The RAHM Report for 10/29/18

What I Finished Reading

• Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson ⭐⭐⭐⭐
  I enjoyed this YA mystery novel which alternates between past and present happenings at a boarding school for gifted students that was the site of a murder many years ago. I have mixed feelings about the ending, but it does set us up nicely for the forthcoming sequel. 
• An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
  I picked this up on a whim and could not believe how much I loved it. My review is on Goodreads.
• The Good Friends by Margery Bianco ⭐⭐⭐⭐
  This was my most recent read-aloud with my big girls. I'll say more about it when I make my next Read-at-Home Kids Report post.
• The Figure in the Shadows by John Bellairs ⭐⭐⭐⭐
  Compared with the first book, this one really wasn't scary. I liked it, though. Lewis, the main character, is as endearing as ever.
• The Heavenly Tenants by William Maxwell, illustrated by Ilonka Karasz  ⭐⭐⭐⭐
  Somehow I had never heard of this 1947 Newbery Honor book until yesterday, but even though she story was weird, it was absolutely worth reading for the gorgeous illustrations! (The book is available free online - click to read.) 

• Nighty-Nightmare by James Howe ⭐⭐⭐
  This was a quick and mostly enjoyable read. I'm probably done with this series for now because it gets old after a while, but reading this helped me finish the A to Z challenge! 
• The X'ed-Out X-ray by Ron Roy ⭐⭐
  I got tired of hunting for an interesting book whose title started with X, and finally decided to just read this one. It was fine, but I could have lived without reading it too. 
• The Traveling Bird by Robert Burch, illustrated by Susanne Suba ⭐⭐⭐
  This book has a really depressing ending, but I needed a book published in 1959 for the Family Tree challenge, and my kindergartner just read it, so I just picked it up and read it quickly too. It wasn't my favorite, but my daughter liked it. 
• Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson ⭐⭐⭐⭐
   I intended to read one chapter of this book and ended up reading the whole thing in one sitting. Katherine Paterson's writing just really resonates with me. 

What I'm Currently Reading

 

I'm hoping to do NaNoWriMo this next month along with a couple of buddy reads on Instagram, so I'm trying to wrap up my reading and start November with a completely clean slate. These are the books I hope to finish by the end of Wednesday: 

• Butcher's Hill by Laura Lippman
  I'm listening to this third Tess Monaghan book on audio and reading the ebook in between listening sessions. I think it's the best one of the series so far.
• The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence
  This is my Catholic book club's pick for November. It's really short, but takes a bit of concentration to follow. I'm enjoying it and highlighting a lot of quotes I think will be good to discuss.
• Deadly News by Jody Holford
  I wanted to finish this ARC over the weekend, but didn't quite make it. It's a pretty run-of-the-mill and straightforward cozy mystery so far, but I'm enjoying getting to know some new characters.

I'll be linking up today with Unleashing Readers/Teach Mentor Texts and Book Date for It's Monday! What Are You Reading?