I’ve mentioned my collection of book flags before. Here are a bunch I found at our local Daiso store. Cute and useful!

Bargain Books. Here’s a recent stack of thrift store book buys, all in shades of yellow and green. (It’s incredibly dangerous to have a Goodwill Bookstore in driving distance.)

Princess Celie. This lower middlegrade series has a fairy tale feel and a sentient castle. I fell in love on Tuesday … and have since collected every other day of the week currently in print (up through #5, Saturdays at Sea).

So Pretty. I’ve seen them. I’ve wanted them. Finally, I have them. My office area now boasts rainbow bookshelves for my middlegrade collection. It’s the accumulation of years … boosted by recent forays into area thrift stores.

Have you ever arranged your books in rainbow order?

Start with Book 1. Many times when I pick up an e-book, it’s because the publisher has lowered the price of the first book in a series. Probably in the hopes that readers will be eager for more. I enjoyed all three of these series starters…

Awakening begins the Chronicles of Benjamin Dragon. Bullying and best friends. Hermits and heroics. Camp and car crashes. Mentors and menacing offers. Cooper sets up a classic conflict: with great power comes great responsibility.

The Luck Uglies is the first in a fantasy trilogy with a celtic ambiance. Rye O’Chanter and her friends run a bit wild in Village Drowning, bending rules and breaking laws. But harmless fun changes to real danger when Rye encounters a Bog Noblin.

The Colossus Rises sets up what promises to be an epic series. When Jack turns thirteen, he wakes in a hospital and learns that he’s dying. Unless he can help a secret organization locate the pieces of a relic from ancient Atlantis.

Middlegrade Chick-lit. I count Natalie Lloyd as one of my favorite middlegrade authors. Her stories are filled with heartwarming moments and humor. And she has a lyrical style that delights my inner poet. Her most recent title is another magical mountain tale set in Tennessee.

I needed a lot of book flags! : D

August Reads. Summertime and reading seem to go hand-in-hand. Here are some of the books from the stack I was able to read last month.

The Westing Game is a mystery with a classic feel. In his will, a billionaire calls together his heirs and thrusts them into a puzzling game. Whoever unravels his clues will gain a fortune.

The Elemental Artifact unveils a world in which Elementals live alongside humans. Anni’s adventure unfolds like a mystery. Hints and red herrings abound. And the friends she makes are so much fun. Especially Squirt!

The Ruins of Gorlan is the first book in the epic Ranger’s Apprentice series. I’ve had reading friends recommend this to me for years. Not sure why I waited so long to take the plunge. I’m hooked.

Quotable. When I’m reading, it’s almost always with a pencil in hand, a highlighter nearby, and a packet of book flags within reach. I like to glean quotable lines for GoodReads and for tweeting. Because it’s fun to share good writing with other readers!

This is an excellent example of books I bumped to the top of my reading pile because I’ve been trying to fill in my A-Z Challenge for 2017 on GoodReads’ GMGR group (Great Middle Grade Reads). These were my Y, O, and K titles…

You Wish (The Misadventures of Benjamin Bartholomew Piff, #1) is the beginning of a charming younger middlegrade collection that introduces readers to the Wish Factory, where children’s wishes come true.

Odd and the Frost Giants is a short story steeped in Norse mythology. I can’t say much without spoiling the fun … so I won’t say anything more. Except that it’s good.

The Kneebone Boy follows the three Hardscrabble children, who are inadvertently sent to stay with someone that’s away. This is a strange contemporary slice-of-life story set in England. Slow to start, it meanders a bit, but I liked how everything resolved.

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