Book Reviews on GoodReads

Library Lion by Michelle Knudsen

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I read this book to my three year old daughter. She has just recently developed the ability to sit through books that take more than a couple minutes to read. I was surprised when she not only stayed interested during some of the longer pages, but also wanted me to reread it as soon as I had finished it. It is an imaginative story that takes a known icon of the library and brings it to life. My daughter held her ears when the lion ROARED very loudly. I had as much fun reading the book to my daugther as she did in listening to this charming story.

I really like this book and it is almost a five star book for me.

I really have a hard time giving 5 star ratings!

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Going Bovine by Libba Bray

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The beginning of the book is very slow and I found the author's teenspeak a little hard to take at times. If I had not been reading this book for a class I may have stopped before it became interesting. A teenage boy sees the worst in his family and feels extremely sorry for himself. He becomes ill and begins to hallucinate. He starts to live in another reality as his disease progresses. He sees the moments of clarity, filled with pain and suffering, as the hallucinations. I know this sounds very morbid but it becomes almost light-hearted and funny. He learns to hope; which is refreshing after the depressing beginning. The conclusion is satisfying and uplifting, despite is inevitable end. I reread the last two-thirds of the book a couple times before returning it to the library, which is always a good sign!

I hope I do not offend anyone with my review. I did like the book and the storyline stayed with me for a long time after I had finished the book.

I think I even dreamed about it!

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GoodReads and LibraryThing

I really like GoodReads. They give me a lot of choices of books to give ratings. These help make recommendations for books I may wish to read. I have discovered a lot of books that I want to read; now I just need the time! I have only reviewed these two books at this point in time.

I think LibraryThing is better for people who have a lot of books they wish to catalog. I do not have a large collection of books but I do like to read when I have time. I prefer to get them free at my local libraries ;-)

I did not add more books to LibraryThing but I did contribute to a discussion thread. I am the last one out of 102 people. Hopefully I will have some direct comments to my post and I can post some of these next week.

The topic is if William Shakespeare wrote his plays; an old debate. I did a research paper on the "Wooden O" and I have an opinion about the debate.