Reading and getting back to a sense of normal
Christmas Present by Jodi Taylor
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is a short story bridging the Chronicles of St Mary’s stories. It was a typical story for this series with its humor and adventure and its sense of the unexpected.
If you like the other books in this series, you’ll enjoy this book.
The Unforgettable Christmas: Christmas Story Picture Book for Children by Arnie Lightning
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Santa can’t remember everyone, so he needs a reminder sometimes. This story is about the ones that usually get forgotten.
It’s a Christmas bedtime story, but is just kind of OK. If you’re looking for a book to read to a child for Christmas, this will do.
The above linked article came out in Fall 2022, but there are still some good books on the list. They aren’t all new books, but some are on my TBR list and I have read some of them. They all take place on school campuses. They aren’t necessarily back to school books, but they could qualify.
I have been thinking of moving to a different site for a while now, but that means that I need to move my blog over, too, I believe. I’m starting to write on https://www.bookwormatthegym.com/home due to the cost. It’s a work in progress, but I’m trying. Let’s see how it goes. Any comments are welcome!
The Perfect Poo: A Fiery Fecal Romance by M.J. Edwards
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
I got this as a freebie through Kindle Unlimited. It made sense to me up until about halfway through. I thought that was the end. Oh, noooo, it got weird. Then weirder. Then it started to almost make sense again. And then strange again.
I don’t know that I would recommend this to anyone, but after the first half of the book, I was invested. I needed to finish it.
When No One Is Watching by Alyssa Cole
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I picked this up for a city wide bookclub.
The first half to three-quarters of the book was slow, but needed to set up the story, making me wonder why it was tagged as a thriller. The story took a hard turn during the last few chapters, clarifying why it was a thriller.
I enjoyed the book, but wish it had moved along more quickly. I would have rated it a 5 if it was a little more consistent throughout the book.
Renegade Rule by Ben Kahn
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I picked this up for a bookclub read.
I enjoyed this story and loved how it flipped back and forth between real life and the game the characters were playing. I covered a variety of topics quickly and easily but didn’t dwell on the problems so they were not as depressing as they could have been.
It was a quick read and I would recommend it to those who like light adventure and graphic novels.
The city decided to redo the sidewalks. We got notified by a sidewalk full of “no parking” signs. The signs were put on the odd side of the street with the next day’s date through that Friday, with a note that there is no parking on the even side of the street. On the even side of the street, there were some more signs telling us not to park within twenty feet an address on the even side.
I called the number on the signs, asking for clarification. The work was going to be done on the odd side of the street and they were going to send someone over to fix the signs. Great.
After they changed the signs, I went outside to see what was done. They changed the signs, but this time, it showed addresses two blocks over, and the signs in front of the house on the even side of the street had been spaced out all along the block, instead of just in front of the one house that needed attention.
I saw two of my neighbors outside looking at the signs. They gathered up the signs on the even side of the street and put them near the house where the address was noted.
The day that they were supposed to start the work, no one showed up. They came and changed the signs to reflect the correct addresses. The next day, they did the work on the house on the even side of the street, but nothing on the odd side.
Four days later, the signs were changed to tell us to not park on the odd side of the street for another week. Great. I called again to find out when they were planning on starting. “Whenever we get someone out there.”
It took another 3 weeks of not parking on the odd side of the street before they began the sidewalk work. The work itself took one afternoon and the next morning. Then a few of the parking spots were blocked off to allow for cement drying. The signs were not removed for another week, and only after my neighbors went and moved all of the signs in front of the original house on the even side of the street.
Now, if we could only get someone out to deal with the tree that is now falling over because they cut the roots when they redid the sidewalks. Three neighbors have already called about it, and all the city has done is put caution tape around it. It takes a village, but apparently not a city, to get things done.
Twenty books most people lie about reading
I did finally get to this book. I had to read it for class. I truly enjoyed the story, but it was wordy. I found a shorter version that gave all of the highlights, but not the nuances, so I read that, also. Both were very good books.
The Five-Year Hitch by Melissa de la Cruz
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I am glad that I didn’t pay for this book. It was a discussion between a man and a woman about how they met and broke up and met and broke up. Blah blah blah. Great. Something boring happened every five years, but it wasn’t enough to float a whole story.
bookworm at the gym 