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Thursday, February 23, 2017

A Dog's Purpose by W. Bruce Cameron

Finished the book

I was told to read this book with a box of Kleenex. I only actually cried real tears once at the end of the book. With deaths of Bailey and Ellie, I came close. I read in the afterword that Cameron wrote this story for his wife (then girlfriend) after the death of her dog. I am a HUGE fan of dogs. I own three. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has ever loved a pet.

Thursday, February 16, 2017

A Dog's Purpose by W. Bruce Cameron

Interest Level: Young Adult
Reading Level: 7.4
Lexile: 970
Genre: Fiction (Reincarnation, Dogs, Family-life)

Currently on pg. 112

I love how Cameron writes in the third voice as if the dog is speaking. I think he has a great insight as to how a dog might see the human world. When people see what I am reading (yes, I am carrying the book around), they always ask, "It is a sad, right?" So far no tears.


Wednesday, February 8, 2017

Bots Book One: Emergent Behavior by Nicole M. Taylor

Done with the book.

Up until page 105, I was questioning whether this book was too mature for middle school students. Now there is no doubt, I will not be adding this book to the middle school library. I would give this book 3 out of 5 stars because up to this point I found this book well written and interesting but I did not read the entire book. I jumped to the end and read the epilogue. It seems to have an appropriate ending. It was a hard to decide to not read the book in its entirety. I have many more books to read for work and some I would even like to read for pleasure. So, I can not either recommend or not recommend this book at this time.

Monday, February 6, 2017

Bots Book One: Emergent Behavior by Nicole M. Taylor

Interest level: Young Adult
Reading Level: 5.5
Lexile: 860
Genre: Science Fiction

Currently on pg. 27, chapter 2

The back cover of the book reads "Edmond West is about to save the world. The robotics genius has developed a plan to create the world's first Artificial Intelligence truly indistinguishable from a human being. His Bots will eradicate global slavery and allow humanity to channel dark impulses safely, harming only soulless machines. When his work attracts the attention of the US Army, a brighter future seems to be just around the corner. Edmond's greatest success, however, may also be his undoing. In Hart, he's created the perfect humanoid robot: intuitive, emotive...and completely unpredictable."  I grabbed this book because it was marketed as a high interest low level reading. We shall see.

My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry by Fredrik Backman

Being a middle school librarian, I primarily read young adult fiction. This book was at first a bit confusing, not as easy to follow as a young adult plot. The parallel story-lines of Elsa and her grandmother and then the story-line of the Land-of-Almost-Awake were at first odd and unrelated. As the story progresses, the reader realizes that the grandmother uses the tales of the Land-of-Almost-Awake to tell her young granddaughter, Elsa, about the real world. I feel it is important to know that this book was translated from Swedish; and although it is not stated out right, I believe it is set in Sweden. I would recommend this book. It is surprisingly not too sad or heavy considering that the grandmother dies.