I enjoy holding them in hands and anticipating the story within.

September 2017 Barnes and Noble Haul

 

Barnes and Noble Book Haul

Here is my first book haul for the month of September.

I bought them on the Labor Day Week-end when I got an extra 20% off.

Three to get Deadly is another book to the Stephanie Plum series.

Siren is a book I didn't get from Barnes and Noble but from Walmart instead last month.

I heard about it from Book Tube and wanted to give it a try. 

Paper Towns is another book I heard about from Book Tube that I wanted to try. I have read another of his books called Faults to the Stars and that was a good.

Dress Codes in Small Town got some great reviews and I want to read it. I am curious to see if it is all it has been hyped up to be. I have discovered that I like books that others don't like and vice versa.

The last book is another book for one of Aryans series he is reading. It will be a Christmas present. 

You have probably noticed that I like to give books or gift cards to book stores as gifts.

Gemina Review

 

Gemina Review

Again you need to ignore the date on the photos. This is the last group with the wrong date.

 This is the second in the series. The first book is called Illuminae. I read that book in two days. This book took me longer. I didn't like it as much which seems to be the pattern for me in series. Different characters are involved and going through a different challenge. The spaceship is hijacked and things happen to the people who hijack it. The characters from the first book don't involved in this book until around page 500. There is a twist to this book which is different and finally makes the book interesting but it took until around page 500 to do so. Book three comes out in March of 2018 and we will see how that one is. I would recommend this book but be prepared to struggle for a while.

Rush Revere and the Presidency Review

 

Rush Revere and the Presidency Review

Here is an interesting way to learn about our history. It has a few issues which aren't 100 % correct but only someone who knows a lot of history would notice the errors.
There is a history teacher Rush Revere who teaches history and he has a horse named Liberty who can time travel. There are three students whom he takes back and forth through the time portal to speak with famous people from our history. The three students name are Cam, Freedom and Tommy.
 In this book Cam is trying to become the student body president. Rush takes him in time to talk with the first three presidents of country to help give him advice.
It is interesting on what the presidents have to say and comparing the beginning of our president and where they lived to our current president . I did enjoy this book and it is a middle grade book. Like I said it is a great and fun way for our children to learn a little bite about history and comparing to the then and now.

The School Mouse Review

 

The School Mouse Review

I just finished reading this book to David tonight. I know it is a little young for him age wise.
In previous post I have mentioned David's learning disability and so this is actually at his reading level. This book is Bekah's which she received from her teachers in 2002. I can't remember which grade she was in.
This book is about a mouse who lives in a school. The mouse's name is Flora. She decides that she wants to learn to read. So she hides and starts watching the children being taught by their teachers. The words start making sense when pictures are involved. Like when Helen Keller learn what her teacher was signing when the water poured over her hands from the pump.
Her knowledge saves her life and her parents live one day.
Each quarter she decides she has learned enough from a certain grade level and decides to move up.
She meets a pet mouse who has escaped from his master and decides to stay with her.
She teaches him and her parents and youngest sister how to read.
You have to read this book to find out about their adventures in the school.
It was an easy book to read out loud and fun. I think this is a good book for an elementary child to read or one with reading disabilities. This book has mainly a female subject but there is enough male influence for a boy to enjoy also.

Timeline Review

 

Timeline Review

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlUCRwvxxbM
 
The link above the book cover will hopefully take you over to the trailer of the movie to this book. This is the first time I have done this so I am hoping it will work. I put the movie on hold at my local library. I would like to see it to see how close it comes to the book. I listened to this book. I was told by my daughter, Tara and her fiancé John that it was a good book. I will have to agree with them. Even though it is listed as a sci-fi/fantasy book and we know that isn't my favorite. I liked it because it did time travel. It went back to the time of knights. It was interesting on how he betrayed that time period. My daughter did a blog review on this book back in January of 2014 so I will leave that link here. I am pretty sure this is right one; The Biggs Book Review.blogspot.com. She goes into more detail and she does a great job so I don't want to repeat what she said. This is also the first book I have read by him. I have seen his movies about his Jurassic Park book and it sequel, but haven't read them yet. I like how the book breaks down into time sections to keep you going and their count down on when they need to back. There are somethings that happen once they get to the time period they need and it talks about their adventures whether be up or downs. It also talks about the issues in the present time. Please read my daughter's review she is a lot better at this reviewing than I am.
I am trying to do better on my reviews but I am afraid of giving spoilers and I know a lot of people don't like that. I for one don't care if there are spoilers or not.
 Until the next time.

The Kite Runner Review

 

The Kite Runner Review

I just finished this book tonight. I have been reading it for a while. I can't remember the reason I picked up this book but I saw it the DI when we were there in May and recognized it as a book I heard about. I read another of his books called And The Mountains Echoed. I have to say I am not a fan of his writing, they aren't bad but they are not for me.
This book is about his childhood going up in Afghanistan and then immigrating to America. He came over just before the war broke out over there. He goes into great detail which makes it interesting and gives you the knowledge about what life is like over in another country but in areas it was kind of over doing it. I like detail but don't over do it where it gets to boring and one can't use their imagination. Some people like that but I don't. I would recommend this book because it does give us some background of the country and how he did when he arrived. I liked how his father didn't like being on welfare and return the food stamps to the welfare worker and figured out a way to make a living without knowing the language. There were a few twist in this and in the end it tells how he confronted them and was able to come to grip with what he did when he was younger. This was his first novel so it wasn't bad; the other one I read was like his third and maybe if the story was different I might have liked it. Would I read his other books I can't say either way. I would have to see what other people have to say but I probably won't at this time.

The Borrowers Aloft Review

 

The Borrowers Aloft Review

I just finished reading this book to David last night. This book is the fourth book in the series. We have read a least two others in this series. I try to read them as they come into the library but they don't always have complete series.
Well, onto the review. This book talks about a family of borrowers named Pod (Father), Homily (mother), and Arrietty (daughter) Clock. The story explains that they don't want people to know that they exist so they keep to themselves and stay hidden. They come out early in the day or when it is late. Somehow they are discovered by an odd couple and they come up with a way to capture them. Their plan works and they take them to an attic and are well taken care of. I don't want to go too much more in detail but it talks about their ideas on how to escape and what the couple plans to do with them. You need to read the book to find out. I enjoyed it. I always recommend reading a series in order that they were written but in this series you don't have to to understand what is happening.
It is great as a read aloud book.

August 2017 wrap-up

 

August Wrap-up

First I need to let you know to go ahead and ignore the date on this photo. 

I am letting Aryan use my camera I didn't realize that he changed the date on the camera.

Also ignore the date on this photo.

And on this photo.

As you can see I read a lot of books for the month of August. Yes five of them were graphic novels and make for a quick read. I usually don't read them but I wanted to give them a try. They were ok but still prefer printed material. Four of the books were audio. In the above picture you will notice that one book is pictured twice that is because it is two volumes.

Also I have another book pictured twice because I didn't realize one was in Spanish and I can't read Spanish so had to check out the proper book from the library.

A couple of these books were started in July and finished in August. 

My total pages read in August 8318 and 30 books read.

It was a good month. Until next time.

September 2017 Book Outlet Haul

 

Friday, September 1, 2017

Book OutLet Haul #2

As you can tell from the title I bought more books from the outlet store.

Even though today is the 1st of September I wanted to post this before I do my August wrap up on what I read. The top book is the last book of The EarthSea series. I have enjoyed the other books so I wanted to read this one and the library didn't have the last book so I had to buy it,(which means I will probably buy the others). Ruby is on the Oprah list and she has done good so far recommending books. Scarlet is the 2nd book in the Lunar Chronicles series, Aryan got the first book from the library as a reward for reading five books, to be honest I don't know why he picked it because I knew I he wouldn't enjoy the series. I enjoyed the series. The next one will probably be a gift it is a Caroline B Cooney book. Ok if you know me you know that I like Laura Ingalls Wilder so of course I had to buy this book . The next is a book filled with short stories. The bottom book I heard a lot about some good some bad so wanted to voice my own opinion. I am hoping these hauls help you in deciding on what to read or buy or borrow from the library.

I would love to hear what you have read or bought lately.

Until next time.