Bazan Librarians Review...

At the end of March, our Bad Girls Book Club was supposed to meet and discuss Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert. Due to the crisis, our library, like many are closed to the public and our events were canceled. I’m lucky to be friends with members of our book group outside of work and because of that our book club is still going! We are now meeting online. Recently we gathered to talk about Get a Life, Chloe Brown, FINALLY! and I am so glad that the group liked it, myself included. *Minor Spoilers* It was a really great read and funny.  It brought some laughter and sexiness into the lives of the readers which is totally needed and appreciated during this time. The heroine is Chloe Brown, yes that Chloe Brown from the title who nearly gets hit by a car that crashes into a building. She was feet away from it when it happened and was not injured. If time had not on her side, she could have been hit. This changes her perspective on things. Miss. Chloe is not satisfied with ...

My  quarantine  reading adventure continues.  The young adult novel  Geekerella  by  Ashley Poston   is a modern- nerd culture  spin o f  the old fairy t ale  Cinderella (in case you didn’t  get  it).  I thoroughly enjoyed this book  and personally, I’m a huge fan of  retellings  in addition to being a huge romance  lover .  In this retelling, we meet  Elle  Wittimer ,  and in her universe, she eats and breath e s the world of  Starfield,   a sci-fi television show that she grew up watching with her father.    Just like in Cinderella,  Ella’s  father is no longer alive and she lives in her parent's home  with a super wicked step-mother ,   and twin step-sisters  who  b ully  her  and  emotionally abuse he r . Elle is outcasted  from  her family  at home  and in life  amongst her pee...

I remember ordering this book for my library shelves last year when it was released.  My coworker had suggested for me to read it because it's about gaming and I love video games.  I finally downloaded it as an ebook and e-audiobook.  E-audiobook to listen while I work or work around the house and ebook to read before going to bed. I really enjoyed listening to the e-audiobook.  The voice actors where perfect for each character. And it is great to hear Kiera, Claire, and a couple of auxiliary character's voices read their respective passages. The book is mainly told through Kiera who is an honors student at Jefferson Academy.  She is one of only a handful of black students at her school who is dating Malcolm, another black student who does not want to fall into black stereotypes.  This is not a love story even though Kiera has a boyfriend.  This is a story about identity, friendship, escapism, and gaming. The story quickly turns into suspense w...

A couple of friends had recommended reading this book so I picked it up last week and finished reading it on Friday.  Don't let my time spent reading the book fool you.  This is a novel written in verse and readers can easily finish reading in a day! This book hit a little too close to home.  Our main character, Xiomara, who goes by the alias X, faces a real challenge which most teenagers experience, and that is communication.  Sure, any one who reads this story will list many others that Xiomara undergoes but none is greater than family communication.  As the reader becomes invested in Xiomara, the reader realizes that while X lives in a compact apartment unit being able to eavesdrop on her parent's conversations through the apartment's thin walls, and watching her family routinely watch tv, pray, or text, we begin to notice that Xiomara does not know her family as well as she believes, and vice versa. What made me fall in love with her characte...

  “Caterpillar Summer” by Gillian McDunn This is a touching story of a mother and her two children Cat (11yrs old) and her brother Chicken (7 yrs. old). Their father died when they were little. So, Cat had to take care of her brother a lot. They had been planning a three-week summer vacation to visit some friends that lived in Atlanta. The mother had some work there to do. So, once they arrived in Atlanta the vacation plans had changed the family that they were visiting had to go out of country. So, their mother had to make a quick decision where to take the children to stay because she had to do some work in Atlanta, and she could not leave the kids by themselves. The children are force to go stay with the grandparents in North Carolina on an island who they had never seen or knew about them. Their mother and her father had not talk to each other during all this time. During this time, the children bonded with their grandparents and fell in love with them. Cat began to wonde...

    The Strangers” by Margaret Peterson Haddix. The story is all about adventures, plots, and mysteries. This story involves three children and their mother. The children names are Chess, Emma, and Finn. The story starts out where the mother is in the kitchen on her laptop and the kids come in and find their mother in a daze. The kids hear a voice saying that three kids in Arizona had been kidnapped. The strange thing about it the kids in some way had the same names as Chess, Emma, and Finn. And what made it stranger they all had the same birthdays. Mom tells the kids that she must go out of town to do some work and they will be staying with a lady that they do not even know. As the story goes the kids find that the mother is into something that she might not know how to handle the situation. With the help of the daughter of the lady that is watching them the kids set off to find their mother. They find their mother’s phone with pre-recorded messages to the kids as well ...

OMG! If you are a fan of Queer Eye you totally must read this book! Even if you aren’t a fan or have never seen the show...I repeat, I REPEAT! YOU TOTALLY MUST READ THIS BOOK! You know I am serious because I just wrote that in ALL caps, so I mean business. This book really is a raw journey. I have been a fan of Jonathan Van Ness since I started binge-watching Queer Eye last summer. I was late to the Queer Eye game. Although I love all the fab five, Jonathan sticks out like a glittered and glamourous sore thumb. If you have watched the show, then you know what I mean! On the show, Jonathan’s expertise is grooming. He is the hairdresser and skin expert. He is known for his empowering and uplifting attitude. You can visibly see the self-esteem lifted on the faces and shoulders of the people that he helps on Queer Eye as he shows them one on one TLC. He radiates self-love and self-care. However, that was not always the case. The book lives up to the title because he truly does take you ...

Recently I read Fat by author Sara Wylde which is the first of the Labels series. Claire is a business owner of a clothing line called Chubbalicious (a plus size clothing line). Claire is independent and lives with her best friend Kieran, a male entertainer at the hottest club in town and who goes by the name Finn McCool. The story starts off with the heroine Claire Howard being told, “You’re pretty, for a fat girl” by a coworker of Kieran’s. This scene sets the reader up for the emotional adventure, and a great read for those that can relate to Claire's story and know what it’s like to be fat. Claire, is confident and doesn't care what others think of her. Since we are in Claire’s POV and inner dialog, we get a closer look at the struggle she has had growing up being fat and how that has followed her through adulthood. If there is one thing Claire does not struggle with, it’s getting the attention of men, including that of her roommate and best friend Kieran and his cowo...