Book Review: Roller Girl by Victoria Jamieson

 Astrid and Nicole have been best friends since first grade. They do everything together including cultural enrichment activities put together by their mothers. One of these activities is a trip to the local Roller Derby team The Rose City Rollers. Astrid is hooked. She signs up for the roller derby camp The Rosebuds thinking Nicole would sign up as well. However, Nicole signs up for a ballet camp with a friend from school whom Astrid can not stand.

On the first day of camp, Astrid omits that Nicole is not going to camp with her. She shows up, and is terrified to learn that as the newest Rosebud she is the smallest, weakest, and can't keep up with the other girls skating. After the first failure of a day with a walk across town to get home, will Astrid keep going to roller derby camp? What will happen when her mom finds out Nicole is not at the camp? Will Astrid make friends at camp and can she figure out who she is outside of Nicole's friend? Astrid struggles with identity, and the bumps and bruises acquired learning how and what it takes to be a strong, tough roller girl.

This book looks at the idea of identity. Finding out who you are, and who your friends are as you move into your teenage years. Astrid is struggling with her identity as her interests and her best friends interests are starting to diverge away from each other. It's been a long time since I was Astrid's age, but I remember the struggle with trying to be true to myself while also trying to conform  to those interests of my girlfriends who were much more interested in popular fashions and trends. A journey of discovery that continued well past those pre-teen and teenage years.  

Book Review: Be Prepared by Vera Brosgol

 

Nine year old Vera is a Russian girl living in the suburbs of upstate New York. She just wants to fit in with her peers. She tries to recreate the successful birthday party sleepover (unsuccessfully to her embarrassment), she goes to school, she attends Orthodox church services. Every summer she watches the girls and boys in her class go away to summer camp.  She desperately wants to go away to camp. So when a friend from church mentions Russian camp, and that the church will pay the tuition fees for it, Vera embarks on a campaign to convince her mother to send her and her younger brother to camp the following summer.

So, during the summer between fourth and fifth grade Vera (who is almost ten) and her brother embark on an adventure to a Russian Orthodox scout camp in rural Connecticut. Vera imagines a place where she will make a best friend, and live out what she has heard about camp from the girls she knows from school. Instead, she is placed in a tent with Sasha and Sasha, two fourteen year old's who have been attending camp together since they were six - whom Vera has nothing in common with. Vera struggles with aspects of camp - The dreaded Hollywood (a spider infested outhouse), washing one's hair in the lake, and morning ablutions in the stream. Combined with the fact that Vera is having a hard time making friends, navigating the Russian history lessons, and attending church services outdoors in the rain camp is a miserable experience. But when her mother shares that she is extending the siblings time in camp because she needs to travel for a job interview Vera is crushed. Instead of going home, she has to navigate  the now familiar routines of camp life, can she make a friend and survive the following two weeks?

Be Prepared is based on the experiences of Vera Brosgol when she attended camp as a child. The story strikes authentically with the experiences of an immigrant child trying to fit in. I was happy to find this in the bundle of graphic novels I received recently, as I loved her first book Anya's Ghost. The artwork in this was poignant and the brown and green shading really made the melancholy feeling Vera (the protagonist) has during her camp experience.  In addition, I loved the way the book ends and I hope we see another volume with Vera and her family as they move to another country for her mother's new job.

Book Review: Ghosts by Raina Telgemeier

 Cat and her family are moving from sunny Los Angeles California to the northern California town of Bahía de la Luna. She is very unhappy to be leaving her friends, and the home that she knows. However, the big reason for the move is her younger sister's health. Maya, has cystic fibrosis which affects her lungs, and the cool salty ocean air is something that can hopefully help sooth her breathing issues.

Bahía de la Luna, is not what Cat expects. She and Maya meet a boy Cat's age Carlos, who turns out to be a new neighbor. He and his family share that Bahía de la Luna is a place where ghosts are found, as they like the cool foggy weather and that the mission above the town is a gateway between the worlds of the living and the dead. The town celebrates The Day of the Dead with a big party every year.

Cat, and her family have a chance to reconnect with the Mexican traditions of her mother's heritage. We get to know the more pessimistic Cat and her optimistic sister Maya, and in the process learn that some of Cat's wariness to embrace the idea of ghosts comes from the fear of losing her sister to her illness.

This is a story of discovery, and family rooted in tradition amongst change. Like other Raina Telgemeir graphic novels the artwork is very very good. As a non-native to California I didn't get some of the cultural references that other people I know who have read and reviewed the book who grew up in California mentioned. But I did think it interesting that the ghosts as introduced are primarily Mexican and enjoy being spoken to in Spanish. It almost felt like the Mexican identity was being forced into the story.  I think if the focus of Maya's Cystic Fibrosis and the introduction of the topic of death for such a young age had been told a slightly different manner it might have been a stronger more authentic story and not had that slight feeling of cultural appropriation it left me feeling.

I am glad that I read it, and I will recommend it to others, as it does approach the idea of a degenerative disease suffered by a young person in a sensitive and gentle way.

Bout of Books 32 update post.

Bout of Books Goals:

 I will be working on my currently reading list on goodreads this week, and may pull some other books if needed/ I feel like it. These are a mix of bookcrossing registered print books, books from my PC, and audiobooks that my husband and I will be listening to together.

To Be Read: 

Day 1: 

My sister is still visiting for the first time since 2019. a little bit of the audiobook was listened to while driving around to visit and have dinner. 2 hours of listening done today

                                                    Day 2:

	Last day of my vacation. Today I read about 150-ish pages and finished the in progress book from my TBR pile:
	Elengil and I spend almost three and a half hours listening to our audio book:

Day 3:

Today I stayed home sick. I caught the worst summer cold, and have had a super sore throat and congestion and a low fever. So, today was spent in bed with tea, theraflu cuddly cats and a print book as the screen illumination was hurting my eyes.

	I got a lot of reading done and finished the other in progress book from my TBR pile.
	I added a book to the TBR pile:

Day 4:

Still home with a cold, didn't sleep well last night, so I read some today, but mostly slept and zoned out with low mind energy computer games.

	I picked this up and read 148 pages this morning. Still home with a cold, and still not super focused due to it. This is comprised of short essays on writing children's books by many different children's book authors, so I don't feel bad setting it down if I need to.
	I have read about 36 pages of Stars of Fortune today

Day 5:

Today I ended up staying home again, as I couldn't stop coughing, and had not slept well last night. Thought I was going into work, instead I read 119 pages of Stars of Fortune. I had forgotten how much I like Nora Roberts writing style.

 

Day 6

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Today was a day spent waiting to see a Dr. at the Urgent Care Clinic nearby as I was unable to get in to see my normal Dr. and staying home that third day resulted in some paperwork needed for returning to work. The wait was long, so about an hour got listened to in the car of Starlight Enclave with Elengil, and another half hour while running errands on the way home. ---------------------------------------------- I took part in some of the reading sprints on the Bout of Books Discord server while actually waiting in the waiting room, and then read again after we got home and finished Stars of Fortune. I'm glad I have book two waiting here to get picked up, and book three on the way.

 Day 7

	Due to my napping all afternoon/evening I found myself awake in the early AM hours. So I picked up this moving graphic novel memoir about the artist/author's life after losing his home in the 2017 Sonoma County fire that happened during the California firestorm in September of  2017.
	I finished the last half of this collection of essays about children's books and the children's book publishing industry during the morning/early afternoon reading sprints on the Bout of Books Discord Server.
	I started and finished this during the early afternoon reading in place sprints on the Bout of Books Discord server.
	Elengil and I are listening to this together.

Finished Reading:

Bout of Books 32

 

 

I'm having trouble grabbing the button

Bout Of Books 30 Update Post

 

Here is where I am keeping track of my Bout of Books 30 progress

Planned Reading:

 

Books I Finished Reading:

Day 1:

Not much reading here today. I got sidetracked by a show on Netflix. But I did read the first two chapters of  Lost Truth (about 18 pages)

Day 2: 

Today Elengil and I listened to  about two hours of our audiobook A Memory of Light by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson. We are a little over halfway done. This is the last tome in a fourteen book series which we have been listening to together since October of 2018 

Day 3:

Because of the events today at the capitol, the evening was spent listening to the news and talking with good friends. No escapism into reading for me today.

Day 4:

 Today I read 191 pages of Lost Truth by Dawn Cook. I am really enjoying this so far as it is pulling together storylines from the first three books. Alissa (the main character) has discovered that the lost Masters of the hold are not dead as her teacher believed (He being the only Master left in the hold). She, the minstrel Strell, the warder Lodesh, and fellow master Connen-Neute travel overseas to find the missing mages. 

At my stopping  point tonight the lost colony has been found, The leader of the colony has decided Alissa's training  was to be her job, despite Alissa having had training from the remaining master of the hold Talo-Toecan. There is some of the love triangle storyline between Alissa, Strell and Lodesh starting to be resolved.

Day 5:

Read three chapters of Lost Truth this morning before work. Read another two chapters during a break. I have a little over a hundred pages left in the book, so should finish it tonight.

Update: After work I finished Lost Truth.

Day 6:

 This morning I picked up Sunrise Point by Robyn Carr. I have read 300 pages so far.

This evening, Elengil and I listened to  an hour and a half of A memory of Light together.

Day 7:

 I finished Sunrise Point early this morning. I really enjoyed this book. Instead of the instant attraction which occurs in many romances there is some attraction between the two romantic lead characters. However, we witness them becoming friends first, then lovers. This was a really nice change of pace. As always, I'm reading this series out of order, so it's nice that this stood well on it's own but still pulled in characters and storylines from earlier books.

I picked up this collection of essays on mental health. It has been on my TBR list for a couple years now, and I plan on leaving this in a local little free library as it is very powerful insight into some of the many nooks and crannies  of mental illnesses. I'm only about halfway done, but it has been very very moving so far.

 

Bout of Books 30

 

The Bout of Books readathon is organized by Amanda Shofner and Kelly Rubidoux Apple. It’s a weeklong readathon that begins 12:01am Monday, January 4th and runs through Sunday, January 10th in YOUR time zone. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are reading sprints, Twitter chats, and exclusive Instagram challenges, but they’re all completely optional. For all Bout of Books 30 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

I'm not sure how much I will be reading as it is the first week back to work after winter break and this school year has been interesting already with the amount of meetings while we work remotely. Also, I discovered Best Leftovers Ever on Netflix over the weekend...

I started the year with four books carried over from 2020. One I finished on Saturday. So, I am planning on reading/listening to the following during the read a thon:

Books to be read during Bout of Books: