Hey all!
I initially wasn’t going to post today (reviews take a really long time to write!) but I realized I never recognized my TWO YEAR anniversary on here!! I’m officially a toddler blogger.
I’m also getting closer to 200 followers on here (which is CRAZY!) so thank you all so so much for following me and reading my sometimes rambling thoughts!
I was going to just write this review on Goodreads but this book was too good not to share. Another one of my reads from 2017!
Also, sidenote, I didn’t read the blurb before writing my review so apologies for the coincidental repetition!
The August Birds by Octavia Cade
Genre: Science History | Speculative FictionAugust is nine years old, and dreams of becoming a scientist. This is a dream that will never come true, because August is dying. The only dream that’s left to him now is that of reaching his tenth birthday, on the last day of the month he was named after.
Yet on the eve of that month, August gets two surprise visitors: time-travelling ravens Muninn and Huginn, come out of Norse mythology to bring him the science that he loves. On each of the final days of August, the birds take him back through time to an event in science that happened on that day – the writing of the Einstein-Szilard letter; the discovery of the first Neanderthal grave; helium and Hiroshima and hot air balloons…
August comes to understand that these trips into science aren’t simple kindnesses. They’re ways for him to come to terms with his own death, to make peace with his mortality. And, if Muninn has her way, they’ll give him a chance to cheat death after all…
Get it here: Amazon | Smashwords (free)
I really, really enjoyed this one! The writing immediately stood out so I knew it was going to be a good read, and such an interesting premise! August wants to be a scientist when he grows up but he’s very sick and knows he’ll never reach that dream. A more manageable dream, he desperately wants to make it to his 10th birthday, which is a month away (the last day in August).
Two ravens, Muninn and Huginn (who I now know after reading American Gods!), appear in his room one day and make a deal with him — if he promises to hold on until his 10th birthday, they’ll show him a piece of science every day. Each of these days, we’re transported to a different time and location to see an important scientific discovery, invention, or event that happened on that date in history.
Who’s ready to catch up on a bunch of reviews! I’ll be posting more of the ones I’ve been reading this year in the next couple weeks but for ALL my reviews (since this will just be a selection), you can check out my Goodreads. Already 2 books away from my yearly goal (though that may change by the time this post goes live)!
Speaking of challenges, this book helped me complete the alphabet challenge last year when I realized in the last week of 2017 that I hadn’t read a book whose title started with F! And so, finally, here is that review 🙂
Fair to Look Upon by Mary Belle Freeley
Genre: HumourI was about to be married. My numerous charms and attractions had won the affections of a young man who was equally charming with myself. We were sitting on a luxurious divan and he held my milk-white hand in his. I do not make that statement as a startling announcement of an unusual occurrence, but simply as a matter of fact. We had been conversing about the culinary and domestic arrangements of our future home when matrimony had made us “one flesh; ” or, to use English, we had been wondering what under the canopy a good cooking stove would cost, when he asked suddenly and irrelevantly, “And you will love me, always?”
Get it from Project Gutenberg!
That blurb above is actually the first paragraph of the book. I already liked the MC from the second line and since this book was available on Project Gutenberg, under 100 pages, and I had less than a week to read it to finish off the challenge, I went for it!
The MC is very vain, which this excerpt gives you a sense of, but I found her very easy to like. She’s funny, incredibly sarcastic, and stubborn, and when her fiancé orders her to study the Bible because she tells him she won’t always obey him, she sets out to put him in his place.
