Book Review, Children's Fiction, Series, YA Fantasy

Series: Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard by R.R.

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Sword of Summer

2.8 stars. Sloppy. Sloppy. Not sure how to write about this, usually I read a book like this and I’m instantly gunning to read the rest of the series stat. But my impression is that I’ll get to it when I get to it, which might be in a couple months or a couple years and after I’ve forgotten anything that happened in this book so I’ll be disappointed in the lack of exposition in the follow up when usually I’m annoyed. Like the author didn’t think I’d remember something I binged the night before *scoffs*.

Magnus is an interesting character that I’m not sure I really understand or want to understand. His best friends are middle-aged men from what I can tell and a half-Muslim girl who either wears the same hijab every single day or has forty of the exact same one. Not only that irked me, but the representation of Muslims seemed a little short-sighted here (sorry Riordan). I do not practice Islam, nor do I have any especially close friends that do, but I feel like researching some general practices and pillars of the religion and their direct associations with ancient nordic culture might not actually be that difficult.

Besides my take on ancient religion and those that survived into modern times, the writing was a bit lazy. If you want a super fast, thoughtless read. Go ahead and pick it up. But if you want the same level of lore-saturated fiction as Percy Jackson or Tristan Strong then you have come to the wrong book series.

Hammer of Thor

3 stars. Uh. I don’t know what happened. Did a bunch of teens get put in deaths path and free a literal monster just because someone wanted better streaming for their binge addiction? Or was it more the child bride that irked me? I don’t know, it was ok I guess. Read it yourself and see.

Ship of the Dead

3 stars. I have read them all. That was unforseen, but I needed more lighthearted easy going ya lit in my life, so here we are. In the beginning, I was like “oooh, here’s Riordan using PJ as a lazy writing tactic AGAIN. But then he wasn’t there for even a chapter so *shrug* I guess that’s fine. Anyway, I just felt like the struggle wasn’t real. Since Magnus is the MC it almost belittled Alex and Sam’s trauma of having a horrible parent and getting to serve justice. The story and lore were interesting enough to push me through it though, so that goes for something. But it wasn’t my favorite.

Book Review, Series, YA Fiction, YA Romance

Series: Dumplin’ by J.M.

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Dumplin’

5 stars. Holy Guacamole. I really liked this book. I thought it was gonna be stupid and sappy– and even with Will’s stupid fits over this boy and that boy–I thought it was quite good. Each character was so beautifully written (and you know how much I’m a sucker for a good character) and the plot was unlike anything I’d ever dreamed of. A beautiful tale.

Puddin’

4 stars. Millie is a queen. I have never known anyone to be so kind at all times. This character! Wow. And the transformations of the characters around her because of her glowing, cheery attitude makes me sing. *chefs kiss* Love it. I want there to be like 3 more in this series. PLEASE! (or more, I won’t be picky)

Book Review, Memoirs/Autobiography, Non-Fiction, Self-Help

Born to Run by C.M.

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5 stars. I wear barefoot shoes. No not the kind that have toes and are super tacky, but like shoes that actually allow your foot to function as though you were barefoot kind of shoes. LITERALLY EVERY SINGLE BAREFOOT SHOE COMPANY references this book. Look it up, then buy some shoes and save yourself some terrible foot, knee, hip, and back problems for the rest of your life. Ok now for what you’re really here for: a book review.

This book is amazing and I gave it 5 stars because I loved it. I loved the stories and all the various people included in this journey through history about running. However, I will say the title is somewhat misleading because the “Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen” only takes up a small percentage of the very end. But other than that, it will change the way you think about running and the shoe industry.

Book Review, Memoirs/Autobiography, Non-Fiction, Philosophy, Self-Help

Babies Are Not Pizzas by R.D.,PhD.

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4 stars. I can tell you that when I put this on my TBR list I did not expect to read a book about obstetric violence and abuse, but that’s what I got. This book was eye opening! I found myself in constant awe and horror as a learned about current practices in hospital labor and delivery wings and how most of them are at least 15 years out of date with current research! What the heck! Anyway, I’m here to review a book not give a summary. The book was organized in a simple enough way to understand and included many references to evidence-based knowledge about pregnancy and birth that, should I ever have children, I would refer to as well as doing some of my own research. It made me want to go straight hippy and read a book by Ina May Gaskin. Some of the knowledge was beyond me, just because I have never been pregnant and might never be. But it was simple enough to understand while simultaneously disheartening. But I did learn at the very end that if you don’t want to read the book, like I did, you can go to the associated website for any questions you may have from vitamin K to racism to lithotomy.  It was certainly an interesting read, very emotional. I do not get anything from posting this link, but if you want an unopinionated version of this book I’d recommend reading the research articles posted on the Evidence Based Birth Blog.

 

Book Review, Comedy, Memoirs/Autobiography, Non-Fiction, Philosophy, Self-Help

How to Lose a Marathon by J.C.

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4 stars. This books is a serious work of non-fiction dedicated to motivating the masses to lose marathons. I laughed out loud from time to time and relished in each time he mentioned his arch-nemesis: Oprah. The ending surprised me. I would recommend it as some light reading, its quick-flirty-bantery prose that actually does motivate you to go out and run a marathon, even if you might lose to Oprah.