TTT: Hand Lettering on Covers

Top Ten Tuesday: Books with Hand Lettering on the Covers

This task was way easier than I anticipated. I simply asked the internet to show me covers with hand lettering. Goodreads already had a list. All I had to do was choose the first ten on that list which I've already read. Here you are ---

Room / Donoghue

The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse / Mackesy

Burial Rites / Kent

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society / Shaffer and Barrows

One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot / Cronin

The Goldfinch / Tartt

The Fault In Our Stars / Green

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe / Sáenz

Code Name Verity / Wein

The 57 Bus / Slater

I love this one so much I thought I'd give you a bigger version to admire.

-Anne

Review: TODAY WE GO HOME (+Friday56 LinkUp)

Title: Today We Go Home by Kelli Estes

Book Beginnings/First Line Friday quote:

April 16, 1861: Wilson Family Farm, Stampers Creek, Indiana

The sounds of gunshots echoes across the field, each one making Emily clench her teeth tighter together until her jaw ached.

Friday56 quote:

Present Day: Woodinville, Washington

The moment Larkin climbed out of her car at Gram's house she was met with a wall of sensation. (p.47)

Summary: Larkin is home from her second tour with the Army in Afghanistan with a bad case of PTSD.  The firefight which killed her best friend, Sarah, was the cause of return home and now she is left to pick up the pieces and deal with the devil in her head alone as she convalesces at her Gram's home in Washington State. One day she goes through Sarah's things in left behind in a storage unit, Larkin finds an old journal which belonged to a woman named Emily. In the journal Emily recounts her story of disguising herself as a man so she could fight alongside her brother in the Civil War.

Review: Today We Go Home was a our book club selection this month. During our discussion, which focused a lot on females in the military, we all agreed that the topics -- women in combat roles; PTSD in returning female combatants; women disguising themselves as males to serve in the military -- were ones we hadn't read much, if anything, about. The topics led to a lively and interesting discussion. (See discussion questions here.) The whole evening helped me refocus my feelings about the book, for which I was grateful.

Prior to the meeting I was afraid I'd be alone in saying I didn't particularly like the book. I liked the idea of the book but not the execution of it. It seemed over-written and too long. The characters had deep flaws and it took forever for them to get to the point where they could take a look at what was holding them back. Larkin was a tough, gritty, unlikeable character especially. In the notes at the end of the book, the author said during her research she learned about how many women likely disguised themselves as men to fight in the Civil War and for what reasons. She also highlighted what would happen to these women when they were found out. Then she made her character Emily run through or past all those reasons/situations. Ugh. Too much. 

That said, by the end I was satisfied. Both Larkin and Emily made some growth and were moving in the right direction. We had a fabulous club discussion and had delicious blueberry/peach cobbler for dessert afterwards. It wasn't a total bust!

My rating: 2.75 stars.

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Sign up for The Friday56 on the Inlinkz below. 

RULES:

*Grab a book, any book

*Turn to page 56 or 56% in your e-reader (If you want to improvise, go ahead!)

*Find a snippet, but no spoilers!

*Post it to your blog and add your url to the Linky below. If you do not add the specific url for your post, we may miss it! 

*Visit other blogs and leave comments about their snippets. Expand the community. Please leave a comment for me, too!  

Also visit Book Beginnings on Friday hosted by Rose City Reader and First Line Friday hosted by Reading is My Super Power to share the beginning quote from your book.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

-Anne

TTT: Books I Can't Believe I've Never Read

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Can't Believe I've Never Read

There are so many books I want to read, meant to read, know I should read. But there are also those new books which like to shove the old books on the shelf and call for my attention. Here are a few books I really, really want to read and must make a top priority:

1. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy.

I bought the book when I was in 7th grade at a Scholastic Book Fair. I still own and have been carting it around with me for sixty years. This goes to the top of the list.

2. Dracula by Bram Stoker.

Years ago when I was a newbie blogger I won a prize which was a CD-Audiobook of Dracula. At the time I still listened to audiobook CDs in my car when I drove to work. I should have listened to it right away because now I don't have a CD-player anymore and so the set is obsolete to me. I'm sure I can get it on Libby from my library. Another book I need to wipe off my list soon.

3. Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes.

I am still working away on my original Classics Club list. The original 50 books somehow morphed into a list of 180 books. I've chipped away at that list for years and am now down to under 30 remaining titles. I am not allowing myself to add any new books to it until I have completed the dang thing. Don Quixote has scared me for years so I have put off reading it. Last year I bought a paperback copy of it thinking I would read it if I owned a copy. It hasn't happened yet. 

4. The Complete Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Another book I own, purchased at a used book store no longer in business. I read A Study in Scarlet a few years back, which was the introduction of Sherlock Holmes to the world, and I wasn't as entralled as I expected to be, so I keep passing over this one. 

5. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway.

I made a halfhearted promise to myself that I would read this classic this year since it is 100 years old, published in 1926. Well, the year is almost half over and I still haven't read it or made plans to do so.

6. A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry.

Years ago. Let's say 30 years ago, everyone was reading this book and my mother, a rabid reader, raved about it. Everytime we were together she would talk about this or that related to the book. Somehow I ended up with a copy of it and I've been moving it around from room to room ever since, never even cracking it open. Why do I do that, keep books for such a long time without reading them? Clearly this book screams out to me all the time, "Read me! Read me!"

7. White Teeth by Zadie Smith.

I read 100 pages of this modern classic, set it aside, and never got back to it. Now it keeps showing up in "best books" lists and I know I should go back and try again.

8. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

Another book that has been on my TRB forever.

9. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl.

This children's classic is well known because of the movies but I've never read the actual book.

10. Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros.

A few years ago I purchased the audio version of this popular book. I've never listened to it. In fact, I forgot all about it until I was messing around with my Audible account and noticed it just the other day.