Review: The Sunshine Girls

The Sunshine Girls by Molly Fader
My rating: 5 of 5 stars



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Review: The Codebreaker's Secret

The Codebreaker's Secret by Sara Ackerman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This dual timeline book is set in Hawaii during WWII and the mid-1960s. During the wartime plot, Pearl Harbor was attacked and Walt was killed. We meet Izzy a code breaker who has joined the war to avenge the death of her brother, Walt. She also tries to spend all of her free time doing the Hawaiian things her brother loved so much.

In the 1960s timeline, we meet Lu who has been sent to photograph a fancy hotel opening. She spends her time with the hotel owner and a local photographer. When they discover a body in a cave, it brings back the photographer's past and ties the two timelines together.

I very much enjoyed how the two timelines intertwined throughout the book and the way they gelled near the end of the book was great! This may be my favorite book by Ms. Ackerman.

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May Book Pick

 I am a bit late posting this one, I apologize for my tardiness.  

This month is a book that pulled me out of my book slump.  This book is about a young woman that is very close to her mother.  Katy and her mom were so close that when Carol was diagnosed with cancer, they were still planning an epic trip to Italy.  Carol had lived in Italy when she was younger and she had talked about it for years.  Carol passes away before they could take the trip and Katy, being unhappy in her marriage decides to take the trip alone.  Here is where I will stop telling you about it and give you some general.  Katy will meet someone in Italy that will completely change her life and make her rethink every decision she had made.  

I found the setting beautiful and the story fun.  I hope you enjoy it.

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Review: The Blue Butterfly, A Novel of Marion Davies

The Blue Butterfly, A Novel of Marion Davies by Leslie Johansen Nack
My rating: 4 of 5 stars



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Review: Nine Lives

Nine Lives by Peter Swanson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars



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Review: He Killed Them All: Robert Durst and My Quest for Justice

He Killed Them All: Robert Durst and My Quest for Justice by Jeanine Pirro
My rating: 2 of 5 stars



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Review: Crime Before Christmas: A Bookish Cafe Mystery

Crime Before Christmas: A Bookish Cafe Mystery by Harper Lin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars



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April book pick

For some reason, as the winter turns to spring, I just want to read a book with a vacation-like vibe. As soon as I started this one, I wished I had saved it for Spring Break (less work) week. Looking at the cover I expected the general fiction book of romance on a beach or something. What I got was a book about two almost has-been movie stars trying to make another hit movie like they did years before. The male lead, Cole, is full of himself and his ex-wife, Stella On the movie set is a young girl, who is a social media influencer, that wants nothing more than to make a name for herself, at any cost. We also get to meet a producer who doesn't really have patience for any of the actors, because she may have been violated and has no memory of the event. Oh yes, and there is a hurricane coming ashore and a possible murder. The Siren is a great book!

March book pick

 I have been waiting to share this book with you for a little while now.  I can finally say that you will be able to read this on March 8!! Woo hoo!!  I admit I have never read "Little Women", but supposedly this book is a retelling of that book by Louisa May Alcott in a more modern sense.  All the events take place during World War II and each one of the sisters does something to assist in the war effort.  Some girls will be on the front line, while others are holding down the fort. There is romance, grief, and a little plot twist.  

I am excited to hear your take on this and see how it compares to the real "Little Women", please drop me a line and let me know.  

Don't you just love the cover?  Enjoy!!!!

Review: Great or Nothing

Great or Nothing by Joy McCullough
My rating: 4 of 5 stars



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February audiobook book pick

I wanted to choose an audiobook for you that was fun, quick, something that would make you laugh or smile. This one is perfect for a car ride, cleaning the house, or a good walk.

"Me and Patsy" is all about Loretta Lynn and her good pal, Patsy Cline.  You can tell by the title that there was nothing boring about these two girls when they got together.  If they weren't causing a scene in a bar, they were trying on makeup or talking about sex.  

   I have not read Coal Miner's Daughter in a long time, so I can't remember, but this book is very candid and honest.  Loretta doesn't leave anything (and I mean anything) out.  I am not a fan of country music, and probably can't name any Loretta song other than the ones she mentioned in the book, but I found this book fun.  The whole time I was reading it I kept thinking about how my friends would LOVE this one!  I will tell you that I read the book and it was a very quick read, and then I followed it up with the audiobook.  I am encouraging you to try the audio version as well.  The narrator tries to sound like Loretta, her accent is perfect for this book!!!  

I hope you enjoy this one!  Let me know what you think.  

February Book Pick

I am in a book club where just about everyone in the group simply adores a Fiona Davis book.  It is pretty much a given that our club will read this book and I hope you will too.   

If you have never read a Fiona book, please get started right now! If you have read the entire catalog you will find that this one fits in nicely with all the others.  As usual, Fiona gives us a book set in an NYC landmark, in two time periods.  This book gives us Angelica/Lillian who is trying to rebuild her life after the Spanish flu ruined everything for her.  She is a woman who will drop a false identity of a nude model and live life anew under her legal name, Lillian, as a personal secretary to Helen Frick.  Helen's dad is Henry Clay Frick, a very wealthy man who has put it in his will that on his death his home and his thrilling art collection will become a museum.  

The modern part of the story has another model that finds herself on a job at the site of the Frick Museum.  Here she meets an intern who will help her solve a mystery that dates back to the days of the infamous Angelica.  As a reader, we are pulled back and forth between the two time periods watching a murder mystery unfold before our very eyes. 

You're going to love this one!! 

First book pick of 2022

 A few months back, I was lucky enough to get my hands on this book a few months before it was published.  It wasn't my first Julia Kelly book, but it became my favorite Julia Kelly book. 

 This book introduces us to Lily, a young woman that doesn't want to be in the last group of debutates, but her grandmother and mother demand it so she must.  We will follow Lily on the journey of parties, presentations, and dances, a typical debutante life until her world turns upside down by a family secret.  I love books like this, you know the ones, where you expect something and the story gives you something so different.  

This is an excellent read for the start of those 2022 reading challenges.

2022 Reading Challenge

 Every year I try to do a challenge of my own to get me out of a reading box, but also to just have some fun trying to fit a book into categories.  Over the last few years, I have made my own to distribute to friends.  My challenges have just one requirement, that you do what you want with it.  If you don't like a category, you mark it out and insert your own.  If you don't like how I worded something, you reword it.  If you wish to use one book for three categories, you do so.  It is your challenge, your reading life, I am just there, I hope, for inspiration.  

Don't forget to come back here each month in 2022 and get my MUST READ book of the month, book reviews, and maybe some free bookmarks you can print or download.  My summer reading challenge will come out around April and will be full of fun reads for your all summertime adventures.  

Thanks so much to you all that followed along with me in 2021. I hope you had a wonderful reading year and I am hoping you stick around for next year.  

2022 Reading Challenge--download the challenge here

The last book pick of 2021

 This month's book was an easy pick for me. I read every single book that Gill Paul writes! She is creative, entertaining, and somehow picks topics that are so very interesting.  

This book is called The Collector's Daughter and it is about Evelyn Herbert.  Evelyn's father is an archeologist that is on a team desperately wants to find the tomb of Tutankhamun.  On one fateful day, Evelyn happens to be in attendance on the hunt when they find it!!  The tomb was erected to have curses put on anyone who disturbs the burial place.  The team abandons all superstitions, each member takes a token home before they tell the public they have found the tomb.  Fast forward through time and you can see how the "curse" affects each of the team members. The book takes place over the course of about 50 years, and they are 50 wild years.  

  

Review: The Many Daughters of Afong Moy

The Many Daughters of Afong Moy by Jamie Ford
My rating: 4 of 5 stars



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Review: Until We Meet

Until We Meet by Camille Di Maio
My rating: 4 of 5 stars



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Review: The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present

The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present by Paul McCartney
My rating: 4 of 5 stars



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November Book Pick

 I had so much trouble picking the book for November.  Why?  Well, I try to pick a book that I read the month before and make it be one that I loved.  That is easy most months because I usually only read one great one a month, but this month was completely different.  During the month of October, I read 5 books that I wanted to share with people.  FIVE books that I think are worth your time.  I decided that I don't have to do the same thing that everyone else does, I can pick a TOP FIVE book pick and you can choose any of them and I think you will have a GRAND time.  

1.  Dave Grohl-The Storyteller

This book is all about rock n roll, but not sex and drugs.  This is a book to celebrate music.  A book that shows love, devotion, and a slight coffee addiction.  I loved every single part of this book and if I have to pick a favorite of all 5 this month, it is this one.  

2.  Taylor Jenkins Reid-Malibu Rising 

I love all of Taylor's books, and this one is even better than the last one (Daisy Jones and the Six).  This one features June and Mick and shows us their relationship and marriage.  We will then be transformed to the future where we meet June and Mick's kids and see how they cope with his stardom and mom and dad's choices.  I won't say anything else, except this one is hard to put down. 

3.  Jessica Anya Blau-Mary Jane

This is probably my second favorite of all 5 books.  This one shows us a teenage girl on the verge of womanhood.  She is a nanny for the summer to a doctor and his wife.  While working she experiences a whole world different than the life she has with her parents and feels she is living a double life.  Things keep getting stranger when she meets her television idol and her rock star husband.  

4.  Patti Callahan Henry-Once Upon a Wardrobe

I could feel the magic all around while reading this book.  Meg finds herself interviewing C.S. Lewis about how he created Narnia for her invalid brother, George.  George is a very creative child that draws pictures of the stories Meg tells him from the information she gathered from C.S. Lewis.  The tale is almost as magical as Narnia itself.  

5.  Laura Dave-The Last Thing He Told Me

I knew this book would be a type of thriller but had no idea how this book would twist and turn.  I am not sure what I can tell you that would not give it away. I will just say it is a book about a woman that marries a man.  This man has a child from a previous marriage and he is a widower.  I do believe that is all I can tell you, sorry about that, you just need to be surprised.  

On my monthly book shelf that I keep, I will record The Storyteller as the book of the month and the other 4 as bonus reads, but please don't let any of these pass you by.  

October book picks, yes PICKS

 I have chosen two books this month.  Two vastly different books.  

Early Morning Riser is a general woman's fiction book.  We meet Jane who is living the life of a school teacher and everything is going great until her mother has a car accident and it completely changes Jane's life.  Her life goes like most of us, she gets married, has children and it wouldn't be a good book without some drama.  I won't spill the secrets of the book, I will just tell you that this book is a great book for fall break.  

The second book won't be released until October 21, but it is worth checking out once it is released. Even though she was a child,  Maria worked for the resistance.  She gets caught and is thrown into Auschwitz. Anyone who has heard this name knows that it was one of the most dangerous places that a prisoner could enter. Maria's life is spared because a guard loves the game of chess and Maria is an excellent player.  This is not a light and fluffy book like the one above....this is heavy and heartbreaking in spots, but these stories need to be told as some of the supporting characters were real-life people.   

Enjoy.