The School Day Book Tag

Happy Thursday! How is your week going? Mine hasn’t been too bad; a lot of end-of-the-month stuff to work on. Like this week’s book tag. I was stumped until I found The School Day Book Tag on Aoife’s blog, Pretty Purple Polka Dots. I think it makes perfect sense as school started earlier this month for most kids.

Shall we go to school together?

Times of Day

First bell: Tell us about the book that first got you into reading!

Growing up, I had a bookshelf in my room that was full of my parents’ books. I read so many of the books multiple times. I remember reading books from the Trixie Belden series and Dr. Kildare Assigned to Trouble the most.

Break time: Which book have you most recently had to take a break from or DNF?

The book I most recently DNF was The Guncle by Steven Rowley. I didn’t hate the book; the subject matter was a bit heavier than I wanted to read at the moment. I’m sure I’ll go back to it; it may take me a while, is all.

Lunch time: Tell us about your favourite book that features food!

I’m going to skip listing cookbooks because they are all about food! Instead, I’m going to go with The Coincidence of Coconut Cake by Amy E. Reichert. The cake on the cover is enough to make my mouth water.

Final bell: Which book have you most recently finished reading?

I just finished The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna. I will be posting my review this weekend.

Homework: What was the last non-fiction book you read and enjoyed?

Two Trees Make a Forest: Travels Among Taiwan’s Mountains & Coasts in Search of My Family’s Past by Jessica J. Lee is a mixture of memoir, history, science, and travel.

Staff room: Tell us about a book you go to when you need to take a breath!

It’s not so much a book I turn to, but a genre. If I’m feeling a bit stressed, I find light-hearted contemporary help. Earlier this year, it was Class Mom by Laurie Gelman that helped me laugh during a tough time.

Subjects

English: Tell us about one book you studied at school AND recommend one book you would like to add to the curriculum!

A book I read in school, and one of the few I enjoyed reading, was To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.

I am not a big believer in forced reading for school. It is the quickest way to turn people off of reading. But a book that I think should be more widely read is We Are Not Free by Traci Chee. It offers a different look at an often-ignored piece of history.

Maths: How do you rate your books?

I don’t have a set formula; it’s more of a gut feeling/reaction to the book. I rarely rate anything at a 1 or 2-star level. If a book is bothering me that much, I’m more likely to DNF it than rate it lowly. If I DNF the book, I will leave a comment stating my reason for the DNF and how far I got into the book. A 3-star book is one that I enjoyed, but it didn’t give me warm fuzzies. For a 4-star rating, the book is near perfection; it gave me warm fuzzies, but something was still missing. A 5-star rating is a book that checked all the boxes, including the warm fuzzies.

Geography: Describe a book that had a strong sense of place or great world building.

So many recent books are good at this., and it’s not just the fantasy books. The Gilded Ones is an excellent example of this. While it’s a fantasy book, it’s easy to understand what is happening and where it’s happening.

PE: Show us the biggest book on your TBR!

At the moment, the biggest book on my TBR is The Rose Code by Kate Quinn. This historical fiction comes in at 624 pages.

Modern Foreign Languages: Recommend a translated book you enjoyed!

The most recent translated book I read was translated from Italian to English. Montalbano’s First Case and Other Stories by Andrea Camilleri is a group of 21 stories about Italy’s most famous detective. It is a collection of short stories, though it is a chunky book (560 pages).

And that brings us to the end of The School Day Book Tag. Have you read any of these? How would you answer these questions?

Looking for some more books to read? Check out my other book reviews and my monthly reading wrap-ups.