“A real choice doesn’t have conditions. A real choice is free.” ― Etaf Rum, A Woman Is No Man
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 »
Published: March 6, 2018 by HarperAudio
Narrated by: Prentice Onayemi & Julia Whelan
Length: 6 hours 21 minutes
Category: Literary Fiction, LGBT
I have been on an audiobook roll lately and hope to keep up the momentum. I am one who prefers to read an actual book, but likes to listen to audiobooks during my drives (or to make doing chores more bearable). There have been a few times where I felt that I had a better experience listening rather than reading and this here is one of them!
Narrator Prentice Onayemi starts the first part of this book and he was absolute perfection. I felt as though I was listening to Prentice – as Niru – tell me his story; as if I was grabbing coffee with him and we were engaged in a conversation. He made Niru real, lent a voice to his story and his family. My goodness was this story beautifully written: there is no doubt that author Iweala is extremely talented. 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: 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: 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 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.
You may also find me here:
Please note: this post contains Amazon and B&N affiliate links. If you purchase this book through the links above I will earn a small fee; at no additional cost to you. This will help me purchase more books to read and recommend to you all!
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 One-in-a-Million Boy by Monica Wood
Published: April 5, 2016 by Headline Review
Category: Fiction, Contemporary Nautilus Book Award for Fiction: Large Publisher (2016)
I came across this gem through a widget on the sidebar of my Goodreads homepage one day. Not sure exactly why it popped up, but I was so glad it did!
After reading the synopsis (below), I was certainly intrigued. It was my turn to pick our next book club read and after seeing its Goodreads stats my decision was easily made. I enjoyed this book immensely: I laughed, I cried, I needed a hug. The book brings you on a journey: one that I recommend all experience. You will adore the characters and also need a hug in the end. (All these hugs, as someone who isn’t a huge fan of them who am I becoming?!) If it also helps: when my book club discussed our favorite read of the year this one came up several times.
Goodreads Synopsis: The incandescent story of a 104-year-old woman and the sweet, strange young boy assigned to help her around the house — a friendship that touches each member of the boy’s unmoored family.
The story of your life never starts at the beginning. Don’t they teach you anything at school?
For years, guitarist Quinn Porter has been on the road, chasing gig after gig, largely absent to his twice-ex-wife Belle and their odd, Guinness records–obsessed son. When the boy dies suddenly, Quinn seeks forgiveness for his paternal shortcomings by completing the requirements for his son’s unfinished Boy Scout badge.
For seven Saturdays, Quinn does yard work for Ona Vitkus, the wily 104-year-old Lithuanian immigrant the boy had visited weekly. Quinn soon discovers that the boy had talked Ona into gunning for the world record for Oldest Licensed Driver — and that’s the least of her secrets. Despite himself, Quinn picks up where the boy left off, forging a friendship with Ona that allows him to know the son he never understood, a boy who was always listening, always learning.
The One-in-a-Million Boy is a richly layered novel of hearts broken seemingly beyond repair and then bound by a stunning act of human devotion.
Have you read this book? Do tell! Have a book to spotlight: remember to share your links in the comments below.
The Author, Monica Wood, discusses The One-in-a-Million Boy:
You may also find me here:
Please note: this post contains Amazon and B&N affiliate links. If you purchase this book through the links above I will earn a small fee; at no additional cost to you. This will help me purchase more books to read and recommend to you all!
I could not put this book down, and when I found out there is a sequel set to be released in early June I was ecstatic. I was certainly tardy to the party in reading this and wish I hadn’t waited so long. So, if you were like me and haven’t read it yet – well, you know what I will say next: what are you waiting for?!Read More »
I’ve never had an experience with a book the way I did with ‘A Little Life’. Ever. I will never forget how I felt reading it. The characters will stay with me. Oh how they’ll stay with me.
“And so I try to be kind to everything I see, and in everything I see, I see him.”
– Hanya Yanagihara, A Little Life
5 disco balls
Publish Date: March 10, 2015 by Doubleday, reprint January 26, 2016 by Anchor The audiobook on Amazon is only $4.95. The narrator Oliver Wyman beautifully brings the characters to life.
Category: Literary Fiction, Contemporary
This book has become one of my top books of all time. It is not an easy read. It is heartbreaking, it’s a gut punch, it steam rolls right over your heart over and over and over. Cue the ugly cries and heavy emotions. It knocks the wind right out of you.Read More »
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