Alexis Lampley's Blog, page 13

Maddie Moo Toddler Book Review: Too Many Carrots

By: Katy Hudson

So this book is basically about hoarding. So I'm introducing my daughter to the life she is living with me, as I tend to get a little hoarder-y lol

But seriously. This book is one of Maddie's most-read. She loves it. It's really cute. It's about a bunny who looooves carrots and hoards them and basically doesn't have room for himself in his house anymore, so he moves in with friends but tries to take a bunch of carrots with him and systematically destroys each of their homes with his need to keep all his carrots with him. Eventually he gets himself together and realizes that this is doing more harm than good. It's a really cute read and I love the illustrations. Madeline listens very intently when we read this one and doesn't get impatient with my pace and start flipping pages, which is pretty successful, I think!

Amulet

by: Kazu Kibuishi
There's something strange behind the basement door... After a family tragedy, Emily, Navin, and their mother move to an ancestral home to start a new life. In the family's very first night in the mysterious house, Em and Navin's mom is kidnapped by a tentacled creature. Now it's up to Em and Navin to figure out how to set things right and save their mother's life. {cover copy}
This was my first real dive into graphic novels after The Girl From The Other Side and I am now officially hooked. This story is so engaging and I have already read almost the entire series {or what is available. apparently there's more coming. At least one more, so a total of 8}. I seriously finished this book and immediately went on Amazon to order the rest of the series because I didn't want to have to wait a moment longer than i had to to continue the story. The artwork is so beautiful and the story flows well and, like I said, is engaging. I like how clear and easy it is to follow. I have read quite a few graphic novels or Manga since I read this and there have been a couple stories where I get rather lost, either due to the story jumping around or the "panels" of the comic not being as straightforward. But not here. I highly recommend this series. {I didn't flag any quotes because I devoured it, so here are the first line and last words only}:

We're supposed to pick up Navin at Eight O'Clock. {first line}
• out • {last word}

Doctor Sleep

by: Stephen King
SPOILER WARNING: This is a follow-up book to The Shining, and the following information will be spoilery.

The Overlook Hotel was where his boyhood gift for shining opened a door to hell. Dan Torrance is a man now, but ghosts of the Overlook--and his father's legacy of alcoholism and violence--kept him drifting for decades. Now, sustained by an AA community in a New Hampshire town, Dan comforts the dying at a nursing home, where they call him "Doctor Sleep." But before his remnant power can fade forever, Dan meets twelve-year-old Abra Stone, whose spectacular gift pulls him into an epic war with an otherworldly tribe that reignites Dan's own demons and summons him to battle for the girl's soul and survival. {cover copy}
Normally I don't do a book that comes after a first one, usually dealing in series, but as this isn't really a "book 2" and was published so far apart from "book 1" that I am going to go ahead and review it. This follow-up to The Shining was absolutely fantastic. It held its own without relying much on its predecessor and was actually super creepy and awesome. I really loved all the AA related quotes, but didn't flag them since they seemed to be quoted from AA itself. But seriously. Such a good book. I love where this story evolves and I have to say, I really loved the sentimental little touch at the end about his nickname. Also, I listened to this on Audible and I LOVE this narrator, Will Patton.

On the second day of December in a year when a Georgia peanut farmer was doing business in the White House, one of Colorado's great resort hotels burned to the ground. {first line}
"Shadows could be dangerous. They could have teeth."

"In [her eyes] was a universe of poetry, lines too great to ever be written or even remembered."

"Maybe it's luck or maybe it's fate, but either way, it comes back around."

"There are other worlds than these."

"You'd be surprised what a person can live with."

"...feelings were invulnerable to rational thought."

"Shine on."

"...you could not moralize children out of growing up or teach them how to do it."

• said • {last word}

Maddie Moo Toddler Book Review: Madeline's Secret Code

Created by: Rad Seed
YOUR SECRET CODE Website

We recieved this book in exchange for an honest review.

I actually didn't know what to expect with this book, as I didn't pay very close attention to what "code" the Secret Code actually was. I was pleasantly surprised to discover it was actually referring to coding. Which is something that totally short-wires my brain because numbers. But which I think is pretty awesome all the same. 

So this book can be customized with your child's name, a main character who looks most like her. I think there are like 4 girls, one with long curly hair, one with a short bob, one with her hair in a topknot, and another with big poofy hair. From there, they can be customized with different skin tones and hair colors. I think their eye colors can be customized as well. Madeline's are hazel so I never know what color to say. They're blue-ringed with green bleeding into brown at the center? haha so our girl on the cover has brown. Which is fine. Unless you're pretty close to her, Mads looks like she might have brown eyes. 

On to the actual art. I found the artwork to be really gorgeous. I love the illustration style and the colors are so vibrant and plentiful. Plus, the book focuses on a robot the main character has been coded to organize so a lot of the pages have a bunch of stuff that is color coded, which makes my color-coding-obsessed soul very happy! 

I found the story to be a huge step up from the stories I had when I was a kid that you got your name thrown into. It still has a small amount of clunkiness inherent in this style of book only because, for us, we never call Madeline by her full name that many times in a row. Usually it starts off Madeline and then jumps around from Mae to Moo to Mooji to Maddie to Mads to MaeMae... you get the idea. So it feels a tiny bit awkward constantly using the one form of address. However, I don't think this is something most people will have any issue with. We are just weird. haha

As for Madeline's assessment of the book, I think she enjoys it as far as she, as a two-year-old, can. She loved the colors and enjoyed flipping through the pages. She said "Once upon a time" on every page, pretending to read it, which she doesn't do with every story, so I think she was engaged in her own way. I think she will enjoy this one when she gets a bit older, and I'll certainly enjoy being able to offer her a book that shows a profession or avenue of interest she might otherwise not have thought of {remember, I'm an artist/writer/reader. Not a great numbers girl}. 


I think this book is a great idea and I'm really glad we have it in our collection. I have said this often lately, and I really believe it: this might seem like a really scary crappy time in the world, and sometimes you might think, "why would I want to raise a kid in this crazy world?" but I think this also happens to be a great time for raising girls. There's a bit of a renaissance in the female empowerment movement and it seems like there are all of these things in entertainment in all its forms that are really bringing that to the forefront. Which means our girls get to grow up with books and movies and games and our general culture that show them as more than just princesses or in roles that are generally considered female or leave them feeling they aren't perfect because this or that isn't shaped right or whatever. I love that. And this book is a great addition to that movement as well as to our bookshelf. 

The Stacks: August 2017

This is a bit late for a wrap-up but I was absolutely overwhelmed with work until yesterday, so it is what it is. Al I can say for this month is thank goodness for Audible. I finished The Stand in like four days. I was working insanely long hours and listened to it for almost all of them. I nearly finished 11/22/63 as well, but not before the buzzer ran out on August. Plowing through SK books lately because I wanted to read his entire collected works before I announced the Stephen King theme for our October Nerdy Post box. That didn't happen. I tried. But I feel I have at least read enough of them to do it justice, and I'm still reading them. I'm definitely a fan now. Not that I wasn't before. I just always figured it was my sister's thing. *eyeroll* I'm an idiot sometimes. The books are featured this month in their new location which is slated to be organized tomorrow, so the shelves are bare today for the picture. Oh, well.

Insomnia   Stephen King
Review to Come

The Waste Lands   Stephen King
I can't wait to continue with this series but I figured I needed to read some other stuff of his for the box first. Still, I can't wait.

Carrie   Stephen King
Review to Come

The Stand  Stephen King
Review to Come

The Best We Could Do

by: Thi Bui
The Best We Could Do, the debut graphic novel memoir by Thi Bui, is an intimate look at one family's journey from their war-torn home in Vietnam to their new lives in America. Exploring the anguish of immigration and the lasting effects that displacement had on a child and her family, Bui documents the story of her family's daring escape after the fall of South Vietnam in the 1970s and the difficulties they faced building new lives for themselves.
At the heart of Bui's story is a universal struggle: While adjusting to life as a first-time mother, she ultimately discovers what it means to be a parent--the endless sacrifices, the unnoticed gestures, and the depths of unspoken love. Despite how impossible it seems to take on the simultaneous roles of both parent and child, Bui pushes through. {cover copy}
The front cover quote said "A book to break your heart and heal it." And I, of course, took that as a personal challenge. And while I found this to definitely be heartbreaking in many ways, I couldn't help but be pulled out of the story from time to time with thoughts on how to improve on it. Mainly it was little things to help with clarity. I wish that the different POVs had a noticeable color shift to the design to help flag to the reader that a different POV has taken over. There's a couple places were the stories blend together and switch and that got a bit confusing. I also struggled with the section where she introduces her siblings, as she does it in not-quite-reverse-chronological order. It was a little tricky and I had to keep flipping back and forth to keep everyone and their birth events straight. Aside from that, though, it was a very interesting read and I feel like it was important because you really see how things were on two different class levels at that time, which is fascinating, and then how that affected her parents throughout their lives and their children's lives. I will say, I did really love all the contemplation at the beginning and the end of how it is to be a mother and also a daughter and how intertwined those two things really are. 
I read this in one sitting while waiting for my airplane home from NYC to board, and I didn't have page flags or a pencil with me, so I didn't' make note of passages I liked. So here is just the first line and the final word:

I'm in labor. {first line}
• free • {last word}

The Stacks: July 2017

You may notice that the black shelves with the rainbow books on them are missing from my background. That's because we are finally in transition in our house moving my office upstairs and replacing my beloved Target bookshelves with floor to ceiling built-ins complete with Belle's Library-style ladder. It's a bookworm's dream come true! Anyway, I only posted two reviews in July but I clearly read a lot more than that. Several are first books, which means I will review them. But I'm a bit behind. So keep your eye out for all of this in future posts! {Once I catch up with the rest of the reviews... many of which I actually have written and ready, but haven't taken photos for. *smh*}

the long way to a small angry planet   Becky Chambers
Review to Come

The Language of Thorns {sampler}   Leigh Bardugo
I loved this so much and I can't wait to have the whole thing in my hands! ahh!

A Series of Unfortunate Events; The Reptile Room   Lemony Snicket
I adore this series but I'm taking my sweet time with it so it'll last!

Misery  Stephen King
Review to Come

Nimona   Noelle Stevenson
Review to Come

The Upside of Unrequited   Becky Albertalli
Review to Come

The Drawing of the Three  Stephen King

This series is getting so good already. I wish I read faster!

The Dark Half

by: Stephen King
"I'm back... I'm back from the dead and you don't seem glad to see me at all, you ungrateful son of a bitch."
After thirteen years of international bestseller stardom with his works of violent crime fiction, author George Stark is officially declared dead--revealed by a national magazine to have been killed at the hands of the man who created him: the once well-regarded but now obscure writer Thad Beaumont. Thad's even gone so far as to stage a mock burial of his wildly successful pseudonym, complete with tombstone and the epitaph "Not a Very Nice Guy.
 Although on the surface it seems that Thad can finally concentrate on his own novels, there's a certain unease at the prospect of leaving George Stark behind. But that's nothing compared to the horrors about to descend upon Thad's new life. There are the vicious, out-of-control nightmares, for starters. And how is he able to explain the fact that everyone connected to George Stark's untimely demise is now meeting a brutal end of their own in a pattern of homicidal savagery...and why each blood-soaked crime scene has Thad's fingerprints all over it? Thad Beaumont may have once believed that George Stark was running out of things to say, but he's going to find out just how wrong he is... {cover copy}
I think, honestly, this might be my favorite King novel yet {behind The Eyes of the Dragon, always}. Okay, maybe just my favorite of the ones I've read lately {listened to. Thank goodness for Audible}. Maybe it was the birds. That wouldn't surprise me. But really, I just enjoyed the crap out of this. It was such a creepy cool concept and it really kept me on my toes wondering how it had happened and how it was going to come to its conclusion. And it was not disappointing in the least. Also yey for birds! Also, the first name of the bad guy is my first name and that's always fun to see because it's rare to see my name.

People's lives--their real lives, as opposed to their simple physical existences--begin at different times. {first line}
"The world was filled with sparrows, waiting for the command to fly."

"I like myself enough for everybody ."

"Scared. Yes, of course  you are... Only the ones just starting out--the kids--aren't scared. The years go by and the words on the page don't get any darker... but the white space sure does get whiter."

• time • {last word}

The Gunslinger

by: Stephen King
In a desolate reality, one that mirrors our own in frightening ways, a lone and haunting figure known only as Roland makes his way across the endless sands in pursuit of a sinister, dark-robed mystery of a man. Roland is the last of his kind, a "gunslinger" charged with protecting whatever goodness and light remains in his world--a world that "moved on" as they say... and the only way he can possibly hope to save everything is to first outwit and confront this man in black, then make him divulge his many arcane secrets. For despite the countless miles he's already traversed, Roland knows these will merely be his initial steps on his spellbinding and soul-shattering quest to locate the mystical nexus of all worlds, all universes, the Dark Tower. {cover copy}
I will be honest, I was not sure how I felt about this book until I was 90% through it. And then it hooked me and I'm itching to start the next one. I'm not sure why I felt this way, as it was interesting and engaging throughout the book up to that point, but the way it turned toward the end just really piqued my curiosity and amped up my fascination with what was going on in the story. So, despite its weirdly-slow-for-me-but-not-actually-slow start, it turned out to be a really good book. So this review is probably not helpful at all. Sorry. What I do know is that I got this particular book because of its badass cover and lo and behold I have chosen the set that is hard to find. But that's not going to stop me. I'm on a mission this very afternoon to track the rest of them down. There are promising leads on the horizon and I have that itchy feeling, I don't know if any of you get this, that as soon as I was aware they might be at the bookstore I was planning to go to, that if I don't get there immediately they will get snatched out from under me and I'll be left thinking "why hadn't I gone sooner?!" Thankfully, there's internet shopping. So even if that does happen {unlikely, despite the way I'm feeling right now} I'm sure I'll manage. Wish me luck!

The man in black fled across the desert and the gunslinger followed. {first line}
"He would keep going until something changed, and if nothing changed, he'd keep going anyway."

"Was there ever a trap to match the trap of love?"

"Time is the thief of memory."

"You cannot friend a hawk, they said, unless you are half a hawk yourself."

"Given time, words may even enchant and enchanter."

"Go, then. There are other worlds than these."

• battle • {last word}

The Stacks: June 2017

June actually ended up being a pretty great reading month. Man, I love graphic novels for my reading count! Every single one of these except IT and Fortunately, The Milk was a graphic novel. Perfect reads for a busy schedule. I have a lot of reviews to post, though. Which is tougher on the busy schedule. But I'll get them all updated eventually!

Amulet, Books 4-7   Kazu Kibuishi I really love this story and the artwork and I really need the next installemnt ASAP!

Furtunately, The Milk   Neil Gaiman
Review to Come

The Best We Could Do   Thi Bui
Review to Come

Beautiful Darkness   Vehlmann & Kerascoct
This one was really strange. I kept feeling like I wasn't smart enough to "get it" though I sorta get it. I liked the ending but there were some layers to it that weren't clear enough for me.

Nightlights   Lorena Alvarez
This is such a beautiful book and a really great story. I may end up doing a proper review about it because I loved it so much. It's a tad creepy the first time you read it, but it makes total sense once you finish it and the creep factor is actually such a cool part of the overall story.

IT   Stephen King
Review to Come