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Thursday, March 31, 2022
Sunday, March 20, 2022
Legend by Marie Lu
⭐⭐⭐⭐
date started: 3/18/2022
date finished: 3/20/2022
pages: 393
genre: ya, sci-fi, apocalyptic
from: mpl
reason: challenge
Marie Lu is becoming one of my favorites. This was a very quick read. Great story. It ended too soon. I'll probably continue the series. I knew the friend killed Metias and he sucks for that. I want to know why they said Day failed. Is it because he is poor?
Friday, March 18, 2022
Deacon King Kong by James McBride
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date started: 3/7/2022
date finished: 3/18/2022
pages: 383
genre: fiction
from: mpl
reason: challenge
Sportcoat shoots Deems for no apparent reason. His wife Hettie died (walked into the water) and he continues to walk around drunk talking to her. They argue over where she put the church Christmas Fund. Deems has no idea why Sportcoat shot him. There is a warrant out for Hot Sausage for the shooting because Sportcoat and him share a driver's license and ends up, the name on the driver's license isn't even Hot Sausage's name. He is a man with many names LOL
The Governor meets with the Elephant for a package deliver from the Elephant's dead dad. The Elephant has no clue what the package is. All the Elephant wants is someone to love him (he found her...the Governor's daughter).
Here is were it gets exciting. Bunch (the drug dealer) tells Earl to take care of Sportcoat. First he tries to beat him with a pipe and instead gets hit in the head with a baseball.
Soup is released from prison so they are having a party for him. There is a fight at this party like all true parties. Well Earl is trying to stab Sportcoat with a switchblade. There is a slo-mo scene where a bottle of brandy is flying around. It ends up knocking Earl in the head and he gets knocked out. Then, he comes back for more. Hot Sausage and Sportcoat are working on the generator (well Hot Sausage is...Sportcoat is drinking...as is Hot Sausage). Earl sneaks into the basement and is about to attack Sportcoat and instead gets electrocuted.
Bunch, fed up with Earl, hired Harold Dean. Deems decided to make the moves on a new girl in town (one of his clients). This horribly backfires when she ends up being Haroldeen. She is the hitman Bunch hired. She shot Deems, Beanie (killed him), Hot Sausage, and Sportcoat. Sportcoat pulls Deems out of the water (I think...I was confused as to who was wearing the umpire uniform). Everyone thought they all died.
Sportcoat ends up dying at the end after trying to get sober.
Jesus CHEESE! No one found the church Christmas Fund but the Elephant gave them some money. Never found out why Sportcoat shot Deems. The Governor found the package in Jesus's hand.
This book is simply fantastic! It is laugh out loud hilarious. I love this book. The writing is funny. The characters are so unbelievable but they are so real.
Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
⭐⭐
date started: 3/9/2022
date finished: 3/18/2022
duration: 13:21
genre: contemporary
from: mpl
reason: murakami, duh
Toru begins to write the story of him and Naoko. There is a well (of course) but it never appears again except for at the beginning. He goes to college and runs into Naoko (a friend from home). There is still the ear obsession but it isn't as prevalent in this one. She moves and he sends letters but gets no reply. Finally she responds and says she is moving to a sanitorium and doesn't want to see him. He meets Midori (which stands for green and her sister, I believe is yellow). She disappears. He gets a long letter from Naoko asking him to visit her at the sanitorium. He goes to see her and they sort through some stuff. I never trusted her roommate. He continues to run into Midori. Eventually Naoko hangs herself.
This was a HUGE disappointment. This was nothing but whiney angst. I get that it focuses on mental illness but the characters for the most part are extremely unlikable (especially the narrator Toru and Midori). I liked Naoko and that is about it. She seemed to be the only truly honest one. There was no magical realism. Nothing like the other Murakami I've read. If this had been the first Murakami I read, I would not have continued reading him.
However, the writing is still beautiful. That is the only reason I gave it two stars.
Thursday, March 17, 2022
Half Baked Harvest Super Simple by Tieghan Gehard
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date started: 3/17/2022
date finished: 3/17/2022
pages: 288
genre: cookbook
from: mpl
reason: for fun
A lot of recipes to try!
Wednesday, March 9, 2022
The Storm (Trackers #3) by Nicholas Sansbury Smith
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date started: 3/2/2022
date finished: 3/9/2022
duration: 7:49
genre: sci-fi, apocalyptic
from: mpl
reason: to continue the story
This one picks up where book 2 left off. North Korea set off nukes which resulted in EMPs and radioactive fall out. Charlize's son has been rescued. Her brother unfortunately died a rather gruesome death at the hands of "General Phoenix" in book 2. There is a HUGE bounty out for "General Phoenix"...something like $10 million. Colton is back in charge. Don (the one that replaced Colton in book 2), or whatever his name is, has been stabbing everyone in the back. I can't remember if he died at the end, but hopefully he did. If he didn't, then he deserves to die in book 4. If he is already dead he deserves to die again in book 4. Raven got shot in chest and head and I panicked. I just knew he was dead. Luckily he had a bulletproof vest on and part of his ear is gone. But the way this series kills people off, I was very worried. Creek saves Raven from getting shot again. Much too close. I think Lindsey is starting to have a soft spot for Raven. Big Al finds his sister. Some gang has captured "General Phoenix" and he keeps trying to bribe them with more than the $10 million. Guess I have to wait until book 4 to find out what happens with that.
The first two books were, in my opinion, much better than this one. There were several gasp out loud moments with Raven like when he got shot and I thought he was dead. So many dead people in this one. There were also some gag worthy moments in this one. Overall a good book, just the others were better.
Monday, March 7, 2022
Binti by Nnedi Okorafor
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date started: 3/7/2022
date finished: 3/7/2022
pages: 96
genre: sci-fi, ya
from: mpl
reason: book challenge
This book is right up my alley. Alien creatures that look like jellyfish...yes please. I had no idea what this book was about when I first decided to read it. I loved it. I just wanted to hug the alien creatures even though they were terribly violent. Makes me want to continue The Breakers series. Binti is a girl who got accepted to university on another planet. Her family doesn't want her to go. En route, these alien creatures, the Meduse, kill everyone on the ship except Binti and the pilot (they have to be able to land on the planet to reclaim the chief's stinger and the only way they can do that is with the pilot). Binti ends up saving the day and Okwu ends up staying at the university. Such a fun, quick read. I'll probably read the rest of the series.
People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry
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date started: 2/28/2022
date finished: 3/7/2022
pages: 382
genre: romance, contemporary
from: kds
reason: book club
At first I was kind of bored with this book. I'm not exactly sure when I started to enjoy it but in the end, I enjoyed it very much. It had many laugh out loud moments. It was very predictable but still enjoyable. It has an epilogue and it didn't annoy me.
Saturday, March 5, 2022
Martha Stewart's Cookie Perfection
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date started: 1/22/2022
date finished: 3/5/2022
pages: 256
genre: cookbook
from: kds
reason: because cookies!
Wednesday, March 2, 2022
Coach Wooden and Me by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
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date started: 2/25/2022
date finished: 3/2/2022
duration: 6:00
genre: memoir, sports, autobiography
from: mpl
reason: reading challenge and because I wanted to
"I'm feeling mirthy!" -Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
I love the fact that he is very comedic in his writing. There have been several laugh out loud moments as well as several tears shed. I am not, however, liking this audiobook. The editing is very distracting. There are so many amazing and inspirational quotes in this book as well.
"...although we like to think of our heroes as perfect, the harsh truth is that they became heroes by making mistakes and learning from them."
A lesson I need to remember as I continue teaching my students.
This was a fantastic book. I have ordered the physical book. I can only hope to be what Coach Wooden was for my students. I aspire to be that for my students. Not necessarily their friend, but just to live so that they know I care about them and that someday they will remember that I cared.
"Courage is grace under pressure."
-Hemmingway
"As you get older, it is harder to have heroes, but it is sort of necessary."
-Hemmingway
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