Crimson Bound by Rosamund Hodge

Title: Crimson Bound

Author: Rosamund Hodge

Publisher: Balzer + Bray 2015

Genre: YA Fantasy

Pages: 441

Rating: 2/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Fairy Tales; In Case You Missed It - 2015

When Rachelle was fifteen she was good—apprenticed to her aunt and in training to protect her village from dark magic. But she was also reckless—straying from the forest path in search of a way to free her world from the threat of eternal darkness. After an illicit meeting goes dreadfully wrong, Rachelle is forced to make a terrible choice that binds her to the very evil she had hoped to defeat.

Three years later, Rachelle has given her life to serving the realm, fighting deadly creatures in a vain effort to atone. When the king orders her to guard his son Armand—the man she hates most—Rachelle forces Armand to help her hunt for the legendary sword that might save their world. Together, they navigate the opulent world of the courtly elite, where beauty and power reign and no one can be trusted. And as the two become unexpected allies, they discover far-reaching conspiracies, hidden magic . . . and a love that may be their undoing. Within a palace built on unbelievable wealth and dangerous secrets, can Rachelle discover the truth and stop the fall of endless night?

Oof this one really did not work for me at all. I picked it up as a Red Riding Hood retelling and was hoping for a good fantasy novel. The world building was interesting if confusing. At times I got very into the weeds trying to figure out if the references were straight out of French lore or if the author made it up. Parts of the story got really convoluted. But my biggest complaint are directly about the romance. Why do we have to have another silly love triangle? I really dislike the female protagonist following her destiny only to find two men standing in her way. The biggest issue was that Armand was a complete nothing burger of a character. I could not imagine why Rachelle would ever fall for him. Really the same goes for Erec. This book may have been saved if the stupid love triangle was dropped.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Worst Best Man by Lucy Score

Title: The Worst Best Man

Author: Lucy Score

Publisher: Bloom Books 2018

Genre: Romance

Pages: 432

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Library Love; She Reads Romance - Contemporary Romance

Spice Rating: 5

The bride is a doll. The groom is the perfect gentleman. But the rest of the wedding party? They're the stuff of nightmares. Rich? Check. Vapid? Double Check. Entitled? Not enough checks in the world. And the Best Man? More like the Worst Man.

But Maid of Honor Franchesca takes her duties seriously. Kidnapped groom? She's got this. Rude attendees? You just watch her handle them. So a Best Man with a big attitude and an even bigger...checkbook? Yeah, there's no way she's going to let that pretentious, judgmental jackhole ruin her best friend's wedding. No matter how sexy he is. (Well, that's the plan anyway...)

Aiden Kilbourn doesn't do long-term relationships. He's busy ruling the business world, and has yet to find a woman he can tolerate for longer than a month, two at the outside, anyway. Conquering the unconquerable is basically his bread and butter. And he hasn't met a challenge that he can't win. But Franchesca Baranski? This smart-mouthed girl from Brooklyn may just be his downfall.

Another contemporary romance for me. I think I might need to lay off these for awhile. But before I do, I did end up enjoying this enemies to lovers story. The banter in the first half of the book was amazing. I loved Aiden and Francesca’s adventures in attempting to get the groom back. The book went downhill a bit after they started dating. It just wasn’t quite the same spark. My favorite parts were when Aiden interacted with Francesca’s family especially her brothers. It was fun and silly. The steamy scenes were pretty steamy, but not quite my favorite. There was a little too much aggression in those scenes for me to love them. But overall, it was a decent romance.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Odds and Ends

Here's my randomness for the week:

• Two more weeks indoor for coop. I think we are all over being inside. Here’s hoping that the weather cooperates.

• Still celebrating my birthday week with random free offers and discounts.

• Diving into planning homeschool curriculum for next year.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino

Title: Beautyland

Author: Marie-Helene Bertino

Publisher: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux 2024

Genre: Speculative Fiction

Pages: 336

Rating: 2/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Library Love

At the moment when Voyager 1 is launched into space carrying its famous golden record, a baby of unusual perception is born to a single mother in Philadelphia. Adina Giorno is tiny and jaundiced, but she reaches for warmth and light. As a child, she recognizes that she is different: She possesses knowledge of a faraway planet. The arrival of a fax machine enables her to contact her extraterrestrial relatives, beings who have sent her to report on the oddities of Earthlings.

For years, as she moves through the world and makes a life for herself among humans, she dispatches transmissions on the terrors and surprising joys of their existence. Then, at a precarious moment, a beloved friend urges Adina to share her messages with the world. Is there a chance she is not alone?

Such a bait and switch book! I was very intrigued by the science fiction aspect in the summary. I wanted to read an interesting story about an alien being who “lives” as a human and attempts to teach the other aliens about us. I was hoping for The Mountain in the Sea vibes with discussions about humanity and nature of life. Instead we get a very standard coming of age story. Even worse, we are meant to think that Adina is an alien when she’s heavily coded at autistic. Portraying an autistic person as an alien really left an icky taste in my mouth. Beyond that, the story just goes nowhere. I was at times enraged but mostly bored.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Love Everlasting Vol. 1 and Vol. 2

Title: Love Everlasting Vol. 1

Author: Tom King, Elsa Charretier

Publisher: Image Comics 2023

Genre: Comics

Pages: 136

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 

From multiple Eisner Award winning writer Tom King and up-and-coming artist Elsa Charretier comes the first volume of a thrilling, genre-bending romance/horror mashup. Joan Peterson discovers that she is trapped in an endless, terrifying cycle of “romance”—a problem to be solved, a man to marry—and every time she falls in love she’s torn from her world and thrust into another tear-soaked tale. Her bloody, time-looping journey to freedom and revelation begins in this breathtaking, groundbreaking debut volume. Collects Love Everlasting #1-5. 

Absolutely trippy. It took me multiple pages to get a handle on what exactly was happening in this story. The reader is thrust into confusion just like Joan as she begins to live multiple realities. This volume is weird and trippy and exactly what I want in my horror comics.

Title: Love Everlasting Vol. 2

Author: Tom King, Elsa Charretier

Publisher: Image Comics

Genre: Comics

Pages: 136

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges

The mind-bending story of Joan Peterson's journey through love and horror continues in the second epic and heartbreaking arc of this critically acclaimed, Harvey-nominated series. After traveling from romance to romance, Joan finds herself trapped inside just one story, growing older with the love of her life instead of escaping again and again. And as she becomes a wife, a mother, a grandmother, she is on a bloody quest to discover if everyone in this new world is insane, or if she alone is broken.

Collects Love Everlasting #6 - #10

And we get to the conclusion of this story. It ended up not being my favorite, but I did enjoy the story. There was a bit too much meandering in the storyline.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool W23: Ready for a Break!

What We Studied

Our week went well and we accomplished a lot of school work. But, I couldn’t shake the feeling that we needed a bit of a break. Makes sense in the we haven’t had a real break since Christmas. We made sure to knock out some lessons so next week can be a bit of a break.

A’s ELA and Math

Literature and Poetry

This week Arthur read one of my favorite childhood books, The Witches by Roald Dahl. I don’t think he enjoyed it as much as me, but thanks okay. We did get to watch the movie version for family movie night as an extra treat. Beyond the actual literature, we are working on some basic grammar skills. We continued the first Reading Explorer book which focuses on reading comprehension. He also continued his Super Secret Notebook from Blossom & Root.

• My America poem collection

• Reading Explorer 1

• The Witches by Roald Dahl

Quentin finished another in his favorite series. We covered a few different lessons from the Blossom and Root curriculum. He also worked on some basic grammar with some fun books.

• Sing a Song of Seasons

• Zoey and Sassafras: Grumplets and Pests by Asia Citro

• If You were an Interjection by Nancy Loewen

• If You were a Conjunction by Nancy Loewen

• If You were an Antonym by Nancy Loewen

• If You were a Preposition by Nancy Loewen

• If You were Homonym or a Homphone by Nancy Loewen

• The Little Mermaid by Jerry Pinkney

• The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen

• The Other Side of the Story

• The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen

• Grandmother Winter by Phyllis Root

• The Story Blanket by Ferida Wolf

• Good Night Wind by Linda Elovitz Marshal

• Rumpelstitlskin by Paul Galdone

• The Elves and the Shoemaker

• Rumpelstiltskin

• The Elves and the Shoemaker by Paul Galdone

• The Elves and the Shoemaker by Jim Lamarche

• Frankly I'd Rather Spin Myself a New Name by Jessica Gunderson

• Rumplestitlskin by John Cech

• Rumplestiltskin's Daughter by Diane Stanley

• Rattlestiltskin by Eric A. Kimmel

• The Girl Who Spun Gold by Virginia Hamilton

• Beaver Steals Fire by Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes

• The Water Dragon by Li JIan

Q’s ELA and Math

Math

Arthur finished a unit on Decimals. Most of it was review, but it was a good review for him. We’re flying through the lessons. We also dove into the Grade 4 Financial Literacy book and covered another units.

• Singapore Common Core 5B

• Orbiting with Logic

• Evan Moor Financial Literacy G4

Quentin continued Singapore 2A with a unit on measurements. We also continued our logic book; almost finished with this one!

• Lollipop Logic Book 3

• Singapore Common Core 2A

Q’s ELA and Math

Social Studies

Arthur covered more about the Great Depression with a focus on the American Dust Bowl. I found some great resources and we even started watching Ken Burns’ The Dust Bowl documentary.

• DK American History

• We were There Too! Young People in US History

• Words that Build a Nation

• Heart and Soul

• Nat Geo Our Country’s Presidents

• An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States

• A Different Mirror for Young People

• This is Our Land: A History of American Immigration

• DK Timelines of Everything

• DK History

• The Great American Dust Bowl

• The Dust Bowl Through the Lens: How Photography Revealed and Helped Remedy a National Disaster by Martin W. Sandler

• A Day that Changed America: The Black Sunday Dust Blizzard by Bruce Berglund

• Voices of the Dust Bowl by Sherry Garland

• This is the Rope: A Story from The Great Migration by Jacqueline Woodson

Q’s Rome Unit

Quentin began the chapters of Ancient Rome with the founding and the Republic. We found a good balance of videos, textbooks, and small readings.

• History Quest Early Times

• DK When on Earth?

• Human Wold

• DK History

• DK Timelines of Everything

• DK A Child Through Time

• A History of Western Art

• DK Science Year by Year

• DK Myths, Legends, and Sacred Stories

• Find the Journeys Around the World by David Long

• Ancient Worlds

• A Journey Through Art by Aaron Rosen

• Ancient Rome by Peter Chrisp

• The Ancient Romans Cohn

• DK Eyewitness: Ancient Rome

• Stephen Biesty's Ancient World

• The Genius of the Romans

A’s Dust Bowl Unit

Science

We’re back at Chemistry class. This week they talked about the relationship between Hydrogen and Oxygen. We made sure to read another chapter in our Story of Science book.

• RSO Chemistry

• DK Super Simple Chemistry

• Story of Science Vol. 2: Newton at the Center by Joy Hakim

• DK The Elements

Quentin got back into the RSO Life curriculum moving into the unit on Human Anatomy. We covered the digestive system this week.

• RSO Life

• DK Oversimple Biology

• DK Human Body

• Know and Glow Human Body

• DK Eyewitness: Human Body

• iDiscover The Body by Carolyn Scrace

• The Museum of Odd Body Leftovers: A Tour of Your Useless Parts, Flaws and Other Weird Bits by Rachel Poliquin

• Click: The Inner You

• Click: Tastes Good

• Shape of a Stomach by Kirsty Holmes

• Blueprint for a Bladder by Kirsty Holmes

Q’s Anatomy Unit

STEAM Coop

Arthur started his unit on spring growth. This week they talked abut soil composition and basic planting techniques. Quentin learned about deserts and had fun making a sand painting.

A’s ELA and Math

Art/Music/Crafts/Cooking/Documentary

We covered a bit of art and music and managed to start watching a documentary. We covered frescos and etching/printmaking/woodcuts for art and Verdi and Gershwin for music.

• DK Music and How it Works

• DK The Arts

• DK Art and How It Works

• Modern Art Adventures by Maja Pitamic and Jill Laidlaw

• 13 American Artists Children Should Know

• A Child's Introduction to Art

• Women in Art by Rachel Ignotofsky

• Iconic Composers by Nicholas Csicsko & Emi Ferguson

• 13 Art Movements Children Should Know

• 13 Artists Children Should Know

• 13 Modern Artists Children Should Know

• The Story of Paintings by Mick Manning & Brita Granström

• Why is Art Full of Naked People? by Susie Hodge

Q’s ELA and Math

Field Trip

We didn’t have any field trips these week. But we did accomplish two nature hikes and two park playdates with friends. The weather was beautiful this past week and we took advantage of it!

Q’s ELA

High

We finally bought a membership and made it down to the Luminarium, the new local hands-on science museum. We spent a few hour after coop exploring with some friends. Even being there for a few hours, we didn’t actually get to see everything! We will definitely be back soon.

Learning about deserts at coop

Low

Nothing. We had a great two weeks!

Next Week

• Continuing our current read alouds

• Hopefully starting and finishing the coop book club selection

• Moving through the 1930s for history, focusing on the Dust Bowl

• Continuing our math units

• Exploring some new concepts about the periodic table

• Diving into Ancient Rome for science

• Hopefully heading outside for a nature walk

Art and Music

Next up on the TBR pile:

Music Monday - Saint Asonia feat. John Cooper "Wolf"

A collaboration that I didn’t think I needed, but apparently I did. I love Adam’s voice and it is really well matched to John’s voice.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Life Right Now #7

As I look outside my window: It’s super clear outside and supposed to be almost 70 degrees, but windy. We’re having book club outdoors instead of stuck in a house.

Right now I am: Trying to decide what to make for brunch. Maybe lemon poppy seed scones, bacon, and eggs.

Thinking and pondering: What changes do we need to make for coop? We are shifting some things around and changing the ways that families can interact with the coop. I keep second guessing myself on a few things…

On my bedside table: The Worst Best Man by Lucy Score; Crimson Bound by Rosamund Hodge

On my tv this week: We mostly stuck to random television shows this week. I finally finished S2 of Our Flag Means Death and switched back to Wonderland.

Listening to: I’m still taking a break from audiobooks so I listened to some episodes of Hello from the Magic Tavern.

On the menu for this week:

• Monday - Out for book club

• Tuesday - Italian Beef Sandwiches

• Wednesday - Crab and Asparagus Soup

• Thursday - BBQ Chicken, Apple, and Bacon Quesadillas

• Friday - Sweet Potato and Black Bean Quinoa Bowls

• Saturday - Chicken Tikka Masala

• Sunday - Birthday Dinner (not my actual birthday, but when we’re celebrating)

On my to do list: I made eye appointments, so I guess I should move on to doctor appointments for the kids and me.

Happening this week:

• Monday - Chemistry Class; Book Club

• Tuesday - Bregant House Tour

• Wednesday - Eye Appointments; Book Discussion

• Thursday - Coop

• Friday - OPPD Arboretum Hike

• Saturday - Home Day

• Sunday - Birthday Day Out

What I am creating: Nothing much. I finished January’s Memory Planner pages, but have yet to start on February’s pages.

My simple pleasures: Target runs by myself, coffee

Looking around the house: The kitchen is about due for a massive cleanout both in terms of equipment and food. I think the rest of this month is going to be eat the food in the house (or buy the one ingredient that can turn the food in the house into a meal).

From the camera: Yesterday we had a lovely baby shower for a friend making her a ton of freezer meals. A lovely afternoon.

The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. by Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland

Title: The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. (D.O.D.O. #1)

Author: Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland

Publisher: William Morrow 2017

Genre: Science Fiction

Pages: 752

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Unread Shelf; 52 Book Club - Chapters have date headings

When Melisande Stokes, an expert in linguistics and languages, accidently meets military intelligence operator Tristan Lyons in a hallway at Harvard University, it is the beginning of a chain of events that will alter their lives and human history itself. The young man from a shadowy government entity approaches Mel, a low-level faculty member, with an incredible offer. The only condition: she must sign a nondisclosure agreement in return for the rather large sum of money.

Tristan needs Mel to translate some very old documents, which, if authentic, are earth-shattering. They prove that magic actually existed and was practiced for centuries. But the arrival of the scientific revolution and the Age of Enlightenment weakened its power and endangered its practitioners. Magic stopped working altogether in 1851, at the time of the Great Exhibition at London’s Crystal Palace—the world’s fair celebrating the rise of industrial technology and commerce. Something about the modern world "jams" the "frequencies" used by magic, and it’s up to Tristan to find out why.

And so the Department of Diachronic Operations—D.O.D.O. —gets cracking on its real mission: to develop a device that can bring magic back, and send Diachronic Operatives back in time to keep it alive . . . and meddle with a little history at the same time. But while Tristan and his expanding operation master the science and build the technology, they overlook the mercurial—and treacherous—nature of the human heart.

I was so incredibly excited about this book that I picked up last year. First off, the dodo bird completely sucked me in. And then the summary really intrigued me. I love a good time travel novel and was hoping this one was it. Unfortunately, this book was way too long full of dry passages that seem to go on forever. Clearly those passages were written by Stephenson. He definitely has a way of stretching out the technical conversations and padding them with initialisms and acronyms. I found my mind wandering throughout many sections of this book. The only thing that kept me going was the overall mystery of how Mel got stuck back in 1851. Seriously, Mel and Tristan saves his novel for me. And now I’m debating about whether I actually want to read the sequel and get the conclusion of the story.

D.O.D.O.

• #1 The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O.

• #2 Master of the Revels

Next up on the TBR pile:

March 2024 Life Goals

Let’s check in on February’s goals and my progress.

• Read 18 Books ✓

• Relax During My Reading Weekend ✓

• Finalize Guest List for the Bookish Retreat - Still working on this one

• Start the Homeschool Supplies Cleanout

March Goals:

• Read 18 Books

• Finalize Guest List for the Bookish Retreat - Still working on this one

• Start the Homeschool Supplies Cleanout

• Get New Glasses - Me and Arthur

• Finalize Spring Travel Plans

Next up on the TBR pile: