Seven books finished back in February — two middle-grade, two YA, and three adult titles. (Please be warned: I tried to balance not giving away plot spoilers with offering trigger warnings in the final review. I’m not sure I was successful with either.)

The Meaning of Maggie, by Megan Jean Sovern. 220 pages.
A perfectly serviceable middle-grade novel about Maggie, who turns 11 at the outset of this work of historical fiction (sad to say that about the late 1980s…) and receives a diary in which to keep her thoughts. This future president shares her thoughts about her school year, her friends, and her family, which includes two older sisters, a mom who’s recently started working to support the family, and a dad who’s recently stopped. Because he’s now home when she gets in from school, they spend a lot of time together listening to classic rock and eating snacks, but not talking about the fact that he’s now in a wheelchair because his legs keep falling asleep and won’t wake up. So Maggie, being a precocious kid, decides to focus her science fair project on learning about and working on finding him a cure for the illness that’s affecting him, which she learns is called multiple sclerosis. It’s going to be tough getting started, though, because the “M” volume of their encyclopedia has been misplaced.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, by J.K. Rowling. 734 pages.
This was an on-again, off-again re-listen to the audiobook version over the course of eight months via Overdrive (which is why it took so long). I don’t know that I get anything new out of the books anymore at this point, although I’m always interested in noticing where the film version has edged out the book version of events or characters. Always enjoyable.

Practically Perfect, by Katie Fforde. 400 pages.
A sweet find at the library. Fforde (who is related by marriage to one of my favorite authors) writes cozy British romances, and this was just what I wanted around Valentine’s Day. The main character, Anna, is five years out from her interior design (not decorating, thank you very much) degree and has flipped her first apartment with the help of her sister. She’s taken the proceeds from that to strike out on her own and purchased a commuter cottage in the Cotswolds, which she’s going to live in while she fixes it up. In her downtime, she gets to know her neighbor, a young frazzled mother of three boys, who leads her into a variety of adventures, including adopting a rescued Greyhound, cleaning out the shed of the mother of the guy she had a crush on in university, and modeling a bathtub at a DIY fair. Because of her grayhound, she also gets to know Rob, who stops her dog from running away one afternoon and gives her an earful about its care. While she hopes the encounter is just a one-off, it turns out she’s going to spend a lot more time with Rob than she expects. Will it be a problem when the guy she had a crush on in college comes back into her life? Practically perfect if you’re looking for an inoffensive romantic read.

Texts from Jane Eyre, by Mallory Ortberg. 226 pages.
Have you ever wondered what your favorite characters from classic literature and history would have said to one another if text messaging and email had been invented during their time (or sometimes if they were transported forward to our time)? Wonder no more because editor of online magazine, The Toast, Mallory Ortberg, has filled us in on the exchanges between Jo and Laurie, Watson and Sherlock, and Elizabeth and Mrs. Bennet, William Blake and a friend, among others. Appearing on a lot of best-of humor lists from 2014, I’d hoped it would make this English major laugh. I did chuckle quite a few times, but found I enjoyed it more when just reading one or two exchanges at a time, rather than in large chunks. I found the same to be true of Kate Beaton’s cartoons, which I’d pair this with. That said, if they made a page-a-day calendar out of this or a sequel, I’d totally buy it, because wouldn’t this be an awesome way to start the workday?

DID YOU LEAVE BECAUSE OF MY ATTIC WIFE
IS THAT WHAT THIS IS ABOUT

-yes
Absolutely

-BECAUSE MY HOUSE IN FRANCE DOESN’T EVEN HAVE AN ATTIC
IF THAT’S WHAT YOU WERE WORRIED ABOUT
IT HAS A CELLAR THOUGH SO YOU KNOW
DON’T CROSS ME
HAHA I’M ONLY JOKING

The Lover’s Dictionary, by David Levithan. 211 pages.
I’d been looking forward to reading this collection of short dictionary entries about love since it came out. Since I’d enjoyed everything else I’d read by Levithan, who also is one of the most prolific YA editors out there, I figured it would be a perfect read for the month of Valentine’s Day. Not so, at least in my case. Sadly, I think it’s one of those cases where my expectations of what the book would be didn’t actually line up with what the book was. (This is not the fault of the book, but did taint my reading experience beyond salvage.) Turns out it was much more about a specific relationship and less about a general one, and that its story was not as happy-go-lucky as I’d thought it would be. That said, if you are one of the many people who liked Jenny Offill’s Dept. of Speculation (which I absolutely despised), you might also enjoy this.

El Deafo, by Cece Bell. 248 pages.
A middle-grade graphic novel/memoir about Cece’s experiences as a young girl (depicted as a rabbit) who became hearing-impaired after a sudden illness when she was four. Through elementary school, she struggles with people’s judgments about her, from her friends to her siblings, with lip-reading (it’s really hard when people think they’re being helpful and slow down what they’re saying to an exaggerated degree), and with her hearing aid (her teacher wears a microphone, but doesn’t realize it’ll broadcast not only her classroom lectures, but also her bathroom visits). Some of her problematic interactions with people come from her disability, but some of them come with just getting older and the weirdness that happens as girls start to hit puberty, making her character — and her struggles — instantly and universally relatable. A Newbery Honor Book, I’d recommend it for anyone struggling through the mires of late-elementary/early-middle school.

Girls like Us, by Gail Giles. 210 pages.
Two young women from a special ed class age out of the foster system and graduate, but are not yet ready to face the world on their own. A caseworker helps find them an apartment where they can live in exchange for helping Miss Lizzy, its elderly owner (who lives in an adjacent house), with chores. What starts out as an antagonistic experience for Quincy, who considers Biddy stupid and has a chip on her shoulder about being considered a servant, turns out to be just what was needed for all three women, who help each other overcome well-intentioned missteps, the terrible moments of their past, and a horrifying experience Quincy survives at her job at the local grocery store. These three women go from having no one to realizing family is more than just kin. Told in alternating points of view from Biddy and Quincy, this is a powerful story. (It does, however, contain graphic situations that may be difficult for some readers. If you’re concerned about what they might be, leave a comment and I’d be happy to share what they are with you in an email.)

As you can see, not a lot has changed since last week’s Yarn Along. I’m well into Come Hell or Highball, Maia Chance’s Prohibition Era mystery and should finish in the next day or two. It features a young widow, whose recently deceased, run-around husband, it turns out, left her without fortune, home, or prospects. She and her Swedish cook (who refuses to leave until she’s paid her back wages) are squatting in his New York City love nest, but the rent is due in a couple days. She’s taken on a retrieval job for a Follies dancer, but the item’s gone missing and the last person she knows had it was murdered. And who, exactly, is the hot gumshoe who keeps following her? It’s cute, but not as quick-moving as I’d hoped.

I’ve been knitting more on my lightning shawl, but have pulled out this skein of Marigoldjen Yarns. It’s a dk weight blue-faced Leicester in the Levi colorway, and I’m going to turn it into a hat. The green is asking for something leaf-related, so I’m going to try it with Irina Dmitrieva’s Foliage Hat pattern, although I’ll be watching to make sure the design doesn’t get lost in the color variegation of the yarn.

Technically, this is Monday’s post, but as I write so late at night, no one else will recognize that my answer to The Broke and the Bookish‘s Top Ten Tuesday topic isn’t appearing exactly when it’s supposed to…

1. J.K. Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: Did you see the photos that were released last week?
2. Rainbow Rowell’s Eleanor and Park: She’s writing the first draft of the screenplay herself.
3. Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith’s Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Okay, so I didn’t read the book (although I was given a copy as a gift), but the previews really do look like a lot of kick-ass fun.
4. Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus: I wonder if they’ll film it in black and white (and red).
5. Ransom Riggs’ Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children: There are a lot of big names attached to this film, not the least of whom is Tim Burton as director. I liked the book right up until the end, when I discovered it wasn’t a stand-alone, and I’ve unreasonably held that against it since then, but if the previews look good, I might be willing to get over it.
6. John Green, Lauren Myracle, and Maureen Johnson’s Let It Snow: IMDb informs me some filming has already taken place for this interconnected trio of YA romance stories.
7. Roald Dahl’s The B.F.G.: This is my favorite Dahl title, and I hope Steven Spielberg won’t mess it up.
8. G. Willow Wilson’s Ms. Marvel: They pushed the release date back on this earlier this fall, partly, I fear, because there remains some doubt about interest in a female-fronted superhero. God, I hope Supergirl is doing well enough to kill off this stupid industry belief once and for all.
9. Beauty and the Beast: It’ll star Emma Watson and Ian McKellen.
10. Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book: Apparently this got pushed back, but Ron Howard’s been attached to the project as director.

How about you? Any literary films you’re looking forward to?

Once upon a time, back in the early days of my blog, I decided I’d review the books I read here. I was better about it at some points than others, but it used to get done, for the most part. But three years ago I took part in the judging for the Cybils Award and it broke my reviewing mojo. I have some theories about why that happened, but mostly it’s unimportant. I’ve never actually enjoyed the process of reviewing what I’ve read, but I love having the record of them to refer back to.

I’d like to get back into that habit and intend to do so more fully and contemporaneously in the new year. But in the interest of better being able to share a favorite reads list at the end of this year, I thought some capsule reviews might suffice.

Here’s what I read way back in January:

My True Love Gave to Me, edited by Stephanie Perkins. 2014. 321 pages.
A dozen holiday-themed, romance-filled stories from some of the most recognized names in YA, including Perkins, Rainbow Rowell, David Levithan, Holly Black, and Jenny Han. I’d read and enjoyed books by most, although not all, of the contributors, and so had suggested it might make a nice Christmas present last year. Some of the stories are contemporaries, while others have a fantasy setting. Some are, as with any collection, stronger than others, but not always the ones I would have expected based on the authors’ novels. I especially enjoyed “It’s a Yuletide Miracle, Charlie Brown,” from Perkins and Kiersten White’s “Welcome to Christmas, CA,” but I can totally see myself re-reading some or all of the stories every holiday season or two. If you like the current YA novels, enjoy winter holiday (especially Christmas)-themed stories, or like teen romances, I recommend the buying or borrowing the collection.

The Amazing Thing About the Way It Goes: Stories of Tidiness, Self-Esteem and Other Things I Gave Up On, by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee. 2014. 224 pages.
The Yarn Harlot offers up a collection of humorous essays that don’t have to do specifically with yarn. Instead, they have to do with a range of modern-day topics, including parenting, email, invasive skunks, messiness, and personal appearance. Another Christmas present last year, I enjoyed the essays while reading them, laughed aloud at several, but overall didn’t love them the way I do Stephanie’s blog or her previous knitting-related collections and had to leaf back through the book to have any recollection about what she’d written about. Good for a chuckle, but I’d probably check it out from the library, rather than buying it.

2 A.M. at the Cat’s Pajamas, by Marie-Helene Bertino. 2014. 272 pages.
‘Twas the day before Christmas and nine-year-old Madeleine, despite having the best voice in her grade (and neighborhood) and a recently dead mother, will not be singing the solo in the holiday concert that day. In fact, the day is about to go so sideways, that by afternoon, she’s been expelled from school. Her fifth-grade teacher, Sabrina, just ran into a woman she once knew at a bakery and now has to go to a dinner party with a group of old friends that includes an estranged, now-married flame. And Lorca, the owner of The Cat’s Pajamas, one of the most famous nightclubs in all of Philadelphia, is in danger of losing the club because of a gigantic fine for fire code violations and his teenaged son to inattention. Alternating between their perspectives, we inch closer to a holiday none of them are looking forward to. But before it arrives, they’ll all experience a night at the jazz club they’ll never forget. I was really looking forward to reading this book during Advent last year, but my library copy didn’t come in until January. The idea behind Bertino’s debut novel was a strong one and her characters were well-plotted out, and it’s clear she was trying to make the book’s structure resemble a jazz piece, with recurring motifs and story lines that looped back into one another. But, that said, it was hindered by inadequate editing, which might have reined in her love of vocabulary and flowery phrases (again, I imagine this was intended to be reminiscent of some of the complexities of jazz) and tightened up the time frame. Ultimately, it was just an okay book.

Ms. Marvel, Vol. 1: No Normal, by G. Willow Wilson with art by Adrian Alphona. 2014. 120 pages.
The first collection of Ms. Marvel comics features Kamala Khan, New Jersey high school student, comic book fangirl, and Muslim daughter of Pakistani immigrants. Sneaking out to a party one night, Kamala undergoes a transformation where she gains superpowers that include elasticity, super strength, and the ability to change her appearance and rescues one of her classmates. (If you watch Agents of SHIELD or any of the later Marvel movies, you may recognize Kamala’s symptoms as making her one of the Inhumans, a human with recessive alien DNA that, when triggered by some external force, gives the person one or more super powers.) Kamala deals with this transformation on her own for a while, trying to figure out how to be a teenage crime solver, but eventually loops in her best guy pal, who helps her with her costume and by serving as someone who knows her whereabouts in case something goes wrong. But even with his help, it’s still tough solving crime when you still have to get your homework done and you sneak out of the house past your very strict parents. If you like comic books, you’ve probably already read this, as it’s probably the highest touted new series out in the past couple years. If you haven’t, though, or if you like graphic novels or YA with feisty heroines, grab this one as soon as you can. I read a library copy, but bought Volume 2.

I’m between portable knitting projects again, which means I’ve picked up my Lightning Shawl again. But I’ve been eyeing hat patterns on Ravelry (Remember when I declared 2015 would be my year of hats? I haven’t knit one.), so maybe that will be cast on in the next few days.

On the reading front, in addition to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which is my audiobook of the moment, I have the three blue books you see here in progress:

Hotel Bosphorus is a mystery set in contemporary Turkey and features the owner of a mystery-themed bookstore. The Thing about Jellyfish is a highly touted middle-grade read that had me tearing up on page 19 and full-out bawling by page 50, which led me to pick up Come Hell or Highball, about a 31-year old Long Island widow who takes up sleuthing after the death of her (it turns out) no-longer-so-rich husband. (I was hoping for Nora Charles or Phryne Fisher, but I don’t think she’ll be as charming or funny as either one, although, to be fair, Nora is both smarter and less interesting on the page than on the screen.)

Back at the beginning of the year, I decided to do Book Riot’s Read Harder challenge. Then I stopped reading much of anything, which makes completing any book-based challenge more difficult. I thought I’d take today to assess where I am in the challenge in order to see what I need to request from the library or pull from my TBR stacks.

No one will be surprised by some of the categories I’ve managed to leave until the end (foreign, non-fiction, sci-fi):

1. A book written by someone when they were under the age of 25: Nimona by Noelle Stevenson, age 23, was long-listed for the NBA in YA this year.
2. A book written by someone when they were over the age of 65: 68-year-old Dave Barry’s middle-grade book about an 8th-grade field trip gone awry: The Worst Class Trip Ever
3. A collection of short stories (either by one person or an anthology by many people): POSSIBILITY: In the Company of Sherlock Holmes (edited by Laurie King and Leslie Klinger)
4. A book published by an indie press: TO FINISH: Claudia Rankine’s Citizen was put out by Graywolf Press.
5. A book by a person whose gender is different from your own: Ross Gay’s Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude
6. A book that takes place in Asia: POSSIBILITY: The God of Small Things
7. A book by an author from Africa: POSSIBILITY: Something by Veronique Tadjo, perhaps.
8. A book that is by or about someone from an indigenous culture (Native Americans, Aboriginals, etc.): TO FINISH: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
9. A microhistory: POSSIBILITY: I think I have one of Simon Winchester’s books in the other room… Or maybe Rebecca Skloot’s book’s book about Henrietta Lacks and the HeLa cells.
10. A YA novel: Ana of California by Andi Teran.
11. A sci-fi novel: POSSIBILITY: The Martian or Ready Player One (I’ve taken both books out several times this year; I’m starting to doubt my actual interest in reading either.)
12. A romance novel: Katie Fforde’s Practically Perfect was adorable and just what I wanted for a Valentine’s Day read.
13. A National Book Award, Man Booker Prize or Pulitzer Prize winner from the last decade: Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See won the Pulitzer earlier this year.
14. A book that is a retelling of a classic story (fairytale, Shakespearian play, classic novel, etc.): Breadcrumbs, by Anne Ursu, takes on Hans Christian Andersen’s tale of the Snow Queen.
15. An audiobook: I listened to Mr Churchill’s Secretary by Susan Elia MacNeal on audio.
16. A collection of poetry: Jane Hirshfield’s The Beauty
17. A book that someone else has recommended to you: George by Alex Gino, was recommended to me by the children’s librarian at the Georgetown library.
18. A book that was originally published in another language: TO FINISH: Hotel Bosphorus by Esmahan Aykol (Translated by Ruth Whitehouse) was originally published in Turkish.
19. A graphic novel, a graphic memoir or a collection of comics of any kind: Ms. Marvel, Vol. 1: No Normal, by G. Willow Wilson, is the collection of the first five comic books that tell how a nice Muslim girl in New Jersey becomes a superhero.
20. A book that you would consider a guilty pleasure (Read, and then realize that good entertainment is nothing to feel guilty over): I’m putting Jeff Goldberg’s Unrivaled: UConn, Tennessee, and the Twelve Years that Transcended Women’s Basketball here. I don’t feel guilty about the things I read, but this book fell so far of my hopes for it that I felt bad sticking with it when I had so many other books I wanted to read.
21. A book published before 1850: TO FINISH: Mansfield Park by Jane Austen, published in 1814, was the last of her completed novels I hadn’t read.
22. A book published this year: Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith
23. A self-improvement book (can be traditionally or non-traditionally considered “self-improvement”): Find the Good: Unexpected Life Lessons from a Small-Town Obituary Writer by Heather Lende

So I still have nine categories to finish, but several books are in progress and/or in my possession at the moment, so here’s hoping. If anyone has alternative suggestions for those categories where I’ve put down possibilities (as opposed to ones where I have books to finish), I’m open to them.