March 20, 2020 • Cee • Comics
The Phantom Twin by Lisa Brown • March 3, 2019 • First Second

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Isabel and Jane are the Extraordinary Peabody Sisters, conjoined twins in a traveling carnival freak show—until an ambitious surgeon tries to separate them and fails, causing Jane’s death. Isabel has lost an arm and a leg but gained a ghostly companion: Her dead twin is now her phantom limb. Haunted, altered, and alone for the first time, can Isabel build a new life that’s truly her own?

myreview

I received this graphic novel for free from First Second for review consideration. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

First sentence: “I wake up afraid to open my eyes.”

Losing a conjoined twin puts a whole different spin on “phantom limb.” But that’s exactly what Isabel feels when she loses Jane; it’s like losing a limb—another part of herself that she feels like Jane’s still there when she isn’t.

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March 14, 2020 • Cee • Reviews

Normal People by Sally Rooney • April 16, 2019 • Hogarth Press
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At school Connell and Marianne pretend not to know each other. He’s popular and well-adjusted, star of the school soccer team while she is lonely, proud, and intensely private. But when Connell comes to pick his mother up from her housekeeping job at Marianne’s house, a strange and indelible connection grows between the two teenagers—one they are determined to conceal.

A year later, they’re both studying at Trinity College in Dublin. Marianne has found her feet in a new social world while Connell hangs at the sidelines, shy and uncertain. Throughout their years in college, Marianne and Connell circle one another, straying toward other people and possibilities but always magnetically, irresistibly drawn back together. Then, as she veers into self-destruction and he begins to search for meaning elsewhere, each must confront how far they are willing to go to save the other.!

myreview

First sentence: “Marianne answers the door when Connell rings the bell.”

It’s a bad sign when you start a book—that everybody you knew was raving about how “dark and gritty” and “psychological” it is—and come out of the first few pages knowing that you won’t like this book and no matter how much you push yourself into reading more, it won’t change your mind. Normal People is that book.

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March 12, 2020 • Cee • Discussion

Hey, don’t mind this belated Music to My (Y)ear post! I’ve been busy listening to more music!

If I was asked to describe what I listened to in 2019, I would say—which is to say I am saying this—I was lulled to sleep by Epik High’s new album, I listened and sang to a few more favorites, I belted Hadestown in the car, danced to KPop faves, and listened to a lot of nostalgia playlists on Spotify.

Here are the albums I listened to. (It is in order of when I listened to them, and the links go to Spotify.)

EPIK HIGH | sleepless in _________

Epik High (Hangul: 에픽하이) is a South Korean alternative hip hop group from Seoul, composed of Tablo, Mithra Jin, and DJ Tukutz. sleepless in __________ is their second extended play album.

I cannot tell you the amount of times I let this album lull me into sleep. I don’t know how this album does it—maybe it’s the beats that pitter patter as if its rain on a rooftop? Maybe it’s the moments of quietness throughout the album like it’s trying to make sense of it and the sad.

Whatever it is, sleepless in __________ has soared into my favorite albums of all time because of how versatile it is. Also, it makes me feel like a cat napping when I listen to it (and it is absolutely not influenced by one of the songs with “cat” in the title. Maybe).

My Fave Songs: In Seoul, Lullaby for a Cat, Eternal Sunshine, No Different (ft. Yuna)

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March 5, 2020 • Cee • Discussion

You ever want to know what people are buying in bookstores? Well, it so happens that I work at one!

During the last week of February 2018, I pondered about what type of post to make for “Books in Hand.” At first, I planned to discuss all the books customers came in asking for or buying, but that’s a bit too much because everybody came in asking for different books, and I didn’t remember all of them. My boss showed me a way to check our store’s best selling books, and I found out what we sold a lot of!

And that’s what this post is—seeing the top ten selling books of February 2020—the brand new year!

FICTION

The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy | There There by Tommy Orange | The Lost Man by Jane Harper | American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins | The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates

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February 26, 2020 • Cee • Reviews

Don’t Check Out This Book! by Kate Klise & M. Sarah Klise • March 10, 2019 •  Algonquin Young Readers
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Is the sweet town of Appleton ripe for scandal?

Consider the facts:

  • Appleton Elementary School has a new librarian named Rita B. Danjerous. (Say it fast.)
  • Principal Noah Memree barely remembers hiring her.
  • Ten-year-old Reid Durr is staying up way too late reading a book from Ms. Danjerous’s controversial “green dot” collection.
  • The new school board president has mandated a student dress code that includes white gloves and bow ties available only at her shop.

Sound strange? Fret not. Appleton’s fifth-grade sleuths are following the money, embracing the punny, and determined to the get to the funniest, most rotten core of their town’s juiciest scandal. Don’t miss this seedy saga!

myreview

I received this book for free from Algonquin Young Readers for review consideration. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

First sentence: Welcome to Appleton, Illinois. Home of the GIant Red Apples. Population: 800 713 620 479 198 83

The sweet town of Appleton has been thrown off its apple crate by a new librarian by the name of Rita B. Danjerous! Rita has quickly become a beloved member of the community bringing amazing books to the students at Appleton’s Elementary School, yet despised by Ivana Beprawpa, the new school board president, for going against the “manners and morals” she desperately want to bring back.

How does this clash of personalities and priorities affect this sweet as apple pie town?

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February 5, 2020 • Cee • Discussion

You ever want to know what people are buying in bookstores? Well, it so happens that I work at one! During the last week of February 2018, I pondered about what type of post to make for “Books in Hand.” At first, I planned to discuss all the books customers came in asking for or buying, but that’s a bit too much because everybody came in asking for different books, and I didn’t remember all of them. My boss showed me a way to check our store’s best selling books, and I found out what we sold a lot of! And that’s what this post is—seeing the top ten selling books of January 2020—the brand new year! 

FICTION

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho | Little Women by Louisa May Alcott | There There by Tommy Orange | Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng | American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins

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