I got this book on the Nook I got with my Christmas money, remember that? I don't use it a lot, I still prefer "books", but I don't regret the purchase. I grabbed this Nook Book because it was $1.99 through a BookBub email (<--sign up if you haven't already) the other day and I saw and was so moved by the movie.
I feel like I zoomed through this. It is much like the movie, a heartbreaking, beautiful, telling of the decline of Alice, a Harvard professor and famous linguist, when she is diagnosed at 50 with early onset Alzheimer's. As beautifully done as the movie and Julienne Moore's performance as Alice is, the book is so much more powerful. Something on the "page" that is kind of lost from the screen is being able to "hear" Alice's inner voice during her decline. It is so incredibly powerful, scary, and heartbreakingly beautiful.
Yes, I have said beautiful a lot in this review, but it fits. And since Alice is all about the words used and making sure they are the right ones, I am sticking with it!!!
This has made me want to read more, everything really, by Lisa Genova.
(Finished March 30, 2018)
Friday, March 30, 2018
Wednesday, March 28, 2018
I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer by Michelle McNamara
This book crossed my radar because it is written by Patton Oswalt's late wife, she died suddenly before she could fully finish the work.
There are parts/sections that have a note by the editor telling the reader that it is a section or part that was put together with Michelle's notes, from an article she had written, or from her blog posts, and you can tell reading these sections. They are still good but they lack a certain something that is evident in her fully fleshed out, completed chapters. She writes, even with this dark subject matter, in such a warm and real way. She reveals some pieces of her life and feelings, and a compassion comes through for those she is writing about. There is nothing but respect for the victims and their families and her heart shines best here.
One of the best parts of how Michelle wrote this is that it reads like a who-done-it, you want to skip to the last page to see who the perpetrator is and how the lead detective finally gets his man. But this is isn't a novel, these horrible crimes are real, real pain and real blood was shed, and the case becomes consuming for many who are touched by it. It spans jurisdictions and years and captured the imagination of detectives and arm-chair detectives all over the place. Michelle ties the pieces together in a gripping story.
I remember being so heartbroken for Patton and their daughter Alice over the sudden loss of Michelle, but while I know it doesn't compare with their loss, I can say the loss is to the literary world too, her talent and light are gone too soon.
(Finished March 28, 2018)
There are parts/sections that have a note by the editor telling the reader that it is a section or part that was put together with Michelle's notes, from an article she had written, or from her blog posts, and you can tell reading these sections. They are still good but they lack a certain something that is evident in her fully fleshed out, completed chapters. She writes, even with this dark subject matter, in such a warm and real way. She reveals some pieces of her life and feelings, and a compassion comes through for those she is writing about. There is nothing but respect for the victims and their families and her heart shines best here.
One of the best parts of how Michelle wrote this is that it reads like a who-done-it, you want to skip to the last page to see who the perpetrator is and how the lead detective finally gets his man. But this is isn't a novel, these horrible crimes are real, real pain and real blood was shed, and the case becomes consuming for many who are touched by it. It spans jurisdictions and years and captured the imagination of detectives and arm-chair detectives all over the place. Michelle ties the pieces together in a gripping story.
I remember being so heartbroken for Patton and their daughter Alice over the sudden loss of Michelle, but while I know it doesn't compare with their loss, I can say the loss is to the literary world too, her talent and light are gone too soon.
(Finished March 28, 2018)
Tuesday, March 27, 2018
Failing Up: How to Take Risks, Aim Higher, and Never Stop Learning by Leslie Odom, Jr.
I READ THIS IN ONE SITTING AND LOVED EVERY SECOND SPENT IN THESE PAGES!! I was so sad to close the book and leave Leslie. I bought this book today, the day it was released, mostly for my son who is a HUGE Leslie Odom Jr. fan, but I read it first before giving it to him.
Leslie writes as I would expect him to, very conversationally and as if he was talking just to me. And that is his intention. He writes that if his words touch even one single reader it has been worth it. What lives on the pages of Failing Up is a little bit of insight into his personal life and struggles but even more so, it is a pep talk you can come back to when ever you need a reminder that you can do this, and that sometimes that means not doing it and moving on to something new and better for you. In other words, failure isn't the end, is is the start of the next leg of your journey. Start stocking up now, this is the perfect graduation gift for all grads, it is the perfect gift for anyone who has been afraid to try because they are afraid to fail, and it is the perfect gift for anyone who is doing anything.
(Finished March 27, 2018)
Leslie writes as I would expect him to, very conversationally and as if he was talking just to me. And that is his intention. He writes that if his words touch even one single reader it has been worth it. What lives on the pages of Failing Up is a little bit of insight into his personal life and struggles but even more so, it is a pep talk you can come back to when ever you need a reminder that you can do this, and that sometimes that means not doing it and moving on to something new and better for you. In other words, failure isn't the end, is is the start of the next leg of your journey. Start stocking up now, this is the perfect graduation gift for all grads, it is the perfect gift for anyone who has been afraid to try because they are afraid to fail, and it is the perfect gift for anyone who is doing anything.
(Finished March 27, 2018)
Tuesday, March 20, 2018
Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putin's War on America and the Election of Donald Trump by Michael Isikoff, David Corn
A stupid snow storm put off me getting my hands on this book off by a day and during that day these two were all over the news talking about their book. And it just made me want it more.
Isikoff and Corn write really well each on their own, but together they are extra masterful. This reads like a spy novel, except if it was a spy NOVEL the reader would shake their head and feel like it was just a bit too over the top and couldn't ever happen...but this isn't a NOVEL, this is our real world, the world we are forced to live in and watch burn around us as the dim-whit president destroys, or at least tries his hardest to destroy, all the best of the USA.
Corn and Isikoff take all the pieces of the last 2+ years of stories and incidents linking Trump and members of his inner circle(s) and family to Russia and the Russian government and puts the puzzle pieces together to being to reveal the big picture...and that picture is the USA was attacked by a hostile foreign government and the president of the country is not only ok with it, he seems to like it and is in awe of the autocrat running said foreign government.
Read this!! And try not to feel scared about the future
(Finished March 20, 2018)
Isikoff and Corn write really well each on their own, but together they are extra masterful. This reads like a spy novel, except if it was a spy NOVEL the reader would shake their head and feel like it was just a bit too over the top and couldn't ever happen...but this isn't a NOVEL, this is our real world, the world we are forced to live in and watch burn around us as the dim-whit president destroys, or at least tries his hardest to destroy, all the best of the USA.
Corn and Isikoff take all the pieces of the last 2+ years of stories and incidents linking Trump and members of his inner circle(s) and family to Russia and the Russian government and puts the puzzle pieces together to being to reveal the big picture...and that picture is the USA was attacked by a hostile foreign government and the president of the country is not only ok with it, he seems to like it and is in awe of the autocrat running said foreign government.
Read this!! And try not to feel scared about the future
(Finished March 20, 2018)
Saturday, March 10, 2018
Children of Blood and Bone (Legacy of Orïsha #1) by Tomi Adeyemi
I. Must. Have. Book 2. NOW!!!!!
Talk about ending on a cliffhanger!!!
And what a DEBUT novel!!!
Tomi's joy in the video she posted on Twitter when she opened the box with her book in it and holding it for the first time was amazing!!
Everything about this has been amazing.
First, this cast of characters, all so well written, even the most vile one is so well written that he made my skin crawl, the world leaps off the page and pulls you in, and everyone who lives in these pages is a person of color...the entire world is populated by people with many different shades of black and brown skin and it is wonderful to have strong female characters that are also strong black women.
The story is an us vs them power struggle. There are those in the ruling class who feel threatened by the power that those under them could use to take over control of this world, in this case it is magic, so the rulers decide the way to keep control is to kill magic and those who wield it. But you can't kill what makes people who they are unless you are going to kill all the people who are different, and that is where this leads, can magic and those without magic coexist? How much can a lower class be trampled on before they revolt? Is there such a thing as a benevolent ruler? When you find the spark that makes you you how do you embrace it if it means losing those you love or who should love you? How do the broken heal and what happens when they can't? There is so much to unpack here and it is wonderfully done in this first book of the series.
(Finished March 10, 2018)
Talk about ending on a cliffhanger!!!
And what a DEBUT novel!!!
Tomi's joy in the video she posted on Twitter when she opened the box with her book in it and holding it for the first time was amazing!!
Everything about this has been amazing.
First, this cast of characters, all so well written, even the most vile one is so well written that he made my skin crawl, the world leaps off the page and pulls you in, and everyone who lives in these pages is a person of color...the entire world is populated by people with many different shades of black and brown skin and it is wonderful to have strong female characters that are also strong black women.
The story is an us vs them power struggle. There are those in the ruling class who feel threatened by the power that those under them could use to take over control of this world, in this case it is magic, so the rulers decide the way to keep control is to kill magic and those who wield it. But you can't kill what makes people who they are unless you are going to kill all the people who are different, and that is where this leads, can magic and those without magic coexist? How much can a lower class be trampled on before they revolt? Is there such a thing as a benevolent ruler? When you find the spark that makes you you how do you embrace it if it means losing those you love or who should love you? How do the broken heal and what happens when they can't? There is so much to unpack here and it is wonderfully done in this first book of the series.
(Finished March 10, 2018)
Thursday, March 1, 2018
The Alice Network by Kate Quinn
Oh my gosh this book!!! I "discovered" this one in a article about Reese Witherspoon's book club. It sounded great so I grabbed a copy for my Nook (which is still an adjustment as much as I love technology).
Once I started reading I couldn't stop. The Alice Network is a spy mystery set both in WWI and at the end of WWII. How? Because we meet Eve and Charlie in 1945 as Charlie's search for her cousin who went missing during the war lands her on Eve's unwelcoming doorstep. Charlie is 19 and pregnant and has run away from her mother on her way to an abortion she doesn't think she wants to have. Eve is a mean old would mouthed gun toting woman just trying to get through the day. As their lives mix and their stories unfold an amazing spy network run by women during the first war is revealed and their is adventure, intrigue, and some scares for the safety of the spies we grow attached to. But there is more to this story, there is the changing and bending definition of what makes a person brave, what makes a family, and the power of love and forgiveness.
I was sucked in and gladly help on and didn't want the story to end because I didn't want to leave Charlie and Eve.
Great Pick Reese, I will be checking out more of the bookclub listed reads!!!
(Finished March 1, 2018)
Once I started reading I couldn't stop. The Alice Network is a spy mystery set both in WWI and at the end of WWII. How? Because we meet Eve and Charlie in 1945 as Charlie's search for her cousin who went missing during the war lands her on Eve's unwelcoming doorstep. Charlie is 19 and pregnant and has run away from her mother on her way to an abortion she doesn't think she wants to have. Eve is a mean old would mouthed gun toting woman just trying to get through the day. As their lives mix and their stories unfold an amazing spy network run by women during the first war is revealed and their is adventure, intrigue, and some scares for the safety of the spies we grow attached to. But there is more to this story, there is the changing and bending definition of what makes a person brave, what makes a family, and the power of love and forgiveness.
I was sucked in and gladly help on and didn't want the story to end because I didn't want to leave Charlie and Eve.
Great Pick Reese, I will be checking out more of the bookclub listed reads!!!
(Finished March 1, 2018)
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