Currently Reading:
-
An Alphabetical Life: Living it Up in the World of Books by Wendy Werris
- James Madison by Lynne Cheney (received through NetGalley)
- Bringing Down Gaddafi: On the Ground with the Libyan Rebels by Andrei Netto (received through LibraryThing)
- Suffer the Children
by Craig DiLouie (received through NetGalley)
Recent Reviews:
What I Was Doing
While You Were Breeding: A Memoir by Kristin Newman (received through
Blogging for Books)
4 stars
So I will start this by saying that I was one of those breeding
while Kristin Newman was out traveling to exotic places and having romantic
adventures. Did this keep me from
enjoying this book? Absolutely not. At one point near the end, the author
ruminates that we are lucky to be in a place and time where we can make one
choice that we are happy with and feel a little regret about the other choice
that we could have taken but didn’t. I
think that sums up this book. Newman did
not feel that settling down was the right choice for her but as the years
passed she found that many of her close friends did. Thus she found her escape in travel. Every time she felt the stress of her job as
a sitcom writer or as another relationship failed, she booked a flight to a
different country and become “Kristin Adjacent.” I think that anyone (especially women) will
sympathize with this book and regardless of place in life, readers will enjoy
Kristin’s insights into travel. I
received this book through Blogging for Books in exchange for an honest review.
We are the Goldens
by Dana Reinhardt (received through NetGalley)
4 stars
Nell starts her freshmen year in high school with the
safety net of having an adored older sister, Layla and a loyal best friend in
Felix. As she navigates the social
pressures of high school, her sister holds onto a huge secret that threatens
their sacred relationship. There are a
lot of important issues here that are addressed realistically and Nell is a
likable yet flawed narrator. The
narration is addressed as Nell explaining her side to Layla and this carries
the book well. I was only disappointed
by the abrupt ending and would have like to see more resolution to the
storyline. This was a good book, though,
and one I recommend. I received this
book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
What a Lady Craves
by Ashlyn Macnamara (received through NetGalley)
3 stars
In the mood for a nice historical romance, I picked this
as to read one evening. I liked it fine
and it fit my mood nicely for the evening but it did have some issues that I
had a hard time reading around.
Henrietta was jilted when her fiancé left for India and ended up
marrying someone else. Brocken-hearted
and a victim to gossip, she takes a position as a companion to her ex-fiancé’s
aunt. Eventually her former fiancé returns
and the two are forced into close circumstances where they have to confront
their past relationship. While I liked Henrietta
and her ability to quote Mary Wollstonecraft, I found Alexander a bit hard to
stomach and I didn’t quite buy his situation or his reasons for abandoning his fiancé. This made the story a little hard for me to
completely immerse myself in but he did redeem himself somewhat at the end so
overall it made for a decent read. I
received this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
