Tuesday, February 28, 2017

February in Exploreading

I happened upon this book after seeing it on Mandy Moore's Instagram.



Knowing nothing about Nora's story, I decided to use this one for the Exploreading Challenge - Read A Book You've Chosen For The Title.

This book was fantastic and tragic and all the feels. Nora lost her husband to a rare form of brain cancer, but this was after three years of marriage where they tried to do all the things they could together and in life to make the days together count. Five weeks before this loss, she loses her dad to cancer. These tragedies are central to the book, but her story is so much more than that. Her story is about being an adult-ish and figuring out things as you go and just trying to survive for yourself and for others. 

As usual, my friend Mandy Moore gets me, and this was an awesome recommendation.

***

For the Re-Imagining Of A Fairy Tale challenge in Exploreading, I found this book based on Snow White.


This book was a translation from Finnish. I actually think this is first time I've read a Finnish book??! Anyway, it's supposed to be part of a trilogy, and honestly I think the trilogy will be a better tie-in of Snow White. There were some references here and there, but given my love of the OG and other adaptations I wanted more. This book had a good mystery and thriller, and given it's for YA, I think the way it moves would totally be there jam. I'm intrigued enough that I may check out the second book, but would look elsewhere if you're looking for a Snow White fix.

***
For a book discussing issues related to class, I read Hillbilly Elegy.



This book has been hyped like whoa. I've had this on hold since November for the library and finally made it to the top of the list last week, and I had high hopes. . . that weren't met. For me, it just wasn't all the things that people said it would be. For all the talk about how it explained issues related to class, why the election played how it did. . . I just didn't get that at all. It was an interesting memoir, and it was a well-written story about overcoming adversity, but it didn't leave me with any new knowledge on the topic.

Honestly, I don't even feel like I've adequately completed this part of the challenge, so I'll probably seek out another book on the topic.