Books

Book 645: The Porcupine of Truth – Bill Konigsberg

And, I’m back to playing catch up. The downside of all these teen/young adult rom-com books is that I read them so fast and I just want more that I end up going from being ahead on blogging to being two-to-three books behind in just days!

I got this this on Kindle download after reading The Music of What Happens and realizing I was only two books from finishing Konigsberg’s current works. It so happens I downloaded this the same day I went to the library too pick up two books and came back with six books, including the final Konigsberg I haven’t read, Honestly Ben, which I’ll get to probably in two-to-three days at the rate I’m reading these!

Continue reading “Book 645: The Porcupine of Truth – Bill Konigsberg”

Books

Book 644: Encore (The Backstagers #3) – James Tynion IV, Rian Sygh & Walter Baiamonte

Of the three, this was my favorite. Rebels Without Applause and The Show Must Go On were both good reads and absolutely must be read together, but I think this one was more what I was expecting when I picked up the firs tone. This is a series of vignettes centered around Valentine’s Day and Halloween. They’re short, they’re adorable, and they don’t require knowing the entire backstory of those first two volumes.

My favorite of the stories was the Valentine’s Day story around Beckett. Who doesn’t love a bah humbug story with a happy ending? It didn’t hurt that Jory and Hunter were extra adorable.

Continue reading “Book 644: Encore (The Backstagers #3) – James Tynion IV, Rian Sygh & Walter Baiamonte”

Books

Book 643: The Show Must Go On (The Backstagers #2) – James Tynion IV, Rian Sygh & Walter Baiamonte

This was a  good quick read and a must read if you want to have any idea about what’s going on in Rebels Without Applause. They really should’ve put this into one collection. Maybe they did it because of the timing of these last four issues, but it wasn’t worth reading one and then waiting for the other.

The Backstagers: The Show Must Go On contains all the backstory that Volume 1 really needed to make it make sense, mostly. There seems to be a time jump between issue four (end of volume one) and five (beginning of volume two). I’m not sure if I’ve missed a lot (there are novels and I believe this was a webcomic) because the whole thing seems more disjointed than I thought looking back on it.

Continue reading “Book 643: The Show Must Go On (The Backstagers #2) – James Tynion IV, Rian Sygh & Walter Baiamonte”

Books

Book 642: Evvie Drake Starts Over – Linda Holmes

I discovered Linda Holmes years ago when I started listening to NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour and reading what used to be called Monkey See but was re-branded recently to match the podcast. I’ve always appreciated her views and the people she brings to the discussion, so when she started to drop hints that she was working on a novel I was SUPER excited.

I was also psyched to see the public radio shout out so early in the book, “She took down one of two public-radio fundraising mugs from the cabinet, leaving behind the one with the thin coat of dust on its upturned bottom.” (10). There’s another scene when Evvie is trying to decide what to do with some money and the list of charities she wants to support is just perfect.

Continue reading “Book 642: Evvie Drake Starts Over – Linda Holmes”

Books

Book 639: The Music of What Happens – Bill Konigsberg

No matter how many of these I read I’m always going to ask where these were when I was in high school. Kids these days don’t know how great they have it. I’m legit laughing at myself writing that, because I know how much better things were for me when I was in high school/college than it was just 5-10 years before that.

This is the third Konigsberg I’ve read and I feel like I should read The Porcupine of Truth and Honestly Ben just to complete the novels! I have enjoyed all three of them so it’s not like it’d be the most difficult thing in the world, but I do have a lot of books on my TBR list, so maybe I should wait a little longer. Spoilers to follow, so don’t read it if you don’t want to know any major plot points.

Continue reading “Book 639: The Music of What Happens – Bill Konigsberg”