Musing Mondays (33)

Musing Mondays is a weekly meme hosted by Jenn at A Daily Rhythm, that asks you to muse about something book related each week.

My Musings for the Week...

Today, since I don't really have much to talk about, I decided that I'm just going to answer the random weekly question: Do you have a favorite book from childhood? What is it?

I have a lot of favorite books from when I was younger, but the most notable ones that I remember were the Spiderwick Chronicles written by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi. I remember reading the books and just loving the story, characters, setting, and the fairies and everything that happened because of them. The illustrations were also nice and the style always fit with the story. I believe this was the series that got me into fantasy novels to begin with.

I’m also pretty sure that I even got a copy of Arthur Spiderwick’s Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You and The Spiderwick Chronicles: Notebook for Fantastical Observations. Yeah, I was sort of building a collection of Spiderwick stuff, which was why I was a little disappointed in the movie which changed almost too many things. Anyway, after finishing the Spiderwick Chronicles, I kept reading, moving on to other series like Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer, The Sisters Grimm by Michael Buckley and Charlie Bone (The Children of the Red King) by Jenny Nimmo.

What are some of your favorite books from your childhood?

Weekend Tidbits {#4} National Doughnut Day

When I originally thought of doing some kind of occasional weekend post, I already knew that it wasn’t going to be a weekly thing. It’s going to be, as I said above, occasional. All this post is about is the things I’m currently doing or maybe even look forward to. And at the very end I’ll name a place that I wish was a book setting and my choice of tea for the day. (Links for Weekend Tidbits can be found on the Features Page.)

Not much is really new besides the fact that I’ve done some baking, and I put together an interview that’s going to go up later in the month. Anyway, June 5th was National Doughnut day and instead of buying them, I decided to try a new recipe for making them. I have to say that I was really happy with the results—picture below. It was a vegan yeast doughnut made with coconut oil and coconut milk and I used the recipe from Spice Island Vegan, which you can view HERE 

It tasted as delicious as it looks, and it was just like a normal doughnut. Although, I did cut back on how long I chilled it, it still came out perfectly.

Today's location is Mostar, Bosnia. Its a beautiful city and I don't have anything else to say about it. Like always, you can see today's location on the Places I Wish Were Book Settings pinterest board.

My choice of tea for today is Gingerbread, not to be mistaken as just ginger. Its similar, but it's different enough.

The Friday 56 (28)

The Friday 56 is a weekly meme hosted by Freda's Voice where every Friday you pick a book and turn to page 56 or 56%, and select a sentence or a few, as long as it's not a spoiler. For the full rules, visit the the page HERE

My 56 this week comes from a book I recently read and loved. Its called Love Fortunes and Other Disasters by Kimberly Karalius, one of Swoon Reads books.

About the book (Synopsis from Goodreads)...

Love is real in the town of Grimbaud, and Fallon Dupree has dreamed of attending high school there for years. After all, generations of Duprees have successfully followed the (100% accurate!) love fortunes from Zita’s famous Love Charms Shop to happily marry their high school sweethearts. It’s a tradition. So she is both stunned and devastated when her fortune states that she will NEVER find love. Fortunately, Fallon isn’t the only student with a terrible love fortune, and a rebellion is brewing. Fallon is determined to take control of her own fate—even if it means working with a notorious heartbreaker like Sebastian. Will Fallon and Sebastian be able to overthrow Zita’s tyranny and fall in love?

"Mr. Dupree spoke next, asking her briefly about her classes, but then the conversation turned sour as her parents started making assumptions about her fortune."--Love Fortunes and Other Disasters by Kimberly Karalius


What would you do if you ever found yourself in the same situation as Fallon Dupree?

Review: The Tapper Twins Go to War by Geoff Rodkey

Title: The Tapper Twins Go to War
Author: Geoff Rodkey
Source/Format: Won, Hardcover
More Details: Middle Grade
Publisher/Publication Date: Little Brown Books for Young Readers, April 7, 2015

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Synopsis from Goodreads...

Claudia and Reese, who couldn't be more different...except in their determination to come out on top in a vicious prank war! But when the competition escalates into an all-out battle that's fought from the cafeteria of their New York City private school all the way to the fictional universe of an online video game, the twins have to decide if their efforts to destroy each other are worth the price. Told as a colorful "oral history" by the twins and their friends, and including photos, screenshots, chat logs, online gaming digital art, and text messages between their clueless parents, The Tapper Twins is a hilariously authentic showcase of what it's like to be in middle school in our digitally-saturated world...

My initial thoughts based on the first few pages of the Tapper Twins Go To War (With Each Other) by Geoff Rodkey was that it was going to be a cute, humorous story. But there were a few character comparisons to historical figures left me scratching my head, or just outright frowning. The book wasn’t all bad. Some parts were humorous as the twins Reese and Claudia Tapper continued their dispute with one another over an incident at the beginning. By the end of the book there was an important lesson that the twins had to learn. Another thing that I liked was the way that the book was written. It was in an oral history kind of style with different characters sharing their perspective of “the war”—it was paired with text messages between the parents—so I like how it came together to tell the story. Overall, I liked this book, it had its funny moments, but it also had some details that bothered me. Still, I would consider picking up other novels by Geoff Rodkey.

Musing Mondays (32)

Musing Mondays is a weekly meme hosted by Jenn at A Daily Rhythm, that asks you to muse about something book related each week.

My Musings for the Week...

When I think of what I enjoy reading I usually go straight for fantasy or science fiction first before looking to other genres. So obviously those are the two genres that basically dominate my shelf space. But I rarely ever talk about my least favorite genre. Let me tell you, Dystopian came close to that number one spot, but it got beat out by another genre. And my number one least favorite genre is actually contemporary. After looking through most of the books on my shelf, I realized that I had the least amount of contemporary novels compared to others. I even have more books that fall into the dystopian genre.

I have read some contemporary novels, and there were some that I just loved, but others I did not. However, I sometimes find the stories a little boring, which is probably why I lean towards other types of books. I do enjoy mysteries, sometimes even thrillers, but contemporaries that are just love stories and nothing more tend to have me steering clear of them.

So, I’m not going to ask what your favorite genre is since that’s not what the post is about. Instead, what’s your least favorite genre?