Text and Java

  I've been slacking in the old decorating department (never my strong suit). I think I had my Historical Reads display up for  *hides face in shame* a few months.  So, in honor of National Poetry Month, my BFF came up with this great idea, which I promptly "stole with permission". The banner reads "April is National Poetry Month" and it was a pain to make. I used the Ellison to cut letters and Publisher to create patterned triangles. Unfortunately, the backs of the triangles are book pages ripped from a book that happened to feature at least one curse work per page. Not that I think anyone is going to read the back of my banner-but just in case, I sat with a pencil and scribbled out the dirty words like a boss. The books on display are flagged with charming bookmarks I whipped up. The Insta-Poem is a pizza pan (the only magnetic sheet we had at home), some magnetic poetry printed on magnetic paper and cut out, and the bottom of...

We All Looked Up By Tommy Wallach 3 out of 5 stars This one has been on the To-read list for a long time, and it finally came into the library and I was the first to check it out. I wanted to love it. I liked it, but I didn't love it. It could be that I am just so OVER end of the world stuff, but read this anyway. I have this classification system in my mind for dystopian books: before the event, during the event, immediately after the event (up to two generations), and way after the event (three generations and more removed). Sometime a book straddles the line, like The Stand. We All Looked Up is in the "before the event" category. The first half of the book had me really interested. I was invested in the characters, I was on board with the coming event (although I would have liked to have seen more about how the government was handling it), and I liked the set time frame....

Shutter By: Courtney Alamdea Rating: 4 out of 5 stars Challenge: DAC 2015 YA horror is tricky. Actually, the horror genre is tricky. What is truly scary to one person is laughable to another. Shutter is different. It's actually good, but in addition to that it's exciting. Shutter reminded me of Vampire Academy (hunting in teams), Rot and Ruin (excellent world building), and Die Hard (a little bit). Here's the thing, just read it and ride the adventure out. The plot twist is visible from miles away, Micheline presses her fingernails into her palms way too many times, and there's a priest out there with a prayer that was only important in one chapter...but hey. These are little things. Overall, its a thrilling read with lots and lots of spooky imagery. It's a good read and you don't have to wait to October to read it.