I have no problem admitting that I am an Anglophile. I've been to England four times. I would probably move there if I could. And yes, I loved the fairy-tale wedding of Will and Kate. And I will look at pictures of their adorable children any day.

So when The Royal We by Heather Cocks & Jessica Morgan crossed my radar, it immediately went on my TBR list. I'm really not much of a sappy romantic, but didn't every little girl dream about getting swept away by a prince at some point?

The Royal We pleasantly surprised me, though, in being so much more than fairy-tale romance. It's understandably being linked to Will & Kate a lot, but it is much more than thinly veiled fan fiction. Here's why:

1. There are characters that make mistakes. I know it's part of being the royal family and all, but don't they always seem so perfect? Like they can never do anything wrong, although we all know better. Nick and Bex are clearly fallible humans just like us, complete with plenty of bad choices.

2. We see the good and the bad. The romantic moments and the fights. The confessions of love and the break-ups. This is not just a story about two people falling in love. This is the story of a relationship and what it takes to make that work.

3. We get a taste of what goes into making someone the picture-perfect princess. And what a sacrifice that must be for everyone who lives in the spotlight like that.

This book is much more than Cinderella meets the prince. It's even a lot more than Kate Middleton meets the prince. If you're looking for a book about a relationship, not just a love story, then this is the one.

So I know the topic this week is actually characters who are book nerds. But I actually did that topic back in April when we had a fill-in-the-blank week (if you want to check out that list, click here!) This time around, I thought I would do a slight variation. Instead of book nerdy characters, I went with book nerdy settings - books that are set in bookstores or libraries.

Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan (This would be an amazing bookstore to work in.)
Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World by Vicki Myron (Libraries and cats are the perfect combination.)
Parnassus on Wheels by Christopher Morley (Not all bookstores need to be stationary.)
I Kill the Mockingbird by Paul Acampora (This sort of takes place in a bookstore. The characters go to as many bookstores as they can and hide copies of To Kill a Mockingbird.)
The Case of the Missing Books by Ian Sansom (Does it count as taking place in a library if all the library books have been stolen?)

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell (There's a fair amount of time spent in a library in this book.)
The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin (I'd love to visit A.J.'s little bookstore.)
84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff (Bookstores in London - even better!)
Sixpence House: Lost in a Town of Books by Paul Collins (This isn't just one bookstore. This is a town full of bookstores!)
Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library by Chris Grabenstein (This is the coolest library ever!)

It was a pretty calm week last week, but that may change tonight. After checking out some car dealerships over the weekend, we just might be buying a new car tonight! Yay!

The Royal We by Heather Cocks & Jessica Morgan (I LOVED this book! My thoughts will be posted Thursday.)
The Library of Unrequited Love by Sophie Divry (Really short book, designed for book lovers. And isn't the cover cute?)
A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman (I loved getting to know grouchy Ove.)
The Midwife's Apprentice by Karen Cushman (I learned a bit about medieval times from this Newbery winner.)
The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen (Fantasy used to be all I would read in high school. Apparently, I'm way past that now, because this was just a meh read for me. Just my own opinion, though; I'm sure others loved it!)
The Maintenance of Headway by Magnus Mills (If you like dry British humor, you have to read this book!)

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba (Reading about such a different culture from mine is always so fascinating.)
Emma by Jane Austen (Still working on this one for the Emma readalong!)

Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis (How have I not read this book before? It's set in Flint, Michigan, which is where I grew up!)

I recently read two books set in the Victorian time period. (Well, sort of. One took place in an alternate world, so it was kind of hard to tell, but the culture seemed Victorian.)

A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan was published in 2013. The Last Bookaneer by Matthew Pearl was published in 2015. And yet, they both read like they were written in the late nineteenth century. Published as contemporary novels. Written as Victorian ones. An intriguing paradox.

A Natural History of Dragons is the first volume in the memoirs of Lady Trent. It tells of her childhood and marriage, but most importantly, it tells of her passion for dragons. Women at the time were not supposed to be passionate about dragons. They were supposed to host parties and do needlework. Somehow, she convinces her husband to take her along on an excursion to see dragons in the mountains of a nearby country. And that's where danger and politics and greed enter in.

I love dragons. And I especially love a well-developed world where dragons make sense. A Natural History of Dragons has both of those things. The dragons are simply another type of wild animal, just like lions or deer. It's just that very little is known about them scientifically. That's a perfectly plausible set up for a world full of dragons. Because the book was written in a more Victorian style, it seemed occasionally slow-paced. But there was plenty of intrigue (and dragons!) to keep you invested in the story, all the way to the very end.

The Last Bookaneer by Matthew Pearl takes place just before the first international copyright laws come into effect. Which means, for the time being, whoever gets to an author's manuscript first can make a tidy profit. These are the bookaneers, and the two most famous of them are racing to get Robert Louis Stevenson's next novel, supposedly his masterpiece. Of course, Stevenson didn't make it any easier for them by moving to Samoa, an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

Again, the Victorian style set me back a bit here. For a book that is essentially about pirates, it was rather less. . . swash-buckling than I would have expected. We hear the story from the bookaneer's companion, told to his young friend several years after the adventure. The story probably would have had more impact being told directly as it was happening. Even so, I enjoyed the concept of book pirates. I enjoyed learning about the island of Samoa and Robert Louis Stevenson's time there. It's an unusual book, made even more so by its style of narration. Even with that quirk, it was still a pretty great adventure.

It was time for another Library Day last week! I didn't learn anything from restraining myself last time around. . . I brought home way too many books this time. Ah, well. What else is summer for, if not to sit on the front porch and read?

Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen by Mary Norris (I am a stickler for grammar, so this book is right up my alley.)
The Maintenance of Headway by Magnus Mills (How can I resist a book with London double-decker buses on the cover?)
The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag by Alan Bradley (I read the first Flavia book earlier this summer, and I am ready and eager for more!)
Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis (Another Newbery winner)
The Midwife's Apprentice by Karen Cushman (Ditto)
The Priest: Aaron by Francine Rivers (I love the way Biblical fiction makes the Bible come to life. I thought I would try the first book in this series.)
The Library of Unrequited Love by Sophie Divry (The title and cover were irresistible.)

The Royal We by Heather Cocks & Jessica Morgan (I've been wanting to read this book since the first time I heard about it.)
The Bookman's Tale by Charlie Lovett (Books and intrigue)
A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman (I don't think I've ever read a book set in Sweden, but this seems like a funny one to start with!)
The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen (The premise of this book was intriguing.)
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba (This sounded like an encouraging and inspiring book.)
My Salinger Year by Joanna Rakoff (I honestly haven't read much by J.D. Salinger, but books about authors are always interesting.)

If you're keeping track, that's 13 books that I checked out. Yikes! It's a good thing several of them are very short. We'll see how many I can get read before the due date!

I don't honestly remember how I first stumbled across The Emerald Atlas by John Stephens. My guess would be a review from a fellow book blogger. But I've actually seen very little in the blogosphere about The Books of Beginning series. It could have just been a random library find. I guess it doesn't really matter, though, how I discovered this series in the first place. The point of this post is that you need to read them, too.

Here's why:

1. Kate, Michael, and Emma are the heroes of the series. They've been sent from orphanage to orphanage, believing that the parents that abandoned them would never come back for them. And yet, despite - or because of - that, they cling to each other with ferocity. Their love for each other is what gives these books their heart.

2. Just because they love each other doesn't mean they always get along. John Stephens perfectly captures sibling interactions (maybe he stole these from his own kids?). The dialogue between the siblings seem so authentic.

3. Plot twists like you wouldn't believe. When you add time travel and magic to the mix, anything can happen.

4. There are three siblings and three books - each character gets a chance to shine in their own book, but the plots are entwined throughout the series.

5. It's an extremely satisfying series. I just read the third book in the trilogy, which is what prompted me to write this post (I reviewed the first book when I read it a couple of years ago). This is a series that will not let you down. I'm not saying it won't make you cry. I'm just saying the author did a good job of upholding the integrity of the series.

6. These books are funny. Elves and dwarves and their rivalries provide comic relief, as do the siblings' interactions and teasing. I laughed out loud more than once. This alone could hook any middle grade reader, and it certainly hooked me.

Even though I teach fourth grade, I really don't read much middle grade fiction. But this was a series I could not put down and I could not forget about. I couldn't wait for the third book to be released this year, and I devoured it as soon as I could. If you like Narnia or The Hobbit or Harry Potter - or if you would just like to meet some really great kids - then you should most definitely read The Books of Beginning by John Stephens!

Now this is some summer weather! It's been in the mid-80s or low 90s for the past couple of days here in Michigan. I need to soak all of this up to get me through those negative degree winters!

Books Make the Best Souvenirs (my vacation haul from my visit to the Strand in NYC)
My Thoughts on Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Saturday Snapshot - Fourth of July in Washington, D.C.

The Crossover by Kwame Alexander (This book made me cry, and that doesn't happen often!)
The Cracks in the Kingdom by Jaclyn Moriarty (Just as good as the first book in the series.)
Call the Midwife by Jennifer Worth (Book club book for the month - our meeting is today. This was more than I even needed to know about having a baby, but I really enjoyed the book!)
Hoot by Carl Hiaasen (I don't know how I missed reading this one earlier. What a fun book!)
The Last Bookaneer by Matthew Pearl (Book pirates!)
A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan (Fresh twist on dragon literature.)

Emma by Jane Austen (Because of vacation, I'm rather behind in the Emma read-a-long hosted by You, Me, and a Cup of Tea. I'm trying to catch up!)
The Royal We by Heather Cocks & Jessica Morgan (I'm indulging the Anglophile in me this week!)

The Maintenance of Headway by Magnus Mills (Random library find.)

My husband and I typically go on vacation for a couple of weeks every summer. We try to avoid being gone on the Fourth of July. There are lots of fun family things to do at home that we don't want to miss. However, this year, the Fourth of July fell smack in the middle of our time away. So we decided, since we had to be gone for the Fourth of July, that we would do it up right. We celebrated Independence Day in Washington, D.C.!

The day started with a parade that lasted almost two hours. There were marching bands galore, a few floats, some large balloons, and the occasional unexpected thing - like people doing tricks on old bicycles or the Kissmobile.

The parade finished around 2:00, so we wandered around to find some food and see the sights. Then around 6:00, we headed to the Capitol building. I don't know if you've ever watched PBS on the evening of the Fourth of July, but they broadcast a concert from the lawn of the Capitol building. This year, I was at that concert! (Although our view wasn't the greatest. The stage is behind that clump of trees in the middle. You can sort of see the white of the bandshell peeking through. The Capitol was directly behind us, though!)

The concert finished with the National Symphony Orchestra playing Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture - complete with cannons! And then the fireworks started behind the Washington Monument. It was such an awesome experience!

Brave New World was published in 1931 and set in 2540. Huxley's picture of the future is a grim one - but only if you value freedom. In the London of 2540, everyone is happy (and way too many of them are genetically identical). Through conditioning both before and after you are born, you are guaranteed to be content with your life, even if you are the lowest of the low. You're trained to find that that satisfies you and you want nothing different. And if you do start to feel dissatisfied, then there's always soma (some sort of futuristic drug) to make everything better.

Bernard Marx feels dissatisfied. As an Alpha Plus, his critical thinking works a bit better than most. But he ends up being much more attached to the society than he thinks. I figured he would start to rebel and try to take down the society, as in George Orwell's 1984. But he gets caught up in everyone's approval (which is really quite superficial) when he brings home a "Savage". That's certainly a sign of today's times - how often do we swallow our own thoughts or beliefs because they wouldn't be popular? Or because we're afraid of being mocked?

As a commentary on society and where it is heading, this book is quite powerful. As a work of fiction, though, I found the plot to be rather unsatisfying. It could have been more coherent, especially when the main focus switched to the Savage. You really couldn't read it for the plot or characters anymore. The point was the commentary, and there's nothing wrong with that. Just wasn't entirely what I was expecting.

Scientifically, I'm not too worried about this book coming true in the near future. I don't think we've found out how to create 72 identical babies out of one egg, nor discovered how precisely conditions in pregnancy affect the outcome of the child. But in other ways, I think we're a bit closer. The breakdown of families, the disregard of God and religion, the controlling of the information we get through the media. . . Yes, in other ways, we are scarily close.

I mentioned in my post yesterday that I have spent the past couple of weeks on vacation. We took a road trip over to the East Coast and hit a few of the big cities there - including New York City. Which just happens to include the famed Strand bookstore. I have heard many tantalizing things about the Strand, so it was high on my list of places to visit in NYC. Let me tell you, it lives up to the hype.

Since we were on a road trip and I didn't have to worry about fitting any books I bought into a suitcase in order to fly home, I allowed myself free rein. It didn't take long before the books started piling up (which is why I call my husband the Enabler, since he offered to hold the stack while I went back for more). This is what I ended up coming home with - and trust me, it could have been more:

The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins (I hear this book is good.)
Istanbul: Memories and the City by Orhan Pamuk (This has been on my to-read list for awhile. I don't think I've ever read a book about Istanbul. . .)
Frederica by Georgette Heyer (Because she is one of my all-time favorite authors)
The Small House at Allington by Anthony Trollope (I'm slowly collecting his Barchester series. This one means I'm 4/6 of the way there.)
Five Little Peppers & How They Grew by Margaret Sidney (I loved this book as a kid. About time to reread it!)
Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand (One from my Classics Club list that I need to read someday.)
The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America by Russell Shorto (Okay, technically this wasn't a Strand purchase. I bought this one at the New York Public Library. Still counts as a book souvenir, though!)
New York Diaries by Teresa Carpenter (Real diary entries spanning 400 years of New York history. Doesn't that sound like a great way to get to know a place?)
A Walk Through Wales by Anthony Bailey (Wales is a neglected country. What better way to remedy that than reading about it?)
The Island of Dr. Libris by Chris Grabenstein (I can't wait to read this one!!!)
Slipping into Paradise: Why I Live in New Zealand by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson (New Zealand is definitely on my list of places to visit. I figured this book would be a good start.)
The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling (Even though I love Harry Potter, I've never read this book, let alone owned it. Problem solved!)

I also snagged a few book-related items, because who could resist these?

It was a good thing we headed back to our hotel room right after this. They were pretty heavy! But my hour spent at the Strand was a book lovers' dream. I'm sure I'll be back someday to find even more books to take home!