Books Beside My Chair #2

 This covers from January 6th through January 12th. I read 4 books that totaled 1,254 pages. My total books read for 2020 is 9. I will go in the order I completed them. This is the first book that I completed. It is the final book in a series. I borrowed this book from Aryan. For the most part I enjoyed this series. He could have finished at book 6. I gave this book 4 stars.

 This is my favorite book for the week. I really enjoyed this book and gave it 5 stars. I buddy read this book with Tara and we both loved it and can't wait for the sequel. I will be doing a review on this book, so keep an eye out for it.

 This is the first book I read of theirs that is adult. I read their young adult book and really enjoyed it. This book was good but I still like the young adult better. I gave it 4 stars and will read more from them. This book is about two friends who met in college. They are complete opposites but get along great. Here is what the book says because it describes it so much better. Hazel knows she's a lot to handle- and frankly, most men aren't up to the challenge. If her army of pets and thrill for the absurd don't send them running, her lack of filter means she'll say exactly the wrong thing in a delicate moment. Their loss. She's a good soul in search of honest fun. Josh has known Hazel since college, where her zany playfulness proved completely incompatible with his mellow restraint. From the first night they met- when she gracelessly talk him she "would be honored to give you sex tonight"-to when she sent him an unintelligible email while in a post-surgical haze. Josh has always thought of Hazel more as a spectacle than a peer. But now, ten years later and after a cheating girlfriend has turned his life upside down, going out with Hazel is a breath of fresh air. Not that Josh and Hazel date. At least, not each other. Because setting each other up on progressively terrible double blind dates so they can hang out together means there's nothing between them...right?

This is a short book that I gave 4 stars to. I am surprised because lately I have only been giving classics around 3 stars. It has some of things that Ben Franklin wrote about back in the 1700's. This is how he made money besides printing. He used the name Richard Saunder.
The book was introduce by Dave Barry and edited by Steve Martin. It was a fun quick read and I enjoyed myself.

That is what I read for the week. I have several more started but didn't get them finished. It was somewhat of a busy week. Tell me what you read last week and if you would recommend that I should it. Until next time keep reading.

I Survived The Great Molasses Flood, 1919 Review

This book or I should this series is one of my favorite middle grade books. 

Lauren does a great job telling history in a fun and relatable way for children to enjoy and understand. She does lot of research for these books. At the end of the story she explains what research she did and how she decides to write the story. She gets a lot of suggestion from her fans and what they would like her next book to be. Most of the stories she writes I know something about it but there have been a few that I didn't. This is one of the things I didn't know anything about. 

Now for my review of this book. This book is set in Boston, Ma in the Winter time.

Carmen and her father immigrated to the Us from Italy shortly after her mother passed away. Her father wanted her to have a better chance in life. Their village in Italy wasn't allowing girls to go school because of the Earthquake that took her Mother. Carmen wasn't impressed with the Us but soon came to love it. She is able to go to school and she has a few friends. Her best friend is Tony. n the middle of Boston at the North end is a big tower full of Molasses that is being stored for the making of bombs. Molasses isn't just for flavoring anymore. The tower is only suppose to hold up to 2 million gallons of Molasses but they keep adding more. The Tank is leaking and making funny noises. The kids in the area like to go to the tank and lick the leaking molasses ii is like ice cream to them. Carmen doesn't like the taste of molasses she thinks it has a bitter flavor. The company who built the tank doesn't think there is an issue with the tank and they have a guard around it to keep the children away. The guard isn't there all the time so he doesn't think anything is wrong with tank.

The book talks about the things and going on in Boston around this period of time, like the flu epidemic of 1918 which really didn't hit Boston until this time which is early 1919. And how the design of the tank was done quickly and lazily to get it ready to hold the molasses.

The day of the flood was January 15, 1919 so just over 100 years ago. It tells how it happen and how many lives were taken and how it destroyed the city. The company tried to blame others by saying that someone put a bomb into the tank. This is all common knowledge if you review newspaper from that time. It is hard to review because the characters are made up so the story is also made up but the events are real but you feel for them just the same. I highly recommend that you read this book and learn more about this disaster. I find that reading middle grade historical fiction or even non-fiction is more fun and less dry than adult books. I will continue to read these books by Lauren because she makes them easy to read and fun and the same time. 

Books Beside My Chair #1

 I have decided to change my posting name for my weekly reads. I would like to acknowledge Noveltea Corner for this. She does a weekly wrap-up called Books Beside My Bed which gave me this idea. You should check out her channel. This covers the days of December 30th thru January 5th.
I don't have them in order of when I read them. These are the books that I own and the others I had to save onto my computer through Amazon. My 2 December books brought me to 262 books for the year 2019. I have 5 books for January. Total pages read 1,735.
Nothing Daunted By: Dorothy Wickenden was finished on the 5th of January. I gave it 2.5 stars it is a non-fiction book. I read it for my library book club. I gave it this rating because the book jumped around and was a little dry. I love history but I want my book to flow and not be so choppy. This is my opinion but the information was good just not enjoyable to read.
Let It Snow By: John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle was finished on the 30th of December. I gave it 4 stars. I was surprised that I did this because I really don't enjoy short stories but these stories were good and enjoyable and they actually came together in the end. I have never read anything by Lauren Myracle and her story concluded the book and tied everything together and she did a great job. This book takes place around Christmas time in a little town called Graceville in South Carolina.
I Survived The Great Molasses Flood, 1919 By: Lauren Tarshis was finished on the 4th of January. I gave it 5 stars and brings me up to date on this series. I will be doing a review on this book in the next few days so keep an eye out for it. I gave it 5 stars. It is a middle grade historical fiction.

 I finished this book on New Year Eve. I decided to pick this book up because it won the Good Reads award for best picture book. The pictures were great. This book is all about the songs that were sung on his show written in verse. Also it told you who sung them. I gave it 4 stars. I can see why it won.

 This is another series I tried to finish in 2019 but didn't get done. I have one more book to read before I am done with series. It is a YA fantasy. I gave it 3 stars. It is okay but getting kind of old but I will finish the series since there is only one book left. I finished this book on the 1st of January. I almost had it finished on the 31st.

 Here is another book that I finished on the 1st of January instead of the 31st. I won't be doing a review on this book. I really enjoy this series by her because it easy for middle graders to learn history. She puts it into easy terms for them to learn and uses children her in stories. She uses true facts with made up characters. I gave it 5 stars.

This is a fun and quick read for me. I gave it 4 stars. I have been hearing about this book from some book tubers and wanted to give it try. It is set in the winter around Christmas time. I could only find this book on kindle.

I hope you enjoyed and as always until next time keep reading.

January 2020 TBR

 Well it is the 7th of January so I really need to get this TBR (To Be Read) posted. I need to read at 16 books and I have 13 here to tell you about. That will leave 3 books that I can mood read. I can already give you a spoiler for the next post that I have read three of these books already.  Now onto the books. Michael Vey The Final Spark By: Richard Paul Evans is the final book in a YA (young adult) series I have been reading for the last couple of years. This will finally finish out this series. It is about a group of 17 children who are electric by a scientific experiment when they were born. That is a really short version of the story. Serpent and Dove By: Shelby Mahurin is a debut novel and I will be buddy reading this with my oldest daughter. It is a Ya fantasy book. It is about a witch and a witch hunter. Nothing Daunted By: Dorothy Wickenden is a non-fiction about her family in the 1870's and 1916 time in the mountains. I am reading this for a book club I am a member of. My mom also read it a while ago.  Eat The Sky Drink the Ocean is a collection of 17 short stories and I will be reading 1 a day for the month.

 A Starless Sea By: Erin Morgenstern is a YA fantasy. I don't know anything about but I did read her first book and enjoyed so want to give this a try. Get A Life, Chloe Brown By: Talia Hibbert is a Adult Romance book that I don't know anything about but I have heard it is good so want to give it a try. Vengeful By: V. E. Schwab is the second book in a duology and again it will get another series off my list. I read Vicious last month and really enjoyed it so I want to read this so I can continue on with the story. Blood Heir  By: Amelie Wen Zhao is another YA fantasy that I know nothing about but I have been enjoying the fantasy that has been being published lately so want to read more.

I will be reading my first Lisa See book this month called Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. This is for a Good Reads group I am a member book for this month. Again I don't know anything about it. Winter Wood By: Shea Ernshaw is another YA book and I really enjoyed her book The Wicked Deep and I am hoping this one will be just as good. The Weight of the Stars By: K. Ancrum again I don't know much about this book just heard a lot about it. Josh and Hazel's Guide to Not Dating By: Christina Lauren is a romance novel. I have read one of her books before and liked so I want to read more of their novels. I have a lot of them on my shelves so I need to read them. 99 Percent Mine By: Sally Thorne is another Romance book. I read her book The Hating Game and liked it so again I am trying another one of her books.
You will notice I don't know too much about these books and I really don't want to. I like going into my books without much knowledge. Sometimes the synopsis is way off and sometimes they give things away. I do take recommendations, so feel free to leave any suggestion in the comment area.
I hope this gives you ideas and until next time keep reading.

2020 Reading Goals

I am doing something different for this and that is to make some reading goals for this year.
I have always done the reading challenge on Goodreads and will continue to do so.
But this year I want to add to it. So here it goes and I am hoping I will be able to accomplish them.
1. My Goodreads goal is to read 200 books for the year. (That means I have to read around 16 books per month).
2. Read one Tome a month. (Tome is a book over 500 pages)
3. Read more genres
4. Read at least one non-fiction a month
5. Read one classic a month.
6. To participate in at least readathon a month
7. Read and review one ARC a month ( Advanced Reader Copy)
8. Complete and/or catch-up on 10 series ( I have around 38 series started)

I know it seems like a lot but with some determination I should be able to accomplish these goals. I am also hoping with these goals it will knock out some of my physical books on my shelves and bring down my TBR.

For the blog I would like to post at least three times a week but as you can see I am already behind.
I want to continue to do reviews with hopefully more input.
I want to do TBR's, weekly wrap-ups, hauls and maybe some other things.

If there is something you would like to do or post please let me know.

Until next time keep reading.

Mooncakes Review

Mooncakes
By: Suzanne Walker and Wendy Xu
Diamond Book Distributors
Lion Forge
Sci-Fi and Fantasy, Teen and YA
256 pages
Publish Date 15 October 2019
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This is a cute graphic novel that you should read around Halloween time. I gave it 4 stars. This is about two young ladies one who is a witch and the other one a werewolf. There is a demon in the area and they are trying to get rid of it. You are thrown in right away with a little back ground about their past. This novel has a great family atmosphere and you can read it in a day. There is also female/female romance in this book.  I would recommend this book it is a fun read.

The Immortal City Review

The Immortal City
By: Amy Kuivalainen
BHC
General Fiction (Adult)
Sci-Fi and Fantasy
324 pages
Published 19 September 2019
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I really enjoyed this book. At first I wasn't to sure about it because I don't speak Italian and I wasn't able to understand what was going on at the beginning but the author got better with letting us know what was being said. This is a mystery with magical elements. I don't see it as being sci-fi but more of a fantasy mystery.  I really haven't read a book like this before and found it enjoyable. It did take me a while to read not because it was bad just that I was busy. This is the first book in a series.
This book is about a woman named Penelope who is a historian who loves the story of Atlantis and has discovered a piece of a tablet. She has had bad luck because of Alexus who has blocked her progress with a grant because he is protecting the knowledge of Atlantis and the people. She ends up going to Italy because of a couple of murders that are very strange and she is helping the police. She finally meets up with Alexus and they have some interesting adventures as they try to solve the murders. I would highly recommend this book if you are into both fantasy and mysteries.