In Which I Tackle My TBR Pile

Do you ever feel like your TBR (to be read) pile is taking over?

I love Goodreads, it's great for helping me keep track of books that I want to read, books I've read, books on my wish list, etc.  But it can also be a bad thing, because it allows me to keep track of every book I've ever seen that I want to read.

And my want-to-read list is getting long.

Like, really long.

Like, over 3000+ books right now.

And I'm pretty sure that's a soft number, because there's a lot of books I've added to my Kindle wish list when perusing Amazon or books from my digital wish list at the library that never make the transfer to Goodreads.

Anyway, I feel like it's getting out of control.  I realize that I will probably die before I can read every book I've ever heard of that I feel like reading, mostly because they keep coming out with new books every year!  It will be impossible to catch up.

But I do feel like it would be nice to get around to some of these books that have been sitting on my bookshelves for a very long time.  I unfortunately have a "save the best for last" personality, which manifests in my reading as holding off on reading a book I'm really excited about in favor of something I'm not quite as eager to read.  I guess the idea in my subconscious being that I'll enjoy the other book more once I've got the not-so-great out of the way.

But you know what?  Life is too short.

So I'm pledging to get started on all those books I've been "saving" that have been on my shelves forever.   And I'm going to get my Want to Read list under control (or at least more control).

Step 1: Sort through all 3482 books currently on my Goodreads list (yes, that's really how many books are on there) and take out books that are duplicated/on there by mistake/I am no longer interested in.  Because my reading interests have changed over the years after all.

Report on my success to come soon.  Wish me luck.

Sources of the Last 15 Books I've Reviewed (2)

It's been awhile since I've done one of these, so an explanation is probably called for.

I'm really bad at remembering to put those FTC notices in my reviews.  So rather than do them all at once, I do them 15 at a time.  Thanks to Presenting Lenore for the idea to do it this way.  You can see the complete list of all these posts (it's pretty short so far) at my sources page. 

Here are the sources for the last 15 reviews I've posted in reverse chronological order (starting with the most recent:


Pirate Penguin Vs Ninja Chicken, Volume 1: Troublems with Frenemies by Ray Friesen - Public library
Drama by Raina Telgemeier - swapped for through Paperbackswap.com
The Forbidden Stone (The Copernicus Legacy #1) by Tony Abbott - Public library digital collection
Princess Comics #2 by Amy Mebberson - Personal purchase
Wild Born by Brandon Mull - swapped for through Paperbackswap.com
The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage: The (Mostly) True Story of the First Computer by Sydney Padua - Public library digital collection
Ivy's Ever After - Local newspaper for review (and I assume from publisher/publicist to the paper)
Doll Bones - Public library
Prince Tennyson - Public library digital collection
Aphrodite: Goddess of Love - Public library
Secrets at Sea by Richard Peck - Public library
Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos by R. L. LaFevers - Public library
Foiled by Jane Yolen - Local newspaper for review (and I assume from publisher/publicist to the paper)
Beyonders: A World Without Heroes by Brandon Mull - Local newspaper for review (and I assume from publisher/publicist to the paper)
Dorothy of Oz by Son Hee-Jun - ARC from publisher

Review: Pirate Penguin Vs Ninja Chicken

Pirate Penguin Vs Ninja Chicken, Volume 1: Troublems with Frenemies by Ray Friesen

Pirate Penguin and Ninja Chicken are the perfect definition of frenemies. One minute they’re the best of friends, and then the next they’re fighting and trying to beat each other. But you can count on them having lots of fun along the way.

There is something so endearing about this book, and it’s not just the charming illustrative style (which I really enjoyed). It was instant book love for me. It’s been a long time since I’ve read a book that consistently made me genuinely belly laugh. And then I was not only laughing, but also running to the next room to share my favorite jokes with family members. The antics of these two characters are completely silly and ridiculous, but somehow that works for their personalities. The “troublems” in the title should give you a clue that there’s a lot of odd word combinations, which sometimes works great for the storylines and sometimes not so much.

 My one complaint was that the format of the book was a little weird. The first half is made up of mini-comics episodes 1-3 pages long, while the second half of the book was a longer continuous story (albeit made of up of smaller episodes). If you can’t stand silly or ridiculous things, you’re probably not going to enjoy this one, but I can see kids totally eating this up (and adults who don’t take life too seriously will enjoy it too).

Shady Glade Rating: 5 leaves

Available at Amazon.com in Hardcover or Kindle

Add to your Goodreads shelf
Check availability on Paperbackswap.com

Review: Drama

Drama by Raina Telgemeier

The plot of Drama is hard to sum up.  I think this is because I see it more as a "slice in the life of" book.  Callie is a middle school student who loves theater (especailly musicals).  Due to a less than stellar singing voice though, rather than trying out for a role in her school's production of Moon Over Mississippi, she's part of the stage crew.   And you can bet there will be a whole lot of drama to ensue.

I’ll start by getting the controversial out of the way first. This is a middle grade book, featuring middle school aged characters, a book aimed at 9-12ish years of age. And one of the characters is gay. So if you’re a parent and that’s something that will bother you, keep that in mind. For me, personally, it didn’t bother me, and I say that coming from a conservative perspective. It is definitely presented as a situation where being gay is not a big deal, so parents you may want to use that to start a conversation with your children. Personally, I am of the opinion that a child in middle school doesn’t know enough about him/herself to know if he/she is gay yet, but that’s a discussion for a different medium.

 Moving on to the book itself, I have to start by saying that I love Raina Telgemeier’s books. I have read pretty much every one she’s done, and Smile in particular ranks up there in my favorite books of all time. That being said, I felt something was missing in Drama. There were parts of it that I loved. The artwork and characterization is spectacular as always, and I enjoyed the theater aspect greatly because it reminded me of my (brief) stint in high school theater. But as mentioned above I just didn’t feel like there was much of a plot. Callie seemed a little too boy crazy for my taste (although I realize some girls are really like that), I just felt like it didn’t gel well with the whole theater plot thread. I will also say that I wasn’t very happy with the shoehorned climax at the school dance, which I won’t talk more about because it would give the ending away. But it just felt a tad too cliché for me.

 All that being said, I would still recommend this, especially if like me you’re a fan of Telgemeier’s other books. I just think it’s going to need to find the right audience to really enjoy it.

Shady Glade Rating: 3 leaves

Find out more about my ratings here

Available at Amazon.com in Hardcover, Paperback or Kindle

Add to your Goodreads shelf
Check availability on Paperbackswap.com

Have you got your nominations in yet?

There's just 5 days left to nominate your favorite books of the year for the Cybils awards!  If you haven't yet, head over to the Cybils blog right now to submit your favorites.

About this time each year, the Cybils blog collects lists of items that haven't been nominated yet, but
someone would like to see still make the list.  If you haven't used of your one item per category nomination yet, you might want to peruse the lists to see if you can help someone out.

As I mentioned in my last post, I'm judging in the new audiobook category this year, and we could still really use some nominations!  So I thought I'd put together this list of things I found on audible that are definitely eligible.

And if none of these float your boat, remember that most books nominated in another Cybils category this year that has an audio version available is eligible for the audiobook category.  Even if you haven't listened to the audio version, but you know the book is good, then it might still deserve and audio nomination.

Here's some audiobooks that are eligible based on their date and the middle grade criteria for this year.  I haven't read all of these yet, but if you have read any of these and you loved it, consider nominating it for our category.  Hopefully this list helps you think of a great audiobook nomination!

A Most Magical Girl by Karen Foxlee
All Four Stars by Tara Dairman
Audacity Jones to the Rescue by Kirby Larson
Book Scavenger by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman
Case of the Girl in Grey by Jordan Stratford
Disenchanted: The Trials of Cinderella by Megan Morrison
Foxheart by Claire Legrand 
Frazzled: Everyday Disasters and Impending Doom by Booki Vivat 
Fuzzy by Tom Angleberger
Going Wild by Lisa McMann
Grayling's Song by Karen Cushman
Grounded by Megan Morrison
Hour of the Bees by Lindsay Eagar 
I Survived the Eruption of Mount St. Helens, 1980 by Lauren Tarshis
Impyrium by Henry H Neff
It Ain't So Awful, Falafel by Firoozeh Dumas
Knights of the Borrowed Dark by Dave Rudden
Lock and Key by Ridley Pearson
Look Out for the Fitzgerald-Trouts by Esta Spalding
Milo Speck, Accidental Agent by Linda Urban
Moo by Sharon Creech
Mr. Lemoncello's Library Olympics by Chris Grabenstein
Ned's Circus of Marvels by Justin Fisher
Once Upon a Toad by Heather Vogel Frederick
Out of Abaton by John Claude Bemis
Pax by Sara Pennypacker
Red: The True Story of Red Riding Hood by Liesl Shurtliff 
Save Me A Seat by Sarah Weeks
Shadow Magic by Joshua Khan
Six Kids and a Stuffed Cat by Gary Paulsen
Slacker by Gordon Korman 
Sting: A Loot Novel by Jude Watson
Summerlost by Ally Condie
Sweet Home Alaska by Carole Estby Dagg
The Adventurer's Guide to Successful Escapes by Wade Albert White
The Candymakers and the Great Chocolate Chase by Wendy Mass
The Case of the Vanishing Emerald by Holly Webb
The Charmed Children of Rooksill Castle by Janet Fox
The Dala Horse by Lissa Jonston
The Door by the Staircase by Katherine March 
The Firefly Code by Megan Frazer Blakemore
The Girl in the Well Is Me by Karen Rivers 
The Girl Who Could Not Dream by Sarah Beth Durst 
The Glass Castle by Trisha Priebe
The Haunting of Falcon House by Eugene Yelchin
The Lincoln Project by Dan Gutman
The Scourge by Jennifer Nielson
The Secret Keepers by Trenton Lee Stewart
The Secret of Dreadwillow Carse by Brian Farrey 
The Trilogy of Two by Juman Malouf
Time Stoppers by Carrie Jones
Time Traveling With a Hamster by Ross Welford
True Heroes: A Treasury of Modern-Day Fairy Tales Written by Bestselling Authors
Warren the 13th and the All-Seeing Eye by Tania del Rio
What Elephants Know by Eric Dinerstein
When Friendship Followed Me Home by Paul Griffin
Will Wilder: The Relic of Perilous Falls by Raymond Arroyo
Wish by Barbara O'Connor 
Wishing Day by Lauren Myracle
Wolf Hollow by Lauren Wolk

It's that time again...

I'm a few days behind on announcing this, but things have been crazy the past few weeks.  In addition to getting the usual autumn cold, helping mom continue to recover from surgery, and trying to keep up with things at work, we also bought a new car.  Which came with its own long weeks of shopping and deal wrangling.  O.o

Anyway, things are getting back to normal for me, and a few days ago the Cybils Awards opened up for nominations!  For those of you who are not familiar with the Cybils, they are the Children's and Young Adult Literary Blogging awards.  Basically it's the kidlitosphere's blogging version of the literary merit of awards like the Newberry medal combined with the popular vote of the Webby Awards.  The biggest criteria for the Cybils is both good writing/literary merit and kid appeal.

I'm happy to be participating again as a Round 1 judge this year, in a brand new category, audiobooks!  It will be fun to break ground in this new area for the Cybils.

The biggest part of the "popular vote" section of the awards is now.  The awards accept nominations for books in 11 categories from people just like you!  So if you have a favorite book for kids or teens published in the last year, make sure you go nominate it.

We especially need audiobook nominations!  So even if audiobooks aren't your thing, if you have a book that you want to nominate (or has already been nominated) in either of the middle grade categories this year, all you have to do is check if it has an audio version to qualify for the new category.  I found tons of great possible nominations on audible.com, there's lots that will qualify.

Happy reading everyone!

Review: The Forbidden Stone

The Forbidden Stone (The Copernicus Legacy #1) by Tony Abbott

Wade Kaplan loves astronomy, something he learned from his Uncle Henry. When Wade, his stepbrother Darrell, and their two friends Becca and Lily get a strange email from Uncle Henry shortly before receiving word of the old man’s death, Wade is sure it has something to do with the star map Uncle Henry gave him for his birthday. Together the group of friends, although with Wade’s father, travel to Germany to attend Uncle Henry’s funeral, where they discover the strange email was in fact a code. The code leads to a clue which leads the kids to discover the mysterious Copernicus Legacy. Now they must race against time to find the other clue and protect this ancient secret before a sinister secret society gets to it first.

This book has all the hallmarks of a good adventure story, with international espionage, clues, secrets, codes, historical artifacts, and just enough wonder to push the book over the edge from realistic fiction to that speculative/science fiction “what if” sphere. This being the first book in a series, it does get bogged down a bit in the beginning through the introduction of the characters and the plot. That being said, it definitely does a good job of building the suspense through these introductions, which kept me going even though I felt a bit bored and confused at the beginning.

I may be posting a separate review of the additional books at another time, but I can confidently say that although my rating of this first book may be a little on the low side, the series definitely gets better the farther you go along. As of this post I’ve read all but the last (yet unpublished) volume, and I am eagerly awaiting its release in November of this year. I’m only awarding this one an “it was okay” rating, but I do still recommend it, especially as it gets better the farther the series goes on. This one also gets an Up All Night award leaf since the action kept me eagerly reading, especially near the end. Recommended especially for middle grade/teen readers that enjoy astronomy and/or spy stories.

Shady Glade Rating: 3 leaves and the Up All Night Award

Find out more about my ratings here

Available at Amazon.com in Hardcover, Paperback, Kindle, or Audiobook

Add to your Goodreads shelf
Check availability on Paperbackswap.com