Books

Listened to the audiobook version narrated beautifully by Michael C. Hall, this is the first Stephen King book I have listened to and the first by this narrator.

I don't even know where I'm going to rank this book in the Stephen King canon but I know that the trademark touch of horror that leaps out of the page and whispers and settles into you is in this book. More scary and human than Misery, it does not compare to the freak of IT but somehow the rising tension of its last act reminded me of IT's similar final act.

The best thing about Pet Sematary is how how it's paced so openly, the Creed family gets to live and breath and be happy in many of its pages even when narratively it seems tiresome and boring, even when the promise of horror keeping it's eye on the family begins to dull. When the shadow of death finally falls on this family, it almost seems unlike Stephen King, it feels accidental and natural too at some point. Like the characters in the book who think at various points that these things were meant to happen, we as a reader think these events were meant to happen to these characters in exactly this slow, tragic, sad and insane way. There are no big fireworks, yes a house burns down but nothing "spectacular" happens, Louis Creed our protagonist simply pays the price for what he bought.

And the narration is amazing, the way Michael C. Hall voices not only so many diverse characters from old people to kids but what's amazing is how he consistently voices the elements of the book as well. One of my favorite examples of this is the scene where a dog is howling and the narrator doesn't just say he barks but we get the actual sound. Of course now that I think about it it might just be the sound effect or recording of a dog but either way the sounds of this audiobook are beautiful and fitting. I think part of the way the novel felt so suspenseful and dreadful is helped by the sound production

Brilliant, scary, sad and altogether humane, Pet Sematary is a very very good Stephen King novel.

2025 Mathical Award Winners

For Preschool students and early readers (PreK), Seven Little Ducklings by Annette LeBlanc Cate (Candlewick Press) follows a mother duck counting carefully as she collects her seven missing ducklings, but her flock grows as she unwittingly rescues more creatures along the way. 

Young readers (Grades K-2) are invited to share their thought process — and sometimes whimsical ways — for tallying things up —  as they explore colorful photos featuring mathematical groupings of everyday objects in How Did You Count? by two-time Mathical award-winner Christopher Danielson (Stenhouse Publishers).

Elementary readers (Grades 3-5) will be drawn into the playful, true story of a woman from Oregon whose childhood love of exploring patterns led to her many discoveries as a recreational mathematics hobbyist in The Five Sides of Marjorie Rice: How to Discover a Shape by Amy Alznauer, illustrated by Anna Bron (Candlewick Press).

Middle school readers (Grades 6-8) may be inspired by Imposter by Cait Levin (Charlesbridge), the story of two high school girls who join their school’s robotics team and make it to the national competition despite the doubts of others.

For young adults (Grades 9-12), Reasons We Break by Jesmeen Kaur Deo (Disney-Hyperion Books) is a high-stakes, romantic drama as a teen makes a desperate bargain to be bookkeeper to a gang, hoping to clear the debts of a troubled friend and keep him out of prison.

My “problem” is that I cannot (or rather don’t like to) read in my native language.

Ever since I was a kid, everything I did was in English (PC gaming, online chatting and searching things up like guides).

When I got back into reading (couple of years ago), my first book was in English. Ever since then I have been reading books only in the English language. Whenever I try to read in my native language, I can’t concentrate, get bored quickly and easily.

However, if I pick up the same book in the English language. I can guarantee that, I’ll keep reading it.

Recently got a book gifted to me, the book is in my native language. I want to read it, the story seems interesting but can’t get into it because it is in my native language. Might just get the ebook version in English, ha.

Was wondering if anyone else has this too.

The Martian Chronicles is a roughly connected collection of short stories written at various times by Ray Bradbury that were about humans going to Mars. They don't really have a coherent story but some of the characters and events cross over and it beats having to read 50 stories separately but is it worth reading them at all?

Where Fahrenheit 451 showed the sci-fi side of Ray Bradbury, The Martian Chronicles shows his poetic side.

In many ways it is more ambitious than 451, indeed many of the themes that Ray had to connect with the thread of storytelling show themselves off beautifully here with short stories exploring colonialism, religion, need of belonging, blowing ourselves to bits (something that doesn't sound as far-fetched considering the events we are all going through) and he creates a wonderful mythology about Mars one that is more fantastical than realistic for sure but feels lived in.

Although even when talking about hardcore science-fiction books this little collection of stories manages to achieve something that I have seen very few stories do right, namely that it shows how weird and magical and utterly incomprehensible that other lifeform (be it Martians or otherwise) can be.

Ultimately this is a book about people and their stories, experiencing it brought out a lot of emotions and I was ultimately left amazed by how well the whole was written.

Highly highly recommended if you're into short stories

hello, i am very new to reading ad recently fell into booktok, TikTok about books, in which they recommended to read books by Frieda McFadden, has anyone read her novels? Let me know what you think and which one is your fav, thanks!!

Hello I’m fairly new to reading and am wanting to see what books people recommend and why, also i really enjoy horror/mystery!