Completely Full Bookshelf

I hope everyone is doing well! We spent an hour on Saturday doing that most wretched of tasks: changing the smoke detector batteries. I envy everyone who buys those new smoke detectors where you don't have to replace the battery for 10 years. Today I am looking at an intriguing new MG graphic novel: Marshmallow & Jordan  by Alina Chau. And I'm also hosting the Holiday Picture Book Giveaway  with details at the end of this post! Review of Marshmallow & Jordan : Preview the illustrations on the publisher's website         A few weeks ago, I scoured the website of First Second, the massive graphic novel imprint from Macmillan, for new MG/YA graphic novels to pre-order, and this book, which debuted on October 26, was the one I was most excited for (besides Other Boys )! (I mean, just look at that cover.) I haven't seen anyone talking about this book yet, and although it is not a perfect read, I am still excited to be bringing it to y'all's att...

I hope everyone is doing well this week! I took an hour on Friday morning to listen all the way through Billie Eilish's new album of music, Happier Than Ever , and it was SO GOOD!!! If you'd like song recommendations, I recommend "Getting Older," "Billie Bossa Nova," "my future," "GOLDWING," "Not My Responsibility"/"OverHeated" (which are kind of a pair), "Your Power," and "NDA"/"Therefore I Am" (which I also think work better as a pair). Also, I keep forgetting to plug my Thursday Thoughts posts, so I'll do that now—a while back, I discussed two fun non-kidlit books I had recently read , and this past Thursday, I posted another original poem called "An evening walk" ! Moving on, I've got an interesting and RIDICULOUSLY LENGTHY blog post for you today about my favorite book of all time: Goodbye Stranger  by Rebecca Stead. I could probably have shortened this post, but in...

I hope everyone is enjoying the middle of summer! I'm starting to feel a little frantic about how soon all my reading/relaxing time will come to an end—but we still have a few more good weeks ahead of us! Also, this past Thursday, I wrote about some of my frustrations with MG books as a genre— check it out here! Moving on to today's review for MMGM and #IMWAYR, I have one last review of a graphic novel about middle school experiences (after Truly Tyler  and Just Pretend ) before we shake things up next week. Today, I am recommending the graphic novel  Kyle's Little Sister  by BonHyung Jeong.         I decided to try out this graphic novel after seeing a review of it by Alex Baugh at Randomly Reading , and I'm glad to have tried it out! This story centers around Grace, a 6th grader who is frustrated at constantly being in the shadow of her popular older brother Kyle, an 8th grader. Whether at home, where she fights with him over the TV or feel...

I have a few quick notes before we move into today's review. First of all, I have finally set up a Goodreads account for my blog!  It is currently a bit of a mess, and I will be trying to get it finished up over the next few weeks. And if you're already reading my blog, I honestly wouldn't bother looking at my Goodreads—it's only going to have mini-reviews of the books I'm already reviewing on my blog anyway, along with links back to my blog. But I hope it will be a useful way for new readers to discover my blog so that my posts don't just disappear into the ether! You can visit my Goodreads profile here. Also, some quick self-promotion: I have started a photography blog, A Scrapbook of Stories , that I am using primarily to participate in the #2021picoftheweek challenge hosted by MMGM's own  Of Maria Antonia  (which is also now open to book bloggers)! Make sure to stop by if you're interested. I also revisited my reviews from July to December 2020 in a...

I hope everyone is doing well today! For Thursday Thoughts last week, I wrote about books and the passage of time —take a look if you're interested! Today I am excited to be recommending a book I've been looking forward to for a very  long time: Everywhere Blue  by Joanne Rossmassler Fritz! And I'm also holding the Summer 2021 Book Giveaway , with details at the bottom of this post! Review of Everywhere Blue : Seriously, is this not the best book cover EVER?! (And it matches my blog!) The art is by Elena Megalos.         Looking back through my blog's archives, I've been looking forward to Everywhere Blue  since March 2020, just before the pandemic ( here's proof )! And the reason is very simple: Joanne Rossmassler Fritz runs the book blog  My Brain on Books , and although she is currently taking a break from blogging (as most people would once they release an actual book ), she has been an active member of MMGM for years and has participated...

First of all, if you have a blog on Blogger and have no clue what to do about the FeedBurner email subscription mess, good news—I made a video tutorial on how to move your subscribers over to my service of choice, Mailchimp! Click here to watch it —I hope it is helpful! I hope everyone is doing all right today! Summer is coming in just a few weeks, so I will have way more time to read books and write reviews. I do have some frantic weeks to get through before that, but I have somehow managed to get two different non-graphic-novel books into my reading schedule! One will be the subject next week's review, and the other is what I'll be reviewing today: the novel in verse Starfish  by Lisa Fipps.           I celebrated my birthday a few weeks ago and got an AWESOME selection of books (shown at left), and Starfish  was one of them. This book has been super-popular lately, and after seeing recommendations of it by the awesome bloggers Cheriee Weichel at Li...