The book covers "the age of excitement about dinosaurs" almost as much as "the age that dinosaurs lived". That is a good thing. I have not heard much discussed about the first people that discovered dinosaur bones. It was also fun to read about the rivalry of early dinosaur enthusiasts and the underhanded tricks they would pull to best their rivals. The coverage of the lives of dinosaurs is also in this book, but that is pretty well covered elsewhere.
A kid is with his cruel uncle. There is a slave boy that accidentally hurt the uncle. The boy takes the blame and runs off, eventually joining the American revolution around New york City in 1776. This short account explores some lesser known aspects of the American Revolution.
Meet Buzz and Fly Guy (Phonics Long E book 7) by Tedd Arnold
This is a phonics version of the first Fly Guy book. It mostly follows the plot of the first book, though the story has been changed a bit to follow the phonics format. It also seems to abridge it a bit, with only some of the pictures used. Buzz finds fly guy as a pet. It seems to work alright.
The Complete What's Your Poo Telling You (Funny Bathroom Books, Health Books, Humor Books) by Josh Richman (Author), Anish Sheth (Author)
This is a quick book about poo and pee. What do the different colors and consistencies mean? What causes odors? Why is some poo difficult to wipe, while others are clean? This book provides simple medical analysis of human excrement. There are also bits of history and comparison to different animals. The book is fairly short and could be a bathroom reader. (However, sitting on the throne could produce impacted hemorrhoids.) It is light and interesting, but there are some highlights with black on red that can be difficult to read due to poor contrast.
Forget Me Not by Ellie Terry
A girl is moving... again. She has had to move every time her mother breaks up with a boyfriend - and that seems to happen frequently. This time she is starting a new middle school in St. George, Utah. She wears crazy clothes to help distract from her Tourette's tics. Her neighbor is an Asian boy who happens to be student body president at her school. He likes to play baseball and is attracted to the new girl, but reluctant to be seen with her. The other kids at school tease the girl all the time for her clothes and tics. Finally the boy is willing to be seen with the girl. It all comes to head when his friends make fun of her and he punches them. This gets him suspended from school and causes him to lose his leadership position. But now they are good friends. Alas, her mom has married a guy in Nevada and they are going to move soon. The friendship has helped her to be more bold in her new school and be forward about her tics. The story is told in an open narrative style with various verse. It brings together the challenges of coming of age with peer pressure, medical conditions and family issues. There is even a side story of the "mean" girl and the challenges from her history.
Warcross by Marie Lu
Warcross is a super popular game that everyone loves to play and watch. The billionaire creator had lost his brother when he was young. Now he has a grand plan that nobody knows about.
The protagonist is a young woman who is struggling to make ends meet. She is secretly a great game player and hacker. She gets her chance to participate in the big game tournament after she hacks into the opening ceremony. The game creator recruits her as a type of "bounty hunter" to find people that may be trying to undermine him. She has a lot of success and learns a lot about the creator and enters into a small romantic relationship with him. However, one of the underworld guys she is tracking is her match.
The story goes well, but the end gets trite. The game creator wants to eliminate crime and provide full historical access to memories. She feels that this could get people a loss of control. Maybe she should have partnered with the underworld people. But they were also mean.
The book feels a lot like Ready Player One.
This is a "phonic" version of a Fly Guy book. The story is roughly the same as the original. However, the words are changed to emphasize certain short-i words. It is not quite as good as the original but not bad.
A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas
The heroine must save the world. This one seems to tilt more towards the violence rather than romance. It is really tedious. The heroine is some sort of royal and now has her committed partner. There is a big killing at the end. And there is a lot of forgettable prose in between.
There is a fun "puppet" character in this book. That is the best thing going for this forgettable book about a lion and a mouse that ends up helping him escape a hunter's net.
A babysitter comes over. She has them play fun games and gets them to eat their peas when they say "P". They have hot chocolate, but break a mug. They then decide to make a mosaic out of the broken pieces. At least there is no magic in this one.
Pete the Cat: 5-Minute Bedtime Stories: Includes 12 Cozy Stories! by James Dean (Author, Illustrator), Kimberly Dean (Author)
This book has a dozen Pete the Cat stories. The stories are tedious. There are two many words. Every now and then there is an interesting part of story, but in general this has a lot to be desired. It is tough to get all the way through.
Rock, Paper and Scissors each occupy separate realms in the house. In their realms, they are always dominant. They feel unfulfilled that they don't have any challengers. Then they each independently venture out and encounter each other. They find rivals that provide a challenge and thus give birth to the rock, paper scissors game.
The book is narrated in over-the-top dramatic fashion, despite having locations like "Mom's home office." It is a fun ride.
The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley by Hannah Tinti
I read this book a year and half ago and had almost no recollection of it. I guess it is fairly forgettable. A girl (Loo) lives with her father. She is fairly book smart, but his dad is not. He often is engaging in his own business ventures - most of which involve guns and criminal activities. He has a kind heart and does like to help others out. It seems they are in a new school in a different rural town every year Women seem to always be drawn to her dad and men are often fighting him. They end up in the town where his mom grew up. Her mother died when the girl was young - as part of an "adventure" gone bad. The principal of the school had a crush on the mother when they were both in school together, and has a desire to help them out. There is also a boy that Loo has some sort of relationship with. He and his mom are collection signatures for a sanctuary. Signatures are lost and later forged. I somehow got the tracks out of order when listening. With the way the book had flashbacks, it took a bit to realize that it happened.
The War I Finally Won by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
In this second book in the series, the girl has her club foot fixed. They also learn that their mother has died. They didn't like her, but feel said that she is gone. Other people are willing to take care of them. They end up with a well-to-do lady. A German Jew comes to live with them. They struggle with getting along with her. Is she a Spy? How can she get away with not believing in Jesus? World War II continues on and there are struggles with using rations and trying to enjoy things like Lamb. They see destroyed neighborhoods and hear about some of the bad things being done by the Germans. The afterward talks about code breakers, though this seems to be a tangential relationship. The discussions of Jews and religion seem to have a very modern tone to them, but does provide some insight into the issues with Jewish refugees.
Spy School Secret Service by Stuart Gibbs
Ben goes undercover as a friend of the President's son to try to uncover a plot to kill the president. However, the son ends up being a jerk and Ben becomes an unlikely pawn in the assassination plot. The spy school kids end up uncovering one of their own engaged in the nefarious activities and multiple levels of complexity. This Spy School book has ratched up the adventure and humor.
The Nordic Way: Discover The World's Most Perfect Carb-to-Protein Ratio for Preventing Weight Gain or Regain, and Lowering Your Risk of Disease: A Cookbook by Arne Astrup, Jennie Brand-Miller and Christian Bitz
Eat a balanced diet with low glycemic index foods with a carb:protein ratio of 2:1. Make sure the foods are good ones that you like. This will help you maintain a desire weight. That is the "Nordic Way". The authors see this is a "maintenance" diet. It is not something to help you to lose weight. Instead, it is best to keep in a steady state. The bulk of the book contains recipes. It seems a fairly logical take on "don't eat junk food!"
The Man Who Invented Christmas: How Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol Rescued His Career and Revived Our Holiday Spirits by Les Standiford
This book looks at how Dickens's Christmas Carol influenced our current Christmas traditions. It starts with background of the life of Dickens, pivots to the history of Christmas, then wraps it all together. Then as a bonus, the full text of A Christmas Carol is included at the end. (Thank you Public Domain!)
Charles Dickens had a rough childhood. His parents were regularly living above their means. They did not have significant vices. However, despite a decent job, his father always managed to spend more than he earned. Charles would work jobs to support his family. Eventually he got a writing job, and later started publishing novels. He was earning money. However, copyright was not extremely strong at the time, especially in America, leading to various low-priced clones of his work. A Christmas Carol was written in part as a way to earn money.
Society had an interesting relationship with Christmas. It was the merging of a pagan holiday with Christianity. There were long periods of drinking involved. Puritans condemned Christmas revelery. Things gradually did calm down to something closer to what we have today. Father Christmas transformed to Santa Claus. The tradition started to become more about family and giving. Dickens's work helped push this narrative.
The book was successful, but the production was expensive. The following few years, he produced additional Christmas novellas that made him huge amounts of money. They were well received at the time, but did not have the long term impact as the original. He later stopped the novellas and focussed on his novels. He also wrote for newspapers (though he took perhaps a bit too much control - especially in defense of his failing marriage.)
A Christmas Story
I have seen so many different versions of this story that I thought I knew it well. Alas, I didn't the actual work is a darker ghost story than many of the movie versions. It does still follow the basic story line as Scrooge learns that his love of money does not make him a loved person.
The Arms of Krupp: The Rise and Fall of the Industrial Dynasty That Armed Germany at War by William Manchester
The Krupp family manufactured arms in Germany. They had a tight relationship with the military regime, including Nazis. They used this to ensure the appropriate session of ownership. They also took advantage of the slave labor provided by the Nazis. This book goes into extreme detail on the history of the Krupps, from centuries ago into the mid-twentieth century. The author didn't care for the Krupps and freely injects his opinion in numerous places.
The bulk of the book covers the experiences of Alfried Krupp. He rose to take over the company during the Nazi era, taking control in 1943. He was thus involved in the war crime trials where he was sentenced. He served time, but was later released. Even in prison, he helped control the firm. He was influential in building up the German industry after the war, as well as spreading German exports and knowledge throughout the world. How much of the German post-war success can be attributed to his work?
The tells his story from a distance. It feels like a student's report rather than a close telling of his life. The author is so keen on criticizing Krupp that you can't help but feel sympathy. (Imagine Fox News writing a biography of the Democratic Party.)
