Parable of the Sower

Title: Parable of the Sower
Author: Octavia E. Butler
Publisher:  Open Road
ISBN: n/a

Why Read?: Book Club

Thoughts: The first part was so slow that I had a hard time getting into it.  The second part went much faster, redeeming the novel.

Rating: 3/5

Death by Probability

Title: Death by Probability
Author: Urno Barthel
Publisher:  Outskirts
ISBN: 978-1-4787-2278-6

Why Read?: First Reads

Thoughts: The premise had great promise, but many parts dragged and the denouement seemed out of left field. 

Rating: 2/5

My Soul Looks Back

Title: My Soul Looks Back
Author: Jessica B. Harris
Publisher:  Scribner
ISBN: 978-1-5011-2590-4

Why Read?: For Fun

Thoughts: I'll admit I've never heard of the food writer Jessica B. Harris, but her memoir is full of stories of hanging out with notable African American literati from the 1970s on.  Not only are her stories fascinating, her prose is beautiful.

Rating: 5/5

Stacking the Shelves: 8/20-8/26

For possible review (on Bookloons):

Light Years by Emily Ziff Griffin

The Dam Keeper by Robert Kondo & Dice Tsutsumi

A Short History of the Girl Next Door by Jared Reck

First Reads from Goodreads:

Before I Knew by Jamie Beck

Stacking the Shelves: 8/13-8/19

For review (on Bookloons):

Wild Bird by Wendelin Van Draanen

Warbringer by  Leigh Bardugo

Gone Camping

Title: Gone Camping
Author: Tamera Will Wissinger
Publisher:  Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 978-0-544-63873-0

Why Read?: For Fun

Thoughts: Cute, quick story about going camping told entirely in poems, with a great appendix about the forms of poetry.

Rating: 4/5

Journey on a Runaway Train

Title: Journey on a Runaway Train
Author: Dee Garretson & JM Lee
Publisher:  Albert Whitman

ISBN: 978-0-8075-0695-0

Why Read?: For Fun

Thoughts: It has been a long time since I read any Boxcar Children books, but the start to this new mini-series is rather fun, although there were a few spots where it felt like something important was edited out then had to be told rather than shown.

Rating: 2/5