Coraline

First Lines Fridays: May 3, 2019

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First Lines Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines?

  • Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page
  • Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
  • Finally… reveal the book!

First Lines:

Coraline discovered the door a little while after they moved into the house.

It was a very old house — it had an attic under the roof and a cellar under the ground and an overgrown garden with huge old trees in it.

Did the quote pique your interest? View this book on Goodreads!

August 2018 Reading Wrap-Up

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Coraline by Neil Gaiman
Rating:  ★★★★☆ – really liked it
Review:  No
Format:  Print
Reading Dates:  July 28 – August 14
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  The cat, obviously.
Least Favorite Thing:  Those damn button eyes are so creepy…

This book managed to simultaneously creep me out more than I expected and less than I expected. Either way it was good and I recommend it.

My Posts About Coraline

Searching for Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede
(Enchanted Forest Chronicles, book 2)
Rating:  ★★★★☆ – really liked it
Review:  No
Format:  eBook
Reading Dates:  August 1 – 17
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  Cimorene does not have time for your nonsense.
Least Favorite Thing:  Telemain is actually pretty annoying?

Man this series is great! I already got book 3 from the library because I have to know what happens next. If you haven’t read these books yet, get on that ASAP!

My Posts About Searching for Dragons

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
Ratings:  ★★★★☆ – really liked it
Review:  Yes
Format:  Print
Reading Dates:  August 20
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  I really like the cadence of their speech in this book.
Least Favorite Thing:  Nobody knocked T. Ray out… Disappointing.

I was worried I’d be disappointed in this book, but I really wasn’t. The writing style really suited me and the subject matter was a good combination of light and heavy.

My Posts About The Secret Life of Bees

The Safe Keeper’s Secret by Sharon Shinn
(Safe-Keepers, book 1)
Rating:  ★★★★☆ – really liked it
Review:  No
Format:  Print
Reading Dates:  August 21 – 24
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  The Truth-Teller
Least Favorite Thing:  The romance-ish thing…

I read this book because I had read the second book in the series a long time ago without realizing it was part of a series at all. I remember liking it so I figure it’s time to go through the series. Especially since these books are on my list of books I own, but never managed to read!

My Posts About The Safe-Keeper’s Secret

The Truth-Teller’s Tale by Sharon Shinn
(Safe-Keepers, book 2)
Rating:  ★★★☆☆ – liked it
Review:  No
Format:  Print
Reading Dates:  August 25 – 31
Read Count:  2
Favorite Thing:  Roelynn, I think.
Least Favorite Thing:  All the damn secrets intentionally kept from the protag by people who said they cared for her and she’s just supposed to be fine with it…?

I remembered some of this, but not much, mostly I remembered thinking it was a cute story and it was. I preferred the first book though I think.

My Posts About The Truth-Teller’s Tale

In Progress

 

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The light that came through the picture window was daylight, real golden late-afternoon daylight, not a white mist light. The sky was a robin’s-egg blue, and Coraline could see trees and, beyond the trees, green hills, which faded on the horizon into purples and grays. The sky had never seemed so sky, the world had never seemed so world.

– Neil Gaiman, Coraline, page 137

Version:
Hardcover, 176 pages
Published July 1st 2002 by HarperCollins Publishers

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She found herself to be quite worried that something would jump out at her, so she began to whistle. She thought it might make it harder for things to jump out at her if she was whistling.

– Neil Gaiman, Coraline, page 108

Version:
Hardcover, 176 pages
Published July 1st 2002 by HarperCollins Publishers

QuoteLee1 Comment
For a moment she felt utterly dislocated. She did not know where she was; she was not entirely sure who she was. It is astonishing just how much of what we are can be tied to the beds we wake up in in the morning, and it is astonishing how fragile that can be.

– Neil Gaiman, Coraline, page 67

Version:
Hardcover, 176 pages
Published July 1st 2002 by HarperCollins Publishers

 

July 2018 Reading Wrap-Up

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Someone Like You by Sarah Dessen
Rating:  ★★★☆☆ – liked it
Review:  No
Format:  eBook
Reading Dates:  June 26 – July 1
Read Count:  2
Favorite Thing:  Halley being like “she has my eyes” to that completely unrelated-to-her baby. Perfect.
Least Favorite Thing:  Pushy boyfriend is pushy…

I’m actually starting to worry that I don’t like these books as much as I used to. Not that they aren’t the same quality, just that I think I’ve aged out of them.

My Posts About Someone Like You

Keeping the Moon by Sarah Dessen
Rating:  ★★★★☆ – really liked it
Review:  No
Format:  Print
Reading Dates:  July 2 – 3
Read Count:  3
Favorite Thing:  Norman’s art cave.
Least Favorite Thing:  Mark, obviously.

Oh I’m so relieved that I still liked this book. After the first two of my Sarah Dessen reread that I didn’t like as much, I was worried I wouldn’t be able to enjoy any of them as much as I used to. I’d say I can see some differences by being older when I reread this one, but it was just as good as it used to be. Plus there was a whole nostalgia factor.

My Posts About Keeping the Moon

Dreamland by Sarah Dessen
Rating:  ★★★★☆ – really liked it
Review:  No
Format:  eBook
Reading Dates:  July 3 – 9
Read Count:  3
Favorite Thing:  The fact that no one ever blames Caitlin or questions that she needs professional help after what happens to her.
Least Favorite Thing:  I mean, I should probably say Rogerson, but honestly it’s the mean girls on the cheerleading squad…

So far so good on the Dessen Reread front! I am relieved to find I still like this one as well. Once again I found myself seeing things from a different perspective now that I’m older and have more life experience.

My Posts About Dreamland

This Lullaby by Sarah Dessen
Rating:  ★★★☆☆ – liked it
Review:  No
Format:  eBook
Reading Dates:  July 9 – July 14
Read Count:  3
Favorite Thing:  Remy’s constant planning and sorting things out was somehow fun to experience.
Least Favorite Thing:  A weird amount of fat shaming in this book…

I think I like this one a little less than I used to. Not the story itself, that’s pretty much the same as I remember, but because of the constant fat shaming. The second anyone was the least bit bigger in this book there was some weird comment about it.

My Posts About This Lullaby

Locked in Time by Lois Duncan
Rating:  ★★☆☆☆ – it was ok
Review:  No
Format:  Print
Reading Dates:  July 23 – 28
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  There’s a little bit at the end that I like but it’s majorly spoilery…
Least Favorite Thing:  Oblivious Protagonist Syndrome

My problem with this book wasn’t so much that it was bad, just that it was a little boring to me. I think it’s just not my style. And as with all Duncan’s books it’s a little slow till three quarters through then it all wraps up quite quickly.

My Posts About Locked in Time

Dealing with Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede
(Enchanted Forest Chronicles, book 1)
Rating:  ★★★★★ – loved it
Review:  No
Format:  Print
Reading Dates:  July 28 – 31
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  HOW CAN I PICK JUST ONE, no I’m lying it’s the female friendships in this book.
Least Favorite Thing:  Um…. There is no least favorite thing. I loved this book.

Oh man guys I loved this book so much! Thank you, tumblr, for recommending this to me! I can’t wait to get the next book!

My Posts About Dealing with Dragons

In Progress

Musing Monday: August 6, 2018

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Musing Mondays is a weekly meme, hosted by Ambrosia at The Purple Booker, that asks you to choose one of the following prompts to answer:

I’m currently reading…
Up next I think I’ll read…
I bought the following book(s) in the past week…
I’m super excited to tell you about (book/author/bookish-news)…
I’m really upset by (book/author/bookish-news)…
I can’t wait to get a copy of…
I wish I could read ____, but…
I blogged about ____ this past week…

THIS WEEK’S RANDOM QUESTION: Have you ever had an argument over a book?

I’m currently reading… So many books lol
I’m still occasionally reading chapters of Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell, but not as much as I ought to be. Then there’s The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen which I started as part of my Dessen Reread then realized I needed a break from YA Contemporary. With my friend Ono I am reading They Never Came Back (Caroline B. Cooney) so that one will take a little while since we are going a few chapters at a time. There’s a similar situation with Neil Gaiman’s Coraline, since my mother wanted to read it with me and stopped me at chapter 3. Mainly I’m reading Searching for Dragons, the second novel in Patricia C. Wrede’s Enchanted Forest Chronicles. I’m loving it almost as much as the first one so I’ll probably move on to the third one soon.

Have you ever had an argument over a book?
I can’t really think of one? I mean, I have had a few men try to “teach” me about the classics and such and those conversations certainly had the antagonistic feeling of arguments, but they weren’t really. I guess the readers I know are pretty laid back.

The closest I’ve come to a real argument, I guess, was convincing my mother to let me read Harry Potter in middle school. She was afraid it would make me turn to witchcraft or something because some church ladies told her inaccurate things about the series.

Which book should I creep myself out with today?

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I was talking to my husband about the two books I am considering reading next and suddenly realized they are both really similar despite being not at all similar…?

Like my options are Locked in Time by Lois Duncan or Coraline by Neil Gaiman.

So basically: girl moves into a new house and weird, creepy shit happens OR girl moves into a new house and weird, creepy shit happens…

Also they both feature maternal figures as villains.

DID I MENTION I JUST MOVED INTO A NEW HOUSE WHICH I OFTEN STAY IN COMPLETELY ALONE OVERNIGHT???/