The Nature of the Beast by Louise Penny

I love the Inspector Gamache novels. I love everything about them, from the relationships (platonic, familial, and romantic),to the Three Pines setting, to the way Penny just gets emotions and what makes a human being tick.

And then there are the mysteries. Penny's mysteries are always unique, clever, unexpected, and multi layered. The mystery in The Nature of the Beast wasn't my favorite of hers, but it was still incredible-and Penny definitely did her research, as is revealed in the author's note.

In The Nature of the Beast, Penny explores the concept of the boy who cried wolf, and what it means for a community when that child is finally telling the truth and still no one believes him. Monsters are more real than the characters, or readers, want to believe, and history creates a trail that can cause destruction in the present.

4.5/5 stars

(read for novel dream's reading challenge-this week's challenge was to read a book over 300 pages that came out in 2015)

True Crime Thursday: Mystery on the Isles of Shoals by J. Dennis Robinson

On Smuttynose Island, in 1873, two women were brutally murdered. The third woman, Maren, escaped, spending a harrowing night hiding on the island from the man she would identify as Louis Wagner.

It seems a straightforward tragedy. But ever since the crime, despite all the evidence against Wagner, there have always been theories floating around that Maren herself did the killing. Anita Shreve's The Weight of Water, while highly fictionalized, has been used by some theorists as proof that Wagner was innocent and Maren guilty.

Robinson makes it very clear from the beginning of his book that he firmly believes Wagner was the killer. Robinson carefully and clearly lays out the evidence against Wagner, building the story, through the murders, the trial, the public execution, and the way modern society continues to view the case.

Robinson has clearly done his research, and this book reads as the definitive account of a murder that still fascinates us to this day.

4/5 stars

Waiting on Wednesday-Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things by Jenny Lawson

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine (http://breakingthespine.blogspot.com/ ) where book bloggers can showcase an upcoming release they are particularly excited about.

For my first Waiting on Wednesday, I chose Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things by Jenny Lawson

Publication date: September 22, 2015

From Amazon:

"In Furiously Happy, #1 New York Times bestselling author Jenny Lawson explores her lifelong battle with mental illness. A hysterical, ridiculous book about crippling depression and anxiety? That sounds like a terrible idea.

But terrible ideas are what Jenny does best.

Furiously Happy is about "taking those moments when things are fine and making them amazing, because those moments are what make us who we are, and they're the same moments we take into battle with us when our brains declare war on our very existence. It's the difference between "surviving life" and "living life". It's the difference between "taking a shower" and "teaching your monkey butler how to shampoo your hair." It's the difference between being "sane" and being "furiously happy." "

I am a big fan of Lawson's previous book, Let's Pretend This Never Happened. I also have Generalized Anxiety Disorder and moderate depression. Lawson's books not only entertain me, but speak to me as well. 

Top Ten Tuesday: Ten Finished Series I Have Yet to Finish

For this Top Ten, I could only come up with five answers to fit the topic. A lot of the series I love the most haven't been finished yet-or if they have, I've read every book as quickly as I could!

1. The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare

I loved this series when I first started it, all the way through the third book. I had thought it was only supposed to be a trilogy, but when the fourth book came out, I still picked it up. In finishing the fourth book, I felt like it was a series that should have stayed as a trilogy. I haven't read any of the other Shadowhunter series Clare has written either.

2. Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld

This is another series I feel should have stayed a trilogy. I thought the first three were really interesting, but when I went to pick up the fourth, I just couldn't get into it.

3. Hush Hush series by Becca Fitzpatrick

I liked the first book in this series just fine, but wasn't invested enough to check out the second book.

4. The Wolves of Mercy Falls series by Maggie Stiefvater

This seems to be a trend for me, where I like a first book of a series, but unless I get really invested, and pretty quickly read the next book, I tend to lose interest.

5. A Great and Terrible Beauty series by Libba Bray

I think this one was a casualty of my having so many books to read. I have entire to be read bookcases, so I've stopped going to the library as much (plus I moved, so I no longer live two blocks away from one of the biggest libraries in the city). I read the first two books in this series, but just never got around to finishing. By the time I remembered, I'd forgotten so much of the previous books, and had lost interest.

Mystery Monday: Loonies by Gregory Bastianelli (ARC)

*Loonies by Gregory Bastianelli*

This was one of those books where I thought about stopping about thirty pages in, but I am glad I pushed through. While the book didn't end up being a three star read, it hovered right around two and a half to two and three quarters, and had some really suspenseful, scary, and interesting moments.

I suspect the original reason I almost stopped reading was because in those first few pages, a trunk with baby skeletons in it was found in an attic. I have a really hard time reading/watching things where bad things happen to children. But that trunk is the jumping off point for a mystery surrounding the possible return of a serial killer, a creepy old asylum, and some real characters populating the town of Smokey Hollow.

I definitely tend to read books featuring serial killers, mysteries, and/or asylums, which is why I requested a galley of this book. It got a little convoluted at times, and I had a hard time liking the main character or his wife a good percentage of the book. As the book got closer to its ending, it started to go over the line of entertaining to ridiculous, but the book as a whole was genuinely creepy and suspenseful, with a really interesting premise. It just didn't live up to its full potential.

2.75/5 stars

This is the first book I have finished for the R.I.P. Reading Challenge!

Sunday Post: This Week's Recap

Happy Sunday everyone! I'm very excited because I have tomorrow off from work, so I get a long weekend to relax. I love teaching Pre-K so much, but it can be very exhausting, so having some time off is great to get re-energized.

This past week on the blog:

* I joined a Reading Challenge hosted by Novel Dreams: Novel Dreams Reading Challenge and read my first book for the challenge, The Last September (ARC) by Nina De Gramont. I also joined the R.I.P Readathon and started my first book for it, Loonies by Gregory Bastianelli.

* I did my first Top Ten Tuesday, Ten Characters I Just Didn't Click With.

* I got to do my very first Author Interview with Will Lavender.

* For my Top Five Friday, I talked about five books my Pre-K students love to have read to them.


I only added one book to my TBR shelf, The Nature of the Beast by Louise Penny. My dad and I are both big fans of the series and he bought the newest one, than passed it on to me when he was done.

Have a wonderful rest of your weekend! I can't wait to see what this coming week has in store!

(Top) Five Friday: Five Books My Students Love Having Read to Them

I have taught Pre-K for five years, and read a lot of stories out loud in my time. These are five of the books my students want to have read to them over and over.

1. Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! by Mo Willems

This is one of my personal favorites too-I actually own all the Pigeon books myself. My students love how silly this is, and love the interactive aspect of it-every time the pigeon asks, they all yell "No!".

2. The Book With No Pictures by B.J. Novak

This is a recent addition, but I have already read it countless times. My students find it absolutely hilarious, and roar with laughter when I have to say all the silly words and phrases out loud. This is one of those books I have read out loud two times back to back because my students wanted to hear it again right away.

3. Fox in Socks by Dr. Seuss

Anything Dr. Seuss is a big hit with my students, but this is one that gets the best responses. If you're noticing a trend, it's true-three, four, and five year olds find it epically entertaining to listen to their teacher read a silly book full of fun rhymes and tongue twisters and all kinds of goofiness.

4. Watch Me Throw the Ball by Mo Willems

Another Mo Willems favorite, this gets laughs out of kids at least up to first grade, as I discovered when I participated in a readathon day with another class. The visual gags are hilarious, but simple enough that the kids can all pick up on them and be in on the joke.

5. The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle

My students always love Eric Carle, but this the one they seem to identify with most. I think they really enjoy being able to express emotions that might sometimes be viewed as negative, and they always love the project we do in connection with the story, where they get to talk about what makes them grouchy. Plus, they love all the different animals in the story and how they keep getting bigger and bigger.