Book Review: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

TITLE: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
AUTHOR: Rebecca Skloot
PUBLISHED: 2010
CATEGORY: Non-Fiction
GENRE: Biography/Science History
PREMISE: A biographer goes into the history of the woman who gave the cells known as HeLa cells.
MY REVIEW: This book is a lot like Hidden Figures for me: I know nothing about the science it is talking about because science is not my wheelhouse. But the author gives such a great in depth look into fascinating lives that I find myself not caring.
This one was also wonderfully organized. One fault I had with Hidden Figures that hindered my enjoyment of it a bit was that the author kept jumping around with their information. I appreciate the in depth research...but at least present it in a way that won't confuse me. This book, did what I wish Hidden Figures had done (Hidden Figures is still good though, guys, go and read it). The author does jump back and forth a little between time periods, but there seems to be an actual rhyme and reason for it.
Also kudos to the author for explaining some of the science in a way I get. As I've mentioned: science is very much not my thing (I got Bs and Cs in it through out high school for a reason). But she explained it in such a way that I not only understood it...but was actually interested in it. In short, I really liked this book. If you're just coming off the thrill of seeing Hidden Figures for the first time on DVD/Blu-Ray, I highly suggest this book. After you get to the Hidden Figures book.
WHO SHOULD READ: fans of Hidden Figures, science history fans
MY RATING: Four out of Five fascinating lives

Book Review: Squirrel Meets World

TITLE: Squirrel Meets World
Part of the Marvel book series
AUTHOR: Shannon Hale and Dean Hale
PUBLISHED: February 7th, 2017
CATEGORY: Middle-Grade
PREMISE: Doreen starts at a new school while trying to figure out her squirrel powers and this whole superhero thing..
MY REVIEW: I adore the Squirrel-Girl comics. Marvel has had its ups and downs lately in the comic side of things, I freely admit this. But Squirrel-Girl has been one of the most delightful ups. So needless to say, I was thrilled when I heard there was going to be a Squirrel-Girl book.
This one is like most of the other Marvel written books out there. It has a great feel for the character, it gets the tone right, I definitely feel like this is a teenage Doreen. It's just plot wise...the book is a little all over the place. Which I notice is a thing for these comics to written book things.. Sometimes characters do better in other mediums and I suspect Squirrel-Girl is one of those. Because while the book definitely had the fun Squirrel-Girl vibe...it's not what I would call a brilliant book.
This is one I would mostly recommend to fans of the comic. If you never have read Squirrel-Girl before...this is not a good introduction, instead do the first volume of the recent series. That will give you a much better intro to the delight that is Doreen.
WHO SHOULD READ: young Marvel fans, Squirrel-Girl fans
MY RATING: Three and a half out of Five the comic is better feelings

Your Syllabus For: Poetry for Beginners

So this month is National Poetry month. Now, you may be like me and just...not know a thing about poetry. This past week or so I've been combing through a lot of poetry lists and coming up with some poetry basics for me to look at when I start my journey into poetry (which will be next year, this year the journey is into plays). This is by no means a complete list. There are tons of poetry collections out there. But it is a list to give you an idea of what to start with so you can slowly become a poetry master reader.

Ancient Poetry/Epic Poems:

The Odyssey by Homer

Also, check out The Iliad.

Classical Chinese Poetry: An Anthology

There was a plethora of Chinese poetry being formed in the BCE era. This collection from what I can see, has a majority of the major ones.

Beowulf by Anonymous

Metamorphoses by Ovid

More epic Greek poetry.

The Aeneid by Virgil

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by Anonymous

One of the many medieval epic Arthurian poems out there.

The Epic of Gilgamesh by Anonymous

If Not Winter: Fragments of Sappho by Sappho

Medieval-1800s poetry:

The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer

There are a lot of Chaucer epic poems to choose from. This is probably his most well known though.

The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spensor

This humongous epic poem apparently influenced a lot of 18th century poets.

Shakespeare's Sonnets by William Shakespeare

Along with a bunch of plays, the Bard also wrote quite a few poems in his day. Overacheiver.

The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri

The Complete English Poems by John Donne

The Complete Poetry by George Herbert

The Complete Poems by William Blake

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

The Rape of the Lock by Alexander Pope

1800s Poetry:

The Complete Poems by John Keats

The Complete Poems by Percy Bysshe Shelley

This guy was married to Mary Shelley, she of Frankenstein fame, fyi.

Selected Poems by George Gordon Byron (better known today as Lord Byron)

The Idylls of the King by Alfred Tennyson

Really, all of Tennyson's work seems to be popular. But this is the one he seems to be known for.

Complete Poems by Christina Rosetti

Believe it or not, Emily Dickinson is not the only female eighteen hundreds poet out there.

The Complete Poems by Emily Dickinson

But definitely give Dickinson a look.

The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats by W. B. Yeats

Lyrical Ballads by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman

The Essential Tales and Poems by Edgar Allen Poe

Seriously, read The Raven if you have not already been taught it in class.

1900s Poetry:

The Waste Land and Other Poems by T. S. Eliot

Also check out his Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats collection, which the musical Cats is based on.

The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran

Complete Poems by Dorothy Parker

Collected Poems by Edna St. Vincent Millay

Howl and Other Poems by Allen Ginsberg

The Selected Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke by Rainer Maria Rilke

Ariel by Sylvia Plath

And honestly all her other poetry collections. I also recommend her one prose novel: The Bell Jar.

Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair by Pablo Neruda

Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein

You probably read this as a kid. I highly recommend rereading as an adult, you'll catch a lot of things that go over a kids head.

The Poetry of Robert Frost by Robert Frost

The Collected Poems by Langston Hughes

The Complete Poems by Anne Sexton

The Complete Collected Poems by Maya Angelou

2000s-Present

Crush by Richard Siken

Sailing Around the Room: New and Selected Poems by Billy Collins

Salt by Nayyirah Waheed

Love and Misadventure by Lang Leav

A Thousand Mornings by Mary Oliver

Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur

The Princess Saves Herself in This One by Amanda Lovelace

Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine



Some handy non-fiction about poetry:

The Ode Less Travelled by Stephen Fry

Book that I'm personally going to read to help me try and understand poetry more.

Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke

If you're looking for verse fiction, there's going to be a list for that next week.

Notable Releases: 4/2-4/8

Here are all the releases from this past week that are on my radar, I think people may be interested in, or are just books getting lots of buzz.

MG/YA

Alex, Approximately by Jenn Bennett

You've Got Mail/The Shop Around the Corner YA retelling? I'm here for it.

Journey Across the Hidden Islands by Sarah Beth Durst

I'm always up for a Durst book. This one sounds just as imaginative as all her other books.

Defy the Stars Book 1: Defy the Stars by Claudia Gray

Claudia Gray always does unique ideas. After her great turns in Star Wars, I can't wait to see her tackle sci-fi.

Geekerella by Ashley Poston

I've been hearing some good things about this cute looking contemporary Cinderella retelling.

Rebel Mechanics Book 3: Rebels Rising by Shanna Swendson

The next book in a fun steampunk series that I really need to get caught up on.







Adult Fiction:

Book of the Ancestor 1: Red Sister by Mark Lawrence

Latest Mark Lawrence series for all you fantasy junkies.

Kendra Donovan 2: A Twist in Time by Julie McElwain

For those who loved A Murder in Time last year, the sequel is now out.

Themis Files 2: Waking Gods by Sylvain Neuvel

Sleeping Gods was a huge book from last year (I still need to get to it). For those who loved it, the sequel is now out.

Star Wars: Thrawn by Timothy Zahn

Latest Star Wars book to tide you over until Episode VIII.








Non-Fiction:

Rebel Mother: My Childhood Chasing the Revolution by Peter Andreas

Interesting looking memoir.

The Yellow Envelope: One Gift, Three Rules, and a Life-Changing Journey Around the World by Kim Dinan

A travel memoir just in time for the busy travel season.







Comics/Graphic Novels released:

Lumberjanes Vol. 6
Earth 2 Society Vol. 3: A Whole New World TP
Green Arrow Vol. 2: Island of Scars TP
Superman Vol. 2: Trials of the Super Sons TP
Damsels Vol. 1 TP
We Stand on Guard TP
X-men Legacy: Legion Omnibus HC
Boruto Vol. 1 Naruto Next Generations
Tokyo Ghoul Vol. 12

Book Review: Another Brooklyn

TITLE: Another Brooklyn
AUTHOR: Jacqueline Woodson
PUBLISHED: August 2016
CATEGORY: Adult
GENRE: Realistic Fiction
PREMISE: A woman recalls her years growing up in Brooklyn as a teenager.
MY REVIEW: So I'm late to the Jacqueline Woodson game, I only read Brown Girl Dreaming last year and from what I can see she's been around long before that and honest, I can see why. Her writing is just gorgeous. Plus, she jumps between styles and that's not something a lot of authors can do.
This book honestly reminded me a lot of Brown Girl Dreaming. It just dealt with more adult topics such as pregnancy. The friendship in this book is honest and wonderfully developed. It is also a very fast read. For some reason I thought it was a long one, but it's actually less than two hundred pages.
Plot wise...it's a bit all over the place. It's got a very dream slice of life sort of feeling. I can take or leave that sort of story. But overall, this book was very well done. As with Bell Jar, I believe this can fall in either the YA or Adult category. If you're a YA contemporary reader, this one should please you.
WHO SHOULD READ: literature fans, fans of Brown Girl Dreaming
MY RATING: Four out of Five changing neighborhoods

Reading Through the Classics: The Bell Jar

TITLE: The Bell Jar
AUTHOR: Sylvia Plath
PUBLISHED: 1963
CATEGORY: Adult/YA (I think it fits both really)
GENRE: Realistic Fiction
PREMISE: A young girl on the brink of adult hood slowly starts to have a mental breakdown....
MY THOUGHTS: Yes, somehow I escaped reading this book in high school. It just never came up in one of my classes and high school me was very much not interested. But again, one of my online groups had this for their book of the month for March and so I finally got around to it.
This is again, one I wished I studied in a classroom environment. Because I suspect there are a lot of things in this that went over my head without knowing much about Slyvia Plath. I knew enough to get the general importance of it though. This book was written during a time when mental health (especially women's mental health) probably wasn't talked about all that often.
I wouldn't go into this one looking for light entertainment. It's pretty heavy subject matter. Also several of the characters will likely annoy you. Esther's boyfriend in this seriously became my new hated literary figure.
The writing in this however, is gorgeous. You can really tell Plath is a poet. I definitely will be checking out her poetry next year when I start my journey into poetry (I was planning on doing it this year, but decided plays and poetry at the same time was probably a bit much). Probably will be reading her unabridged journals at some point too...
WHO SHOULD READ: those who like angsty reads, if you're interested in books about mental health, Slyvia Plath fans

DNF Club: February/March 2017

I have a confession: DNF things. A lot. Look, I have a large TBR list. I do not have time to go around forcing myself to read books I hate. I got my fill of hate reading back during the Twilight days. But, sometimes a book that isn't for me, might be for someone else. We all have our things. So, here are some of the books from the past two months that I DNFed. Note, not all of them are on here. I'm not counting books like The Serpent King by Jeff Zentner which I read one chapter of and could tell within that chapter that I was just not going to get on well with the book. These are books that I read more then at least ten percent of.

Wintersong by S. Jae Jones

Sigh. I was so looking forward to this one. But I'm sorry, I'm over Labyrinth fanfic retellings that keep trying to romanticize the Goblin King. Give me one where there's no romance angle between the Sarah character and the Jareth character and then we'll talk.

Plus the writing was very weak and world building paper-thin. I've read better Labyrinth fanfic online for free. That didn't have the slut shaming lines in it either. Yes, I know: it's historical! You can do historical fiction without slut shaming.

Beast by Brie Spangler

Another one I really wanted to like. The idea of Beauty being a trans girl was great and she really was the one small delight in this book. Unfortunately I got about halfway before I realized something: she deserved better then this particular version of the beast. When I don't want beauty to get together with the beast...you made a bad Beauty and the Beast retelling.

Roses and Rot by Kat Howard

This one suffered from just being dull. The writing is gorgeous. I love the atmosphere but I got over forty percent and still nothing major really happened beyond drama between friends. I'm sure something happens at the end and it's one of those slow burn type thrillers. But I just don't really have the patience for slow burn thrillers if I'm not interested in any of characters which was sadly the case here.

Internet Girls 1: ttyl by Lauren Myracle

I don't know why I tried this. But it was on Hoopla so I gave it a shot and ...oy is all I have to say. I can deal with instant message writing. That was not my annoyance (but it apparently was a big deal to someone who tried to get it banned for that reason...) My issue was all the judgement towards women going on. Good lord, every other IM conversation here was flinging judgement towards any woman who was not apart of the friend group (and honestly, there was some judgement there too...). I have zero patience for that nowadays. 

Book Review: Dreamland Burning

TITLE: Dreamland Burning
AUTHOR: Jennifer Latham
PUBLISHED: February 21rst
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Mystery/Historical Fictionish
PREMISE: A girl discovers a corpse in her back yard, and we jump between her life and the life of a man in the 1920s who has something to do with the murder of said corpse.
MY REVIEW: So some of you may recognize the name Jennifer Latham. A few years back she had a book called Scarlett Undercover that I expressed excitement for. Now, I did try to read Scarlett, but ultimately I had to DNF it. While the diversity was great the story....not so much. So I put it aside with a sad sigh. This book is entirely another story. The author not only has great diversity, she has a great mystery going on as well and even the writing has improved. I love it when authors improve like this.
There's a dual perspective going on in this, but this one actually a) is necessary (sorry, but most dual perspectives are usually not necessary), b) is done well. I can actually tell the difference between the characters. The historic research is also very evident.
In short, I loved this book. I went into it not expecting much and it managed to surprise me in a good way. I think this may wind up being a favorite of 2017.
WHO SHOULD READ: Jennifer Latham fans, historical fiction fans
MY RATING: Four out of five dual perspectives used well

Book Review: Room

TITLE: Room
AUTHOR: Emma Donoghue
PUBLISHED: 2010
CATEGORY: Adult
GENRE: Drama/Thrillerish...
PREMISE: Jack has lived in Room with his mother ever since he was born. Things change when his mother decides they need to leave...
MY REVIEW: Room is one of those that has been on the list for awhile now. I remember it making a splash when I first started this blog, and then the movie came out a few years ago. I finally got around to reading it and...I don't know, I have mixed feelings about it.
The writing is damn good. Donoghue does a great job of getting into Jack's head. I can tell she did the psychology research of what happens when you've been captive for several years. She does a good job of showing us things through Jack's head without spelling things out for us. The way this is told is probably the most clever thing about the book, really. Story/pace wise...it's a little eh for me.
One of the main issues I have is that it's very slow. Especially in the beginning when they're going about their day to day things. I was a little surprised it didn't end with them getting out. After struggling through the last bit, I can't help but wonder if it might have been best to just leave it there because the last bit after was kind of tedious and felt tacked on to be honest.
So yeah, this was a bit of a mixed bag for me. It has phenomenal writing, so I may be checking out some of Donoghue's other stuff. But the story...just sort of bored me because it honestly wasn't really my thing.
WHO SHOULD READ: Emma Donoghue fans, you like character driven books, fans of the book Stolen
MY RATING: Three and a half out of Five clever uses of the narrator

Notable Releases: 3/26-4/1

Sorry for the rather late Notable Releases this week. Last few days have been busy so I haven't had time to do the post until now. Anyway, here are the notable releases from this past week that are on my radar, I think other people might be interested in, or are just plain buzz worthy books.

MG/YA

Star-Touched Queen Book 2: A Crown of Wishes by Roshani Chokshi

Star-Touched Queen was a pleasant surprise from last year. I look forward to the sequel, even if I think it would have been better to do it as just a standalone.

Vigilante by Kady Cross

The reviews for this have...not been great. But I've learned to not really trust reviews on Goodreads. I mean, these were the same people who assured me that Tell the Wind and Fire by Sarah Rees Brennan was crap and that wound up being one of my favorite books from last year so...

Openly Straight Book 2: Honestly Ben by Bill Konigsburg

If you were hoping for a sequel to Openly Straight, rejoice: it is here. Though from what I understand it's more of a companion book than a sequel.

Strange the Dreamer Book 1 by Laini Taylor

New Laini Taylor series! Finally! I honestly have no idea what this one is about, but it's Laini Taylor, so I'm reading it, no questions asked.

Horizon Book 1: Horizon by Scott Westerfield

Latest Scott Westerfield. That sort of sounds like a cross between Lord of the Flies and the Gone series by Michael Grant.







Adult Fiction:

The Black Book by James Patterson and David Ellis

The latest bi-weekly offereing from James Patterson. Dude, get some sleep. Seriously.







Non-Fiction:

How to be a Bawse: A Guide for Conquering Life by Lilly Singh

The latest YouTuber who I was apparently supposed to know about (but don't because I only watch BookTube and even that's sparingly) to get their own book. I'm personally not into self-help books, but someone somewhere will probably be interested in this.

On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons From the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder

Sadly, I have a feeling this book is going to become very relevant in the coming years.






Some TP/HC Graphic novels/Manga released this week:

B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth Vol. 15: Cometh the Hour
Black Hammer Vol. 1: Secret Origins
Cyrptocracy TP
Henchgirl TP
Doom Patrol Vol. 3
Hellblazer Vol. 1: The Poison Truth
Afar GN
Invincible Vol. 23
Saga Vol. 7
Spider-Man: Miles Morales Vol. 2