Jill's Book Blog

Review: Monsters 101

Title: Monsters 101
Author: Cale Atkinson
Genre: Children’s
Publisher: Tundra Books
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: August 4, 2020
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Readers who loved Unicorns 101 will love this laugh-out-loud picture book that finally sets the record straight about monsters!
Monsters! They’re so much more than just that scary thing under your bed. Join Professors Vampire, Blob and Werewolf, and their trusty lab assistant–a zombie named Tina–as they reveal eerie and frankly ridiculous monsters facts never uttered outside a crypt! For example:
– Monsters love competitive board game nights!
– Favorite monster foods include clam pudding with fish heads and pickled ant ice cream!
– In addition to cauldrons and spider gardens, monster homes often include homemade collages!
– Werewolves hate the sound of vacuum cleaners!
– Monsters aren’t all scary! Try being nice to one for a change! Offer them a compliment!
Full of eye-popping illustrations and a story with nonstop sidesplitting laughs, plus a removable Professor of Monstrology diploma at the end of the book, Monsters 101 will have children–and adults–eager to enroll, time and time again!

Review:

This is a reference book about monsters. It talks about different kinds of monsters, and includes sections on what monsters eat and what they do in their day to day lives.

This would be a great book for kids who love monsters. There were tons of fun facts about different monsters, including vampires, werewolves, and zombies. This would also be a great book to teach kids not to be afraid of monsters. It shows what monsters do when they hide under a bed, and they are actually more afraid of humans than humans are of them.

The book ends with a diploma to show that the reader has completed the Monsters 101 book. This is such a cute book for kids.

Thank you Penguin Random House Canada for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Top Ten Tuesday – Books That Should Be Adapted Into Movies

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish and it is now hosted by The Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s theme is Books That Should Be Adapted Into Movies. Here’s my list:

1. City of Ghosts by Victoria Schwab

2. Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake

3. The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

4. Royals by Rachel Hawkins

5. A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab

6. Ash Princess by Laura Sebastian

7. Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

8. Well Met by Jen DeLuca

9. Cinder by Marissa Meyer

10. Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

(All photos taken from Goodreads)

What’s your list of books on your Top Ten Tuesday?

Happy Pub Day – August 18

Happy Pub Day to all of these new books!

The London Restoration by Rachel McMillan

Little Disasters by Sarah Vaughan

The Queen of Tuesday by Darin Strauss

Body Talk: 37 Voices Explore Our Radical Anatomy by Kelly Jensen (editor)

The Faithless Hawk by Margaret Owen

Vicious Spirits by Kat Cho

Jackie and Maria: A Novel of Jackie Kennedy and Maria Callas by Gill Paul

What books are you most excited for this week?

Review: Body Talk: 37 Voices Explore Our Radical Anatomy

Title: Body Talk: 37 Voices Explore Our Radical Anatomy
Author: Kelly Jensen (editor)
Genre: Non-Fiction, Anthology
Publisher: Algonquin Young Readers
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: August 18, 2020
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

It’s time to bare it all about bodies!
We all experience the world in a body, but we don’t usually take the time to explore what it really means to have and live within one. Just as every person has a unique personality, every person has a unique body, and every body tells its own story.
In Body Talk, thirty-seven writers, models, actors, musicians, and artists share essays, lists, comics, and illustrations—about everything from size and shape to scoliosis, from eating disorders to cancer, from sexuality and gender identity to the use of makeup as armor. Together, they contribute a broad variety of perspectives on what it’s like to live in their particular bodies—and how their bodies have helped to inform who they are and how they move through the world.
Come on in, turn the pages, and join the celebration of our diverse, miraculous, beautiful bodies!

Review:

In this anthology, 37 writers talk about different body issues. Some of these pieces of writing were universal, like reproductive health, while others were about specific disabilities.

This book was informative and enjoyable. I’m quite squeamish and don’t typically like reading medical texts, so some of these essays were difficult to get through. However, I learned a lot about muscular diseases and scoliosis, which was referenced in a number of pieces.

Between the articles were some FAQ. These included things like the use of the word “fat,” and how to use identity first language when talking about disabilities. That means you say “a disabled person” rather than “a person with a disability.”

These pieces were written by a variety of different writers. They were celebrities, young adult authors, and doctors. It was great to see these first hand accounts of body issues, as well as the medical science to back it up. Some of the pieces were previously published elsewhere. They were good pieces of writing, but I’m not sure why they were included with original works.

This was a really great book for everyone to read!

Thank you Algonquin Books for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

About the author:

Kelly Jensen is a former librarian and current editor at Book Riot and her own popular book blog, Stacked. She’s the editor of two highly-acclaimed YA anthologies, Here We Are: Feminism For The Real World and (Don’t) Call Me Crazy: 33 Voices Start The Conversation About Mental Health. Her writing has been featured in Bust Magazine, Fortune, Bustle, and more. When not working with words, she teaches yoga, hangs out with a motley crew of pets, and enjoys all of the black licorice no one else wants. Follow her on Instagram @heykellyjensen and her website kellybjensen.com.

Have you read Body Talk: 37 Voices Explore Our Radical Anatomy? What did you think of it?

It’s Monday, What Are You Reading? – August 17

This blog meme is hosted by Book Date. It is a place to meet up and share what you have been, are and about to be reading over the week. It’s a great post to organize yourself. It’s an opportunity to visit and comment, and er… add to that ever growing TBR pile!

What I just finished:

This weekend I finished Body Talk: 37 Voices Explore Our Radical Anatomy by Kelly Jensen (editor).

What I’m currently reading:

I’m currently reading Two Dark Reigns (Three Dark Crowns #3) by Kendare Blake.

What I’m reading next:

Next I will be reading The Love Square by Laura Jane Williams.

What are you guys reading this week? Have you read any of these books?

Jill’s Weekly Wrap-Up – August 16

Here are my reviews for the week with my ratings:

Lobizona (Wolves of No World #1) ★★★★★
The End of Her ★★★★★
Waiting for Tom Hanks ★★★★★
The Guinevere Deception (Camelot Rising #1) ★★★★★
Don’t Ask Me Where I’m From ★★★★★
The Maple Murders (Riverdale #3) ★★★★

I did 9 weekly blogging memes:

How was your week? What did you guys read?

Sundays in Bed With… Body Talk

The meme that dares to ask what book has been in your bed this morning? Come share what book you’ve spent time curled up reading in bed, or which book you wish you had time to read today! This meme is hosted by Midnight Book Girl.

This Sunday I’m reading Body Talk: 37 Voices Explore Our Radical Anatomy by Kelly Jensen (editor).

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is goodreads-badge-add-plus-71eae69ca0307d077df66a58ec068898.png

Goodreads Synopsis:

It’s time to bare it all about bodies!
We all experience the world in a body, but we don’t usually take the time to explore what it really means to have and live within one. Just as every person has a unique personality, every person has a unique body, and every body tells its own story.
In Body Talk, thirty-seven writers, models, actors, musicians, and artists share essays, lists, comics, and illustrations—about everything from size and shape to scoliosis, from eating disorders to cancer, from sexuality and gender identity to the use of makeup as armor. Together, they contribute a broad variety of perspectives on what it’s like to live in their particular bodies—and how their bodies have helped to inform who they are and how they move through the world.
Come on in, turn the pages, and join the celebration of our diverse, miraculous, beautiful bodies!

What book are you in bed with today?

Six for Sunday – Summer Covers

This meme is hosted by Steph at A little but a lot. The weekly prompts for 2019 can be found here.

This week’s prompt is Summer Colours so I decided to do Summer Covers. Here’s my list:

1. Golden Hour by Chantel Guertin

2. That Summer in Maine by Brianna Wolfson

3. Just a Boy and a Girl in a Little Canoe by Sarah Mlynowski

4. Shadow Me by Tahereh Mafi

5. Sunny Side Up by Jennifer L. Holm and Matthew Holm

6. The Showrunner by Kim Moritsugu

(All book covers from Goodreads)

Did you make a Six for Sunday list?

Review: The Maple Murders (Riverdale #3)

Title: The Maple Murders (Riverdale #3)
Author: Micol Ostow
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Source: Purchased
Format: Paperback
Release Date: October 15, 2019
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Riverdale is clamoring with excitement over news that an old town tradition is suddenly being revived: the Riverdale Revels.
The festival supposedly has a long history, dating back to the town’s settlers’ first successful maple tapping. But there’s no record of the Revels anywhere. Archie, Betty, Veronica, and Jughead think there must be more to the story. And when a skeleton is uncovered in a 75-year-old time capsule on the first night of the festival, they know they’re right.
But a dead body in a maple barrel isn’t the only drama surrounding the Revels. The Royal Maple pageant (open to all Riverdale teens) is in full swing, but “accidents” keep befalling the contestants, including the gang’s friends.
Someone is clearly trying to put an end to the Revels once and for all — but who? And more importantly, why? Can Archie and his friends put a stop to the sabotage before someone puts a stop to them?
This original novel features a story not seen on the show!

Review:

The mayor of Riverdale, Hermione Lodge, has decided to hold the Riverdale Revels. That is an old festival that dates back to before the town was founded. Since they didn’t get to open the town’s time capsule on its 75th anniversary, they decide to open it to start the celebrations. However, when they open the Blossom Maple barrel that served as the time capsule, they find human remains. Jughead, Betty, Archie, and Veronica have to investigate where this mysterious body came from and why it was put into the Riverdale time capsule.

This is a great story set in the world of Riverdale. The characters sounded just like the actors on the TV show. I could practically hear them speaking the lines on the page. The story also showed the wide variety of characters, from the main characters of Archie and Betty to the minor characters of Kevin and Josie.

There were a couple of extended flashbacks that weren’t necessary to the plot. I didn’t even realize they were flashback scenes until the narrative returned to the present. Though these scenes were set off with a different typeface, they distracted from the main plot since they didn’t have to do with the present story.

I enjoyed this Riverdale mystery.