EVERY HEART A DOORWAY -- POPSUGAR READING CHALLENGE #6

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What would you do if you found a door that didn't belong? Would you go through it? What if you came back but were irreparably changed?

I chose this book for the Popsugar Reading Challenge number 6: A book with a plant in the title or on the cover.  The cover has a forest of trees on it.

This is the premise behind Every Heart A Doorway by Seanan McGuire.  Kids are pulled through doorways to different worlds. Many don't return, but sometimes they come back.  These kids are given a chance to acclimatize back to our world with the help of Eleanor West and her school.

Nancy is the main character in this book, but she has changed since her experience in one of the Underworlds. Her parents send her to Eleanor's school to get 'better'. Here she finds she can be her new self but always hoping she can find the door back to her new home.

She is surrounded by a plethora of other characters that have had similar experiences like hers just in different worlds. Each have their problems.

It also becomes a bit of a murder mystery. It's not a super duper complicated, but it does give a bit of extra spice to the story line.

I read this book in two hours. I recommend it for those that like magical realism and fantasy as well as a bit of darkness.

I would love to see Nancy's world.  If you could go anywhere through a doorway, what kind of world you would wand to find?

THE GUN SELLER -- POPSUGAR READING CHALLENGE #3

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Okay, when I saw Hugh Laurie wrote a book, I was with the bandwagon that said, "Dr. House wrote a book! I'm down!"

So I knew that he was a musician as well. Those moments on House where he played the piano were real. So I was happy to choose his book for  Pop Sugar Challenge #3: A book written by a musician (fiction or nonfiction).

It started out swimmingly with a snarky but nice guy Thomas Lang. It ended up with what felt like a thousand characters and lots of political intrigue.

I got a bit lost on who was a good guy and who was a bad guy.

The book was okay, and I'm glad I read it. I wish I had enjoyed it more.

MASQUERADE AND THE NAMELESS WOMEN -- POPSUGAR READING CHALLENGE #4

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This one was a bit different from the rest. I didn't start to read it as one of the challenge books. I picked it up because it sounded twisted, which I admit, I needed considering all the lighthearted manga and books I've been reading.

Challenge four of the Pop Sugar Challenge is: A book you think should be turned into a movie.

I found that as soon as I got into the book, I actually said to myself (in my head) that I would love to watch this. It was then that I realized that there was a challenge that fit this idea.

I was attracted to the cover at first, but once I read the premise, I hesitated on buying it. I took the plunge and ate that puppy up in one day.

The premise isn't unfamiliar. Serial killer who works with police. The Dexter series by Jeff Lindsay is an example of this.

Masquerade and the Nameless Women was a fun read for me. I would really love to have a second book that pits the serial killer and the rookie cop obsessed with finding him together.

CHINA RICH GIRLFRIEND -- POPSUGAR READING CHALLENGE #34

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I chose this book for: A book that includes a wedding. One -- because I read the first book and wanted to read the second, and Two -- because as soon as I saw it had a wedding in it, I was happy place it there (since I was not looking forward to finding a book with a wedding in it.)

I thought it was not quite as good as the first one. I wasn't a fan of the character Kitty Pong in the first book, and she ended up being a major character in this book.

Astrid's love life gets even more complex as Michael becomes an idiot when he makes millions. His whole personality changes into some monstrous version. I guess it was in him before, but it was sort of shocking to see.

I did enjoy the book enough to go on to the third one.

DRAGON BALL 4-6 3-IN-1 EDITION -- POPSUGAR READING CHALLENGE #40

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Okay, so this one was a no brainer.  I have a huge collection of manga that I have to read, which includes Dragon Ball.

I made it one of my "resolutions" to read some of the completed series I have (as in the ones I didn't read last year).

So I chose Graphic Novel as Your favorite prompt from a past Popsugar Reading Challenge.

This version of Dragon Ball is the only English uncensored version out. The Big Editions from Viz are censored. I even checked with them to make sure.

Anyway, I've watched the entire series of Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z, which i loved.  (Sigh, Vegeta.) So I decided to collect the manga because I like to read the source material.

It was fun. I love it. It's like watching the anime without the filler episodes. I'm hearing the voices and everything.

I could even place this under the nostalgia category, but I have something else in mind for that one.

So who else loves DB and DBZ? Whose watched and/or read it?  Who was your favorite character?

THE LITTLE PRINCE -- POPSUGAR READING CHALLENGE #22

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This was one of the harder ones so far to fill for me.

Number 22 on the Popsugar Reading Challenge is: a book recommended by a celebrity you admire.

I'm not really into admiring celebrities much. Maybe a shallow glance at Facebook and People magazine blurbs about them. So it was hard to find one that I truly admire.

I ended up choosing Emma Watson. She is an advocate for many things. She also took her education seriously despite becoming a star as the bookworm witch, Hermione Granger.

She recommended The Little Prince.

I look back on the book and I still have no idea what I read. It was an amalgamation of children's story, philosophy, fantasy, life lessons, and I don't know what else.

It's the sort of book that takes two or three readings to get the deeper meanings of the work.  It's worth another read.

What does The Little Prince mean to you? Let me know in the comments below.

23 MINUTES -- POPSUGAR READING CHALLENGE #18

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And so we come to the next of the Popsugar Reading Challenge books. The challenge parameter is: A book that takes place in a single day.

The proper name for these types of novels is called Circadian novels.

This one is by Vivian Vande Velde. She writes YA novels. My two favorites by her are Dragon's Bait and Companions of the Night. The first is a fantasy about a girl, a dragon, and revenge. The second has a girl, a vampire, and people trying to kill them.

The one I got from the library to read is 23 Minutes. This one is about a girl who can turn back time. She can only go back 23 minutes and only 10 times. Each "playback" (as the main character calls it) had unique elements each time.

I think the author did an amazing job. She told the same 23 minutes completely different each time. I must admit there were small repetitions, but event those were dissimilar.

I enjoyed the book immensely.

What would you change or fix if you could go back 23 minutes?

CRAZY RICH ASIANS -- POPSUGAR READING CHALLENGE #25

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So I was at Walmart last Sunday. I was doing a bit of shopping and ended up passing the book section. (Yeah, okay, I deliberately went there. That section just calls to me and I cannot resist its temptations.)

Anyway, I saw this and picked it up. I had seen the movie with my sister when it went into Red Box. I enjoyed the movie enough to check out the book.

I'm glad I did. The book had way more drama than the movie. Not that the movie didn't have drama. Only the movie was more geared toward the comedic side of things.

The con is that there were A LOT of characters to keep track of including family members, and friends, and friend of friends, and kids of friends.  Also, there were footnotes that translated the language. They were translated the one time but sometimes things were used more than once. I didn't want to go back and look for the translation again.

I enjoyed the book.  Oliver has got to be one of my favorite characters in the movie and the book. Peik Lin Goh is another. I totally had Awkwafina's performance in my head as I read it.  She was amazing.

One of favorite lines that Peik Lin says is: "I have no idea who these people are. But I can tell you one thing—these people are richer than God."

Have you read or watched the movie? Who was your favorite character?

THE MARTIAN -- POPSUGAR READING CHALLENGE #14

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This was on my reading list for the longest time. And I mean the loooongest time.

I saw it at the library and put it on my reading list (in hardback). I watched the movie; it was still on my reading list.  I got the paperback last year --- and it was still on my reading list.

So I finally broke down and picked it up for the Popsugar Reading Challenge #14: A book set in space.

Let me tell you, I loved it!!! I highly recommend the book.

The book was intelligent and funny and just plain cool.  The book had a bit more depth (naturally) and had some great new bits not seen in the movie.

One of my favorite scenes is still the moment where he calls himself a space pirate.  My other is when he razzes Carl Sagan about colonizing Mars.

So what were your favorite scenes or lines from the the book or movie?

GOOD 2019 EVERYONE!!

I've been busy for the last few months. The real life job has been full of books, books, and more books.

I had to use up the money from (I think) three grants before they expired. That meant A LOT of processing.  The good thing is that our public library now has a decent manga collection that I feed with my regular funds. 

The cool thing is that the stats for the collection was astounding. It had super high stats for the year.  It did better that some of our other collections. Woot!

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And it was not only books. There were a ton of playaways. Those are audio books. Tiny, portable, and can go just about anywhere.  They run on a AAA battery. 

I had two major projects in the works that had to be done. A major weeding of my Juvenile and YA sections.

Other than that, life has been going on. We were sadden to lose one of our fur babies. She was 17.

We were all depressed.

A month later, my brother brought home an impy little turd named Reba. She is a tiny 7 lb. bundle of Speedy Gonzalez energy. She has two motions stop and light speed.  She is also a sand worm from Dune. She burrows under the covers like one.  Nothing like getting a frigid nose butting your arm at 3 a.m. so she can bury herself under the covers.

I have decided to do the Popsugar Reading Challenge again. 

I know, I know. I tried in 2015 and didn't finish. This time I've planned ahead and found books to fit the categories ahead of time. So now I just have to read them.  Plus, I decided to do a reading log to go with it.

I've labeled the reading log with each of the Popsugar challenge categories ahead of time. Now I just fill in the pages with the books I choose.

I've also decided to pledge a set number of books in the Goodreads reading challenge, which I've never ever done before. I officially read 300 books (okay, mostly manga) last year. This year I said 250.

Sounds like a lot, but it's not really.

I also want to downsize my billions of books. So I'm bound and determined to read them and get rid of the ones I don't want anymore. 

So how has your January treated you?