Monthly Wrap-Up: October 2017

Happy Halloween, Samhain, and any other holiday happening over the next few days, everyone! It’s the end of the month, so it’s time to wrap up what happened and what I found online.

Book Reviews

• Nisemonogatari: Fake Tale: Part 01 by NisiOisiN: 3/5 stars
• Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia: 4/5 stars
• The Goblins of Bellwater by Molly Ringle: 2/5 stars
• In Real Life by Cory Doctorow, illustrated by Jen Wang: 2/5 stars

Of the books I reviewed, I only liked one. That’s disappointing, but I did read some other great books this month.

Currently Reading

I’m currently listening to Girl Mans Up by M-E Girard. I do not know my audiobook performers, but I love Emma Galvin’s narration of the book. I also need to read a couple of plays this week.

Book Memes, Tags & An Award

• Sunshine Blogger Award – Thank you again, Neha!
• Six Degrees of Separation from Like Water for Chocolate to Wicca
• Book Traveling Thursdays: A New-to-You Author
• Project Runway Book Tag [Original]

Reading Challenges

Book Blog Discussion Challenge: 13/11

I wrote another discussion post. It was about the pros and cons of rainbow bookshelves this time.

Goodreads Reading Challenge: 66/60

I finally finished this challenge! Of course, there’s more to read, so the number will keep climbing. Unlike what I have done with the Library Love Challenge, I will not increase the goal to meet something higher.

Pages Read Challenge: 13,153/17,000

I’m closer to reaching my goal! I want to at least make Bonsai level (15,000 minimum). I’m also annoyed that there isn’t a way to make audiobooks count toward this, but that’s only because I’m reading one now.

Back to the Classics Reading Challenges: 5/6

This one hasn’t changed. The remaining available categories I could use are going to be hard to fill.

Banned/Challenged Books Reading Challenge: 10/13

Romeo & Juliet is one of the top banned books in schools, according to this article on Bustle. I did not look into this closely last month, so I am adding it now. I’m still at the Blow-Up level.

Graphic Novel Reading Challenge: 12/12

In Real Life is #11 for the challenge. I also reread the Ouran High School Host Club, Vol. 2, by Bisco Hatori, and I hope to post the review in November. That makes 12, once I get the review up. For the sake of argument, I am counting this challenge done. This also puts me at the Modern Age level.

Library Love Challenge: 21/24

In Real Life and Ouran High School Host Club apply for this challenge too. I also read S. Jae-Jones’ Wintersong.

Operation Deepen Faith

I have dropped the Bible as Literature course since last the update. Considering it’s the end of October, I’m calling it quits on this challenge for the year. Maybe I will try again next year. Maybe I will try for a more reasonable chunk. We will see.

Final totals for this challenge:

• Percent of Old Testament: 7.9%
• Percent of New Testament: 0.0%
• Percent of the Protestant Bible: 6.1%

Picture Book Reading Challenge: 14/20

8. a book with animal characters – Si·su T’i·yeli T’a·gɨm Moŋgɨl HayaɁ: The Wašiw Legend of the Large Bird that Grew Pine Nuts retold and translated by Lisa Enos and Melba Rakow, ilustrated by Mauricio Sandoval

As part of an effort to revitalize the Wašiw language, this book tells the legend of how the Pine Nuts came to be. In this type of narrative, the characters are all animals that share food. In order to get more food, they plant seeds. The painted illustrations are okay, but I don’t think they add to the story. It also includes a guide for pronouncing some of the letters.

74. a book that makes you laugh – The Dumb Bunnies by Sue Denim, illustrated by Dav Pilkey

First in the Dumb Bunnies series, we meet the family of dumb bunnies. They have the dumbest and funniest adventures. I laughed as I read every page. I highly recommend looking closely at the pictures to see what else plays into the humor.

76. hate the text, love the art – The Pumpkin Blanket by Deborah Turney Zagwyn

The story is of a girl who loves her blanket, but she has to rip it up square by square to save the pumpkins from the frost. One, I don’t think that that would work in real life. Two, I hate that she has to rip up her blanket because her father asked her to and because she would get laughed at at school if she carried it everywhere.

Now, the art is beautiful. It’s mixed media. Most of it is primarily water color, but the characters are drawn with crayon, probably. This combination creates wonderful texture, and it all mixes together well to create unified pictures. The blanket is beautiful, as are the squares on each pumpkin.

84. a book about seasons – C’ošuŋi: The Wašiw Seasons as Told by Cošuŋi retold and translated by Lisa Enos and Melba Rakow, illustrated by BillyHawk Enos

As part of an effort to revitalize the Wašiw language, this book tells a legend of the seasons in Wašiw, English (at the back), and literal translation in word order. It also includes a guide for pronouncing some of the letters. It’s certainly a story I have never heard or read before. The legend itself is about an ant who learns about the seasons and how to survive through them by riding in the burden baskets of a group of Washoe People. For being a book about the seasons, I was surprised that it wasn’t about their origin, but this is interesting. The illustrations are done in pastel, I believe, and they are beautiful for helping the story and showing the world from the perspective of an ant. The landscapes are soft and beautiful.

101. an adaptation of a myth or legend – Pewet’sali Ɂi·da Damalali C’ɨk’ɨ HaɁka: The Wašiw Legend of Pewet’sali and Damalali and Their Adventure with Black Widow retold and translated by Lisa Enos and Melba Rakow, illustrated by Charles Munroe

As part of an effort to revitalize the Wašiw language, this book tells a legend of two relatives, Pewet’sali the weasel and Damalali the squirrel. It follows the bilingual style of C’ošuŋi. A lot happens in this book. The squirrel misbehaves and has to be rescued by the weasel from the black widow spider. There’s travel by rainbow and the use of tobacco to save the day. (The matches on the cover are misleading.) Moral of the story: Don’t stray too far from home. All of the pictures are in colored pencil and are detailed. This is an entertaining legend.

Read It Again, Sam, Challenge: 5/8

The first book I reread this month was the second volume of Ouran High School Host Club. The second reread book is The Pumpkin Blanket, which I read last year, and I am counting my description above as the review for it. The third reread book of the year is Hamlet. I still need to write the reviews for three of these books, but I made it to the Déjà Vu level. The fourth book I reread was The Dumb Bunnies, which I read last year.

Reading Challenge Addict: 4/11

This is looking a lot better. I still see it unlikely that I will reach 11 completed challenges, but I would like to reach nine or ten.

Interesting Finds

Briana @ Pages Unbound wants more holiday books in YA. Since Thanksgiving is coming soon, I’ve also wondered if there are any Thanksgiving YA books. I can think of several for children’s books. Are there any other holidays you want to see more YA books about?

AJ Sterkel @ Read All The Things! asked us all to please not make assumptions about authors and reviewers. She points out:

It’s not fair to make assumptions about a reviewer’s personal life based on which books they enjoy.

Brianna Bennett wrote an article for FAN/FIC Magazine about “required reading” for shipping. While I haven’t watched Supernatural and therefore have no opinion on Destiel, I think this article is worth reading if you love any ship. Personally, I don’t think there is required reading for a fandom.

The next two are the results of research and surveys. Joey (a.k.a. The Anime Man) finally released the Top 100 Anime of All Time, according to the Internet. A while ago, he tried to survey as many people possible on the Internet to find out what the international anime community thought about anime. Series I recognize and love made the list, and a bunch of anime that I haven’t seen made the list too. Some of them I would like to make time to watch over the next year.

Malinda Lo released the numbers for LGBTQ YA books from 2015-2016. She also graphed the number of LGBTQ YA books that were published by mainstream publishers from 2003 to 2016.

Chelsea Couillard-Smith, a librarian in Minnesota, wrote a guest post for Reading While White in which she talks about developing collections to have diverse books. She talks about vendors and a few ways to break out of the dependence on a couple to create a diverse collection.

On the subject of developing library collections, CurlyGeek04 @ The Book Stop learned of a librarian who returned donated Dr. Seuss books because racist content. So, she examines racism in Dr. Seuss’s books.

Final Words

I posted regularly this month, and I consider that a success since I was worried at the start of the month. Your reading, liking, and commenting on my posts is encouraging. Thank you all for your support this month!

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