Get a New Book Lately? :)
If you recently got a new book and haven’t read it yet, post a pic here (and a synopsis, etc, if you wish)! Share your new discovery before you even get into it.
After you’re done reading it, let us know what you thought! Good, bad, enthralling, boring, whimsical, serious, life-changing… Give us your honest review! <3
I'll start! <3
I went to a book sale today, and got a TON of books for $5! <3 Here's a few I got...
Poppy, a deer mouse, and Ereth, a grumbling porcupine, have been the best of friends for as long as the animals of Dimwood Forest can remember. An unstoppable pair ever since they defeated the tyrannical owl, Mr. Ocax, Poppy and Ereth have enjoyed many happy adventures together.
The Second Mrs. Gioconda by E.L. Konigsburg is a historical fiction novel for children that explores the background of Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa painting. The story is told in third person through the experiences of Salai, da Vinci's 10-year-old apprentice, and is set primarily in Milan, Italy.
The Candy Shop War is a children's fantasy novel by Brandon Mull about four friends who receive magical candy from a candy shop owner and magicians. The candy has magical side effects, such as making the eater weightless, unbreakable, or a master of disguise. The friends are then tasked with retrieving a hidden talisman, but they're not the only ones searching for it. The book is the first in a trilogy and was published in 2007.
The True Story of Hansel and Gretel by Louise Murphy is a dark, haunting, and imaginative retelling of the classic fairy tale set in Poland during World War II. The novel follows two Jewish children, Hansel and Gretel, who are forced to flee the Nazis with their father and stepmother in the winter of 1943. In a desperate attempt to keep their identities safe, their parents give them new names and send them alone into the forest to hide. Gretel leads her younger brother in search of food and shelter, while Hansel leaves a trail of breadcrumbs to help their father find them.
These all sound like great books! When you finish Poppy and Ereth, be sure and share a review; it sounds so interesting. Thanks for starting the thread.
@enigmaticOcean8813
That's actually the next one on my list! <3 I was intrigued by it too. Will totally give you guys my honest review after I read it <3
@enigmaticOcean8813
Sorry, I keep forgetting to do the Poppy and Ereth review!! lol
It was super promising at the beginning, that it would be deep. However, it proved to not be so deep after all... It was well-written and kept me engaged, but it left me wanting something more. It was good enough, however, that when I spotted a couple of prequels/sequels at the last book sale, I eagerly snatched them up. They're cute enough to read more <3
Also... I've met people like Ereth. I can't say they're much fun to be around. hehe
@jesusredeemedme2425, Thanks so much for the review!
You are so welcome <3
Bookmarking this post, I might have some stuff to post when I get around to it
Yay!
@Torean
Find anything? :)
@jesusredeemedme2425 
i just got these three books on friday!!! i have other books to finish before these tho lol (also idk why my photos are always sideways from my camera roll 😔🤚)
I think you have to edit the pics before posting. Mine does that sometimes too <3
@jesusredeemedme2425 ohhhhh ok ty
@jesusredeemedme2425
I'm definitely trying to get more into reading, I've spent most of my youth reading comics and manga but wanted to start expanding my horizons. I have a short backlog but I'm currently reading "Red Rising" and plan to read "Lord of the Flies" when I get around to it!
Ooh, you should read “The Girl Who Owned a City”! It’s been compared to Lord of the Flies <3
@jesusredeemedme2425
Got this book! For anyone interested in fantasy, I've heard great things about this book and I'm excited to read it! It's a completed duology about a human girl competing in trials with vampires. :)
Ooh I love the cover! It’s so realistic and detailed <3
@jesusredeemedme2425
Recently I got The Despair of Monkeys and Other Trifles by Françoise Hardy, a French singer who recently passed away. This is her memoir, and I’m only a few chapters in so far, but it’s very interesting!
Basically, she recounts her childhood and her eventual transition into stardom when her talent for singing was discovered. All the while, she dealt with severe social anxiety, so I find it even more impressive that she got out there and performed in front of live audiences and garnered her own records and the like.
I wanna know what the title means hehe
@jesusredeemedme2425
I think it’s a self-deprecatory jab at herself and the complexities of emotions in life. Given that humans are related to monkeys, she may have wanted to imply a more “primal” sort of problem with life. But that’s just my take on it 🤷🏻♀️
Who is she? I’ve never heard of her…
@jesusredeemedme2425
She was a French singer who was really popular in the 60’s. I chanced to find out about her when I was looking up French music back when I was taking French classes. Her voice is very soothing and lilting. If you want to check out some of her songs, a couple of my favorites that I would recommend include “Effeuille-moi le cœur” and “Parlez-moi de lui”.
@TheAutumnWitch What did Hardy die from? It sounds like she passed away awfully early.
@slowdecline48
She passed away from laryngeal cancer; she actually was in her 80s but my mind is stuck imagining her when she was at her height of fame in the 60s, way before I was born.
@TheAutumnWitch Mm. 🤔
While Hardy lived a long life, in her case the cause of death was bitterly ironic. Laryngeal cancer...for a singer?
@slowdecline48
She did smoke, so I think that may have contributed to it. Near the end of her life, the cancer prevented her from continuing being able to sing, much to her anguish, understandably.
My mom and I did the Summer Reading Program at the library and got coupons for $5 free! So we got a HUGE bag full of books today, for FREE <3 Here's some highlights!
(BTW, that's a super cool benefit of doing the reading programs... Free stuff!!!! <3)
I've read the last one before, but it was sooooo good <3
The Cat Who Saved Books by Sosuke Natsukawa is a novel about a high schooler named Rintaro Natsuki who inherits a secondhand bookstore from his grandfather and an orange tabby cat who asks for his help. The cat needs Rintaro's help to save books from various dangers, and the two, along with Rintaro's classmate Sayo, go on an adventure that teaches them the importance of books.
Clemantine Wamariya was six years old when her mother and father began to speak in whispers, when neighbors began to disappear, and when she heard the loud, ugly sounds her brother said were thunder. In 1994, she and her fifteen-year-old sister, Claire, fled the Rwandan massacre and spent the next six years migrating through seven African countries, searching for safety—perpetually hungry, imprisoned and abused, enduring and escaping refugee camps, finding unexpected kindness, witnessing inhuman cruelty. They did not know whether their parents were dead or alive.
https://www.amazon.com/Girl-Who-Smiled-Beads-Story/dp/0451495322
The Boy Who Dared by Susan Campbell Bartoletti is a fictionalized biography based on the true story of Helmuth Hübener, a German teenager who opposed the Nazi regime during World War II. The story begins on the last day of Hübener's life, as he awaits execution in Plötzensee prison. The narrative then shifts back in time through a series of flashbacks that trace Hübener's growth from a naive child to a courageous young man. The flashbacks cover Hübener's years in school, his first job, and his time in the Hitler Youth group, the Jungvolk. As Nazi power and policies spread, Hübener becomes disillusioned and eventually comes to believe that the German government is lying to its people. After listening to BBC news on an illegal short-wave radio, Hübener writes and distributes anti-Nazi leaflets, which leads to his arrest and trial for treason.
Between Shades of Gray is a historical fiction novel by Ruta Sepetys that tells the story of a 15-year-old Lithuanian girl named Lina Vilkas who is deported to Siberia by the Soviet secret police in 1941 during World War II. The book follows Lina and her family as they are forced to travel north across the Arctic Circle to a labor camp in Siberia, where they are forced to dig for beets and fight for their lives under cruel conditions. The story is told from Lina's perspective in short chapters with flashbacks, and explores themes of resilience, family bonds, and the power of art in the face of adversity.
@jesusredeemedme2425 You're into historical fiction, eh?... A woman of taste, indeed.
How do you find the time to read all of those?
Impressed? Lol. Yeah, most of the women I know don’t really read much, if at all, and especially not about history… It also saddens me that the younger ones don’t know what the Holocaust is. :(
Heh. I don’t XD I collect more than I have time to read! A lot of them go to storage for when I need more at home <3
Unfortunately, yes...I saw that a while ago. It's just one of many indicators. One of the reasons why I maintain the US is a nation in decline is because for a while now, we've slowly been turning into a civilization of ignorance. That started even before the Internet emerged. There are millennials & zoomers out there who think the Holocaust was a myth, or that the total number of dead was two million or less. There are people who can't name a single Jewish ghetto in Germany & Poland, & who don't know what Auschwitz-Birkenau is... 🤦🏼♂️ Seriously.
I don't even want to know what gen Alpha kids would say about this.
For anyone else here who didn't know about the above, here's a relevant article. If you're curious & want more detailed info--& if you are, you get extra points from me--you can read about it here.
TW:
You’re talking to a girl who’s reading a book called Refugee, about the Holocaust and other horrifying periods, and has a friend who lived through the Holocaust… Our nation should be ashamed. Telling people that the atrocities they endured didn’t exist?? That’s so wrong… I know about Auschwitz-Birkenau. Birkenau was the women’s section,
if I remember correctly. They were tortured and killed. You
really think that was made up? An entire people was nearly wiped out…
I’m passionate about this, can you tell? Lol
And you're talking to a guy whose family included members that never made it out of Germany.
I don't know the specifics....all I know is they couldn't pay for passage, & were gone by the end of it all. Nor have I done any research on it. While I've always been a curious person, some knowledge I can live without. Got enough books on the Shoah (& the purges in the USSR & Communist China) as it is.
Ah man… I’m so sorry :’(
I can’t imagine what your family went through.
It’s also hard reading about other genocides and refugee/internment camp situations, like the Tutsi and Hutu in Rwanda, and Sudan, and North Korea… How can people be so cruel to each other?
@jesusredeemedme2425
I recently bought "The Annals of Imperial Rome" by Tacitus and "Bleak House" by Charles Dickens
Boosting :)
@jesusredeemedme2425. You have some interesting books that you are reading above. I may try some of these.
Thank you! <3