A very, very long time since I posted — as I explained in my last post, I’ve had many technical difficulties. But now I’m back, and I’m determined to FINISH what I started with my 2021 mini book reviews! There are still so many to get to, and I have really missed sharing them! Picking up where we left off so many months ago, here are five more mini reviews.

I read this one because we were staying at my in-laws’ house while our apartment was being repaired after it flooded, and we were staying in my sister-in-law’s room, and she had this on her shelf. I love the movie, and I’ve heard the book was unique and interesting, so I read it.

It was indeed unique — I’m not a fan of graphic novels in general but the way that art and narrative were combined to form this story was really engaging. I read through it in an afternoon, and I enjoyed it. I also think they did a really good job capturing it in the movie adaptation, and it made me want to watch the movie again. (Which I still haven’t a year and a half later… maybe sometime soon though!)

I had read and enjoyed a few of Liane Moriarty’s books before I got to this one, and since my best friend hadn’t yet read this one either we decided to read it together and discuss it.

I thought it was just okay. Her insight into people and the way they see each other was good, as usual, and some of the twists and turns of the story really did pull me in. But overall the plot just didn’t really do much for me, plus I really just could not get past the hypocritical attitude towards adultery in one particular storyline.

I’m going to be honest and admit I really barely remember this book at all. It was the third in the Christian romance trilogy my neighbor lent me, and it was after reading this one that I decided I had made a sufficiently valiant effort to read her books and I returned the rest unread with a thank you.

I did appreciate the Christian bent and morals, and some of it was okay — I did enjoy that the couples from the previous books make appearances as now happily married couples. But Christian romance (and romance in general) just isn’t my genre. Plus the supernatural stuff just got even weirder and more pervasive in this book. Just not really my cup of tea.

Another excellent installment in the series. Again, not much to say about such a classic — I appreciate, as I mentioned before, how the series grows along with Laura. This is no longer a story about a little girl, but a young lady, and we’ve gotten to be along for the journey. Now we get to see the child who received a doll for Christmas in the Big Woods taking responsibility to help her family and even begin to receive attention from young men.

(And… doing this just made me realize that while I definitely read The Long Winter, somehow it didn’t make it onto my Goodreads list. It was a hectic time. But I guess that means I actually read 66 books rather than 65!)

I have very vivid memories of my mom giving me this book to read when I was a child and me declaring after one look at the cover that I didn’t want to read it. It did not look exciting at all to a girl of six or seven who was mostly interested in playing outside! But I did read it and even back then I liked it.

The whole series really just transports you to life in another time, a time where they had it so much harder than we do today in so many ways, and yet in so many ways things have not really changed at all. This book is an endearing picture of simple, sweet romance on the prairie and the establishment of Laura’s very own household.

So there’s five (or six) more mini reviews, finally! Hopefully they were worth the wait — and also be assured, there are plenty more where that came from. I still have another 45 books to give y’all my opinions on… as always, please let me know if you’ve read any of these and if so what you thought!