Jill’s Little Library
Hello everyone! Welcome to December! What is your favorite part of this month? I love putting up Christmas lights and the Christmas tree! Do you guys wait and put your tree up after Thanksgiving or before? We usually put ours up the weekend after Turkey Day. We’d love to hear about your holiday traditions in the comments! Now onto the books!
First up we have FTL, Y’all! Six months from now, detailed schematics anonymously uploaded to the Internet will describe, with absolute precision, how to build a faster-than-light engine for $200 in easily-available parts. Space travel will be instantly—and chaotically—democratized. The entire cosmos is suddenly within reach of all humankind, without organization, authority, or limitation.
This comics anthology is about what happens next.
The concept for FTL, Y’all! was inspired by a 12-year-old RPG.net thread, which was in turn inspired by the work of Jerry Oltion. “FTL” is an acronym for Faster Than Light, commonly used in science fiction to describe the capabilities of warp drives.
This graphic novel was really, really great! I enjoyed all the stories very much and I would highly recommend this to any sci-fi fans! I’m not much of a sci-fi fan and I’m trying to read more to get into and this was a fantastic place to start. The stories in this collection definitely were based in science fiction but they also had to do with hope, family, love, and plenty of other human experiences that anyone would be able to relate to. I highly recommend this book!
The next book that I read was Gudetama: Love for the Lazy by Wook-Jin Clark. Dating is exhausting, so let’s take a lighthearted approach to exploring it with Gudetama, everyone’s favorite grumpy egg! From navigating first-date small talk to recovering from being dumped, Gudetama is your guide to finding love…even when you’re lazy.
This was a cute book and a nice short read! If you like short books then this one would be right up your alley!
Next up we have The Lottery by Shirley Jackson! The Lottery, one of the most terrifying stories written in this century, created a sensation when it was first published in The New Yorker. “Powerful and haunting,” and “nights of unrest” were typical reader responses. This collection, the only one to appear during Shirley Jackson’s lifetime, unites “The Lottery” with twenty-four equally unusual stories. Together they demonstrate Jackson’s remarkable range–from the hilarious to the truly horrible–and power as a storyteller.
Honestly out of this collection I only enjoyed a few stories. The rest were pretty boring to me. The best story is still The Lottery hands down! If you are only wanting to read one story I would flip to the back and read The Lottery and leave the rest behind.
And lastly we have A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik! A Deadly Education is set at Scholomance, a school for the magically gifted where failure means certain death (for real) — until one girl, El, begins to unlock its many secrets.
There are no teachers, no holidays, and no friendships, save strategic ones. Survival is more important than any letter grade, for the school won’t allow its students to leave until they graduate… or die! The rules are deceptively simple: Don’t walk the halls alone. And beware of the monsters who lurk everywhere.
El is uniquely prepared for the school’s dangers. She may be without allies, but she possesses a dark power strong enough to level mountains and wipe out millions. It would be easy enough for El to defeat the monsters that prowl the school. The problem? Her powerful dark magic might also kill all the other students.
This was hands down my favorite book that I read in November. One of my favorite tropes is enemies to lovers and it seems like the main character El, and Orion are going in that direction (I really hope so!). I also really enjoyed the magical school system that was in place in this universe. I’m excited to see if we learn more about the school and it’s original construction in book two. Overall, if you are a fan of fantasy books or magic this would be a great read.
That is it for November! I hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving! If you would like to get materials from the library, don’t forget that we have curbside pickup! You can put books on hold online or over the phone (305-292-3595) and then we will let you know when they’ve been put on hold for you. Park in our back parking lot and pick up your books at the back door! Call us when you’ve arrived at the library and we will meet you at the back door with your materials!
If you want to read some more books reviews, check out my personal blog over at Book Worm Blog!
