June Wrap-Up

Wow, I thought May was a good reading month with 12 books that I finished, but in June, I read even more 15 books finished.  Unfortunately, they were a mixed bag with book ratings ranging from 5 stars down to 1 star and at least one that I DNF'ed.  Quantity, definitely does not equal quality, But here is what I read and my review for them.

I listened to this as an audiobook. Although parts of this book were interesting, it was not quite what I was expecting or what I hoped for. A good part of the book (about a third to half) discussed the history of Japan and also, China to a lesser degree. I was hoping for a lot more people's personal experiences before, during, and after the Japanese internment. For this reason, I can't give this more than 2 stars, maybe 2.5, but Goodreads doesn't allow half stars to be reflected in each person's rating. Overall, I was disappointed in this book.

2 stars

I listened to this book on audio. This was my first book by Jill Shalvis. For the first half of the book, this book was merely OK, but I enjoyed the second half and will continue reading this series. I will be listening to the 2nd book in this series in July.   3 stars

My first 5 star book of the month

Excellent book! I listened to this as an audio book. At first, I didn't care for the narrator, but either she improved as the book went on or I just got use to her. It was a very interesting story of growing up in amidst war.in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Her life was good and normal for the first nine years of her life, but then her family had to flee from the war-torn country.  She had to deal with several family deaths, moving to several African countries, and finally resettlement in the U.S. (Rochester, NY) through the refugee program. She thought life in America would be perfect and learned there were many unexpected challenges. 4.75 stars.

#sandras_story

I received an ARC of this book quite awhile ago, but never got to read it. In the meantime, I have been able to get an audio version of it on Overdrive. It was really good and kept my attention and wondering what it was that made her flee her North Carolina home and sever all ties with her family after her father's death from Multiple Sclerosis. The only thing that I really didn't like in the book happened in the very beginning of the book. when she and her husband were interviewed by a social worker, because they were wanting to adopt a child. The social worker asked her and her husband why they can't have "children of their OWN'. Being an adoptive parent, any "good" and professional social worker with any knowledge of adoption should know that this is not an appropriately phrased question to ask. A more appropriate question would have been to ask why they could not have biological children. When you adopt, the adoptive child(ren) become your OWN children, just not biologically. Other than this, the adoption storyline was very enjoyable and appropriate. I recommend this book and will look into other books by Diane Chamberlain.

4 stars.

Wow! What an excellent book! I don't think I ever heard of these "radium girls" and there was even a company here in Illinois that employed these dial painters, who used paint containing radium. Ths book was extremely well-researched and although this is nonfiction, most of this reads as fiction, but it is true. It was a page-turner and often kept me up somewhat later than I usually do. Definitely 5 stars.

This book was just barely ok. There were times when it was interesting, but those times were too few; overall, I really would have been fine not even reading this. I can't say much without giving something away, but I feel it was totally unnecessary to include in the story in the first place. If you've read the book, you should know what I'm alluding to. Also, I feel authors sometimes include certain storylines because it is the in thing at the time.

1.5 stars

This is a really good book that I listened to on audioI never read anything by this author before and with this author marked as writing Christian fiction, I wasn't sure what to expect. This was also one of the free selections in this summer's Sync audiobook teen program. But I was pleasantly surprised that this was a very good suspense and I would never have known it was a Christian author who wrote this if I had not read that she was. Kaycee finds her friend murdered and ends up the main suspect, so she flees the state in hopes of figuring out how to bring the killers to justice. This is actually the first book in a series and ends in a cliffhanger. 4.5 stars

A solid 3 stars. This book was interesting, but nothing particularly memorable about it. It was written, as well as narrated by the author, Garry Marshall, who has a thick New York accident, which at times made it hard to understand for this Midwesterner. He was the creator of Happy Days, in addition to directing some other tv series and many movies, the most famous of which was Pretty Woman. I also just found out he had passed away last year (2016) at the age of 82.

I first heard of this book on Raul's BookTube channel, The Latin Lector. He raved about this book and I really enjoyed it. It is set in the early 60s in Cuba and the U.S after Castro was in power. I never really learned about that period in history in school so it was very interesting and informative. I just loved the ending. Since this book was released last year, maybe the author will write a sequel.

4.5 stars

This was a totally mediocre book. The premise was good, a librarian's attempt to save a small town library, but the delivery fell flat for me. Very disappointed.

2 stars, but that may be generous.

Another winner by Emily March in her Eternity Springs series.  I was a latecomer to the series, starting with the 7th book and trying to catch up on those first 6 ones that I missed.  Because there are 4 books that I have not yet read, I was confused at first with all the names and where they fit into the series, but for the most part I figured it out before long and enjoyed the series.  The synopsis on Goodreads is a bit misleading, since it says Brick's ex-girlfriend shows up unexpectedly, which never happens.  There are several storylines in this book and all of them are enjoyable.  I look forward to the next book in the series.

4 stars

This was barely even an okay book; I listened to this on audio in one day, otherwise I'd have DNF'ed it long before I finished.  Even a day and half after finishing when I was writing my review, my memories of what this book is about are waning and as I type this up several weeks later, I can't really remember much at all.  It wasn't until the last third of the book that it became somewhat interesting.

2 stars on Goodreads, but that's generous!

I thought this book might be interesting.  It discusses how education, especially college education, keeps lower-class children from reaching their potential.  But this book is very academic and is full of statistics that one does not remember after reading/hearing it.  (I listened to the audio version.)
There were a couple of examples/studies of actual people that were interesting.  Ashley's story was told in the first chapter of the book and I figured there would be a wrap-up at the end of the book; that was the only reason I continued to listen to the entire book.  By the time I finished the book, there had not been any wrap-up to Ashley's story and I felt cheated. 
The book was way too long and seemed to repeat itself, but just used different words to do so.  Also, the audiobook was read by the author and I found him an extremely boring and dry narrator. 

1 star.

I have enjoyed the Book Samplers which were provided by Buzz Books showcasing a variety of their books for the next two seasons, so I was extremely excited when I saw that St. Martin's Press was doing this also. But to be honest, I really did not love any of these samples. The last one in the book, Stars Over Clear Lake looks like one of the more promising, as well as The Last Place You Look, but I am not that excited for any of them. I actually was somewhat disappointed in these selections and I have enjoyed the Book Samplers which were provided by Buzz Books showcasing a variety of their books for the next two seasons, so I was extremely excited when I saw that St. Martin's Press was doing this also. But to be honest, I really did not love any of these samples. The last one in the book, Stars Over Clear Lake looks like one of the more promising, as well as The Last Place You Look, but I am not that excited for any of them. I actually was somewhat disappointed in these selections and St. Martin's Press is one of my favorite publishers. I received this book as an ARC from the publisher through NetGalley.

2 stars

I haven't read a Dorothy Garlock book in over 15 years, but I found I still enjoy her. I listened to this one on audio. This is not my favorite historical era, Prohibition, but I did find it pretty good.

3 stars.

I read/listened to a several excellent to very good books, a few stinkers, and some that were good  and others were only okay.  My favorite book that I read in June was The Radium Girls, which I definitely recommend!  How Dare The Sun Rise was my favorite book that I listened to in June, followed closely by If I Run.  I also recommend these, either as audios or actually read.

Sorry  this June Wrap-Up is so late this month.  I think, I will be stepping back a bit with my overall blogging.  I want to of course keep up my wrap-up, but I may not be posting every Wednesday and Friday, as I have been doing.  I'm feeling a bit burnt out and will from time to time post on these days, but I want to post because I want to not because I feel I have to!  Blogging is suppose to be fun and lately, I haven't been enjoying it as much and since I don't get paid to do it, I really need to make sure I'm enjoying myself

WWW Wednesdays 6/7/2017

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'm still reading The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women by Kate Moore. i think I'll finish this on Wednesday.  I also started listening to Pretending to Dance by Diane Chamberlain. 

What did you recently finish reading?  Since last week, I listened to Uprooted: The Japanese-American Experience during World War II by Albert Marrin, Second-Chance Summer by Jill Landis, and How Dare The Sun Rise: Memoirs of a War Child by Sandra Uwiringiyimani.

What do you think you’ll read next? I'll read A Stardance Summer by Emily March next, since I'll be participating in a blog tour of this book which is being released this month. I;ll listen next to either Sisterland by Curtiss Sittenfeld or Dog Years by Mark Doty.

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

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!

November Wrap Up

A very good month for books.  I finished reading 4 books and listening to 7,

I listened to this book on audio. I had tried to listen to this book several months ago, but sent it back to the library, but I decided to give it another try. Although, I wouldn't say I thoroughly enjoyed, I did listen to it in its entirety this time and I will try the next book in the series. This series may though be a bit too juvenile for me to read as a 40-omething. I'll be giving this on Goodreads only 2 stars since for me it really was only slightly better than OK, but personally, I'd rat I listened to this book on audio. I had tried to listen to this book several months ago, but sent it back to the library, but I decided to give it another try. Although, I wouldn't say I thoroughly enjoyed, I did listen to it in its entirety this time and I will try the next book in the series. This series may though be a bit too juvenile for me to read as a 40-something. I'll be giving this on Goodreads only 2 stars since for me it really was only slightly better than OK, but personally, I'd rate it 2.25 or even 2.5 stars.

I had this on reserve at my library's e-book website for several months. I had expected that I would thoroughly enjoy it and waited anxiously for it. Unfortunately, I was not as enthralled by it as I hoped to be and actually was not enthralled at all. As more and more reviews were done on it, many people complained about the lack of character development, since primarily each chapter focused on only a few select characters and a particular generation, with the chapters alternating sides of a family tree, one in Ghana and the other although originally from Ghana, the other side of the family tree were taken away to America as slaves. Some of the chapters were better than others, but the lack of character development due to the brevity of time we spent with each generation of characters was a detriment to the book as a whole, at least for me. I did enjoy how the final chapter completed the story. The book did take me longer to read than usual. It has been difficult to decide on a rating for this book, but on Goodreads, after much consideration, I give it 3 stars, but on a personal level, I would give it 2.5 stars or even 2.75 stars.

This is the second book in a trilogy which centers on a mystery in a New Order Amish community of who killed one of the young men. of the community. I read the first book a couple months ago and the second book continues where the first book left off without really reminding us anything that happened in the previous book. Although\, I have read books where nearly half of the new book is a summary of the previous book and those are just too repetitive, but I would have liked a bit of a summary, j This is the second book in a trilogy which centers on a mystery in a New Order Amish community of who killed one of the young men. of the community. I read the first book a couple months ago and the second book continues where the first book left off without really reminding us anything that happened in the previous book. Although\, I have read books where nearly half of the new book is a summary of the previous book and those are just too repetitive, but I would have liked a bit of a summary, just a page or so even dispersed through out the story. At first, I was confused about some of the stories that were going on in the book, although after awhile I did get back into the stories and enjoyed the book. I usually like taking sometime between books in a series, but after feeling like even a couple months between book 1 and book 2 was too long, I am going to listen to book 3 later next week. 3 stars for this book, since I did not enjoy it to the same degree that I did the first book, Missing.

I've been trying to get into fantasy, but I finally after listening to over 60%, I had to just DNF it. It was just too confusing and strange. I could not stand the writing, much too descriptive and I just could not follow the story. I was intrigued by the fact that the narrator was Bronson Pinchot, who I remember as Balki in Perfect Strangers in the 80s; as a narrator, he was fine, quite good in fact. It was the story itself that turned me off.

I enjoyed the first book in the series very much, the second book was not as good as the first, but this the 3rd book in the series, was another very enjoyable and engaging story. 4 stars

I absolutely loved this book. Annie Rains is my favorite newly-discovered author of 2016. The stories are always good, the characters likeable, and the chemistry between the 2 main characters red-hot! Definitely a 5-star book for me! I can't wait for her new series next year; although I will miss this series. Thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. 5 stars



I was not quite sure what to expect from this one before I listened to this. I enjoyed it quite a bit, though; it was full of various stories over the years when he was a practicing pediatrician. First in Russia and later in the Chicago area. I enjoyed the fact that much of his stories took place in the Chicagoland area. The book is narrated by the author himself and although he is not the best narrator, there was a certain charm to the fact that he narrated it himself.  4 stars.


What an extremely brave woman. I'm having difficulty deciding if I should give this 4 or 5 stars. It's definitely a 4.5 in my eyes. This was an extremely well-done biography of Irena Sendler and the saving of thousands of Jewish children and babies from the Warsaw Ghetto. I had not realized how bad things were in Poland, which is where my paternal ancestors came from; although they came to America in the early 20th century.

3.5 stars for this one. This is one of the better books about dogs that I read (listened to) Jessica Vogelsang is a veterinarian and in this book she talks about her life mainly with 3 dogs she had during her life and her choice to become a veterinarian.

Very cute pictures of dogs accompanied by 50 fact about them. There's only 50 of them, so it is a short 50 pages though. I received a digital ARC from the publisher through NetGalley.  3 stars,



Originally, I started reading this a couple months ago and sent it back to the library. Found the writing too simplistic. I was going to retry it in audio and requested the book on Overdrive both in audio and as an e-book, both with a long waiting list. The e-book came available first, so I tried reading it again. At first the I didn't care for the writing, but I kept reading and it grew on me. I plan on reading the next book sometime next year.  3 stars.

I listened to this book yesterday and although, it is a good story of a young woman who defected from North Korea, I find the book The Girl with Seven Names: A North Korean Defector’s Storyby Hyoenseo Lee much better. One can't judge too severely, as pretty much any story told by someone who defected from North Korea is personally their own, but I feel the other book is told better and was just more engaging as a whole. What this family went through is harrowing as is any story of people escaping from North Korea. I find EunSun and in fact her entire family very brave and wish them the best.  4 stars


All in all, this was a very well-rounded month. I had at least book in each rating, except for one-star and that happens rarely that I give a book one star, because I usually quit reading the book if it is that bad.  If I quit reading a book I then do not rate it, since I did not read it from beginning to end.  My favorite book was Welcome Home for Christmas, but Irena's Children was a close second

Ten Books that Have Been on your Shelf or TBR Pile Since Before You Started Blogging

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish. This feature was created because they are particularly fond of lists at The Broke and the Bookish. They’d love to share their lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!

Since I've only been blogging since November of last year, I am going to post the 10 books on my TBR that according to Goodreads have the most ratings.

1. Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay.  I can't read too many WWII books around the same time or I'll get burnt out.  I just read Lilac Girls a couple months ago, wwhich was a great book, but can't read this so soon after.  Maybe later this year or early next year!

2.   Firefly Lane by Kristen Hannah.  I've been meaning to read this for over 3 years and haven't.  I recently listened to her book, Home Front and really enjoyed it, so I need to get to this sooner rather than later.

3.   Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin.  For over 4 years, I've wanted to read this. Here is the blurb about it on Goodreads:  In the Deep South of the 1950s, journalist John Howard Griffin decided to cross the color line. Using medication that darkened his skin to deep brown, he exchanged his privileged life as a Southern white man for the disenfranchised world of an unemployed black man. His audacious, still chillingly relevant eyewitness history is a work about race and humanity-that in this new millennium still has something important to say to every American.  It is highly rated on Goodreads.

4.    The House Girl by Tara Conklin.  No real reason that I haven't read this just haven't gotten to it, but I do want to get to it before too long.

5.    Love reading about Native Americans, but know this will be a lot about the injustice "the white men" did to the Native Americans in forging a new nation.  I may try to listen to this as an audiobook, since I believe I can get this on Overdrive.

6.   I got this through the Amazon First program, where a few of the books coming out next month are available for 1.99, sadly I have not read it yet.  I rarely get Kindle First books, though since oftentimes they don't interest me

7.    Undaunted Courage: The Pioneering First Mission to Explore America's Wild Frontier by Stephen E. Ambrose.  Do not 100% remember getting this, but I think there was some kind of Kindle Daily Deal or Kindle Special Offer where I got this for a good price.  I'll get around to reading this but not in any big hurry.

8.    The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes by Diane Chamberlain. I have not yet read this author, but I hear she is good.  I do plan on reading Chamberlain's book, Pretending to Dance first since I have it as an ARC.

9.    I enjoy reading books about the FLDS, but since back in July, I read The Witness Wore Red by Rebecca Musser.  I will probably wait until next year to read this one.  But who knows?

10.     Not quite sure why I got this.  I know it was offered free on Amazon an I had heard good things about it, but to be truthful I am in no rush to read this one.