The Sunday Post #380

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The Sunday Post is a chance to recap the past week, talk about next week, tell you what I’m reading, and share news. It’s hosted by The Caffeinated Book Reviewer, Readerbuzz, and Book Date.

The Sunday Post

On The Blog Recently

• Best January - June 2025 Book Releases
• 2024 Reading Statistics
• I Read 200+ "Best Books Of 2024" Lists
• Best January - June Books For Teens & Tweens
• What Is Literary Fiction? + Book Recommendations

In My Reading Life

I had a spectacular reading week. I enjoyed all of these.

I read The Song Of Orphan's Garden by Nicole M. Hewitt. It's a middle grade fantasy novel-in-verse about three kids who are all looking for the same garden. They live in a world where it's always winter, but the gardens are warm and full of food. They provide relief from the snow and ice. Unfortunately, they're guarded by giants who make the humans pay an entry fee.

Two of the characters are humans. The third is a giant. When the three of them meet in an unguarded garden, they have to put their differences aside and work together to save the dying garden.

There is so much to love about this book! My favorite element is the imagery. I like the idea of summer islands in an ocean of winter.

I like that we get to see both sides of the human/giant conflict. The characters have valid reasons to be angry at each other. They also have legends about how the other side wronged them. As the story progresses, the kids learn that legends might not be true, and that saving the world requires you to work with your "enemies." We only have one planet. We're all in this together.

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. It's a quick, sweet read with loveable characters.

Then I read I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us And A Grander View Of Life by Ed Yong. I spend more time than I'd like to admit thinking about "bad" microbes. I don't give much thought to the others. This book is about the others!

Have you ever been curious about the microbes that live on (and in) you? Why are they there? What do they do? It turns out that they kind of do everything. They make up part of your immune system and help you digest food. They can even influence your behavior. Humans aren't the only ones who rely on microbes to stay healthy. Microbes are in plants, animals, dirt, and the air we breathe. Everything is an ecosystem.

For a biology book, it's extremely accessible. You don't have to Google anything to decipher what the author is yapping about. He talks about a wide variety of fascinating microbes and what they do for the humans and animals they have colonized.

I like the author's honesty about microbe science. There is so much we don't know. He talks about the research currently being done, but there are no conclusions in this book. The author will spark your curiosity and then give you no answers. If you're okay with that, I highly recommend this book. It's the most interesting thing I've read in a long time.

Then I read Where The Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls. When I was a kid, I loved the author's other book, Summer Of The Monkeys. I somehow missed Where The Red Fern Grows.

I was surprised at how similar the author's two books are. One has dogs. The other has monkeys. The characters, settings, and plots are pretty much identical. I guess if it's not broke, don't fix it. Just swap some critters around.

You know the plot of Where The Red Fern Grows, right? A boy in the Ozark Mountains wants to hunt raccoons, but he needs dogs to accomplish his mission. After saving money for years, he buys two hounds. The dogs are so good at their jobs that they become legendary in the Ozarks. Then something bad happens. The dogs die at the end.

I didn't expect such detailed descriptions of raccoon hunting in a children's book. Maybe I just didn't understand how raccoon hunting works. I assumed the dogs treed the coon, and the hunter shot it out of the tree. The kid doesn't have a gun, so he chops down the tree and lets his dogs tear the coon apart. I don't understand how he sells the raccoon pelt after that. Don't the dogs destroy it? I don't know. I'm not a hunter. I've just yanked a few dead squirrels out of my own dogs' mouths. I don't see how anyone would want the squirrel after that.

I would have loved this book as a kid because it's full of danger, adventure, and determined characters. As an adult, I found it repetitive and predictable. I think that's because the author tells the story like it's a tall tale. Even the title is a reference to a legend. The dogs are super dogs that always succeed. Everything goes right for them. Well . . . it goes right for them until the end.

The "tall tale" writing style sucks the suspense out of the story because you know the dogs are going to win.

Actually, I changed my mind. Maybe it's realistic that the dogs always win. Children think about their dogs in legendary ways. My childhood dog was a super dog that could accomplish anything.

Well . . . he could accomplish anything until the end.

Me and my childhood dog, dressed as freakin' fabulous Titanic passengers.

In The Rest Of My Life

Five things that made me happy last week:

1. I'm slowly getting rid of everything I own. I cleaned out the bathroom cabinets and decided that I hate makeup and hair products. Almost all of them went in the trash. I'm in my swamp hag era. The world will have to cope with it.
2. I guess I'm an EMT now? An EMT swamp hag? All my diplomas, certificates, patches, etc. showed up in the mail. 
3. I did not eat doughnuts. I'm still doing the 75 Hard Challenge. I'm on day 21. For 75 days, I'm giving up junk food, exercising 90 minutes a day, and drinking a US gallon of water a day. My mom bought doughnuts. I was brave and did not eat them.
4. The water-drinking part of the challenge has gotten easier. The water isn't making me bloated anymore. I still have to pee literally always. I'm not seeing the benefit of drinking a gallon of water a day, but it has gotten significantly less unpleasant.
5. I made a Skunkumentary. Here are the animals that visited my yard in the last few months. It's winter, so they're fluffy!

Will You Be My (Platonic) Valentine?

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Take care of yourselves and be kind to each other. See you around the blogosphere!