Month: April 2019

Audiobook Review: Field Notes on Love by Jennifer E. Smith

Saturday Nite Reader11 Comments

“I love that every generation thinks they’ve invented it. They think they’re the first ones to fall in love and get their hearts broken, to feel loss and passion and pain. And in a way, they are. We’ve been there before, of course. But for young people, that doesn’t matter. Everything is new. Which I love, because it means everything is always beginning again. It’s hopeful, I think. At least to me.”
― Jennifer E. Smith, Field Notes on Love

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4.5 disco balls

Published: March 5, 2019 by Listening Library
Length: 8 hours and 23 minutes, narrated by Anthony Mark Barrow & Karissa Vacker
Category: Young Adult, Contemporary

Someone call the dentist! All this sugary sweet adorableness may have given me a cavity. I will say I am not a fan of the dentist but this book would have been worth the trip.

It made me want to be 18 again which is no small feat, because I wouldn’t want to relive some of my teenage years…well, unless I was getting a do-over. But, I digress: back to being 18 and traveling cross country by train with a cute Brit sounds like a great idea to me.Read More »

Audiobook Review: Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson

Saturday Nite Reader21 Comments

“capital punishment means them without the capital get the punishment.”
― Bryan Stevenson, Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption

5_DiscoBalls

5 disco balls

Published: October 21, 2014 by Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
Category: Nonfiction, Memoir, Social Justice, Law
Warwick Prize for Writing Nominee for Longlist (2015), Dayton Literary Peace Prize for Non-Fiction (2015), NAIBA Book of the Year for Nonfiction (2015), Andrew Carnegie Medal for Nonfiction (2015), Kirkus Prize Nominee for Nonfiction (Finalist) (2014), Alabama Author Award for Nonfiction (2016)

Thank you, thank you, thank you to Penguin Random House Audio for the free audiobook in exchange for my honest review. This book will certainly be one of my Top 5 reads from 2019 there is NO doubt about it.

Download this audiobook now, you can thank me later. Read More »

Book Review: Appearances by Sondra Helene

Saturday Nite Reader11 Comments

“Those who’ve seen us
Know that not a thing could come between us
Many men have tried to split us up but no one can” – Irving Berlin

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3.5 disco balls

Published: April 9, 2019 by She Writes Press
Category: Women’s Fiction, Family Drama

I was recently selected to be a BookSparks 2019 Spring Campaign #SwipeRightonReading Ambassador! Over the next few weeks I will receive three ‘blind date with a book’ books. First up was debut novel Appearances by Sondra Helene.

When I first read the synopsis, I immediately thought of the song from White Christmas:  Sisters. Apparently I am not the only one; KIRKUS Reviews had the same thought and offered the following quote for the book’s back cover: “Sisters,’ the old Irving Berlin song, wrinkly covers primal themes of romance and family; this novel takes them with detail and realism…[and] makes quietly clear how precious any extra time with a loved one can be.“Read More »

Book Review: An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green

Saturday Nite Reader10 Comments

“The power that each of us has over complete strangers to make them feel terrible and and frightened and weak is amazing.”
― Hank Green, An Absolutely Remarkable Thing

3_DiscoBalls

3 disco balls

Published: September 25, 2018 by Dutton
Category: Contemporary, Young Adult, Sci-Fi

Social media can be ugly: this book communicates that well. The power we give over people we don’t know – or even giving weight to their comments – can be debilitating.

  Read More »

Book Review: A Woman is No Man by Etaf Rum

Saturday Nite Reader20 Comments

“A real choice doesn’t have conditions. A real choice is free.” 
― Etaf Rum, A Woman Is No Man

5_DiscoBalls

5 disco balls

Published: March 5, 2019 by Harper
Category: Contemporary Fiction

Strongest prologue I’ve ever read and brilliantly done ending. (If that’s all you read of this review, I’m good with it. Run, don’t walk to get a copy of this book!) I was left holding my breathe after turning that last page; when I finally caught my breathe I noticed the goosebumps on my arm.

This book was intricately plotted and smartly written. I wanted to make sure I was using ‘intricately’ correctly and googled it – how many of you do that?! – and saw the previous sentence as an example. It perfectly stated how I felt about this book so thanks Cambridge English Dictionary!Read More »