Let’s start with the movie trailer of this book to movie:
Wow, right? Wrong. Book lovers rarely say they love the movie more than the book, as there are always a bit of changes made. Let’s hope for this movie’s sake – which I have to see now – that they made lots and lots of changes.Read More »
4.5 disco balls
Published: February 6, 2018 by Algonquin Books
Category: Contemporary Fiction, Family Life
I started this book in Belfast, brought it with me to Paris and Avignon, and wound up finishing it in Nice. I could say that this book is quite the world traveler.
I am tardy to the party in reading this book; mainly due to the fact that love triangles make me uncomfortable and I try to avoid them like the plague. What forced me to read this – and thank goodness for it because I was missing out – was my book club’s August pick.
Three’s Company? More like three’s a crowd.
The 1+1+1=3 equation is as follows: Andre and Celestial are childhood best friends, Roy and Andre are college friends, Roy and Celestial meet through Roy. VoilàRead More »
3.5 disco balls
Published: March 7, 2017 by Riverhead
Category: Contemporary Fiction, Magical Realism, Fantasy
Man Booker Prize Nominee (2017); Los Angeles Times Book Prize Nominee for Fiction (2017); National Book Critics Circle Award Nominee for Fiction (2017); Andrew Carnegie Medal Nominee for Fiction (2018); Folio Prize Nominee (2018); Kirkus Prize Nominee for Fiction (2017); Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Fiction (2017); Brooklyn Public Library Literary Prize Nominee for Fiction (2017)
This book is deep dude.
But, in all seriousness, author Mohsin Hamid did an exceptional job at conjuring up my inner psyche and putting it to work. The first half of this book I was sucked in and kept stopping and thinking “wow, what would this be like for me?” and even more so “this is all too relevant and that is scary.”Read More »
4 margaritas
Published: July 24, 2018 by Lake Union Publishing
Category: Thriller, Mystery, Suspense
But were they really?
Three long time friends (Ashley, Natalie, Lauren) take a girls vacation to Mexico. Three is a crowd. Two are always competing for the leader of the pack’s attention: while loving and hating her at the same time. Make up your darn mind ladies! Anywho, Ashley goes missing after getting into major blows with Natalie and Lauren (separate fights that Natalie and Lauren don’t know all the details of…hmmm).Read More »
3.5 disco balls
Published: June 4, 2005 by Penguin Books
Category: Contemporary Fiction
On Beauty by Zadie Smith is 442 pages. A very, very slow 442 pages in which you need to be fully engaged and present while reading. This is not a book you can breeze through, as the book would mention of certain characters: it is intellectual. There is no doubt that Smith is a talented writer, I just struggled a bit in establishing a reading pace with this one.
On Beauty follows the Belsey family: an interracial couple, Howard and Kiki, married thirty years living in an upper middle class town with their three children, Jerome, Zora and Levi.
Introducing Saturday Nite Reader’s weekly meme: Saturday Spotlight! Each Saturday I will spotlight a book I have read or am currently reading; and, of course what I think is special about it. I invite you to participate as well! Just link back to my weekly post and don’t forget to add your spotlight link in the comment section for all to see. Happy Sharing! XO, Nikki
This Week:
She’s Come Undone by Wally Lamb
Published: August 24, 1992 by Pocket
Category: Fiction, Contemporary, Coming of Age
Ever read a book and remember you had strong feelings for it and would go on to say that it was one of your top reads of all time…and then time goes by (a lot of time) and you forget the story but know it was good (or at least you felt moved when you read it)? BTW – how long did I make that sentence, holy heck. Well that is me and She’s Come Undone.
I read this book in high school, and remember being so in tuned with the story; a relation not felt due to similarity of situation, but knowing what the main character, Dolores, may have been feeling on an emotional level. Man, do I need to reread this book again. I am hoping it will bring back memories from when I first experienced it.
I always thought I would not reread books: why would I want to waste time reading something I already experienced when there are so many good books out there? But, I was wrong. I read this book almost 20 years ago – and hundreds of books since – that how can I possibly remember the full, detailed story? I will be rereading this one very soon.
Introducing Saturday Nite Reader’s weekly meme: Saturday Spotlight! Each Saturday I will spotlight a book I have read or am currently reading; and, of course what I think is special about it. I invite you to participate as well! Just link back to my weekly post and don’t forget to add your spotlight link in the comment section for all to see. Happy Sharing! XO, Nikki
This Week:
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
Published: May 22, 2007 by Riverhead
Category: Historical Fiction
British Book Award for Best Read of the Year (2008); Book Sense of the Year Award for Adult Fiction (2008); California Book Award for Fiction (Silver) (2007); Exclusive Books Boeke Prize Nominee (2007); Lincoln Award Nominee (2011)
My Future Mother-in-Law would gift me this book during one of my first trips to meet her. Once I started it, I could not put it down. I do remember it was right before dinner and the polite house guest in me (plus someone newly introduced to the family) should have been helping, but I couldn’t step away from this book. My husband (then boyfriend) called me in for dinner, but my future MIL responded along the lines of: leave her alone and let her finish, the book is that good. Thanks Mom 😉
A Thousand Splendid Suns is the first book I recommend to anyone when asked to recommend my favorite book: I don’t even have to think about it, I just spit it out (not literally, don’t worry).Read More »
Introducing Saturday Nite Reader’s weekly meme: Saturday Spotlight! Each Saturday I will spotlight a book I have read or am currently reading; and, of course what I think is special about it. I invite you to participate as well! Just link back to my weekly post and don’t forget to add your spotlight link in the comment section for all to see. Happy Sharing! XO, Nikki
This Week:
The Rainmaker by John Grisham
Published: April 28, 1995 by Doubleday
Category: Fiction, Legal Thriller
New York Times Best Selling Author
I read The Rainmaker in HS for fun – this was not a normal activity. I could barely read my required English assignments, but for some reason I would visit my school library and select books that I thought were more worth my time. That is another story for another day, as I had quite the reading preference (i.e. Girl, Interrupted; She’s Come Undone, a Janis Joplin biography = teen angst down pat). I picked up The Rainmaker after reading A Time to Kill. I thought I wanted to be a lawyer: the kind of lawyer in both Grisham novels that would fight for the underdog – the less powerful – and obviously prevail in defeating “the big bad man” in the end every single time.Read More »
Introducing Saturday Nite Reader’s weekly meme: Saturday Spotlight! Each Saturday I will spotlight a book I have read or am currently reading; and, of course what I think is special about it. I invite you to participate as well! Just link back to my weekly post and don’t forget to add your spotlight link in the comment section for all to see.Happy Sharing! XO, Nikki
This Week:
The Red Bandanna by Tom Rinaldi
Published: September 6, 2016 by Penguin Press
Category: Nonfiction, Biography, Inspirational
I purchased The Red Bandanna after I saw an ESPN piece on Welles Crowther (below). Welles saved at least ten people in the South Tower on September 11th, but would not make it out alive. After reading the book in one sitting I was more than just moved: I had to tell others Welles’ story.
This past 2017, on the anniversary of September 11th, I book fairy dropped two copies of the book with a red bandanna tied to each one. One was left on the Path train and the second in locker 19 (Welles’ number) at my local Soulcycle. This would be the first time I was a book fairy, and an important one at that. I didn’t have the book fairy stickers just yet so I printed out my own message and taped it to the book in hopes that someone will read this book and gift it or book fairy drop for another to read: spreading Welles’ story further.
It wasn’t just a book to me, it was Welles’ story: one that he could not tell himself. I think of Welles from time to time; men like him restore my faith in humanity when I need it most.
In 2017, a full documentary called Man in Red Bandana was released. It is narrated by Gwyneth Paltrow and runs 1 hour and 19 minutes.
Goodreads Stats:
4.19 average rating * 1,284 Ratings * 217 Reviews
Saturday Nite Reader rating: 5 disco balls
Read More »
3 disco balls
Publish Date: July 31, 2018 by Viking
Category: Suspense, Mystery, Thriller
Want to read upcoming new releases before they hit the shelves? Join Penguin Random House’s First to Read program – its free – to gain access to a variety of books. That is how I was able to read A Double Life by Flynn Berry.
I am a huge fan of suspense novels that when I read the synopsis for A Double Life I guaranteed my spot to access it.Read More »
Introducing Saturday Nite Reader’s weekly meme: Saturday Spotlight! Each Saturday I will spotlight a book I have read or am currently reading; and, of course what I think is special about it. I invite you to participate as well! Just link back to my weekly post and don’t forget to add your spotlight link in the comment section for all to see. Happy Sharing! XO, Nikki
This Week:
My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult
Published: April 6, 2004 by Atria Books
Category: Fiction, Contemporary
New York Times Best Selling Author
I vividly remember reading this book at my desk during a lunch break and ugly cried before that term even reemerged as a trend: this was back in 2006.
This is the book that started my never ending love of Jodi Picoult books. Fast-forward 12 years and I have collected all her books in hardcover: I had to scour used book stores and online until I found every single last one. Have you done the same thing with your favorite author?
I do have one piece of advice: stay away from the movie. It did not do this book justice at all, not even close. It was a completely different ending, and the shocking twist of the book’s ending made the book what it was. I can’t believe they changed it, what was Warner Bros. thinking?!
Goodreads Stats:
4.06 average rating * 938,135 Ratings * 31,584 Reviews
Saturday Nite Reader rating: 5 disco balls
Goodreads Synopsis:
Anna is not sick, but she might as well be. By age thirteen, she has undergone countless surgeries, transfusions, and shots so that her older sister, Kate, can somehow fight the leukemia that has plagued her since childhood. The product of preimplantation genetic diagnosis, Anna was conceived as a bone marrow match for Kate — a life and a role that she has never challenged…until now. Like most teenagers, Anna is beginning to question who she truly is. But unlike most teenagers, she has always been defined in terms of her sister — and so Anna makes a decision that for most would be unthinkable, a decision that will tear her family apart and have perhaps fatal consequences for the sister she loves.
‘My Sister’s Keeper’ examines what it means to be a good parent, a good sister, a good person. Is it morally correct to do whatever it takes to save a child’s life, even if that means infringing upon the rights of another? Is it worth trying to discover who you really are, if that quest makes you like yourself less? Should you follow your own heart, or let others lead you? Once again, in ‘My Sister’s Keeper’, Jodi Picoult tackles a controversial real-life subject with grace, wisdom, and sensitivity.
Have you read this book? Do tell! Have a book to spotlight: remember to share your links in the comments below.
Purchase Links
Amazon: Kindle Paperback Audible
Barnes & Noble: Nook Paperback Hardcover
My Jodi Collection:
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