The Book Bit: July 2017 Ed.

  Well, well, well, this month certainly flew by in a blink!  Now, I had every intention of reading three books this month.  Even checked out three of them from the library, but let me offer a few excuses for you and you can decide which one to run with.  My four month old is going through sleep regression, I have had visitors on two separate occasions, my youngest is unsatisfied doing anything besides sitting in my lap and thinks that book pages are for consumption and I have been the worst kind of sick.  So.  There they are, believe what you will!  Now, let's take a look at what I did manage to read this month.








"After Alice"- Gregory Maguire

  This book took me forever to get through simply because it was not my favorite thing.  I would sit down to read it and literally fall asleep with it in my hands.  And I've read other works by Maguire and found it all very intriguing, so I couldn't figure out why I did not enjoy this book. Maybe I set my expectations too high?  Either way, it was not the best book I've ever read.  I did a thing and judged the book by it's title (slaps hand to head) and sort of assumed that it was a retelling of the classic "Alice in Wonderland".  You guys know how much I love retellings!  I wasn't completely wrong, but instead of it being a story of someone returning to Wonderland after Alice has already been (my original thought) it is the story of someone going to Wonderland directly behind Alice.  As in, "Go after Alice."  So we follow Ada down the rabbit hole.  You may remember Ada was briefly mentioned in Alice history and now she's finally gotten a story of her own.  Ada tromps through Wonderland searching for Alice while the world back home is searching for both of the lost girls.  The book just didn't hold much excitement for me, but I am just one reader.  Someone else may find it enjoyable.  If you want my favorite Alice retelling to date, look here.

"N0S4A2"- Joe Hill

  This book was incredible!  It was on the long side, but you really need a deep telling of this story to appreciate it.  And appreciate it I did!  Victoria McQueen has always been good at finding things.  Once she hops on her Tuff Burner and pedals through the woods behind her house, a bridge appears that can take her to anything that has been lost.  But whether the bridge is real or a figment of her imagination is something Vic will spend most of her life trying to figure out.  In a tiff with her parents, Vic decides to look for trouble using her special bridge and comes face to face with a serial killer.  She helps put him behind bars, but he isn't quite done with her.  And when calls from abducted kids start coming in that only Vic can hear, she knows that their single encounter is anything but history between them.  Joe Hill is a fantastic writer and this journey is a perfect mix of science fiction, fantasy and thriller all wrapped into one.  You do not want to miss out on reading this.

  That's all I manged to read this month.  I promise I will do better next month and squeeze in one more book.  Enjoy the summer with a good book; happy reading!