It's Monday, Here's What I've Been Reading!

I'm delighted to be part of the #IMWAYR community of readers. Hugs to Jen at Teach Mentor Texts and The Folks at Unleashing Readers for hosting. 

I've been reading, but I've also been grieving. Walter Dean Myers, a writer whose work I've come to adore over the past few years, both for his writing and his humanity, died last week. He is one of my secret tools for bringing reluctant boy readers into the fold. His star will be missed.

Other than that, I'm trying to get my head around what I've been reading since when. I missed last week because I was just too busy with house renovations.

Since last Monday I think I've finished four novels, one picture book and am working on two more. Clicking on the links will take you to my longer reviews of these books. 

I finished Adaptation by Malinda Lo. I loved how it messes around with gender expectations. It was a gripping, fast paced science fiction novel with ample plot twists and turns. 

Better Off Friends by Elizabeth Eulberg was cleverly written. I liked the format of alternating points of view for the two characters and I really enjoyed the humor in it. The story resonated with me at a personal level.

For Keeps by Natasha Friend is an intense novel about a teen going through a complicated time in her life. All of her work is very popular at school and this book isn't going to be an exception to that. 

The Summer I Saved the World in 65 days by Michele Weber Hurwitz was as delightful a read as they come. I enjoyed the random acts of kindness and how they transformed Nina Ross and her neighbourhood, but it is the cast of characters that make me love this book. 

The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend - About all I can say about this book is Wow. I loved that Beekle imagined that his friend would be a boy and it turned out to be a girl. I loved Beekle's courage to go out and find his special friend. One of my boys had an imaginary friend when he was young. Beekle would have made a fine match for the other. 

On the go right now is Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets Of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz.  My brother and I started listening to this while travelling back from the Okanagan today. This is some book. On occasion either one of us would stop the book just to say wow, or else we would stop it just to talk about what was going on. Holy crow! I am definitely going to read more of Benjamin Alire Sáenz!

I'm also working on Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood.

This coming week I'm hoping to get to, I have a Bad Feeling About This by Jeff Strand, Persopolis by Marjane Satrapi, Counting by 7's by Holly Goldberg Sloan and Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson. I'm trying to be reasonable since we're off to a music festival next week and I'm not sure how much reading I'll get done there.