Top 5 Reads of Winter Break

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After reading through my "first" three posts, I realized they were sorta' boring. I felt like I read papers written for class...so, we're going to change the tone a bit. I'll get the swing of this eventually, and hopefully my tone won't sound so much like a teacher lecturing on at a boring and non-needed PD session, but someone who enjoys the world of education and finds ways to help others enjoy it, too. 

Until then, I'm going to share something I'm truly passionate about...Books! My first Book Banter of 2024 includes the books I read over winter break. 

1. The Phantom Tollbooth (author: Norton Juster) - I really wanted to love this book. So many teachers recommended I should read it - "It's fun to teach", " It's just a good humorous tale". For someone who loves wordplay, I thought it would quickly become one of my new favorites (although the book is over 50 years old). Unfortunately, for me, it was just ok. 

Milo reminds me of many students today, where he's constantly bored and needs to be entertained. Even my own kiddo reflects Milo's "I'm bored" persona on a regular basis. I enjoyed his trip through the tollbooth, but once he entered into a kingdom that had numbers and words fighting (it's always the battle, isn't it? Math vs. Language?), I started to lose my interest. Maybe I've become someone who needs to be entertained constantly, as well. 

My rating: 3 out of 5 pages (instead of stars - what do stars have to do with books?)

2. Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (author: Suzanne Collins) - I'm a sucker for a good backstory; Wicked, Maleficent, and now President Snow from the Capitol. I think Suzanne Collins did a phenomenal job of making me question how he got from "there" to "here" and really loving him despite knowing his future was villainous. 

This was the first out of my Christmas presents that I chose to break into and I'm glad I started here. My daughter started asking questions about what I was reading and it lead to watching the movies as a family and (hopefully) a future of rereading the books with her. Since I had read the Gregor the Overlander series earlier in 2023, I was planning to revisit this author anyway. 

Whether underground in a land overrun with rats, bats, and roaches, or fighting off District Tributes in an arena built with death traps, Collins knows how to bring together a series and keep the reader wondering "How did we get here?!" I cannot wait to watch Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. I hear it is also phenomenal, but know I am typically more of a "the book is better" person. 

My rating: 4 out of 5 pages (Although it says "The End" on the last page, I feel she could have continued this story to get us even closer to what we know about "today" in Panem.)

3. A Curse for True Love (Once Upon a Broken Heart 3) (author: Stephanie Garber) - I completely forgot I preordered this book back in July. I read the second novel in the series in one day and was utterly perturbed I had to wait for song long to get third one...and then I moved on with life forgetting what magic lied in wait in my packages. If you are a fan of magic and fantasy, alternate fairy tales, and liking the villain, this is the book for you. An easy read (as is the entire series) that truly makes you enjoy hating the good guy. 

Although you don't have to, I'd start with the Caraval series. It sets the scene of how we were able to get to the Great North and adds a little bit of sparkle and glitter to the entire story. Some don't like Stephanie Garber's way of description (mostly in color - “She could see the sting of her rejection in shades of stormy blue, ghosting over his heart like sad morning mist." or “Periwinkle curiosity”), but again, I think it adds to the magic and fantasy. 

There are several characters (Great Families) that I had to look up from the previous novels to remember "who was who" and "who hated who" and "who spurned who," but if you read the series in a decent amount of time, there won't be an issue with mixing up the good from the bad (or pure evil). 

My rating: 5 out of 5 pages (Easy read, fun series, and an ending I was extremely pleased with)

4. A Discovery of Witches (author: Deborah Harkness) - One of the publicity comments on the cover said "The adult version of Harry Potter..." I obviously had to buy the book and test the theory. (And fantasy is obviously the genre theme of my holiday reading presents.) 

Witches, vampires, and demons (because apparently werewolves don't exist?) can be dreadful enemies or great allies in this series. Similar to our good friend Harry, Diana Bishop is coming into her witchy powers later than expected in witch life. The fact it takes place in London was also a good start for me, since I tend to be an anglophile. I'm not sure if it's the accents I hear when I read or the fact everything envisioned is cobblestoned and ivy covered.

I did end up reading the entire All Souls Series and enjoyed the first and third the best. The second novel dragged a bit, but was needed to provide the background for the relationships between the main witches, vampires, and demons (as well as a human or two). The time travel aspect was a little hard for me to believe (not a spoiler - it states it on the cover), but it did provide a feeling of "how long" the wars between groups have been going on and the severity of why they feel the way they do about each other. Again, I love a backstory, but it seemed long winded for what was needed to connect what I loved about books one and three. 

My rating: 4 out of 5 pages (Not quite Harry, but a good read none-the-less. My issues are already stated above.)

5. Six of Crows (author: Leigh Bardugo) - If you've read the Shadow and Bone series, it's worth it to pick up the Six of Crows duology. I originally picked up Shadow and Bone because I wanted to watch the show on Netflix. I found out from other Books Dragons (we're beyond book worms, obviously), that I really needed to also read the Six of Crows duology to know all of the characters. What? I have to read more books before watching tv? Ok...fine...

I think I actually like Six of Crows better than Shadow and Bone (and I gave S&B a 5 out of 5 on Goodreads). The crew of misfits and thieves brought together for this book reminds me of the crew in The Italian Job  or even Ocean's Eleven. Each has a skill or something they bring to the table - but better than either movie, we get to hear and see the perspective of each member of the crew throughout the book. The chapters switch view points of the characters and we learn what they are thinking and feeling in various moments of the heist. My next read will be the next book in the series, Crooked Kingdom. I need to know how this story continues...my hope is it's better than Ocean's Twelve or Thirteen. I had high hopes for those sequels.

My rating: 5 out of 5 pages (The impossible events and characters that think three steps ahead are intriguing to me.)

Share what you're reading! I'm always adding to my TBR pile...