Completed Books!

Desperate Characters– This is definitely one for the regret pile. I kept finding it on internet lists and it had a promising introduction that said the characters would stay with the reader for a long time. What really lured me in, though, was the cat. The premise of the book is that the main character gets bitten by a cat and finds her life unraveling. The truth of the book is that everyone in it is a horrible person and that the cat deserved better. Ick.

Poached – I chose this book because I always like to expose students to a work of recent scholarship, especially in an honors class. Published in 2018, this work garnered plenty of acclaim. In taking the reader into situations where poaching and wildlife crime were normalized, it was a successful work. However, the author’s style got on my nerves. She quotes extensively from Extinction Market, making me feel I should just read that book. She also spends a lot of time on trivial details and emphasizing how attractive she is. I hope it proved valuable to my students, but I don’t think I will be teaching it again. Rotating into my reading list to take its place is a title I predict will be more enjoyable, though equally sobering: Blood of the tiger.

The Boy at the Keyhole- Another regret... or, at least, a partial regret. What I liked about this book was that it drew me in and kept me turning pages. Samuel's (the nine year old protagonist) point of view felt very authentic. What I didn't like: the ending. Nothing felt resolved and it was very sad and anti-climatic. I'm disappointed that I stuck with it and glad it was a library book.

Unicorn Bowling - Simpson is back on her game with this volume - very funny! I devoured every delicious, comic panel while sitting outside on a warm, sunshiny day. The atmosphere and the book complimented one another and I'm excited for more Phoebe (coming in October!)