PLEASE BEAR WITH ME WHILE I FIGURE OUT WHY DISCUS IS PUTTING THOSE GIGANTIC UGLY AD SECTIONS ON MY BLOG. I APOLOGIZE.
TELL ME TUESDAY is a floating feature, depending on your reading style, where you tell us what you read last, what you are reading now, what you will be reading next, and why.
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I am curious why people read what they read, so tell me!
ONE BOOK A WEEK
In 2025 my goal is to continue to keep my reading down to one book a week. I have already failed by hitting 52 books read two weeks ago. Heh.
THEMES
September's theme is Witchtember, so I've been reading some extra witch books.
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October will be a mixed bag of spooky and scary. I'm excited about some scary Libby hoIds coming up!
This is the second year I haven't published an August Dog Days of Summer Celebration post. Last year I read four dog themed stories, so I made a twenty dollar donation to my second favorite area rescue shelter because they had recently rescued a large group of hoarded dogs. This year I also read four dog books and I will be donating five dollars per book to my favorite shelter again. Maybe to be fair I should switch between the two each year. Next year I hope to have a proper DDOS again with a giveaway and a bingo board.
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This was a re-read for me. Toto was in it briefly. I love this series.
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This one was not only for DDOS reading it was for my NYT 100 Best Books of the 21st Century challenge. I've read ten, so far, loved eight of them, really liked one and hated this one. When I first started reading I couldn't for the life of me figure out how so many authors and literary reviewers voted for this book because the writing is terrible; then after awhile I saw it... it was a sympathy book for White authors; especially White male authors. The White female MC was constantly making excuses for her older White male professor friend's lecherous behavior with young, sometimes underage, students of his because he was a writer and that's just their nature and they can't help it. Good grief
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Then there was the boo-hooing about how White writers can't make a living anymore because all people want to read now are diverse books with minority authors, and how male authors can't write about women in the ways they used to. I had to laugh because one of the voting authors was Joyce Carol Oates and a few years back on Twitter she said the reason why Black authors couldn't get published is because they don't work hard enough. Oops. Also, the friend from the title isn't the dog... it's the old professor. As far as the dog content it was basically the MC constantly complaining about the size of the dog's poops she had to pick up off the sidewalk. There were also a lot of characters in the story who had sexual feelings about dogs. Yikes!
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I think this book was given a Newbery Honor because it was about kids having to stay home and do Zoom classes because of a virus and the "negative effects" it supposedly had on students. It certainly didn't deserve honors for the writing. The magical system had a lot of holes in it, and there were too many unrealistic scenes in the real world setting.
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The story turned paranormal at almost fifty percent, with no foreshadowing, to make the plot start coming together. I wonder if he started out writing with this intention, or if it was out of desperation to make the story work? His writing was beautiful sometimes, but the majority of it was long winded, dry, and boring. Then there were the nonsense terms like "midday twilight" and how his mother sat with a "liontine curve" in her back. There also was really no conclusion. The story just whimpered and died. The ending made me wish I hadn't taken the time to read it.
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I do want to mention this book. It has been my favorite dog story over the last eight years. Read it with a box of tissues. I think I'm going to re-read it next year for DDOS. The ebook is only $1.99 on Amazon right now.
What are you reading? Tell me!
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