Since today was both National Book Lover’s Day and a freebie for The Broke and the Bookish’s Top Ten Tuesday, I thought I’d answer one of their topics from earlier this summer that I’d missed:

The Ten Most Anticipated Releases for the Second Half of the Year:

1. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling: This script was my most anticipated book of the year, so I picked up a copy at a local bookshop the night it was released. Keeping in mind that it’s not a novel, I really enjoyed it.
2. Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson: I liked Brown Girl Dreaming and would like to revisit Woodson’s past.
3. Gemina by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff: Illuminae branched across the novel format (epistolary, ephemera, verse, space, dystopian, mystery, romance), and I’m excited to see how the second book in the series stacks up.
4. The Twelve Days of Dash and Lily by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan: I loved the first Dash and Lily book, and, frankly, anything Christmassy is likely to get my nod.
5. What Light by Jay Asher: As I said. This one’s about a girl whose family runs a Christmas tree farm.
6. Bandette, Vol. 3: The House of the Green Mask by Paul Tobin and Colleen Coover: The greatest thief in Paris is back with another comic collection!
7. Trouble Makes a Comeback by Stephanie Tromly: The second book in a contemporary caper series.
8. Teddy & Co. by Cynthia Voigt: I loved Voigt’s books, especially the Tillerman books, as a teen. I’m excited she’s writing a kid’s book featuring lost toys. Obviously I’ll need to preview it before giving it to every child I know this holiday season.
9. The Word Detective: Searching for the Meaning of It All at the Oxford English Dictionary by John Simpson: Written by the former editor of the OED.
10. The Cat King of Havana by Tom Crosshill: It’s about a guy whose made a fortune by posting cat videos to the internet, a trip to Cuba, and romance. I haven’t heard any buzz, but how can you resist that combo?

How about you? What new books are you looking forward to?

Back in March, I shared half the books I read in February and then neglected to circle back around to share the rest (even after I shared my March reads). I’d like to get caught up on book reviews now that we’re into the second half of the year, so let’s get going:

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, by Becky Albertalli
If you’ve heard anything about this award-winning book, you’ve heard it described as adorable, charming, and life-affirming. It is all of those things.

Simon is 16. He’s been having an anonymous and covert online correspondence with a boy known to him only as “Blue,” on whom he has a crush. But he forgot to log out of a school computer and now a classmate knows he’s gay and has threatened to out him to the school if he doesn’t help the guy get a date with Simon’s pal Abby.

As Simon struggles with Martin’s demand and the other day-to-day hardships of being a high school junior, he takes solace in continuing to email with Blue, opening up in ways that he doesn’t feel he can with the people he knows in real life. And Blue replies, charmingly and grammatically, but seemingly without interest in meeting up in real life. For a while that’s enough, but Simon is starting to wonder if things need to change.

There’s high school drama (literally! they’re putting on a show!). There are questions of self-identity and bullying. There’s social media fun and abuse. (There are Wesleyan mentions!) And there are Oreos. Lots and lots of Oreos. Buy yourself a bag, procure a copy of the book, and start reading now. You won’t regret it!

Pages: 303. Library copy.

Murder Most Unladylike, by Robin Stevens

Historical fiction for the middle-grade mystery series fan. It’s 1934 and Daisy Wells and Hazel Wong are classmates at a British boarding school, where, to pass the time, they’ve set up their own detective agency. Daisy, one of the most popular girls in the school, sets herself up as Sherlock, and tasks Hazel, her best friend and a recent transfer student from Hong Kong, with taking on the Watson role. Now they just need something to investigate.

When Hazel discovers their science teacher lying dead in the gym but the body is gone minutes later, the girls know they have their first real case. Who would have wanted to kill a teacher? It was someone savvy enough to hide the body and then author a fake, but convincing resignation letter to their headmistress. Was it another teacher? A student? The ghost of the girl who’d died in the same spot last year? We don’t know yet, but as long as Wells and Wong can put their power struggles aside long enough to work on the case together, we know they’ll figure it out.

Recommended for those who enjoyed the Enola Holmes series by Nancy Springer or The Mysterious Benedict Society or who want something Nancy Drew’ish, but with younger protagonists.

Pages: 324. Owned.

Trombone Shorty, by Troy Andrews
An autobiography by a phenomenal young jazz artist out of New Orleans, this picture book was named a Caldecott Honor book. It also won a Coretta Scott King Award for its illustrations by renowned artist Bryan Collier who combines collage and watercolors. The book focuses on Andrews’ youngest years growing up in the impoverished Tremé neighborhood, where he and his pals would make instruments out of whatever they could find lying around and how he took up the trombone at the age of four. By the age of six, he had his own band, by twelve, he was touring, and at 19, he joined Lenny Kravitz’s band. He’s all of 30 this year. The book is joyful to read and to look at, with its photograph-like artwork and a balloon theme running throughout. I do think this is the sort of book that would have benefited from an accompanying album, but maybe in an era of digital media that just doesn’t happen anymore. Anyway, if you read this book (with or without small people), I’d suggest playing some of his music as an accompaniment.

Pages: 40. Library copy.

Love Letters, by Katie Fforde

I really enjoyed one of Katie Fforde’s light romances last year as a Valentine’s Day read, so I decided to pick another one up this year. Love Letters focuses on Laura, who works in a bookshop that’s closing when its owner retires. Having handled author events for the store, she is asked to join a committee of people putting together a new music and literature festival. When a potential patron of the festival offers to foot the cost if they’re able to get his favorite reclusive author to be a part of it, Laura must head to Ireland to see if she can convince him to attend. Dermot Flynn is a crank, but a gorgeous and talented one (and one of Laura’s literary heroes), who hasn’t published a word in years and who hates to leave his hometown. But when Laura asks him to appear at the festival, he agrees to if she’ll sleep with him. When she wakes up early the next morning in his bed, she has no recollection of the night before. Fully horrified at her drunken behavior, she does a runner before he awakes, leaving only questions in her wake. What, exactly, happened that night? Will Dermot show up at the festival as promised? And what will Laura do after the festival is over?

Fforde’s books are fluffy and formulaic, but sometimes you just need a cute romance to get you through a dark day. Pick the occupation of the protagonist you like best and off you go!

Pages: 400. Library copy.

Mr. Lemoncello’s Library Olympics by Chris Grabenstein

Kyle, Miguel, Sierra, and Akimi are heading back to the stacks in the sequel to Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library. After their team wins board game creator Mr. Lemoncello’s challenge at the opening of their town’s new (and fabulous) library, complaints rain in from all quarters: essentially, they claim, this group of kids wouldn’t have won if WE’d been allowed to participate! So, Mr. Lemoncello decides to hold a rematch of sorts. The hometown team would face off against regional teams comprised of the best seventh-graders those areas had to offer, as winnowed down by local librarians, in a weeklong library dodecathlon. It is no surprise that the teams include some of those vocal critics.

While Kyle is fending off challenges from the likes of Marjory Muldauer, who has memorized the Dewey Decimal System to at least four places and who likes libraries qua libraries, Mr. Lemoncello is fighting off a league of concerned citizens who want to take over the running of the library and eliminate all the fun, wonderful features and remove any book they deem unsuitable. At the head of the league? None other than the mother of the sore loser from Book 1.

Will Kyle and his friends get lucky again, or will they be outmatched by their new opponents? And will Mr. Lemoncello hold on to the control of his library long enough to hand out the final medals (and full college scholarships)?

If you enjoyed the first book, The Greenglass House, The Book Scavenger, or The Westing Game, I recommend you pick this up at your earliest convenience. A must-read for fans of middle-grade books about books. (As an aside, or maybe not, if you have an upper-elementary school bookworm you need to buy gifts for, I’d totally suggest that group of books. They’re the sort of book I would have (and still will, even as an adult) read a bunch of times.)

Pages: 288. Library copy.

August is traditionally a finishing month for me, so I’ve got several WiPs (works in progress) out and in circulation. The vanilla socks from the spring have a second heel flap coming along, and I’ve nearly reached the halfway point of my yarn on my Hitchhiker. Both remain easy knits, and I’m optimistic I’ll be crossing the finish line with them during the Olympics (and their accompanying knitting event, the Ravellenic Games).

Bookwise, I’ve been averaging a couple books a week this summer. The two I’m actively reading right now are The Game of Love and Death, which maybe I’d categorize as magical historical realism? It’s definitely historical fiction, set in Seattle 1937, and featuring two humans, Henry and Flora, who are unwitting contestants in the title competition between immortals. I’m enjoying it so far, but Death is a cunning foe, and I fear we’re going to see more of her as the pages turn.

The other book is my newest acquisition, the latest project from Jo Rowling, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. It’s the working script of the play currently being staged in London’s West End, so while it’s good, it’s not as good as a novel. (I’m totally biased here.) I’ve heard that reading it aloud makes it pop, so I may give that a go after I’ve read it once. (Or maybe I’ll see if there’s an audiobook version at the library. It was nice to see one thing revealed I’d always thought should happen, so that’s rewarding. Jo has asked audiences (and readers) to #KeeptheSecrets, so that’s as much as I’ll give away.

Yarning along with Ginny at Small Things.

I know this looks a lot like the photo I posted two weeks ago, and you’d be right. I’ve made slow progress in Modern Lovers, in part because the border of the shawl required too much attention to work from a print book as I went, so I’ve been listening to audiobooks instead. I finished Louise Penny’s Still Life, which I enjoyed well enough, and have moved on to The Heist, a romantic caper by Stephanie Evanovich and Lee Goldberg. Modern Lovers is about a third done and nearly a week overdue, so hopefully I’ll get it finished up this weekend in time for a trip to the library.

The expanded border is completely done, as is the first ball of yarn, nearly. The stripy section begins next, as do mindless knitting, the final two balls of yarn, and regular decreases. I’m looking forward to all of it (although carrying three balls worth of yarn in my courier bag is definitely going to be a little more tricky than just toting around the one. The Tour de France ends on Sunday, and while it’s possible that I might finish in time, it’s not looking overly optimistic unless I find the stripes far faster than I expect to. That said, I’d guess that it’ll be done before the end of the month, which will let me get back to my purse-friendly Hitchhiker as I figure out my knitting project for the Ravellenic Games to be knit during the Olympics. Will it be the traditional August finishing of the socks? Or will finishing new projects be so addictive I need to start something else? Things to consider…

Yarning along with Ginny at Small Things.

Every year the Tour de France comes along and the knitalong I do pops up and I’m torn between finishing something previously started and starting something new. I’ve competed in the former category the past few years, and so this year decided to give something new a shot. (Yes, I do recognize my Hitchhiker was going really well and that this may not have been the smartest plan. The heart wants what the heart wants.)

A yellow jersey project requires a certain amount of fortitude (and stitches), and while I yearned to cast on something gorgeous and delicate, like Rock Island, I decided to listen to Rudi’s advice of not making it so complicated I had to become a hermit. While flipping through the stash on the hunt for a different yarn, I turned up three skeins I’d bought years ago to make Andrea’s Shawl. Since that pattern was also already paid for and in my possession, I decided to do a little stash-busting.

This shawl is knit from its widest point to its narrower end after you knit the entire border. It’s an easily memorized four-row repeat, so I’ve been working on it while watching racing coverage and also while listening to an audiobook, Trouble Is a Friend of Mine by Stephanie Tromly. The story and the characters are fun (Girl moves to new town, where an abduction has recently taken place; a boy loops her into an investigation of the case, which resembles a similar abduction from eight years earlier. He’s quirky; she’s angry. Hijinks ensue.), but listening to it highlights that it needed additional editing that may not as been as obvious when reading it on the page. There are whole sections of dialogue that run like this:

“Simple sentence,” she said.
“A different simple sentence,” he said.
“More simple, more said,” she said.
“Getting the picture?” he said.

An editor should have pared down all of those extraneous “he/she saids,” particularly when it’s just two characters in the scene. As underscored when reading Mansfield Park earlier this year, not having enough attribution in dialogue can be confusing, but it doesn’t need to be every single line. If I weren’t enjoying it otherwise, I’d throw in the towel just for that reason (or switch to print, where, as I said, I might not have noticed it as much), because it keeps making me grit my teeth. But I am, so I’ll finish it off this week.

I’m only a few more pages into Modern Lovers than I was last week (having finished and started two different books in the meantime).

Look! Color changes! Thirteen more teeth than last week! This continues to be mindless knitting easily worked on during tv, meetings, and baseball games.

I realized late last week that I really wasn’t enjoying Big Magic. I may skim a few sections later in the book to see if she ever gets around to something that resonates with me, but otherwise I may give it up. (Giving up a book during the library’s summer reading program is painful, but that really ought not to be a reason to keep reading a book that sprains my eye-rolling muscles.)

Instead, I’ve turned to two books relevant to my summer holidays. Summer of the Gypsy Moths is written by a woman from and takes place in the Cape Cod town where we vacationed earlier this month. We’ve started out the book with a dead (of natural causes) body (which two pre-teen girls are going to bury in the garden), so it definitely catches you.

Modern Lovers has appeared on every summer reading list I’ve seen this year and focuses on a group of college friends in their forties. How could I, in the year of my 20th reunion from college not at least give it a shot? I’m looking forward to getting started on it tomorrow.

(Apologies for the glare-filled shot. I dozed off on the couch after volleyball tonight and am too tired to retake it.)

What are you reading these days?

Yarning along with Ginny at Small Things.