Personal Reading
- Reading good books ruins you for enjoying bad books.
- That's what I love about reading: one tiny thing will interest you in a book, and that tiny thing will lead you onto another book, and another bit there will lead you onto a third book. It's geometrically progressive -- all with no end in sight, and for no other reason than sheer enjoyment.
- None of us had any experience of literary societies, so we made our own rules: we took turns to speak about the books we'd read. ... the purpose of the speakers was to goad the listeners into wanting to read the book themselves. Once two members had read the same book, they could argue, which was our great delight. We read books, talked books argued over books.
- Booksellers really are a special breed. No one in their right mind would take up clerking in a bookstore for the salary, and no one in his right mind would want to own one -- the margin of profit is too small. So, it has to be a love of readers and reading that makes them do it -- along with first dibs on new books.
Middle Grade Fiction
I received this book in a giveaway in exchanged for a review. From the cover description: Sixth-grader Kerstin Bellini is so sick of moving around the USA that she avoids making friends so she won’t have to lose them. When her mom drops the bad news that their family of two is about to move again, Kerstin is devastated. But the next morning, when she wakes up in a forest she doesn’t recognize, things are definitely worse. Now Kerstin must break her loner habits to accept the help of Maja, a clever farm girl who longs to experience life beyond her tiny village. How can Kerstin find her way back to Minnesota in 2016 when no one even has a phone? And why does Maja think the answer might be found in the woods? Kerstin draws on her love of animals and interest in sewing crafts as she deepens her trust in herself and others—and finds that some things are timeless.
I found this to be a somewhat strange time-travel novel, similar to "The First State of Being" by Erin Entrada Kelly, but not as engaging to me. The writing style seemed a bit choppy to me. The book contains not-so-veiled references to an agenda of "tolerance", "that must be your truth," and "I'm my own best friend." There were also unnecessary references to bras and urinating. The main character also talks about being "donor-conceived." I have nothing against children conceived in such a way, but parents should be aware that this is discussed in the book and should be prepared to discuss this with their children if they choose to let their children read this book.
Read-Aloud
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