Year 5, week 31: Stolen Tongues

This week's book:
Stolen Tongues
By Felix Blackwell

This book was a buddy read for my online book challenge group. I had never heard of it before, and hardly knew anything about it before I started it. 

The book is about a couple who go on a romantic getaway and end up with a dark force following them. The book is based on the author and his fiancée, and her history of sleepwalking and night terrors. The author wanted to make the sleepwalker/talker to say and do creepy things an average person that sleepwalks/talks and her body to have odd movements, but not seem possessed. The book originally was a series of short stories on Creepypasta (which is a website that has tons of scary stories). 

I read horror off and on, and normally there are some creepy moments, but as a whole an entire book doesn't normally scare me. Well, this book was so freaking creepy! Like the whole book creeped me out. 

The fun thing is that I was able to do a very small (like six other people) Zoom discussion with the author. He is young and so down to Earth and sweet. He even offered to send us all free e-books of his other novel. (I will have to follow up if that really happens). The author thought our culture has gotten so desensitized to gore and he wanted to write a whole book with just sounds and voices. He wanted to write something creepy. He said he just can't write gore porn; it just makes him sick. I thought that sounded so cool because I'm so tired of the gory stuff. He wanted to make his readers feel isolated and feel alone while they read his books. He is a bit embarrassed that the book became such a hit because he feels like it wasn't written as well as his other books. 

There is a native American subplot in the novel. Three of the main characters are from the same tribe and he does a good job of writing them, and he didn't use the common stereotypes that are used in fiction. The author actually spent a whole chapter after the book to explain he has studied native American history in grad school and he wanted to bring more strong characters into mainstream fiction.

There is going to be a prequel to this book in about a year. He says if you liked this book you might not like the prequel, and vice versa. There are way more characters and a third person perspective, instead of the small cast and first person perspective of Stolen Tongues. This prequel has lots of indigenous people, women, and LGBTQ characters as well. 

I very much liked this book. I would definitely recommend this if you want to be creeped out. 

P.S. my youngest daughter wanted to join in on our meeting, but tuckered herself out.

Year 5, week 30: The Midnight Library

This week's book:
The Midnight Library
By Matt Haig

I actually read this week's book at the beginning of last year, but I never ended up writing a blog about it. This past weekend my book group discussed this book and I was reminded of my lack of a blog. This novel is written by a man, but is all about a woman, which my group found interesting. 

The novel is about a woman down on her luck, when she decides that she will end her life. Instead of being taken to heaven or hell, she ends up in a purgatory in the form of a library. In this library she gets to check out books, in which each book tells her life if she made different choices or different things happened in each one. 

The thing that I enjoyed the most about this book was that each alternative life wasn't a total hellscape. So often in novels and films, it's seems like each different path the character's life gets worse and worse. Another element that is very interesting is that the librarian is someone the heroine knew in real life. The group had a lot of ideas who and what the librarian represented, God or a tour guide, we couldn't decide. 

After our discussion, I fear I was too harsh on the novel on my initial reading. I think why I was originally so hard on it was because everyone just raved about the novel. I would recommend it.

Year 5, week 29: Lucky Leap Day

This week's book:
Lucky Leap Day
By Ann Marie Walker

I saw this book randomly online a few months ago and did something I hardly ever do. I drove to an actual bookstore and bought it for full price. The book had to do with Leap Day and with Ireland, so I wanted to read the novel around St Patrick's Day and Leap Day. 

The novel is the story of an American woman visiting Ireland. There is a tradition that women get to propose on Leap Year, which our two main characters take advantage of. When our leading lady comes home to L.A., she brings her new hubby along. The book is a silly romance that has no real drama, which I would have totally gobbled up years ago, before getting married or becoming a mom. But now in my thirties, it seemed a little too fluffy.

The book would make a cute romcom, which would probably be released between Valentines Day and St. Patrick's. If you are on the hunt for a quick fun read, check this book out. 

Year 5, week 28: Pushout

This week's book:
Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools
By Monique W. Morris

March is Women's History Month, and this previous week held International Women's Day, which propelled me to want to read this book. It doesn't matter what color a woman's skin is, her story and impact on the world is important and needs to be heard. I bought this book a few years ago and kept putting it off or finding reasons to not read it. Well I stopped the dilly-dallying and read the book this week. 

The book tells of how girls are treated poorly in school, especially lower income black women. Between sex trafficking which can lead to unwanted pregnancy, there is also the foster system and misbehavior in which can lead to detention, expulsion, or even jail time, which all leads to the inability to finish high school. A lack of an education can lead to even more prison time. Learning disabilities are under diagnosed in girls and an even high chance of African American girls. Punishments are much harsher for the black girls vs white girls in many classrooms. 

Of the stories from the book talk about a six year old (same age as my middle child) being arrested in handcuffs for misbehaving in her classroom. I literally can not imagine our daughter getting arrested in her kindergarten classroom. 

The book is so powerful and educational. Everyone should read it.

Year 5, week 27: Sisters in Arms

This week's book:
Sisters in Arms
By Kaia Alderson

This was my Book of the Month pick months ago. I was very interested the plot of this historical fiction novel, which is about the history of the first African American Women in the U.S. Army during World War II, but sometimes historical fiction is just not my jam. Sometimes historical fiction novels are very dense and hard for me to get through. I kept putting off reading it for that reason. 

Well, it turns out that the novel is just lovely. While it does have some moments that are maybe a little hard, the novel is really well written and I ended up really enjoying it. The book is about two African American Women with very different backgrounds, who join the army during World World II so they can help where they can. 

I enjoyed the novel very much and can't recommend it enough.