What I Read On My Winter Vacation

I came back yesterday from a wonderful week in the Bahamas with my family and our close family friends.  And, as has become a tradition on the blog, I'm going to share with you what I read while we were on vacation!

Me reading poolside

So, here are the books I read while on vacation:

Geekarella by Ashley Poston - This young adult novel is a modern spin on the Cinderella story with a sci-fi geek/fan girl twist.  Elle is a teenager who lives with her mean stepmother and stepsisters, and is obsessed with (fictional) old science fiction tv show Starfield, which her dead parents were huge fans of as well. Darien, the other main character, is the young actor who has been cast as the main character for a new movie version of Starfield, which Elle is very skeptical of - yet not knowing each other’s real identities, they end up texting each other.  Just a fun, cute read, perfect for vacation.  4 stars.

China Rich Girlfriend by Kevin Kwan - This is the sequel to "Crazy Rich Asians."  I read Crazy Rich Asians almost a year ago and I thought it was okay, but not great - entertaining but way too many characters and way too many footnotes.  Plus, because so many people loved it, I spent much of the book wondering why I wasn't loving it like everyone else did.  So, initially I wasn't even going to read the sequel.  However, I saw the movie adaptation in the fall and I loved it - the rare book that was better as a movie!  So, I decided I would continue reading the series after all.  And my friend Ellen whose family we were vacationing with had decided the same thing, so we both decided to read it together while on the trip.  And I actually enjoyed the second book more than the first.  It still has some of the same problems as the first book - including the fact that Rachel is even less of a main character in this one which could make the movie adaptation difficult.  However, I was able to just let go and enjoy the fluffy, funny satire (or I think it's satire) of the ultra-rich of Asia, this time set mostly in China rather than Singapore.  I'd give this one 3.5 stars.  So, still not a must read but I will eventually read the third one.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor - After doing a joint read with Ellen, I moved on to do a joint read with my daughter Allison, as we tackled the first book of this young adult trilogy.  In this book, the main character is a teenage girl who lives in our world, but has been raised by chimaera, who are some kind of demons/monsters, then we eventually find out there are also seraphs/angels. It started out really really slow, then got somewhat interesting, and at least was somewhat original.  But overall a meh kind of book; I don’t think I’ll bother with the sequels.  2.5 stars.

Unmarriageable by Soniah Kamal  - I started this book at the airport and on the airplane on the way home, but haven't gotten very far with it yet.  It's a take on "Pride and Prejudice," set in modern day Pakistan, and is one of the books I mentioned in my post on anticipated books of 2019.  Not in a position to rate it yet, but so far it's cute and funny.

And, since my whole family are readers, I'm sure you want to hear what they are reading too!

Dan started with a long science fiction novel, Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky.  He couldn't put it down and said it was a 5 star book for sure, so I will definitely be checking it out soon.  After that, on my recommendation, he started reading What You Don't Know About Charlie Outlaw by Leah Stewart, a 5 star book for me last year and one of my top 10 books of 2018.

My 14 year old daughter Allison began vacation reading a big fat young adult fantasy novel, Graceling by Kristen Cashore which she had started reading at home.  I read it all the way back in 2010 and loved it, but she was more mediocre on it.  She then read My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult, which she absolutely loved - it was her first Jodi Picoult book but I think she'll be reading more.  Then, as I mentioned above, we both started Daughter of Smoke and Bone.  She hasn't finished yet, but I think if anything she will like it even less than I did.

10 year old Jonah is not usually a huge reader at home, but he loves to read on vacation, and was especially obsessed with reading on this trip!  He didn't even watch tv while we were in the room!  So he read a ton of books - Who is Bill Gates, The Surprise Attack of Jabba the Puppett by Tom Angleberger, The Losers Club by Andrew Clements, Bomb by Steve Sheinken, From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsberg, and Mission Unstoppable by Dan Gutman.  Plus he started How to Seize a Dragon's Jewel by Cressida Crowell, the tenth book in the "How To Train Your Dragon" series.  Wow!  If only I could get him to read like this at home!

And, extra bonus, I'll tell you what the family we vacationed with read too!  They are not quite as prolific readers as we are but they like to read too.  Ellen read China Rich Girlfriend by Kevin Kwan as I mentioned above, as well as the book for our next book club, Brain on Fire by Susannah Cahalan.  Ricky read Wool by Hugh Howey (a recommendation by me).  Their daughter Anna read Divergent by Veronica Roth, and their son Aaron read Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library by Chris Grabenstein.