Last monthly wrap up of 2017. So many DNFs.....

Challenges

BL/GR: 166/150 Complete!

Pop Sugar: 52/52 Complete!

Library Love: 2; 54/36 Complete!

16 Tasks: 32 points total

Books Read:

1. Saga Volumes 2-4 by Brian K. Vaughn and Fiona Staples - 4 stars to each volume

2. Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterley - 5 stars (Recommend especially to the Flat Earth Society reading group, but I am going to be recommending this book to EVERY DAMN BODY in 2018)

3. Let Us Dream (from the anthology Daughters of a Nation) by Alyssa Cole - 2.5 stars

4. Bloom: Finding Beauty in the Unexpected by Kelle Hampton - 0 stars

5. Selected Poems of Langston Hughes by Langston Hughes - 2 stars

6. American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang - 3.5 stars

7. I Know What I Am, But What Are You? by Samantha Bee - 3 stars

8. Bad Feminist: Essays by Roxanne Gay - 4 stars

Books Re-Read:

9. Saga Volume 1 by Brian K. Vaughn and Fiona Staples

Currently Reading: Beyond Belief: My Life Inside Scientology and My Harrowing Escape by Jenna Miscavige Hill (50% completed)

• Recommend by Librarian - Maus I: My Father Bleeds History by Art Spieglman 
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• On TBR Long Time - Polio: An American Story by David M. Oshinsky 
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• Book of Letters - With Every Letter (Wings of the Nightingale #1) by Sarah Sundin 
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• Audiobook - Dad is Fat by Jim Gaffigan 
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• POC Author - The Sweetest Thing (Just Desserts #1) by D.F. Mello
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• 1 of 4 Seasons in Title - A Wedding in Springtime (Marriage Mart #1) by Amanda Forester
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• Story within a Story - Maus II: And Here My Troubles Began by Art Spieglman
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• Multiple Authors  - Weddings Under a Western Sky (Anthology)
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• Espionage Thriller - Dangerous Allies (WWII Book 1) by Renee Ryan
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• Cat on the Cover - Cat Trick (A Magical Cats Mystery #4) by Sofie Kelly
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• Author Pen Name - Apprentice in Death (..In Death #43) by J.D. Robb
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• Genre Not Normally Read - Antidote for Night by Marsha De La O
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• By/About a Person with a disability - Bloom: Finding Beauty in the Unexpected by Kelle Hampton

Involving Travel - Travel as a Political Act by Rick Steves

1. Subtitle - Fall of Poppies: Stories of Love and the Great War by Various Authors
3. Published in 2017 - Echoes in Death (...In Death #44) by J.D. Robb
5. Mythical Creature - Midnight Unbound (Midnight Breed #14.6) by Lara Adrian
7. Re-read a shelf keeper - Vision Volume 1: Little Worse Than a Man by Tom King
9. Food - Food: A Love Story by Jim Gaffigan
11. Career Advice - Check These Out by Gina Sheridan
13. Non-human Perspective - Vision Volume 2: Little Better Than a Beast by Tom King
15. Steampunk - Monstress, Volume 1: Awakening by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda
17. Red Spine - Falling for the Enemy by Naomi Rawlings
19. Set in Wilderness - A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
21. Loved as a Child - Double Love (Sweet Valley High #1) by Francine Pascal
23. Author from a country you’ve never visited - Wave by Sonali Deraniyagala
25. Title with a character name - A Suitor for Jenny (Rocky Creek #2) by Margaret Brownley
27. War time setting - Battlefield Angels: Saving Lives Under Enemy Fire from Valley Forge to Afghanistan by Scott McGaugh
29. Unreliable Narrator - A Paris Affair by Tatiana de Rosnay
31. Book with Pictures - March: Book Two by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell
33. MC is different ethnicity than you - Craving Temptation (Just Desserts #2) by D.F. Mello
35. Interesting Woman - After the Storm (Kate Burkeholder #7) by Linda Castillo
37. Book with setting in 2 different time periods - The Toymaker by Kay Springsteen
39. Month/Day in title - March Volume 3 by Rep John Lewis et al
41. Set in a hotel - Sleigh Bells in the Snow (O'Neil Brothers #1) by Sarah Morgan
43. By someone you admire - The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama
45. 2017 movie adaptions - Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterley
47. Holiday other than Christmas - Lighting the Flames by Sarah Wendell
49. First Book in Series - Brighton Belle (Mirabelle Bevan Mystery #1) by Sara Sheridan
51. Bought on a trip - The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams
53. Recommended by an author you like - Nothing but Trouble (PJ Sugar #1) by Susan May Warren
55. 2016 Best Seller - The Obsession by Nora Roberts
57. Family member term in title - Not My Father's Son: A Memoir by Alan Cumming
59. Takes place over a character’s lifetime - If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo
61. Genre never heard of - Cyberpunk Tales, Book One: Looking Death in the Eye by A.L. Hunt
63. More than 800 pages - London: The Novel by Edward Rutherfurd
65. UBS find - London Calling (Mirabelle Bevan Mystery #2) by Sara Sheridan
67. Book mentioned in another book - Chaucer's Major Tales by Michael Hoy
69. Difficult topic - The Girls Who Went Away: The Hidden History of Women Who Surrendered Children for Adoption in the Decades Before Roe v. Wade by Ann Fessler

Based on Mythology - The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan and Robert Venditti

About an immigrant or refugee - The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

Book with eccentric character - Double Trouble (PJ Sugar #2) Susan May Warren

I watched the movie back in January and it was great. And then I kept putting off reading the book, even though I earmarked it for the Pop Sugar Challenge prompt. So comes December and I am down to two prompts left and figure now is the time to read it. After finishing, I could have kicked my own butt for waiting so long.

So we have all seen this meme from time to time. Exhibit A to prove this meme true is Hidden Figures. Great if you saw the movie, but the women profiled had much longer careers at NACA/NASA then the movie portrayed and did much more than that one mission. Although my favorite lady in the movie was Katherine Goble Johnson, Dorothy Vaughn won my heart in the book (I thought NASA did her dirty at the end of her career). Shetterly also deftly brings historical context to showcase what these ladies were up against and how they achieved success on their own standards. It was more than Jim Crow; it was the Depression, their own families, WW II, and their colleagues.

I highly recommend this book!

What a load of narcissistic, inspirational porn from a shallow, insecure woman-child. This book wasn't about her relationship with her new daughter and the daughter's diagnosis (Down Syndrome), but her unending whining about how her ideal family life was not made into reality. The author is emotionally and mentally exhausting, and her cabal of enablers (friends, family, husband) just kept her cocooned in her grief. Everything that pertained to her daughter or her condition had to have the author at its core and the author had to have someone hold her hand and do the work for her.

When she did bother to think of her daughter, the writing went into treacle, inspirational porn territory. So many "getting through pain to the beauty" "pain comes with beauty" etc. Vague enough to fit any circumstance, cute enough to write in a cursive font over a picture of a sunset and post to IG to show how "deep" you are. UGH. Every person with DS that she came into contact with was a vessel used by God to show her the beauty in being different. DOUBLE UGH.

Stay away. 0 stars.

I have been meaning to get around to reading Maus but could never find the time or the space to do so. Luckily my library has both books and the book recommendation book by the librarian I had read earlier this month named Maus as a book that all librarians should read/recommend to patrons, and the time and place for reading was now and for the Pop Sugar challenge (each book filled one prompt).

I really liked the stark artwork and how the story was told via mice (Jews), cats (Germans), pigs (Poles), and frogs (French). There are two stories within Maus: the story of Spiegelman's father and mother going through the Holocaust and the story of Spiegelman and his father learning about each other and how to deal with conflict in their relationship. I didn't see any reason for Spiegelman's wife to be in the story in the second book - she didn't have any insight and was used as mainly a back up for when Spiegelman had a fight with his dad. By the end of the story, I think Spiegelman grew close with his dad after knowing what his parents' went through but was not quite at the complete understanding of what that kind of trauma formed the father he knew and the lingering issues that crept up in his life later.