Merry Misfits Book Club August: Harriet Tubman, Secret Agent by Thomas B. Allen

We're going to stick a pin in the fact that it's nearly the end of September and I'm only just finishing one of my August books.  I do not plan on addressing it later, lol... y'all already know.  I just had to mention it.  I know.  I'm sorry.  Anyways, the theme was non-fiction.  Nice and broad, easy to pick something interesting.  I saw this book, Harriet Tubman, Secret Agent: How Daring Slaves and Free Blacks Spied for the Union During the Civil War, and thought it looked really interesting. 

I liked this book quite a lot.  Short, well researched, interesting.  It's obviously a very important period of American history, so I was happy to see an honest but entertaining children's book about it.  Obviously it doesn't give completely in depth information about the events or about any of the historical figures it discusses, but it's a good introduction to the period... and it will hopefully inspire a young reader and budding history nerd to do further reading and research.  It would have for me as a kid.  But as it is, this book is informative and easy to digest.

Here's my Goodreads review.  Obligatory reminder that you can and should follow me there, lol.

I read this book between September 7th and September 21st.  Wouldn't have taken that long if I had had more time to dedicate to it.  I'd call it a fast read.

Would I recommend this book?  Sure, especially for someone who likes history... or someone who wants to like history but doesn't have a lot of background info yet.

Merry Misfits Book Club July: Sailor Moon Eternal Edition Vol. 4

So I didn't quite finish on time, but I was a lot closer this month than the last few, lol.  The theme for July was a sequel... which was great for me, because I've been reading these new translations of Naoko Takeuchi's Sailor Moon manga as soon as the library gets them in.  The most recent is  the fourth volume.

The fourth volume of Sailor Moon continues where the third left off.  Chibi-Usa is staying with Usagi and they're still learning to get to know one another.  I've been enjoying them very much... I unfortunately can't go into many details about this volume because I finished reading it a while ago and have since taken it back to the library.  Also spoilers, lol.  But as for the merits of the book, which I can go into, the art is gorgeous (especially the colorized pages) and the translation is really nice and reads very naturally.  I have the next volume here and I can't wait to read it!

Here's my goodreads review.

I read this book between July 24th and August 3rd (yes, over a month ago... see my previous post for an apology/explanation).

Would I recommend this book?  Do you love Sailor Moon and have you read the previous volumes?  If so, yes!  If not, maybe watch the anime and decide if you like the story enough to read the anime... and if so, start with volume 1.

where have i been?

I've been so busy with work, and when I wasn't at work I was too tired and/or depressed to write on this blog... my apologies.  This is why I didn't write about my second July book (despite finishing the book and beginning the post a waaaay long time ago) or even begin my first August book until yesterday (September 7th...).  They were basically requiring a bunch of overtime from all the employees, and that may well continue (or even get worse) with the coming new product releases.  So I just didn't have the mental energy for anything else, and I was basically miserable.  But hopefully these coming few days, at least, will be less... chaotic.  I'm. going to try and get the July book post up today and get some reading done on the first August book.  I may end up being behind on this reading challenge for the rest of the year... but I WILL finish.  And I'm going to try and do more "life" related posts too, since that's been a goal.  Ideally I'd post once a week at least on life things -- what I'm feeling, what I'm up to, maybe even a little creative writing from time to time -- and then the two book posts.  I might also post about hobbies or what have you.  I want the blog to be a snapshot of my life, and I think it's a good outlet... so I shouldn't just leave it until I'm like rushing out a book post.