A Bookworm's Book Reviews

Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind – Ann B. Ross

Title: Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind

Author: Ann B. Ross

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Plot: Miss Julia is recently widowed and inherited her husband’s money. To makes things interesting, her small North Carolina town’s pastor has been asking her about what Miss Julia’s going to do with the money and if he could use it to help build a community center in honor of her late husband. To make matters worse, a Hazel Marie Puckett drops off a young boy and says the boy is her late husband’s child. Now Miss Julia has to decide what to do with the boy and how to take care of him, and make sure her money (and sanity) stay in the right hands. Can Miss Julia keep everyone safe? Or will she lose it all?

Rating: 3.5 – a different style of a cozy mystery

Opinion: This was an interesting book. I didn’t love it but didn’t hate it. The characters a little old fashioned and too off their rocker for me. Some of their ideas and actions were a bit weird for me. Maybe it’s the southern way or the style of the book but I didn’t love it. I rolled my eyes at some of the characters antics. It was an entertaining book but not one of my favorites. If you need a kinda silly and easy read this would be a good book.

Hollywood Heroes – Frank and Zach Turek

Title: Hollywood Heroes

Authors: Frank and Zach Turek

Genre: Christian Living

Plot: Some movies today have similar stories. There are elements of faith and Jesus in those movies. Frank and Zach Turek talk about the elements of faith and Jesus in Captain America, Iron Man, Harry Potter, Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, Batman, and Wonder Woman. These stories show different aspects of faith and Jesus. There are also questions to think about after you’ve read the chapters.

Rating: 4.0 – interesting correlations between popular movies and Christianity

Opinion: This were interesting parallels between Christianity and some popular movies, comics, and books. I didn’t find them particularly deep connections but they were very clever and thought out. I like how the authors found ways to relate the movies to faith and Jesus. There are different characteristics that most of the main characters in those movies that can be related to Christianity. There were one or two chapters where I thought the authors might be stretching their connections a little but I could see where they were coming from. It’d be great for a short bible study series for nerdy people to see what others think. I enjoyed this quick read that combined two things I love. I recommend this book for nerdy Christians.

Babel – R.F. Kuang

Title: Babel

Author: R.F. Kuang

Genre: Historical Fiction, Fantasy

Plot: Robin Swift is a Chinese boy taken in by wealthy English Professor Lovell after his mom and grandparents die. Professor Lovell teaches Robin Greek, Latin, and helps him maintain his Mandarin Chinese all while grooming him for Oxford’s translation program. Once accepted into the program, Robin befriends his 3 classmates: Ramy, Victorie, and Letty. One night, Robin meets Griffin. Griffin tells Robin about the Hermes society. They take the silver bars which help power big cities around England and give them to people who actually need the bars. Robin is reluctant to help, but sees the need. His job is to help the Hermes society sneak in and grab what they need to help those in need. But is it worth it? Can Robin trust Griffin and the Hermes society? Can they really make a difference?

Rating: 4.0 a great combo of history and fantasy

Opinion: This was a great book. It was slow to start but still interesting to keep going. Some of it was world building which is fine. It was nice to see a different side of 1800’s England. I enjoyed the idea behind the magic of the books. It’s simple and practical and has many different uses. The magic also doesn’t take away from the story. The linguist in me loved learning about the roots of words and where they come from originally. The book does go into some details about translation and how languages don’t always match up 100% with word meanings. The characters are also well written. I can see where all the characters are coming from. Overall I really enjoyed this book. It’s great for anyone who loves historical fiction books from another perspective.

To Sleep in a Sea of Stars -Christopher Paolini

Title: To Sleep in a Sea of Stars

Author: Christopher Paolini

Genre: Sci-fi

Plot: Kira Navárez is a xenobiologist working to help colonize a new planet. She stumbles upon an artifact and starts to investigate. Then the artifact comes alive an attaches itself to Kira. The government is quick to keep everything hushed. While in the government Kira learns the thing that attached itself to her is alive and also protecting her. When Kira escapes the faculty, she learns aliens have started a war with humans. Now Kira must find a way to stay out of the alien and her own government’s control. Both want the technology attachment that Kira found. Kira must also learn how to control her technology in order to help everyone. Soon Kira learns that the technology she has can help stop the war with the aliens. But she must convince both sides that it’s possible and that she’s the only one who can do it.

Rating: 4.0 – a different take on aliens and alien tech

Opinion: This was a very good book. I was hesitant to read it because it’s over 800 pages. But I was very impressed that the story very well paced. The science was well explained and not over bearing. It was nice to have a reference guide for the places and terms in the back. The characters were great and likable, at least the ones who were supposed to be likable. I liked that the ending of the book was different than the standard sci-fi ending. It was a better fit for the book. This book is supposed to be the start of a series so I’m curious about where the author takes it. This is a great book and I recommend it for anyone who loves sci-fi and can handle big books.

Gmorning, Gnight! – Lin-Manuel Miranda

Title: Gmornig, Gnight! – Little Pep Talks from Me to You

Author: Lin-Manuel Miranda

Illustrator: Jonny Sun

Genre: Nonfiction

Plot: Lin-Manuel Miranda has posted many encouraging tweets encouraging people in the morning and evening, hence the title. Now he’s expanded to a different audience. Lin-Manuel has combined all of his favorite good morning and good night tweets to make a super inspirational and encouraging book.

Rating: 4.5 – a good book for some encouragement

Opinion: This was a sweet, little book. I enjoyed the quotes and found them sweet and endearing. It’s great if you’re feeling down and need some encouragement and good book for a quick little pick me up. The little pictures around the edges made even sweeter. This is a cute little book for anyone who likes little encouragement books and like all things Lin-Manuel Miranda.

The Nature of Fragile Things – Susan Meissner

Title: The Nature of Fragile Things

Author: Susan Meissner

Genre: Historical Fiction

Plot: Sophie Whalen is a recent immigrant from Ireland. She’s desperate to leave her deplorable position in NYC so she answers a mail order bride request in the newspaper in San Francisco. Soon she meets Martin and his daughter Kat. Sophie grows to love Kat but has no such feelings for Martin. She tells herself that he’s mourning the death of his wife. While Martin is traveling for his nameless insurance company, there’s an unexpected visitor, a woman named Belinda. Belinda sees a picture of Martin and says that’s her husband, not Sophie’s. While Sophie and Belinda try to piece together what’s really going on with Martin, or as Belinda knows him, James, an earthquake strikes. Now Belinda, Sophie, and Kat are running for their lives. But they’re looking over their shoulders for Martin. Who is Martin? What’s he after? Did he survive the earthquake?

Rating: 3.8 – an interesting historical fiction and mystery

Opinion: This was an interesting book. It was better than I was expecting. This book was a book club book so I wanted to read it, but I was unsure of it. There’s more interesting plot and characters than I was expecting. I liked learning about the San Francisco earthquake at the turn of the last century. The mystery was different than was expecting, too. I enjoyed thinking about the mystery. I thought one of the characters would come back in a different way with a more dramatic way. But this was a more fitting end for the characters. I was hoping for earlier justice, which did come, but I wanted all the characters to be there for it. I did enjoy the book. The main chacarera were great because they made you feel reel emotions and related to them. I really enjoyed this book and highly recommend this book for anyone who loves historical fiction.

Legendborn Cycle 2 – Tracy Deonn

Book 1 is Legendborn, Book 3 is Oathbound

Title: Book 2 – Bloodmarked

Author: Tracy Deonn

Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult

Plot: Bri is struggling to control her new powers. But not everyone is so accepting that she’s the Scion of Arthur. Some of the Merlins want Bri out of the picture, so they capture her. They want to know about Bri’s abilities and how she can use them. Then someone finds a way to break Bri out. Now she’s on the run with the few friends she has left. Who can Bri trust? Is there anywhere she can go that’s safe? Can Bri learn to control her powers? Can anyone help her?

Rating: 3.7 – a good continuation of the Legendborn series

Opinion: This was a great book. I loved learning more about the lore of both kinds of magic in this book. Parts of the book were a little too political for me. At the same time it was good for me to learn about different points of view and what people of color go through. The ending was a little confusing because of all the changing perspectives and not a lot of clarification. I wasn’t entirely surprised about some of the things that happened at the end. But I am curious to see how the author continues the series. This is a great book for anyone who loves fantasy and magic.

Winternight Trilogy- Katherine Arden

Title: Book 1: The Bear and the Nightingale

Author: Katherine Arden

Genre: Fantasy

Plot: Vasilia is the youngest daughter of Lord Pyotr. With her four other siblings, she listens to fairy tale story of the winter king. But Vasya learns there is truth to the tales. Her new stepmother doesn’t want her believe and is determined for the stories to stop. But then a harsh winter sets in and the people become fearful. Vasya asks the spirits around the house to help her stop the harsh winter. There is one who could help they say and one who will make things worse. Is there enough time to help? Or will everything be destroyed?

Rating: 3.5 – a slow and steady read

Opinion: This was an interesting read but it wasn’t one of my favorites. I liked the idea of the book but it was a pretty slow read for me. One or two things would happen and then plotting and scheming and details about small things. While I get that the author was probably setting some things up for the other two books, I couldn’t really get into the book as much as I would’ve liked. I was curious about the book enough to finish it and thought it picked up a little towards the end, but not enough for me to want to read the second and third one right away. I may go back and read the other two some day but not right now. This book has lots of Russian terms but there’s a glossary at the back of the book. While I liked the fairy tale aspect of the boom, the pace of the book made me not like it. This is a good book for anyone who likes a slow and steady fairy tale style book.

Veins of Gold – Charlie N. Holmberg

Title: Veins of Gold

Author: Charlie N. Holmberg

Genre: Historical Fiction, Fantasy

Plot: Gentry’s father has just left to mine gold in California. Now Gentry has to take care of her siblings, Rooster and Pearl, in the Utah territory. They have little money and few resources. Gentry doesn’t want to rely on their neighbor’s generosity for everything so she works hard to fix everything. Then she meets Winn. He’s more carefree and more importantly he knows about magic. Winn says that in order to work magic, you need to give the land gold. But the magic has a nature of it’s own and is angry with the miners for taking the gold. To calm the magic, Winn has to give back find more and more gold. Gentry wants to help, but also needs to help her family. Can Gentry do both? Or will she be forced to chose one or the other?

Rating: 4.0 – a different take on the gold rush

Opinion: This was an interesting story. I really enjoyed the blend of historical fiction and magic. I liked how the author explained the magic and how it tied to the land and the gold rush. This was a different kind of magic that was an exchange and it’s own entity. It was interesting point that magic was tied to the land and upset that man was destroying it. I liked how the book showed homestead life. Life wasn’t easy for them and the people were forced to make hard decisions. This book was an easier read, too. It was set at a good pace. I really enjoyed this book and recommend it for anyone who likes historical fiction with magic.

We Were Dreamers – Simu Liu

Title: We We’re Dreamers: An Immigrant Superhero Origin Story

Author: Simu Liu

Genre: Biography

Plot: Simu Liu is an actor best know for his breakout role of Shang-Chi in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. This is his story of growing up in rural China and Toronto Canada. He lived with his grandparents until he was 4 while his parents went to college in Canada to finish their Masters and PhD. When Simu’s parents had saved up enough, they brought Simu over to live with them. He talks a lot about his struggles with adjusting to a new life, finding a way around his parent’s standards, and finding his own way in life. After going to college, Simu talked about the struggles of finding his dream, Simu talks about how he worked through everything to get to where he is today.

Rating: 4.0 – a different side of immigrant life

Opinion: This was a great book. I enjoyed learning about how life was like in other countries and how people lived from a nonfiction point of view. It was understandable how and why people did the things they did. I wished the best for Simu’s parents and was saddened to read about what happened to Simu as he was growing up. But Simu found a way to turn it out positive and rekindle a relationship with his parents. I found it easy to relate to pieces of Simu’s story, like I’m sure most people can. I loved all of the humor and snark in it. I liked how Simu could find ways to be himself while living with his parents. I like that he found a positive outlet in his life in all stages. It makes you want to find something positive in your own life. This is a great book about life and what kids of immigrants face and how to find your own dream.