{"id":7168,"date":"2017-06-27T18:59:09","date_gmt":"2017-06-27T23:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/?p=7168"},"modified":"2017-06-27T18:59:58","modified_gmt":"2017-06-27T23:59:58","slug":"best-books-summer-tbr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/?p=7168","title":{"rendered":"best books and summer tbr"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I don&#8217;t usually do a mid-year ranking, but in the interest of sharing (particularly since <a href=\"http:\/\/www.brokeandbookish.com\/2017\/06\/best-books-weve-read-so-far-in-2017.html\">Top Ten Tuesday<\/a> is going on maternity leave), let me tell you the three books I&#8217;ve given 5-star ratings to on Goodreads so far this year: <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><em>The Sun Is Also a Star<\/em> by Nicola Yoon.<\/strong> Let&#8217;s just say this story of star-crossed NYC teens falling in love has the best final chapter I&#8217;ve read in a long time. I read this so long ago, I actually wrote a review for it, which you can read <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/?p=7056\">here<\/a> (Scroll down; it&#8217;s the last review of the three).<\/li>\n<p><Br><\/p>\n<li><strong><em>The Hate U Give<\/em> by Angie Thomas.<\/strong> This was perhaps the most talked about book in YA this spring, and for good reason. A Black teen witnesses her childhood best friend being shot by a white cop in Everytown, USA. The reverberations touch every aspect of her life: school, friends, community, and family. There are no easy answers here, except that one person taking that scary first step can lead to others taking their own, which can lead &#8212; eventually, to change. I don&#8217;t care if you don&#8217;t normally read YA; read this book.<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<li><strong><em>Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries<\/em> by Kory Stamper.<\/strong> Admittedly, a five-star nonfiction review is different from one given to fiction. In fiction, it means I should probably buy it and will most certainly be reading it again. In non-fiction, it more means that I was fascinated by the subject as written and even read the foot-\/endnotes. I don&#8217;t know that I&#8217;d re-read this book on the various aspects that go into making a dictionary again, but I wouldn&#8217;t rule it out. A truly interesting topic, tackled with knowledge and humor by one of the Merriam Webster folks.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I&#8217;ve read a bunch of four-star books, but am not sure it&#8217;s worth ranking them at this point.<\/p>\n<p>Also, I wanted to share 10 of the books I&#8217;m hoping to tackle this summer, since we&#8217;re now officially into the season:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong><em>The Upside of Unrequited<\/em> by Becky Albartelli<\/strong>: Yes, this was on my spring list, but the library only got print copies last week. It&#8217;s set in D.C.<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<li><strong><em>The Princess Diarist<\/em> by Carrie Fisher<\/strong>: I&#8217;ve been on the wait list for her books since her death, and listening to her Star Wars journals\/commentary seem like a summery thing to do.<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<li><strong><em>Eggshells<\/em> by Catriona Lally<\/strong>: My BFF, Karen, gave me this book back in the spring as a belated birthday gift, and I&#8217;m looking forward to starting it finally. A quirky woman places an ad seeking a friend named Penelope.<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<li><strong><em>When Dimple Met Rishi<\/em> by Sandhya Menon<\/strong>: Indian-American YA rom-com. Need I say more?<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<li><strong><em>The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley<\/em> by Hannah Tinti<\/strong>: I started this title from a woman I went to college with in the spring, but only got as far as the first chapter before my other books and the due date got in the way.<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<li><strong><em>Wonder Woman: Warbringer<\/em> by Leigh Bardugo<\/strong>: Due out in August, this title combines the mythology of Diana of the Amazons with Helen of Troy.<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<li>All Grown Up by Jami Attenburg: Short. And one of those popular authors I never seem to get <\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<li><strong><em>The Book Jumper<\/em> by Mechthild Gl\u00c3\u00a4ser<\/strong>: The cover is really pretty. And it reminds me of Thursday Next.<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<li><strong><em>Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Who Helped Win the Space Race<\/em> by Margot Lee Shetterley<\/strong>: My coworker lent me her copy of the book back at the start of the year and it&#8217;s time to give it back.<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<li><strong><em>The Star-Touched Queen<\/em> by Roshani Chokshi<\/strong>: Because I&#8217;ve had that the same amount of time and the library wants it back. <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>How about you? What have been your favorite reads of the first half of the year? And what are you looking forward to reading this summer?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I don&#8217;t usually do a mid-year ranking, but in the interest of sharing (particularly since Top Ten Tuesday is going on maternity leave), let me tell you the three books I&#8217;ve given 5-star ratings to on Goodreads so far this year: The Sun Is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon. Let&#8217;s just say this story [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>best books and summer tbr - sprite writes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/?p=7168\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"best books and summer tbr - sprite writes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I don&#8217;t usually do a mid-year ranking, but in the interest of sharing (particularly since Top Ten Tuesday is going on maternity leave), let me tell you the three books I&#8217;ve given 5-star ratings to on Goodreads so far this year: The Sun Is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon. Let&#8217;s just say this story [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/?p=7168\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"sprite writes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-06-27T23:59:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-06-27T23:59:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"soe\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"soe\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spritewrites.net\\\/?p=7168#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spritewrites.net\\\/?p=7168\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"soe\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spritewrites.net\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/2aa28906a6cfcf6a027e45ac700a834d\"},\"headline\":\"best books and summer tbr\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-06-27T23:59:09+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-06-27T23:59:58+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spritewrites.net\\\/?p=7168\"},\"wordCount\":671,\"commentCount\":4,\"articleSection\":[\"books\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spritewrites.net\\\/?p=7168#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spritewrites.net\\\/?p=7168\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spritewrites.net\\\/?p=7168\",\"name\":\"best books and summer tbr - sprite writes\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spritewrites.net\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-06-27T23:59:09+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-06-27T23:59:58+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spritewrites.net\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/2aa28906a6cfcf6a027e45ac700a834d\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spritewrites.net\\\/?p=7168#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spritewrites.net\\\/?p=7168\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spritewrites.net\\\/?p=7168#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spritewrites.net\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"best books and summer tbr\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spritewrites.net\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spritewrites.net\\\/\",\"name\":\"sprite writes\",\"description\":\"broodings from the burrow\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spritewrites.net\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spritewrites.net\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/2aa28906a6cfcf6a027e45ac700a834d\",\"name\":\"soe\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/49c494d6a64fd2b375e219c4ee1ae734e9edce9f8490a38074dcf6ba8a3dc716?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/49c494d6a64fd2b375e219c4ee1ae734e9edce9f8490a38074dcf6ba8a3dc716?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/49c494d6a64fd2b375e219c4ee1ae734e9edce9f8490a38074dcf6ba8a3dc716?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"soe\"},\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spritewrites.net\\\/?author=3\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"best books and summer tbr - sprite writes","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/?p=7168","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"best books and summer tbr - sprite writes","og_description":"I don&#8217;t usually do a mid-year ranking, but in the interest of sharing (particularly since Top Ten Tuesday is going on maternity leave), let me tell you the three books I&#8217;ve given 5-star ratings to on Goodreads so far this year: The Sun Is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon. 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