January 2020 Reading Wrap-Up

Hello readers!

Here is my January reading wrap up!

I didn't read or review as much as I would have liked but it's been a decent start to the year. I've been trying to stay more consistent with my blogging and have been trying to keep up with visiting more bloggers. I definitely have a busy month ahead of me but I'm looking forward to new reads and book discussions!

The Books I Started & Finished in January:

Chapter Books Read to My Daughter:

Started But Haven't Finished:

Book Reviews I Shared This Month:




We discovered the concept of time with Looking For Yesterday by Alison Jay and learned all about the history of our home planet in It Started With A Big Bang: The Origin of Earth, You, and Everything Else by Floor Bal & Sebastian Van Doninck.

We fit in a few winter-themed reads like I Wish It Would Snow by Sarah Dillard, No Yeti Yet by Mary Ann Fraser, and Roly Poly by Mem Fox & Jane Dyer.

We explored new and advanced words with Eric Carle's Book of Many Things and Bigger Words for Little Geniuses by James & Susan Patterson.

I shared my review of the fourth book in the Wayward Children series, In An Absent Dream by Seanan McGuire, as well as a quick review of American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins, which I won an ARC of from Goodreads.

More Posts:
2020 Alphabet Reading Challenge
2020 PopSugar Reading Challenge
2020 Beat the Backlist Challenge
2020 New Releases Challenge
2020 Tackle My TBR
BookRiot's 2020 Read Harder Challenge

I also shared my Book-to-Movie Adaptation Master List for 2020 and beyond!


JANUARY MUSICI love music. Music heals.
I'm always on the lookout for something new and would like to keep track somewhere besides my bujo so here are my latest faves!

links to youtube

Push Off  by  The Palms
Los Angeles  by  The Midnight
In Need  by  Gert Taberner

January 2019 throwback
Taro  by  Alt - J
My Blood  by  Twenty One Pilots
Feel Better  by  After the Smoke



How many books did you read in January?

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Abner & Ian Get Right Side Up by Dave Eggers & Laura Park (Children's Picture Book Review)

Abner & Ian Get Right-Side Up
Story by Dave Eggers

Art by Laura Park
Published by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
on May 14, 2019
Genre: Children's, Picture Books
Length: 80 pages
Ages: 4 - 8 years

Goodreads | Amazon | B&N | BookDepository

Synopsis:
Abner and Ian are stuck sideways in this clever picture book created by a bestselling, acclaimed author and cartoonist--and perfect for fans of Elephant & Piggie and Press Here.

Abner and Ian are stuck sideways on the pages of their debut picture book. They can't start the story like this! Ian is trying to be brave, despite his dizziness and fear of heights. But don't worry, because Abner has a plan: Readers will shake and turn the book until they get the right side up! Sounds easy, right? Think again, because the real solution may be the opposite of what you'd expect.


Our Thoughts:
Abner & Ian are somehow sideways when we start their story and they include the readers and/or Little Listeners to join in to put things right. Unfortunately, no matter how we try to help, Abner & Ian end up more and more mixed up! In the end, the solution is easy as one, two, three...

This is a really fun, hands-on picture book where you, the reader, are included in the story! The characters, Abner and Ian, talk to you and ask you for help with their dilemma. In fact, you are the only one that can help them! You must shake and turn and flip this book to try to get the characters back on the page correctly!

This makes a wonderful interactive story to read to little ones in a group setting but it has an extra punch if the reader themselves get to shake and turn and flip the book! 

I did have an issue with the length of this book. My daughter was thoroughly tired of shaking and turning the book before we were even close to getting things sorted out for our characters. It does have some wacky, funny moments that we enjoyed though!

More from this author:

Her Right Foot by Dave Eggers & Shawn Harris

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Roly Poly by Mem Fox & Jane Dyer (Children's Picture Book Review)

Roly Poly

by Mem Fox
Illustrations by Jane Dyer
Published by Beach Lane Books

on November 5, 2019
Genre: Children's, Picture Books
Length: 40 pages
Ages: 3 - 6 years

Goodreads | Amazon | B&N | BookDepository

Synopsis:
Roly Poly the polar bear gets a little brother he did not ask for, in this charming story about sibling rivalry and the bonds of family from the beloved picture book creators of Time for Bed, Mem Fox and Jane Dyer.

Roly Poly the polar bear loves being an only child. His bed is only his. The fish he catches are only his. And he doesn't have to share his toy walrus tooth with anyone. But then along comes baby Monty. Roly Poly did not ask for a little brother and he certainly does not want one now! What is Roly Poly to do when Monty starts making him share his bed and fish and walrus tooth?

Our Thoughts:

Roly Poly is an only child who doesn't have to share his bed or his fish or his toys and that's just how he'd love it to stay. But then he is surprised with a baby brother, Monty, whom he must share his bed with. Roly Poly never wanted a little brother and he certainly doesn't want one that crawls all over him and steals his fish or his favorite walrus tooth toy. 

Determined to ignore his little brother, Roly Poly doesn't notice when Monty gets himself into some very big trouble. And then he just flat out ignores Monty's cries for help, reminding himself that he never wanted a brother anyway. But Roly Poly has a change of heart and eventually does the right thing, creating a lifelong bond of friendship.

Roly Poly is a cute story about a bear who finds himself with an annoying little brother that he just can't get along with. Everything his little brother does makes him angry and Roly Poly has no intention of getting along. This is a great example of sibling rivalry and would be a fun read-aloud for any siblings! 

The images in this picture book are quite unique! The polar bears pictured are handcrafted by a process called needle-felting. The felted bears are then arranged and photographed, giving us our story! I can imagine this crafting took a great deal of time so I'm extra impressed by the visuals in this story! 

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2020 Reading Challenge Roundup & Progress

Lazy Day Literature's 2020 Reading Challenge Roundup

Hello readers!
One last reading challenge post!
I keep this challenge roundup post to help me keep track of all my challenges and goals in one convenient place!

Goodreads

2020 Reading Challenge

Stacy Renee has read 1 book toward her goal of 52 books.

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1 of 52 (1%)

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My reads: 41 / 52
Chapter books read to daughter: 22 / 30
Picture books reviewed & added to GR: 62

ABC Challenge
15/26

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Beat the Backlist 2020

January
1. The Princess Saves Herself in This One
2. Babel: Around the World in Twenty Languages (reread)
3. Heart of Darkness (graphic novel)

February
4. Heart of Darkness (classic)
5. Born A Crime
6. To Kill A Mockingbird (graphic novel)

March
7.Warleggan
8. Station Eleven
9. Queen of the Sea

April
10. Persepolis (graphic novel)
11. The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek
12. The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells

May
13. Monstress #1
14. Saga #1

June---n/a---

July
15. Scat

August

16. The Wolf Wants In
17. New Kid

September
18. The Witch of Blackbird Pond 
19. Matilda

March

Bingo: 1/25

Book W/ Less Than 200 Pgs: The Princess Saves Herself In This One

2020 New Release Challenge

3 / 25

January
American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins
Come Tumbling Down by Seanan McGuire

February
The Conference of the Birds by Ransom Riggs

March
none

April
What Stars Are Made Of  by Sarah Allen

May
The Deep by Alma Katsu
Deeplight by Frances Hardinge

June
Glass Town by Isabel Greenberg
We Are Power

July
The Mulberry Tree by Alison Rushby

August
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
This Book is Anti-Racist by Tiffany Jewell

September
Home Before Dark by Riley Sager
War Is Over by David Almond
The Time of Green Magic by Hilary McKay
Kiki's Delivery Service by Eiko Kadono

PopSugar Reading Challenge
12 / 50

Published in 2020: American Dirt
Only words on cover: The Princess Saves Herself in this One
Set in a country beginning with C: Heart of Darkness
4-star rating or bildungsroman: Born A Crime
3 word title: Come Tumbling DownBook with a bird on cover: The Conference of the Birds
Recommended by fave blog, vlog, book group: The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek
A book that passes the bechdel test: Little Women

BookRiot's READ HARDER Challenge

7 / 24

Tackle My TBR 2020

Read Around the World

January
[American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins]
Acapulco, Mexico

[Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad]
The Thames River
Fleet Street, London
Congo Free State (1890)

February
[The Conference of the Birds]
Chinatown, NYC
Brooklyn
Waynoka, Pennsylvania

[The Willoughbys]
___somewhere in USA___
The Swiss Alps
Rotterdam

[Born A Crime]
Johannesburg, South Africa
Soweta

[Warleggan]
Cornwall, England
Truro | Sawle | Cusgarne
St. Ives
The island of St. Mary's
Tresco
Hugh Town, St. Agnes Island
London

[To Kill A Mockingbird]
Maycomb, Alabama

March
[Station Eleven]
Elgin Theater, Toronto
Allan Gardens
South Coast of Malaysia (meh)
near Lake Michigan

[The Secret Garden]
India
England

April
[A Little Princess]
India
London

[What Stars Are Made Of]

[Persepolis]
Tehran, Iran

[The Invisible Man]
Iping
Bramblehurst

[The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek]
Troublesome Creek, Kentucky

[The Black Moon]
Cornwall, England

May

June

July

[The Mulberry Tree]
England

[Scat]
Florida

August

[The Wolf Wants In]
Kentucky

[Mexican Gothic]
Mexico City 
+ ?

September

[Home Before Dark] ?
[War Is Over] - England
[The Witch of Blackbird Pond] 
Saybrook & Wethersfield, Connecticut
[The Ballad of Black Tom]
Harlem

1001 Books to Read Before You Die List
2019: 62 / 1001
2020: 64 / 1001

April
The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells

1001 Books to Read Before You Grow Up List
2019: 149 / 1001
2020: 164 / 1001

JAN
Little Women (reread)
Rosie's Walk by Pat Hutchins
Bedtime For Frances by Russell Hoben

FEB
Thomas the Tank Engine by A.W. Audry
The Quangle Wangle's Hat by Edward Lear
Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton
Each Peach Pear Plum
The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge
Harry the Dirty Dog
Up in the Tree by Margaret Atwood

MAR
Pinocchio
What Do People Do All Day?
The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstone
The Secret Garden

APR
Strega Nona
A Little Princess

May

June
Charlotte's Web
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

July
James and the Giant Peach

August
Fables by Aesop
Stone Soup by Ann McGovern

September
Old Bear by Jane Hissey
Madlenka by Peter Sis
The Story of Babar
My Father's Dragon
Matilda

October



Nonfiction
7 / 10
Fighting For the Forest by P. O'Connell Pearson
The Princess Saves Herself In This One by Amanda Lovelace
Babel: Around the World in Twenty Languages by Gaston Dorren
Born A Crime by Trevor Noah
We Are Power
Me & White Supremacy
Astronauts: Women on the Final Frontier
Nature Play At Home
This Book Is Anti-Racist by Tiffany Jewell

Graphic Novels
9 / 12

Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness by Peter Kuper
Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird by Fred Fordham
Queen of the Sea by Dylan Merconis
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
Saga #1 by
Monstress #1 by Marjorie M. Liu
Glass Town by Isabel Greenberg
Astronauts: Women on the Final Frontier
New Kid by Jerry Craft


New to Me Authors
Jeanine Cummins
P. O'Connell Pearson
Amanda Lovelace
Peter Kuper
Joseph Conrad
Trevor Noah
Fred Fordham
Emily St. John Mendel
Dylan Merconis
Sarah Allen
Marjane Satrapi
Kim Michele Richardson
Trudi Trueitt
Alma Katsu
Frances Hardinge
Isabel Greenberg
Todd Hasak-Lowy
Allison Rushby
Layla F. Saad

Alex North
Melody A. Carson
Kallie George
Nancy Striniste
Barbara Park 
Laura McHugh
Jerry Craft
Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Tiffany Jewell
David Almond
Hilary McKay
Eiko Kadono
Victor Lavalle
J.H. Reynolds



Book to Movie Adaptations
The Willoughbys (coming soon to Netflix)
Heart of Darkness (Apocalypse Now - older film)
Warleggan (tv series)
To Kill A Mockingbird (old)
Pinocchio (old)
Pocahontas (Disney - old)
The Secret Garden (old)
A Little Princess (old)
The Black Moon [Poldark] (tv series)
Fantastic Mr. Fox (old)
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (old & newer)
Charlotte's Web (old & newer)
James and the Giant Peach (old)
Matilda (old)



Thanks for checking out my reading progress!
Happy reading!

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American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins (Adult Book Review)

I won a copy of this book from Goodreads Giveaways. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

American Dirt

by Jeanine Cummins
Published by Flatiron Books
on January 21, 2020
Genre: Adult, Fiction
Length: 400 pages

Goodreads | Amazon | B&N | BookDepository

Synopsis:
Already being hailed as "a Grapes of Wrath of our times" and "a new American classic," American Dirt is a rare exploration into the inner hearts of people willing to sacrifice everything for a glimmer of hope.

Lydia Quixano Perez lives in the Mexican city of Acapulco. She runs a bookstore. She has a son, Luca, the love of her life, and a wonderful husband who is a journalist. And while there are cracks beginning to show in Acapulco because of the drug cartels, her life is, by and large, fairly comfortable.

Even though she knows they'll never sell, Lydia stocks some of her all-time favorite books in her store. And then one day the jefe of the newest drug cartel that has gruesomely taken over the city enters her shop to buy four books. When Lydia's husband's tell-all profile of Javier is published, none of their lives will ever be the same.

My Thoughts:
When Lydia's journalist husband does a full expose on the jefe of the local drug cartel, her entire family, except her young son, Luca, is murdered at her niece's sixteenth quinceanera. Lydia and Luca might have survived but she knows the jefe, Javier, won't stop until she and Luca are dead, so she quickly grabs what she thinks they might need and immediately leaves town. Her only hope is to travel and escape to el norte. Lydia knows that many have made the journey before her and she will do whatever it takes to keep Luca alive and safe, but there are plenty of people working for and with the cartels throughout Mexico and Lydia must always look over her shoulder and stay one step ahead. 

The first chapter of this book (in which Lydia's entire family is murdered) was hard to read. It hit hard, made me tear up, and I had to set it down but knew I would keep reading. Once I did, I had a hard time putting it down. I got caught up in Lydia and Luca's plight to survive. I worried and hoped for their safety and that of their companions, Soledad and Rebecca. I tracked their journey on a map. I praised the helping heroes and celebrated when their journey was finally behind them. I haven't been this emotionally invested in fictional characters in a while and I'm pretty sure they will stick with me for a while. It was an eye-opening story for me in many ways.

I've seen a lot of negativity towards this book and the fact that the author is not a Mexican immigrant or of Mexican descent. I am neither and do not claim a spot in that debate but I think it's important to know that the author is not claiming that this is an "own voices" story and if we all only wrote what we have experienced there would be a lot less fiction in the world. And that is all that this book is.
Cummins addresses in the author's note that she is a U.S. citizen from a family of mixed cultures and ethnicities (her grandmother emigrated from Puerto Rico), she married an undocumented immigrant, and had family members that were unjustly murdered, all of which in some way led to her writing this book.  

That being said, I am definitely still planning on finding more books on this subject from actual immigrants and refugees in the future. Feel free to recommend any in the comments!   


Many thanks to Goodreads and Flatiron Books for the physical ARC of this book.

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Bigger Words for Little Geniuses by Susan Patterson (Children's Nonfiction Picture Book Review)

Bigger Words for Little Geniuses

by Susan Patterson & James Patterson
Illustrated by Hsingping Pan
Published by Jimmy Patterson
on September 2, 2019
Genre: Children's, Nonfiction, Picture Books
Length: 32 pages
Ages: 3 - 6 years

Goodreads | Amazon | B&N | BookDepository

Synopsis:
Kids are never too young to start learning!
With big, fun-to-say words for every letter of the alphabet, this book will deliver read-aloud laughs while teaching something new to both parent and child.

Do you know your gnashnabb from your widdershins? When was the last time you saw something orchidaceous or dolichopodous? Learn all these sophisticated words and more in this brilliant picture book by bestselling authors James and Susan Patterson!
With bright imaginative artwork by Hsinping Pan, each word offers a definition and pronunciation to give your little genius--and you!--the most impressive vocabulary ever. Includes a list of extra words in the back for further reading.

Our Thoughts:
From 'ailurophile' to 'zoanthropy', Bigger Words for Little Geniuses shares an alphabet's amount of advanced words paired with fun illustrations to teach new words to both children and adults alike!

This is a fantastic way for both children and adults to learn and retain bigger vocabulary words!

Each of the twenty-six words includes the phonetic spelling to make it easier to sound out and bright, colorful illustrations that help explain them. There's another twenty-six words with their phonetic spelling and definitions without illustrations on the last two words so you can learn twice as many big new words!

Who doesn't love to learn new words?!

I personally love the word 'widdershins' and use it regularly! 

I was also extra excited to see my all-time favorite word, hippopotomonstrossesquipedaliophobia, or the fear of long words, in this children's book! 

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The Sunday Post - 2020 Week 3

The Sunday Post is hosted by Kimberly @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer

and is a chance to share news, both new and old!

Hey there, bloggers!

It's been a week.
My Little caught the bug going around and I'm afraid all my efforts to avoid it too have failed. I was able to get some extra reading in while resting, at least. It's been beautiful weather here so I'm a little bummed about missing out on our planned hike this week. Instead, we set up our fairy garden and planted seeds for Spring (which seems to be here awfully early).

Currently Reading:

Our current chapter book:

Recently Finished:

Recently watched:

I finally got to see Joker and thought it was brilliant.
My Little and I watched Togo, which honestly made me cry, and Maleficent 2, which I also loved.
Give me all the anti-heroes!

What I'm Listening To:

Phosphorescent - "Song for Zula"
I recently rediscovered this old favorite and it's been stuck in my head all week. 

Have a great week! Happy reading!

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