Books
-
Review: Everything Here Is Beautiful by Mira T. Lee
I haven’t read a lot of books about mental illness, or books where mental illness is a predominant theme. I also have not read a lot of Asian literature, so needless to say, this book is way out of my comfort zone. This book focuses on two Chinese sisters, one with mental illness. One of my New Year’s resolutions was to read more books outside my comfort zone, so I thought this book might be a good place to start. I originally passed on the hard copy debut as I couldn’t fit it in my review schedule, but now with the paperback being released, I didn’t want to miss out…
-
Review: The Winter People by Jennifer McMahon
This book was going around Bookstagram (aka Instagram), for most of December. There were a couple of IG users that were hosting read alongs and I saw quite a few posts for this book and admittedly became intrigued. This is an author that I have ever heard of before, which was actually surprising because she has written a number of ghost story thriller books so I am shocked that I haven’t come across her name before. What ultimately drew me in and made me want to read this one was all the buzz on ‘the gram’ but also the cover. It looked haunting and the stark white contrast and eerie…
-
Review: The Girls in the Picture by Melanie Benjamin
I am going to be horribly superficial for a minute. The first thing that caught my eye with this book was the cover. I am a sucker for a beautiful cover and this book has exactly that. I didn’t even read what the book was about, all I knew was that it had a stunning cover that clearly said ‘historical fiction’ and so I made a snap decision and said yes to reviewing it. This book is written by Melanie Benjamin, who has written other best selling novels such as, The Aviator’s Wife and The Swans of Fifth Avenue. Knowing that she was an experienced writer only strengthened my excitement…
-
Review: Fire & Blood (A Targaryen History #1) by George R.R. Martin
I have had this book pre ordered for months. I cleared my entire month of December to keep it open so I could read this behemoth. If truth be told, I am not a huge Targaryen fan. I personally prefer the Starks but I was interested in some of the tantalizing questions this book promised to answer. This book promises to answer what The Doom really was and the source of Daenerys’s dragon eggs. Spoiler alert, I still don’t feel like I have answers to those questions but I did learn a lot about Westeros and the Targaryen empire.
-
Review: Love Poems for Married People by John Kenney
Poetry isn’t really my genre. Something about it always makes me feel so inadequate and most of it just seems to go over my head. I do have a few poems (and when I say a few I mean like 4) that I like but by and large, poetry just isn’t for me. This book showed up for review about three weeks ago and the minute I tore it open, I was literally laughing so hard. The poems in this book are perfect for married couples. If you have been married—even for a couple of months—this book will resonate with you. I have been married for fifteen years and we…
-
Special Feature: THE SECRET LIFE OF MRS. LONDON
In 2018, I reviewed THE SECRET LIFE OF MRS LONDON and was so impressed by the writing and content. I didn’t really know anything about Jack London besides the fact that he wrote THE CALL OF THE WILD and WHITE FANG. I knew even less about Houdini. I was intrigued by how this book was actually going to come together because a literary giant and a magician in the midst of a love triangle seems totally weird and random but sometimes truth is stranger than fiction and even though this book was a novelization and historical fiction, there was plenty of historical facts to keep historians interested. Today is Jack London’s…
-
Giveaway: Gold Digger, The Remarkable Baby Doe Tabor by Rebecca Rosenberg
If you are a fan of interesting but yet often glossed over women in American history? I know I am, but author Rebecca Rosenberg is on a mission to give those women a story and her latest novel, GOLD DIGGER: THE REMARKABLE BABY DOE TABOR promises to be an informative and wonderful story about a woman destine for fame. One look at Baby Doe and you know she was meant to be a legend! She was just twenty years old when she came to Colorado to work a gold mine with her new husband. Little did she expect that she’d be abandoned and pregnant and left to manage the gold…
-
Review: The Au Pair by Emma Rous
This book came across my desk in the early fall for review and I was intrigued because it claims to be for fans of Kate Morton and VC Andrews….specifically stating that this is the book that would be born if Morton and Andrews had a book baby. Now I have not read VC Andrews but I absolutely love Kate Morton so I was eager to see how this book stacked up to this high praise. I love books about old buried family secrets and this book promised that and so much more, so I agreed to put this book on my reading radar for the winter.
-
Review: The Best of Us (Sullivan’s Crossing #4) by Robyn Carr
I’ve only recently discovered Robyn Carr but she has written an impressive amount of novels in her career. I have seen her books randomly, usually at airport bookstores or in the supermarket book displays. Like many of her fans, I love a good romance and often a well written romance is such a refreshing break from real life when you get home and dinner still needs to be made and the baby is crying and your husband is late from work. Those are the times that a good romance are especially welcoming which is why I think I see her books (as well as others) at the supermarket checkout stand…
-
Review: Live and Let Pie (A Bakeshop Mystery #9) by Ellie Alexander
As I have said before, I love supporting local authors or at the very least, books set in my home state. Oregon isn’t exactly the most exciting state in the union so when I find books set here, I am always interested to read them and see how they measure up. That’s how I found Ellie Alexander. When one of Alexander’s book came up for review, I was eager to read it and I loved it! It was the first in a new series and was set in Leavenworth Washington. Ok so not exactly Oregon but close enough. Then I started reading her other more established series, Bakeshop Mysteries which…