Kevin's Points of Interest
Eleanor and Park - by Rainbow Rowell
I read this as an eBook because I know it’s popular and because I snagged it at a relatively good sale price of $4.99. I did very much enjoy “The Fault in Our Stars” and these two books are often times mentioned as being in the same mold, so that added to my interest as well. “E & P” takes place in ‘86 and is about a couple of 16ish year olds ...
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The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
If you go to Amazon search and type “The Al...” you’ll get this book as your first auto-complete option. And you’ll see that it has 4500+ reviews and you’ll know immediately that it’s immensely popular worldwide. Right now it’s only $2.75 on Kindle and at that price, you should absolutely give it a read. My copy is paperback and I’m pretty...
$2.75 on the Kindle - definitely worth it!
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The Magicians by Lev Grossman
I loved this book. But I cannot recommend it to anybody. Because I don’t know how to judge the type of person who would like this book and I assume I’d be judged harshly if someone read it....and hated it. Unlikely as it seems, this is a Harry Potter-esque story for grown-ups. With sex, drugs, drinking, cursing and violence. It also has a cleverly cr...
Click here to read all the more reviews you want to on Amazon
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The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
I loved this book! Oscar Wilde's flowing, eloquent, highly-civilized writing style and his exquisite word choices kept me mesmerized. I particularly enjoyed the fascinating views on life that were doled out by Lord Henry Wotton, who is Dorian Gray's best friend, main influence and probably, Gray's worst source of corruption. I didn't necessarily always agre...
My goodness, here it is on Amazon, FOR FREE! GET IT NOW!!
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The Iron Trial by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare
Bacon is yummy....but alas....it's too fattening. And the "Kevin's Book Bacon" format STILL left me writing reviews that were too long. So now I'll try an entirely new method: Just writing what I think! I've said this before - my reviews are really just for me to track what I've read and help me recall what I thought about it. Hopefully my kids wil enjoy...
Find the book on Amazon here (See - it doesn't even come out until September! I'm so cool...)
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“Boy” and “Going Solo” by Roald Dahl
Here's a bit of Kevin's Book Bacon in the pan....with a couple of Roald Dahl books sizzling hot! Flavor: "Boy" and "Going Solo" tell the story of Mr. Dahl’s life before he became one of the best children’s book writers ever in the history of the known universe. He is very clear that these are not moment by moment, tedious “autobiographies”; they ar...
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Spirit Animals Book 1 - WILD BORN
Time for some Kevin's Book Bacon on the first book in the Spirit Animals series. Flavor: When the inhabitants of a fantasy world called Erdas reach age eleven, they sip from a powerful nectar in hopes of summoning a spirit animal. This animal will be their companion and protector for life. The bond between human and spirit animal is unique and magical, un...
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The Peculiar by Stefan Bachmann
Time for more of Kevin's Book Bacon! The writer of "The Peculiar", Mr. Stefan Bachmann, was just 16 when he began this book and it was published when he was only 19! A mighty fine accomplishment for a teenager. Flavor: The story takes place in a “steampunkish” version of Victorian London where faeries and humans live - somewhat - at peace. The unl...
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The One Safe Place by Tania Unsworth
It's Kevin's Book Bacon time! And this is my first ever advanced reader copy (ARC) review! Saw this book in an email, signed up to receive an advance copy, got it, read it, dug it, reviewed it: Flavor: It’s the future and the world is hot and dry with very little rain. Cities are overcrowded and kids run rampant in the streets, stealing to survive. ...
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American Gods - by Neil Gaiman
I’m rambling quite a bit with my reviews and I’m not churning them out quick enough after I finish books. So I’m starting with a new format here that I hope works for all future reviews. I’m calling this review structure “Kevin’s Book Bacon” so everything will relate to.... bacon. Yummy. Flavor: I read the special “Tenth Anniversary Edit...
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A Series of Unfortunate Events I - A Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket
Well, you can’t say he didn’t warn you. Mr. Lemony Snicket comes right out at the very beginning of this book and writes it in plain black and white. To paraphrase - “in this story awful things happen to some perfectly good kids over and over again and there is definitely no happy ending.” He could not be more correct. Thankfully, Snicket’s cha...
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THE BFG and MATILDA by the Great Roald Dahl
For Christmas this year, our 7y/o daughter received a Roald Dahl boxed set (thank you so much Aunt Randi!). And I was unexpectedly surprised to realize I haven’t read any of his books. Actually, I did recently listen to the audiobook of "James and the Giant Peach", read by Jeremy Irons. Which was absolutely phenomenal, by the way....I highly recommend i...
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Max Makes Me Jump With Joy
"This story was really good. Max aged 10, 5th grade" Recently, this comment popped up on the Knowonder website under my story - "The Wonder Beard Pirates Sort Out a Kerfuffle in Kerflunker". (Which, by the way, is probably my favorite ever story I've written.) This comment made me want to jump with joy! Max, a fifth grader from who knows where, read my s...
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“The Golem and the Jinni” by Helene Wecker
This book mesmerized me. There’s truly no other word to describe my time with it over the last couple of weeks. I read it at night, at the gym, while cooking dinner, while “watching TV” with the family, whenever I could. Finally, I put in a late night, 90 minute solid session and finished it. And I must say, this is a magnificent book! Please go t...
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“Goblin Secrets” by William Alexander
I can’t think of any other time I’ve finished a book and wanted it to be longer. Wanted just a bit more description, a little more action, to spend a few more hours/days/weeks with the characters. In thinking this, I have to remember that the National Book Award winning novel Goblin Secrets is targeted towards 8-12 year olds and not grown-up dudes like ...
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“The Mouse With The Question Mark Tail” by Richard Peck
Another delightful, outstanding children’s book by the fantastic Richard Peck. If you read my reviews, and why wouldn’t you....they’re awesome....you’ll know that I recently read another of Mr. Peck’s mouse stories called “Secrets At Sea”. I LOVED that book. This one was really great, but “Secrets” is even better. The main mouse chara...
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“Not A Drop To Drink” by Mindy McGinnis
It’s not too far into the future and the world’s fresh water supplies are extremely scarce. A young girl named Lynn lives with her mother in a country farmhouse. Their whole existence is based around protecting their one precious, life-giving possession. A pond. Life is hard for these women and they always have their rifles at the ready. Survival is...
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“Divergent” by Veronica Roth
This book is exactly what you expect it to be. A quick, enjoyable, not too challenging YA novel. Our heroine Beatrice lives in a future dystopian version of Chicago where there are five factions in which all people live. Each faction represents and lives by a core value. The peaceful interaction between the factions and specific tasks performed by each...
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“The Book Thief” by Markus Zusak
I started this book right after I finished “The Fault in our Stars” by John Green. Which is about teens living with cancer, has some deeply emotional scenes and of course....deals a bit with death. So as I jumped straight from that one to “The Book Thief”, I basically knew I was getting into another heavy, serious book that would definitely tug pre...
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“The Pale King” by David Foster Wallace
Confession: I picked up THE PALE KING because I thought it was a cool thing to do. I happened upon it at “Half Price Books” and knew of the name “David Foster Wallace”. And coincidentally, just before buying the book, I’d read a few random blurbs about him on the internet. So I grabbed it, thinking that as an avid reader, I should probably dig t...
Learn more about THE PALE KING on wikipedia
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“The Fault in Our Stars” by John Green
I'll warn you up front - this is a long review. But the book was great and I had a lot of thoughts about it. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m writing book reviews these days mainly so I can track what I’ve read and recall if I liked it or not. If my musings also help you choose something new to read, then fantastic for both of us! Now, here we go… ...
hit this link to find the book on Amazon
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Picture Book Idea Month
I'm participating in this challenge for the second year. The goal is to dream up 30 picture book ideas, or one for each day of November. Plus, Miss Tara Lazar (the organizer) does a great job of creating a community around the event by providing participants many fun ways to connect with each other and by having many prominent children's authors write gues...
click here to find out more about PiBoIdMo
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Double Book Review Time!!
I am writing book reviews these days… simply because I love books. I want to remember what I’ve read and know if I liked it or not! “From The Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler” by E.L. Konigsburg Anytime you’ve written a book so wonderful that someone can go to the behemoth that is Amazon and find it by typing “From The” – you ar...
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I Updated My Bio Page!
Click on the "Me" tab at the top of your screen. Do it NOW! Please don't let my bio page be sad. No one likes a lonely bio.
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I’m Goodreading now!
So let's all decide, are we: Goodreaders? Goodreadists? Goodreadians? Which ever it is, I'm on there now... so... that's pretty cool.
MY AUTHOR PAGE ON GOODREADS!
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