Wednesday, March 28, 2018

Review: The Handmaid's Tale TV Tie-In Edition

The Handmaid's Tale TV Tie-In Edition The Handmaid's Tale TV Tie-In Edition by Margaret Atwood
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Holy crap--I can't believe I haven't read/listened to this before. It's like a "what we might become" if social conservative ultra-Christians get their way. Scary stuff, and, even in the book, they are hypocrites.

Claire Danes is a sweet narrator and I see why this won an Audie. Awesome production.

I can't wait to watch the TV series.

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Review: The Fall of Innocence

The Fall of Innocence The Fall of Innocence by Jenny Torres Sanchez
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Reviewed from Advanced Uncorrected Galley. To be published June 2018.

This YA book is for all the blues out there--this will give you the feels!

Poor Emilia survived the attack against her on the school playground years ago, but she hasn't fully recovered. She's haunted by the attack, and when she finds out that her 8-year-old self accused the wrong man, she is devastated. The whole time I read this book, I thought, WHY IS NO ONE GETTING THIS GIRL THERAPY!!!!! The teacher and mother in me recognized the signs of trouble, and so did almost everyone in the book.

Give this to teens and adults who like emotional drama and tears.



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Friday, March 23, 2018

Review: Mary's Monster: Love, Madness, and How Mary Shelley Created Frankenstein

Mary's Monster: Love, Madness, and How Mary Shelley Created Frankenstein Mary's Monster: Love, Madness, and How Mary Shelley Created Frankenstein by Lita Judge
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Loved this nonfiction artistic kinda poetry book! I also love books that are difficult to stick into a genre, like this one.

I have never read Frankenstein because it's wordy and boring and gross. Don't try to convince me otherwise. I also hated Lord Byron and Percy Shelley's poetry in my college English classes. English Romantic Poetry is THE WORST.

See why I'm surprised that I loved this book?

When I used to teach English (even the parts I hated), I always told my students that these Romantic poets were the boy bands and teen crushes of their times. This book goes into that--they threw conventional love out the window and had affairs like crazy. Opium was everywhere, and they wrote poetry and lived in hovels but somehow survived. But not for very long, since they all didn't grow to be very old.

Mary ran away with Percy at the tender age of 16, moved all over Europe, had babies, and put up with the man she loved sleeping with her friends and sisters. Her live was ROUGH--no wonder she wrote about monsters. I love how the author didn't mince words about Mary's poor choices.

The artwork is haunting and eerily expressive. Some of the poetry I loved, but other pages really should have been written in prose (that's the bad thing about books written in verse).

My favorite poem? "Want" on page 89.

I hope to see this on a lot of YALSA best lists this year.

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Thursday, March 22, 2018

Review: That Inevitable Victorian Thing

That Inevitable Victorian Thing That Inevitable Victorian Thing by E.K. Johnston
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I'm a huge fan of alternative historical fiction, since I love putting my history minor to work and exploring possibilities with the author. In this world, Queen Victoria's children all set off around the world to the colonies, married a local, and thus strengthened Britain's sway worldwide. The States, meanwhile, fell apart.

Much of this book is centered in Ontario, when the future queen spends a summer incognito with a friend because she has to get serious about marriage and governing. I'm a sucker for balls and gowns and dancing, so I liked those parts of the book, but the real draw is the friendships created between the characters. The Crown Princess is drawn to Helena, but also to an online guy named Henry. The Crown uses genetic matching to match up marriage partners in this world, and allows chat access and dating with the matches.

spoiler
I think this is the first YA book I've read where a serious relationship triangle that turns into marriage. The Crown Princess loves Helena. Helena, raised as a girl, finds out she's intersex. She loves the Crown Princess. But she also loves her childhood friend August. Since the Princess can't really marry someone who can't have babies, she marries August, and three are happily ever after. Huh! That whole part of the story was hastily wrapped up at the end, but that goes with the fairy tale-ish feel to the novel.

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Wednesday, March 21, 2018

Review: The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Interesting and hilarious and different! I love historical fiction, so a romp through Europe as the main character takes his year-long tour is right up my alley. But I loved how flippant and roguish Monty's tour becomes quite the adventure.

Monty's crush on his biracial best friend Percy is rather the focus of the novel--Lee tackles sexual orientation and racial discrimination with grace in the novel. Not preachy, just real. Or as real as a flippant romp through Europe with pirates can be. Glad this book received the Stonewall recognition. And looking forward to the sequel!

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Tuesday, March 20, 2018

Review: The Wife Between Us

The Wife Between Us The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Twist after twist in this one! It was exhausting--I'm going to have to hold off on psychological thrillers for awhile....

Richard was the perfect husband until he started sleeping with his personal assistant. Now Nellie is doing everything to prevent them from getting married--she's the horrible, bitter ex-wife, right?

But things aren't always what they seem. Lots of twists and turns and the past coming back to bite people in the ass.

Great, smooth narration and good production--didn't hear any errors in this ARC of the audiobook.

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Sunday, March 18, 2018

Monday, March 12, 2018

Review: Sometimes I Lie

Sometimes I Lie Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Reviewed from Advance Listening Copy picked up at ALA Midwinter 2018.

Well. I should have known from the title, right? Unreliable narrators are the WORST!

Okay, they are to me. Lots of twists and turns here between Now and Then timelines, along with different point-of-views as you go along. Those are always harder to listen to than read, because you don't see the different fonts and set-asides that tell you when things are changing.

The audiobook had lovely British accents, but the production was off because I had to keep changing the volume of the audiobook according to the accent/character speaking.

Amber is in a coma and listening to all the conversations around her, while her memories sneak back in. She is trying to remember what happened to her in the days before she went into the coma. How did it happen? Who did something to her? Her sneaky evil sister? Her husband that is cheating? Her idiot ex-boyfriend? Lots of questions and they do eventually get answered, even if it's a long and twisting road to get there.

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Review: The Last Mile

The Last Mile The Last Mile by David Baldacci
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As always, Baldacci delivers a readable mystery/thriller. Amos Decker now works for the FBI and collaborates with a recently released death row ex-con to help solve a mystery. I forgot to blog about this weeks ago when I finished, and that's about all I remember from it! Baldacci novels are like that--quick and easy reads, but nothing really sticks in your head. And I'm okay with that. These books are great escapes for me.

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