Reading
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Special Feature: The Lost Family by Jenna Blum
“Jenna Blum shines a powerful light on how the past swings back and how we must face it. The Lost Family is an extraordinary read, the kind of book that makes you sob and smile, the kind that gives you hope…. It is compassionate, masterful and disturbingly contemporary.” —Tatiana de Rosnay, bestselling author of Sarah’s Key This is high praise indeed from a very well known author! That’s what caught my eye with this one. I am a fan of Tatiana de Rosnay so seeing how much she recommended this novel made me in turn excited to read it. I am actually reviewing it next week, I made room for…
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Review: Dreams of Falling by Karen White
Many times I get review pitches months before the actual review posts. When I get the review pitch, sometimes the book sounds interesting at that time but when it comes time to pick it up to actually read it for review months later, it might not sound as interesting. So how do I combat this? I trust the process. I have to believe that something about the book appealed to me at one time or another enough for me to agree to review it and even if I am not 100% in the mood to read it when it’s time—I need to trust that I had good judgment. That’s kind…
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Review: The Summer I Met Jack by Michelle Gable
Most people know who John F Kennedy was and can probably name a fact or two about him. President. First Catholic president. Assassinated president. Democrat. Bostonian. War hero. Hyannisport yachtsman. Rich Playboy. Womanizer. I think it’s safe to say that he is one of the most recognizable presidents in modern memory. For me personally I am not a huge fan of the post war America time period but I was intrigued by this novel. Though I know quite a bit about JFK in a professional sense–I am more intrigued by his personal life than his politics. When this book came up for review many many months ago, I was eager…
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Review: A Sin Such As This (Love Lies Beneath #2) by Ellen Hopkins
I’ve been curious about Ellen Hopkins for quite some time. Her books are always being checked out at my local high school library and I’ve seen a ton of students walking around with Crank in their backpack. Many of her books are YA novels so I was curious to see what it is that so many teens love about her work. From the sound of it, she writes really really edgy stuff so needless to say I was intrigued. Reading for high school students is like pulling teeth so when they are eagerly awaiting the next Ellen Hopkins book in droves, clearly there is something interesting happening there. When A…
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Review: Limelight (Penny Green #1) by Emily Organ
Like many other bibliophiles, I subscribe to BookBub. Basically every day I get an email telling me about all the great deals for ebooks in categories that I have selected. This service is free so if you like book and want to hear about good deals on ebooks, subscribe! So in one of my emails last week there was a special ad feature at the bottom of the email that said ‘have you discovered Penny Green yet?’ with this great foggy London photo in the background. And in my mind all I could hear was ‘no I have not discovered her yet!’. The first book in this series was on…
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Review: The Dante Chamber (The Dante Club #2) by Matthew Pearl
To say that Matthew Pearl likes literature is an understatement. Many of his books are literary related in some way or another, making them really intriguing to me. My first experience with Pearl was with the book THE LAST BOOKANEER which was a wonderful read, but more importantly it was different. I have also had THE DANTE CLUB on my radar for the better part of six years, so when this one came up for review I was stoked. So why haven’t I read THE DANTE CLUB you ask…..I have no idea. Maybe it’s because it’s been on my TBR list for so long that I’ve forgotten about it as…
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Review: Crazy Rich Asians (Crazy Rich Asians #1) by Kevin Kwan
Like many people, I’ve seen the preview for the upcoming film Crazy Rich Asians and let’s be honest, it looks really good–at least I think so anyway. It’s definitely on my summer movie list at any rate. I was thrilled to see that the movie was also based on a book and I was super excited to read it. I wasn’t sure that I wanted to buy it but I put it on my library queue and waiting a surprising number of weeks to get it—seems like everyone else had the same idea as me. When it came in I rushed to pick it up because clearly it was a…
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Cover Reveal: The Blue by Nancy Bilyeau
The Blue by Nancy Bilyeau Publication: Fall 2018 Endeavour Quill Genre: Historical Fiction What would you do to possess the most coveted color in the world? The year is 1758, and a headstrong woman artist, 24-year-old Genevieve Planche, is caught up in a high-stakes race to discover the ultimate color, one that threatens to become as deadly as it is lucrative. When Genevieve’s mission is complicated by her falling in love with the chemist behind the formula, she discovers the world of blue is filled with ruthless men and women and how high the stakes really are. The story sweeps readers from the worlds of the silk-weaving refugees of London’s…
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Review: Something In The Water by Catherine Steadman
When this book came across my desk for review, the first thing that caught my eye was that the author was also an actress, most notably an actress in Downton Abbey. I’m always intrigued by people with dual talents. Being an actress is difficult enough but then you add author in the mix and it seems almost impossible so when I see things like this that aren’t memoirs or autobiographies etc, I am always curious to see how the author’s talents translate from big screen to pages. SOMETHING IN THE WATER stood out besides the fact that Steadman is an actress though…..it’s set in Bora Bora. I was instantly intrigued.…
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Review: The Alice Network by Kate Quinn
This book was everywhere last year. It was first published in June of 2017 and it’s been every where ever since. All over my social media, on all my friends ‘to read’ or ‘favorite’ shelfs, and at my local library as a librarian favorite. It sounded like something that would be right up my alley, but for some reason it just didn’t scream ‘read me’ even though I had it sitting in my Kindle library for months. Part of me was worried about the hype and another part of me just wasn’t into reading a war time friendship story as I prefer war time romances generally. However, this last month…