It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 6/22/20

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? a place to meet up and share what you have been, and are about to be reading over the week. It’s a great post to organize yourself. It’s an opportunity to visit and comment and er… add to your groaning TBR pile! So welcome in everyone. This meme started on J Kaye’s blog and then was hosted by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn here at The Book Date.

Not a heck of a lot going on in my life.  My husband has been furloughed since March 20-something and he just found out he'd be going back on June 30th. We have also decided that within the next month or so, we're going to finally add a new family member - a furry one- dog specifically.  My son is beyond excited and so am I.

What I read last week:

Last week, I read Ghost of Sanju, My Vanishing Country, and The Hero Two Doors Down.

What I am reading now:

I am currently reading another e-ARC of Cowboy Strong and my current audiobook is I Can Make a Promise

Up next:

I'm going to join Amazon's KindleUnlimited this month; they have a special offer due to the pandemic of 2 month free trial offer until the end of the month, so I'm not positive what I'll be choosing next.  They also have books through this, that you also listen to on audible.  I love doing this offer once or twice a year.  The rest of the year. I'm happy to just listen through Overdrive and now my library also has Hoopla available to us, although only 4 books a month. 

Have you read any of these or want to?

WWW Wednesdays March 1, 2017

It's time for the weekly meme, WWW Wednesday hosted by Sam
@Taking on a World of Words.

All you need to do is answer the following questions:

• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?

So let's get onto it!

What are you currently reading?  I am currently reading an ARC of The Polygamist's Daughter by Anna LeBaron.  I'm a little over half done.  It's a true story about one of the fundamental Mormon cults, not the one with Warren Jeffs as prophet.  I ended up not finishing the ARC that I started later last week, When You Never Said Goodbye: An Adoptee's Search for Her Birth Mother: A Novel in Poems and Journal Entries by Meg Kearney. I had trouble getting into the story and one, I had thought it was a memoir, but was a fictionalized account of some things that happened and also because it was an ARC, which is in an uncorrected format, any poems were just regular sentences and not formatted as a poems usually would be.  And therefore, it was difficult to determine what was meant to be poetry.

What did you recently finish reading?  I just finished this afternoon listening to the audiobook, The Reluctant Midwife by Patricia Harman.  I really enjoyed The Midwife of Hope River, the first in the Hope River series, but I'm still trying to determine my exact thoughts on this latest addition to this series.  Last week, Thursday,

What do you think you’ll read next? Tomorrow, I'll start the audiobook, Pachinko by Min Jin Lee, which I also have as an ARC from NetGalley.  and is shown to be over 700 pages, which I had not realized when I requested it from NetGalley, so I figured listening to it would work out well, even though it is about 18 hours of listening time. 

I also picked up a couple books at the library also that I need to get to one, I was hoping to read in February in honor of Black History Month, Black Stars of the Civil Rights Movement.  We all know who Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. are, but although I know the names of Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. DuBois. Marcus, Garvey, among others, I can't really say exactly what they are known for and there were several people included in the book that I never heard of.  Being the mother of an African American son, I want to know who all of these individuals are and what their importance in history was and I want to know about them before my son mentions or asks about them.  I also picked up my second graphic novel, Aya by Marguerite Abouet & Clement Oubrerie, which takes place in 1978 in Ivory Coast.

What about you?  Have you read any of these or do you plan to? What are you reading?

WWW Wednesdays - February 8

It's time for the weekly meme, WWW Wednesday hosted by Sam
@Taking on a World of Words.

All you need to do is answer the following questions:

• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?

So let's get onto it!

What are you currently reading? 

I currently am reading an ARC of Sunrise Canyon by Janet Dailey.  I should finish this probably sometime, Wednesday afternoon or evening.  It's suppose to be the 1st book in the New Americana series, but since the author passed away several years ago, unless they have a ghost writer or reprint her some of her other books, the series won't go any further than book 1.

What did you recently finish reading?

Last Thursday, I finished Behold The Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue and started Between The World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, but decided to put it down for now and will read it at some other time.  I just was not in the mood for something, so heavy.  I also started listening to Phil Collins' autobiography, Not Dead Yet, but decided not to continue listening to it after the first few chapters.  I love his music, so maybe I'll pick it up some other time.

What do you think you’ll read next?

I picked up from the library, the middle grade graphic novel El Deafo by CeCe Bell.  I have never read a graphic novel and I haven't read comics since who knows when.  If that one doesn't work for me or I finish it before next week, which I think I probably would. I had A Dog's Purpose by W. Bruce Cameron that I just downloaded for my Kindle.  As for what I will be listening to, I haven't been able to stick to a book; nothing is really appealing to me even though I have a long list of audiobooks that I would like to listen to.  I just downloaded Michael Moore's Stupid White Men with all that's happening in the U.S. right now, it might be relevant.  I've actually enjoyed some of his other books and documentaries, so we'll see if this one works for me.

What about you?  Have you read any of these or do you plan to?  What are you reading?

Book Review: Behold The Dreamers

Behold The Dreamers

Imbolo Mbue

Random House (Published August 23, 2016)

400 Pages

3.5 Stars

Synopsis:

For fans of Americanah and The Lowland comes a debut novel about an immigrant couple striving to get ahead as the Great Recession hits home. With profound empathy, keen insight, and sly wit, Imbolo Mbue has written a compulsively readable story about marriage, class, race, and the trapdoors in the American Dream.  
Jende Jonga, a Cameroonian immigrant living in Harlem, has come to the United States to provide a better life for himself, his wife, Neni, and their six-year-old son. In the fall of 2007, Jende can hardly believe his luck when he lands a job as a chauffeur for Clark Edwards, a senior executive at Lehman Brothers. Clark demands punctuality, discretion, and loyalty—and Jende is eager to please. Clark’s wife, Cindy, even offers Neni temporary work at their summer home in the Hamptons. With these opportunities, Jende and Neni can at last gain a foothold in America and imagine a brighter future.

However, the world of great power and privilege conceals troubling secrets, and soon Jende and Neni notice cracks in their employers’ facades.

Then the financial world is rocked by the collapse of Lehman Brothers. Desperate to keep Jende’s job, which grows more tenuous by the day, the Jongas try to protect the Edwardses from certain truths, even as their own marriage threatens to fall apart. As all four lives are dramatically upended, Jende and Neni are forced to make an impossible choice.

My view of the book:

The basic story was good, but I feel this book was overhyped for the most part. I was not super impressed. I think had the book been 50 or so pages shorter, the story would have been just as good or better. Each of the two main characters, who were Cameroonian immigrants seemed inconsistent at times and did or said things later into the story that totally did not seem like something they would do or say based on how they acted earlier in the story. I did enjoy the interaction between Jende and N The basic story was good, but I feel this book was overhyped for the most part. I was not super impressed. I think had the book been 50 or so pages shorter, the story would have been just as good or better. Each of the two main characters, who were Cameroonian immigrants seemed inconsistent at times and did or said things later into the story that totally did not seem like something they would do or say based on how they acted earlier in the story. I did enjoy the interaction between Jende and Neni and the Edwards. I did enjoy the story but not as much as I hoped I would. But in defense , I was at about the half way point when I saw a spoiler in someone's review that gave away the ending, but I was still interested in the story enough to continue reading. on another aside, this is the author's debut novel and I feel she has a lot going for her and her writing will only get better with future novels. Goodreads only allows me to give full star ratings, otherwise I would rate this a 3.5 or possibly a 3.25. I do recommend this novel. The Goodreads review that I saw the spoiler on has since hidden the spoiler.

Winter Biannual Bibliothon

Yesterday was the start of the Winter Biannual Bibliothon,  There are 7 reading challenges, but I know there is no way that I will read anywhere near 7 books
The current book that I am reading is Chris Colfer's The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell .  I think this could fall under the challenge of read a retelling.  This is a middle grade book, which is not my usual genre that takes place in both the real world and also the Land of Stories, which can be described as "fairy tale land:.

I'm also listening to the audiobook, Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness  by Susannah Cahalan.  Although this is a memoir of a Caucasian heterosexual female,, I think this can fit in the read a diverse book, because the book discusses her journey into mental illness and back.

My third choice, which I'll read on my Kindle is The Second Mrs. Hockaday ; I will go with the throwback challenge, which is a challenge from a preview Biannual Bibliothon, more specifically a book with less than 1,000 ratings.  This book is an ARC that will be released on January 10, 2017.

Those three will be what I plan on and if I rad anything else or instead, may or or may not be one of the reading challenges.

Bout of Books Day 2 Update

Tuesday was Day 2 of Bout of Books readathon..  I listened to 113 minutes of The Oregon Trail  by Rinker Buck.  The entire book is over 16 hours or so.  I had thought it was going to be a pretty interesting read, but I was sooo bored!  Ended up marking it as a DNF in Goodreads!  I'll try listening to You Can't Touch My Hair  by Phoebe Robinson, while I'm doing things around the house today.  I tried reading it several months ago, but wasn't enjoying it as I hoped; I think listening to it will be better!

I also read another 42 pages in The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell .  I'm really enjoying this book.  Never got to read anything on my Kindle.  Trying to focus on The Land of Stories, while I get the chance to read and luckily, I had no insomnia last night; otherwise I probably would have read from my Kindle while in bed, so as not to wake my husband.  As I think of it, any reading that I would have done during insomnia would have counted  for the next day anyhow. So, I guess I had no insomnia the night before,  Thought I did, but maybe not.

It's also the first day of the ReadTheBookAThon!  Due to the time zone I'm in and the creators/moderators are in today's twitter sprints were at 8AM and the later one today is at 5PM, not really good times for me.  Well better get going with my day!

December Wrap Up

This month started on a high note with my listening to Roses by Leila Meacham, but the remainder of the month the reading was pretty mediocre with no real standouts, but I'm hopeful that next month will be a better reading month. 

	Wow, I loved this book. It was a family saga and covered between 75-100+ years. I didn't expect to love it this much. It may become one of my favorites of the year. I look forward to reading or listening to the prequel, Somerset. I definitely recommend this book!  5 STARS!!!

I received this as an e-ARC from the publisher through NetGalley. I only read the first 2 stories, Christmas Passed by Fern Michaels and a Glory Junction Christmas by Stacy Finz and really enjoyed them. Stacy Finz is one of my newer favorite authors and Fern Michaels I had never read although I have heard of her. The other 2 stories, I tried reading, but they just didn't appeal to me and when you have a huge TBR pile, why force yourself to read something you don't enjoy.  3 stars.

An interesting book to listen to on a topic that one is hearing about more. Glad to hear the parents were so supportive and such advocates for their child and that although Jazz is only 15 or 16, I'm glad that she told her story and is able to help other youth and young adults who are feeling the same way, as well as their parents.. I'm glad I listened to this. 2 stars.

This is the 5th book in a series that is put out each Christmas, I wait until the next holiday season and get it from my library. So, I know there will be 1 more after this one. A Texas Hill Country Christmas took me quite awhile to really get into. It wasn't until past the halfway point that I really started to enjoy it. The very end really redeemed the entire story, Hopefully, the next one in the series, A Colorado Christmas I enjoy more. I'll find out next year at this time! 3 stars.

This is the first book that I read by Donna VanLiere. The story itself was pretty much enjoyable, but several times, especially near the beginning, I found myself contemplating putting it away and not finishing it. The story is written in the third person present tense, which is extremely awkward to read. So many people have raved about this author and her Christmas stories that I felt I needed to keep with it. Although I liked most of the characters, the friendship and interaction between Gloria and Miriam really irritated me, mainly Miriam. I am not sure that I will read future books by Donna VanLiere or the previous 8 Christmas stories, I'll have to look into whether the other books are in the 3rd person present or not. as I did not enjoy that reading experience. Had it not been written in 3rd person present, I may have given the book 4 stars and I was seriously considering only 2 stars, but in the end I felt a 3-star rating was more fair since the story was a heartfelt one. I received an ARC from the publisher through NetGalley.

Stacy Finz is one of favorite authors that I discovered in the past couple years. Her Nugget series takes place in Nugget, California in the Sierra Nevada. I love visiting the town of Nugget through the pages of her books and catching up with the residents of Nugget, although I have to admit that this particular book I was not quite as entranced by. I just did not enjoy the chemistry between Gia Treadwell and Flynn Barlow and some of the storyline seemed very predictable, I am excited to see that there will be another book in this series coming in April, though, before her new series starts in July in the nearby town of Glory Junction. Hopefully, she will have the occasional appearance or mention of one of the Nugget residents. Although I give this 3 stars, I feel it deserves more of a 2.75 or 2.5 stars.



A very short story and part of the Welcome Home series that I was invited by the author to download. It is a continuation of Val and Griffin's story, which was told in Welcoming the Bad Boy. I'm excited to read her new series coming out in April.

I'm not quite sure how to review this one. I haven't been reading (listening to audiobooks) Nicholas Sparks books long. Although I've seen a couple of the movie adaptations back in the 90s or early 2000s. This book seemed incredibly long, but it could have been that I had to listen to it over a greater than usual period of time than I usually do. I just wasn't that engaged with the story. It seemed very slow and mot that exciting. At times, I considered DNF'ing it, but I continued with it. The end was satisfying and saved the book from being rated 2 stars, just OK, but as a whole I wasn't impressed and am glad this wasn't my 1st Nicholas Sparks' book, as it probably would have also been my last.
3 stars (actually 2.5 stars)

I'm reading an ARC of  by Leila Meacham, that I only have 20% more to read, but don't expect to get to tonight.  I'm also reading a library book that was available at my local library,
, which I'm about 20% through.  I should get to some more tonight.  It's a middle grade book, but I am really enjoying it so far.  So hopefully, it will get me out of my reading slump.  Also, I am a little less than 10 minutes into an audiobook,  by Rinker Buck.  It is rather long at 16+ hours, so we'll see how it goes.

September Wrap Up

I enjoyed listening to this book. It kept me listening and although there is an overlying mystery, there are other active storylines in this history. This book does not tie anything up neatly and you will have to continue on with Book 2 in the near future and I expect Book 3 as well. Also, although Shelley Shepard Gray is a Christian author, the story is not preachy and can be appreciated by non-Christians or those who do not enjoy a story with strong religious overtones.

A solid 3.5.



I posted a review of Small Great Things here.  I really enjoyed this book and cared about the characters.  The author does a great job on the characterization of each of the characters.  Even though, you don't like what the parents stand for, she still is able to make you understand some of the feelings the parents are going through.  This is probably my favorite of the Jodi Picoult books that I have read.

5 stars.



Back when Jon and Kate Plus 8 was on TV, I enjoyed watching the show at first, but after awhile, although I liked seeing what the 8 kids were up to I just felt turned off by the parents. This book is the same way, except I started disliking John and Kate quicker. This book is all about their pregnancy up through the sextuplets 1st birthday. Nothing new, I'd be more interested in how the kids are doing now as pre-teens and the twins as teens. But I'm glad they are getting to live more or less normal lives and not be in the spotlight. There was really nothing that I hadn't read or seen before. I listened to this on audio and it was pretty short, not quite 5 hours.

2 stars

This book was marked DNF.  I tried to stay with the story and got almost a third through it but I just was not caring about any of the characters. There were many conflicting reviews, but it sounded like it still might be interesting and I wanted to judge for myself. But I just can't go on anymore. I of course won't give it a star rating since I did not complete the book. I do recommend Jodi Picoult's 19 Minutes for a fictional book about a school shooting and the non-fiction book, Colimbine.

I actually feel guilty about only giving this 2 stars, but I really only felt it was okay. When I was not reading this book, I did not feel that anxious to return to it and continue, except merely in order to get to my next book. The kidnapping and the years she was imprisoned were horrific and it is remarkable that she was able to survive and endure such a life and , but at the same time, I can not sugar coat my reading experience and say this book is 4 or 5 stars.

2 stars

2/3 to 3/4 of the book I found very interesting, but the remaining 33% to 25% was kind of boring, I still give the book 4 stars as for the most part I found it interesting all that he was able to overcome. It almost feels like 2 different people wrote this book. I do wish there would have been a couple photos of his family and the area.

4 stars

When I started listening to this book, I found it interesting, but it just kind of went downhill after awhile. The narrator was good, but the length of the book was way too long. I feel like it took me forever to listen to this, partly because it was over 17 hours long and it did not call me to keep listening to it. By the time, I decided I wanted to quit the book, I was over half done and thought of all the time I would have wasted if I didn't finish, but now looking back I ended up wasting that much more time. Since I enjoyed hearing some of the backstory of when they were growing up and before they made it to the news, I will give it 1.5 stars. 

I'm participating in the blog tour for this book.  I will be posting my review on that day along with an excerpt and a link to a coloring page.  Check on October 2nd for the blog post. 

I finally got The Underground Railroad after waiting quite  awhile for this book.  Since this was an Oprah Book Club pick and Usually have not enjoyed the books Oprah chose for her book club, I had doubts on whether to even read this in the first place, but it sounded interesting and had lots of good reviews, so I decided to give it a try  and put it on reserve at several places.  Lately, I've seen quite a few reviews by people who did not enjoy the book and some who just DNF'ed it.  I started reading it yesterday and am not enjoying it for several of the reasons that others did not.  I am debating just DNF'ing it.  I do not care for his writing and have found myself re-reading paragraphs several times, which I rarely have the need to do.  I have a long list of other books that I want to read.  So many books, so little time!

Books in my Future - The First Half of September

Most of the books I got the 1st part of September were ARCs from NetGalley. 

ARCs (Advanced Reader Copies)

Another Day in the Death of America by Gary Younge



This sounds really interesting and relevant about all the gun violence in America and the loss of lives of so many children on one particular day in America. 

You Can't Touch My Hair by Phoebe Robinson



An essay collection about race, gender, and pop culture from celebrated stand-up comedian and WNYC podcaster Phoebe Robinson.  I look forward to reading this it sounds like it could be funny, while also discussing relevant topics.

The Chibok Girls by Helon Habila



In April 2014, over 200 Nigerian school girls were kidnapped by Boko Haram.  Helon Habila, an author and journalist born in Nigeria tells the story of the girls and their parents and the background of BokoHaram.  This is a short book of about 128 pages, so I think I will be reading this sooner rather than later.

Substitute: Going to School With a Thousand Kids by Nicholson Baker



This is about the experiences of the author, who appears to be a best-selling author  of non-fiction, as a substitute teacher in Maine.  After getting approved to read this ARC, I' ve noticed a couple things on Goodreads.  The reviews on this are mixed with more 1 and 2 star ratings and reviews than 4 and 5 star reviews and ratings.  Also it shows the page count as over 700 pages!!Hopefully, this is an error; I can't imagine that a book on this subject is worthy of this length.  Because of this, I don't think I'll be in much of a rush to read this in the immediate future.

The Most Wonderful Time by Fern Michael, Stacy Finz, Sarah Title and Shirlee McCoy



Christmas will be here before we know it and Novenber is a perfect time to start your holiday reading.  I wanted to read this mainly for the story by Stacy Finz, which is suppose to launch her new series.  This book comes out near the end of October, so I may be starting my holiday reading early.

Welcome Home for Christmas by Annie Rains



Another ARC for the holiday season  by my newest favorite author and also the last book in her Hero's Welcome series, which I am very excited to read.


Christmas In Eternity Springs by Emily March



I've been reading and review Emily March's Eternity Spring series for the past 3 years or so.  Recently, I've been asked to participate in the Christmas in Eternity Springs blog tour.  I'll be participating on Sunday, October 2nd on this blog.  I'll be reading this as soon as I finish my current book.  Guess that means my holiday reading will start real early this year!


LIBRARY BOOKS

This Is Where It Ends by Marieke Njikamp



I had waited on the reserve list for so long for this book and finally got the book on Kindle from Overdrive.  Well, I had seen so many mixed reviews and wanted to decide for myself.  You'll need to check my September wrap-up to see what I thought.

Hillbilly Effigy by J.D. Vance



I am currently reading this for #DiverseAThon, which is a read-a-thon to encourage reading diverse books.  I did not think I was going to be able to participate in #DiverseAThon, since I knew I had to read this book before the library loan ended  and I had requested this awhile ago , but the wait list is even longer now than it was when I first got on it.  I did not think this book would be considered diverse, but after watching someone's video discussing what #DiverseAThon is, I decided that since this book talks about a sub-culture of America and the lower socioeconomic class, it could actually be included in this readathon.  I am only 20% into it and it is quite interesting, but you'll have to wait for my September Wrap-Up post to find out what I think of it.  Here is the Goodreads link if you want more info about it.  Maybe it's not the most diverse book I could have read for #Diverse AThon, but one I read a goodvariety of diverse books and this was where I had to read this or lose the oppiortunity to read this book anytime in the near future.


AMAZON

The Key by Jennifer Anne Davis (True Reign #1)



I was watching a Booktube video by one of my favorite Booktubers at Sarah's Nightstand.  She had just read the entire trilogy and really enjoyed it.  The first book was free as of the other day (it still may be, but I'm not sure).  I've been wanting to try fantasy, since I can't really think of any that I have read (unless you count Miss Perregrine's Home for Peculiar Children) and since she recommended it and the first book was free, I thought why not

Hopefully, I won't get anymore books this month.  I'm getting close on a couple reserves, but I think it will be more like next month.  I suspended a couple holds for a couple weeks, so I think i'll be okay.  My biggest problem, if you really consider it a problem, is requesting and being approved for more ARCs on NetGalley.

Book Review: Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult

Small Great Things
Jodi Picoult
Random House/Ballantine Books (expected publication date October 11, 2016)
480 pages
5 stars

Synopsis:

Ruth, an African-American nurse, has worked at a CT hospital for nearly twenty years as a labor and delivery nurse. So when a young couple, Turk and Brittany, come into the hospital to have their baby, it is business as usual -- until Turk calls in Ruth’s white supervisor after the birth. He says, “I don’t want her or anyone like her to touch my boy,” and pulls up his sleeve to reveal a swastika tattoo: he and his wife are Skinheads. The hospital is used to making patient requests -- they have women who request female OBs, and others who don’t want be cared for by a resident. So a note is placed on the baby’s file and all African-American staff are exempted from caring from that patient -- meaning Ruth, who is the only Black nurse on the ward. The baby is taken to the nursery a day after its birth so circumcision can be done. However, Ruth’s nursing colleague is called away on an emergency C section and Ruth is the only person in the nursery when the baby has cardiac/respiratory failure. After a brief hesitation – she intervenes – and yet, the baby dies. Not long after that, Ruth learns she has been charged with negligent homicide by the state.

Ruth’s attorney is a white woman -Kennedy McQuarrie- who would not consider herself a racist by any means. Like Ruth, she has a child. But unlike Ruth, her family has never had to think about race on a daily basis. In spite of the evidence and the request of a Skinhead barring Ruth from doing her job, Kennedy knows she won’t talk about race in court, because she’d run the risk of polarizing the jury or the judge and losing the case. But to Ruth, that’s not justice.

As the two women form an alliance, and then an unlikely friendship, Kennedy begins to see that racism isn’t just about intent, but power. That even if Skinheads like Turk did not exist, Ruth would still be fighting an uphill battle. And she begins to seek a way to make a predominantly white jury see that they are responsible for the house they did not build…but in which they live.

My view of the book:

This is a fantastic novel and one of the best books that I read this year. Jodi Picoult's books always delve into controversial and relevant topics and in Small Great Things, the topics of racism, prejudice, white supremacy and white privilege among others are discussed. In my opinion, the ending was too neatly tied up, but I still find this an excellent book and I highly recommend it. I received an Advanced Reader Copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley, Random This is a fantastic novel and one of the best books that I read this year. Jodi Picoult's books always delve into controversial and relevant topics and in Small Great Things, the topics of racism, prejudice, white supremacy and white privilege among others are discussed. In my opinion, the ending was too neatly tied up, but I still find this an excellent book and I highly recommend it. I received an Advanced Reader Copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley, Random House/Ballantine, and Jodi Picoult.