Mary Ellen > Recent Status Updates

I’m reading this with my 10 year old for homeschool. This is the perfect way for me to learn history. I get just a taste, which inspires me to go read more about the things I am the most interested in. It’s seriously silly how much of these first 37 pages are completely new to me. My 10 year old knows more about some of these people from the “Who Was” show.

Oh my goodness. “An Unwritten Novel” is absolutely incredible. I did not know that writing could be published like this! Once, I got on a train and rode it for two hours. I didn’t stop writing the entire time. I shared it with my professor and she loved it! I was so confused. It was just my thoughts as things flew past me. Reading “An Unwritten Novel” kind of gives me a glimpse into what my professor saw.

Reading this with my 9 year old for school. I’m surprised how many things I am having to look up. I learned today that when a cat retracts its claws, that was (maybe still is to some people) called “velveting”. Who knew?

Thank heavens for computer programmers turned authors! My 14 year old loves reading Big Nate, Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Garfield. He is a total genius, so he rarely finds anything fictional that will keep his attention. After reading The Martian in school, then Project Hail Mary, he read the Skyward books from Brandon Sanderson. He needed something new! I think I found it!

So good!!

Loving it!

We read The Happy Prince tonight. Incredibly generic. I was hoping these would be a little more fun because it’s Oscar Wilde. I’ll be checking in as I read them. Maybe I’ll be surprised.

Wait? Why is Lucy suddenly such a mess? She was all girl power in the last book. Suddenly she is a cliche whimpering/helpless mother. 🤨

I have not loved any of the books in this series. Book one was cute. Book two was just awful. Book three got good. Looks like book 4 is making some of the same mistakes book 2 did. Why am I still reading this series if they are sub-par? Honestly, because I have them on Libby and I’m waiting for several other books to be available. I need something. This works…

After the dangerous situation the Glower children found themselves in book one, book two is already such a disappointment. I feel as though the story was never meant to be a series and Jessica Day George had to scramble to come up with more plot. 32 pages in and I have yet to discover where this book is actually going. Tragedy.

This is my second time to read this book. It is every bit as charming as I remember. I started reading it to my 9 year old, but she got impatient and finished it on her own. We’ve moved on to read book 2 together (which I have never read), but I want to finish this one on my own. It’s a solid story with a loving cast of characters. I love how close the brother and sisters are.

The best way to describe this book is Tolkien Fan-fiction with as much gore and as many plot lines going on at once as the Rings of Power tv series. Like Tolkien, Heitz has introduced countless characters with fantasy names that sound similar. I honestly can’t keep most of the characters straight. Luckily, I am listen to the audiobook and the narrator does the voices different.

Good heck. I was just describing the vermicious knid part of the book to my husband, and he asked if the great glass elevator was the tardis and now I’m VERY curious to know how these two works of fiction influenced each other.

I didn't realize how recently this book was written! January 2020! I want to revise my earlier comments. This book was written during Trump's presidency. The sad truth is that this book never would find its way into the hands that need it had it been written by someone Hispanic. I have so many things to say. I'll save them for my review when I finish.

This story is gripping. A great work of fiction written by an American for Americans. Unfortunately, according to many of the very people Cummins is trying to speak for, it cannot represent reality. The major criticism that I can see as problematic, is that the main character is a well-educated woman who speaks fluent English.
Despite its flaws though, I think it’s great that people are reading it.

I am curious to know how much of an influence Willy Wonka had on the writers of Doctor Who. They had quite the run in with Vermicious Knids that was both frightening and ridiculous enough to have made a decent episode! Did not see that coming!
The book is fun enough, but I can see why it is less known: dangerous space creatures are nowhere near as charming as dangerous candy.

I am a new fan of Ishiguro. I really enjoyed The Buried Giant and am loving this book as well! I think I might end up reading everything he has ever written!