Author: Kala

book review · books · Family

Still Me by Jojo Moyes {Review}

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Goodreads Blurb:

Louisa Clark arrives in New York ready to start a new life, confident that she can embrace this new adventure and keep her relationship with Ambulance Sam alive across several thousand miles. She steps into the world of the superrich, working for Leonard Gopnik and his much younger second wife, Agnes. Lou is determined to get the most out of the experience and throws herself into her new job and New York life.

As she begins to mix in New York high society, Lou meets Joshua Ryan, a man who brings with him a whisper of her past. Before long, Lou finds herself torn between Fifth Avenue where she works and the treasure-filled vintage clothing store where she actually feels at home. And when matters come to a head, she has to ask herself: Who is Louisa Clark? And how do you reconcile a heart that lives in two places?

Funny, romantic, and poignant, Still Me follows Lou as she navigates how to stay true to herself, while pushing to live boldly in her brave new world.

My Review:

So we first meet Louisa Clark in Me Before You and see her once again in Me After You. I thought we had seen the last of her and I felt almost indifferent about it because Me Before You was one of those stories that didn’t need a sequel but since one was written, it had to be read and it was a really good sequel. I never thought that it would turn into a trilogy but I am glad that it did. A third book was not needed but I am not disappointed at All. This book was a breath of fresh air after my last couple of reads. You can’t help but fall in love all over again with Louisa Clark as she embarks on her journey to the good ole USA. You visit old friends with Louisa through her memories and experiences and you meet some new ones. Who doesn’t love that good-looking Nathan has made an appearance in this book *insert heart pounding*. In this story Louisa gets to experience life in a different way now that she has moved on from her pain with Will Traynor(not a spoiler, just saying) and she has to learn how to find herself and find out what it is that she wants in life with her career and relationships. She finds herself in some not so great situations(issue with employer and an almost disastrous relationship) but manages to still come out in her cheerful, eccentric manner. She takes each experience and learns from it. She also learns how to stand her ground without having to be a terrible person about it. She begins to live her life and embrace it in the manner that makes her happy without losing herself, even if it does take the advice of a cranky old Mrs. DeWitt whose world revolves around Dean Martin, lol.  Once again we get a little romance, some great laughter and the slight moment of moist eyeball that you have to have when hanging out with Louisa Clark.

Louisa Clark teaches us once again that we should always wear our stripy tights with confidence.

Rating:

3.5 Stars

Availability:

Available in hardcover, ebook and audio

book review · books · psychological thriller

The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn {Review}

Kala2 Comments

Goodreads Blurb:

Anna Fox lives alone, a recluse in her New York City home, unable to venture outside. She spends her day drinking wine (maybe too much), watching old movies, recalling happier times–and spying on her neighbors.

Then the Russells move into the house across the way: a father, a mother, and their teenage son. The perfect family. But when Anna, gazing out her window one night, sees something she shouldn’t, her world begins to crumble—and its shocking secrets are laid bare.

What is real? What is imagined? Who is in danger? Who is in control? In this diabolically gripping thriller, no one—and nothing—is what it seems.

My Review:

I picked this book for one of my choices in my Book of the Month subscription partly because I love a good thriller and partly because I had heard good things from people whose opinions about books I respect. So needless to say, I had some high hopes for this one.

We meet Anna Fox who is suffering from a mental illness that keeps her in her house. This illness was brought on by a traumatic experience she went thru with her family.  She is an agoraphobic. She does not venture outside her home for any reason. Everything she needs or wants is delivered to her home. She even has her appointments in her home. She does attempt to go outside on a few occasions and they all turned out bad. She has an unhealthy obsession with her neighbors.  In my opinion, Anna is a drugged up wino who doesn’t have the intention of getting better and seeks out the problems of others to solve instead of working on her own. This could be due to the fact that she is a licensed mental health professional.  She is living in a life of denial and you have to wait until about 3/4 of the way thru to find out how delusional she really is. The issue I had with this novel is that the first 2-3 hundred pages were more redundant to me than they were plot building. I actually put this book to the side to read(and finish) another book. I  did not think that I was going to go back to it and  finish. I did pick it back up and finish only because I had already invested time and energy into the story. I wanted to know what the big wow was going to be and hoped that when it came along, this story would have been able to redeem itself. By the time I made it to the “plot twists” I was worn out from Anna. They didn’t hold any shock factors for me. I know I am in the minority with my opinion on this novel but I am okay with that. I like to be honest in my reviews. This novel will not be at the top of my list of recommendations. If you read and enjoyed this book, I applaud you.

Rating:

2 stars

Availability:

Book is now available in hardcover, ebook and audio.

book review · books · Family · Human Trafficking

Girls Burn Brighter by Shobha Rao {Review}

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Goodreads Blurb:

A searing, electrifying debut novel set in India and America, about a once-in-a-lifetime friendship between two girls who are driven apart but never stop trying to find one another again.

When Poornima first meets Savitha, she feels something she thought she lost for good when her mother died: hope. Poornima’s father hires Savitha to work one of their sari looms, and the two girls are quickly drawn to one another. Savitha is even more impoverished than Poornima, but she is full of passion and energy. She shows Poornima how to find beauty in a bolt of indigo cloth, a bowl of yogurt rice and bananas, the warmth of friendship. Suddenly their Indian village doesn’t feel quite so claustrophobic, and Poornima begins to imagine a life beyond the arranged marriage her father is desperate to lock down for her. But when a devastating act of cruelty drives Savitha away, Poornima leaves behind everything she has ever known to find her friend again. Her journey takes her into the darkest corners of India’s underworld, on a harrowing cross-continental journey, and eventually to an apartment complex in Seattle. Alternating between the girls’ perspectives as they face relentless obstacles, Girls Burn Brighter introduces two heroines who never lose the hope that burns within them.

In breathtaking prose, Shobha Rao tackles the most urgent issues facing women today: domestic abuse, human trafficking, immigration, and feminism. At once a propulsive page-turner and a heart-wrenching meditation on friendship, Rao’s debut novel is a literary tour de force.

My Review:

I have to say that this novel should definitely come with trigger warnings. I am not one to shy away from certain subjects but there was an incident in the novel that was even hard for me to get thru. When I first started this novel I did not think that I was going to finish it because it didn’t capture me right at first but once I was into the story, I was hooked! This story is set in India for most of the novel and I am so glad that I have read I Am Malala because it allowed me to be familiar with the setting. This is one of those debut novels that people are going to be hungover from after reading it because it is so intense and touches on subjects that society likes to put blinders up to, especially if it is happening in another part of the world that you are not familiar with. Drugs, abuse, sex trafficking, and even self sacrifice. The extremes that Savitha is willing to endure to get away from where she is are just horrifying and the circumstances that Poornima have to deal with are horrifying as well.  The abuse that both of these girls have to endure throughout their existence is on a level that I could not even begin to imagine. This novel is not for the faint of heart but if you want a story that is going to draw you in and show you that there is another part of life that is not all roses and laughter, then this is the novel for you. I am excited to see what others are going to think after reading it once this book becomes available.

Rating:

4.5 Stars

Availability:

Book will be published March 6, 2018 and available as ebook and hardcover.

I received a galley of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

book review · books

Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk by Kathleen Rooney {Review}

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Goodreads Blurb:

It’s the last day of 1984, and 85-year-old Lillian Boxfish is about to take a walk.

As she traverses a grittier Manhattan, a city anxious after an attack by a still-at-large subway vigilante, she encounters bartenders, bodega clerks, chauffeurs, security guards, bohemians, criminals, children, parents, and parents-to-be—in surprising moments of generosity and grace. While she strolls, Lillian recalls a long and eventful life that included a brief reign as the highest-paid advertising woman in America—a career cut short by marriage, motherhood, divorce, and a breakdown.

A love letter to city life—however shiny or sleazy—Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk by Kathleen Rooney paints a portrait of a remarkable woman across the canvas of a changing America: from the Jazz Age to the onset of the AIDS epidemic; the Great Depression to the birth of hip-hop.

My Review:

I have to be honest and say that I don’t exactly know why I chose this book  January 2017 for my Book of the Month subscription. After starting it, I didn’t know what drew me to it even after reading the synopsis which may explain why it remained on my shelf untouched for a year with no thought or desire to read it. But since I am participating in the Unread Shelf Project 2018 and I drew this title from my Book of the Month TBR can,  I figured I would put the energy into reading it. In this story, we follow Lillian and I mean literally follow her and she makes her journey thru New York City on New Year’s Eve 1984, by foot. During her walk, she recalls several events that have happened throughout her life. I won’t say that this was a terrible book because it wasn’t. Lillian is actually a hoot. My issue with the book is that she was so wordy. I can see why she needed to be that way since the story is told from the point of view of an elderly person, but good grief! I think this short novel is the LONGEST one I have read in a long time. For it to not have even broken the 300 page mark, it sure did feel like it was about 500 pages with the way that Lillian speaks. She turns a paragraph into a lengthy speech and there were some points I wanted to turn on the award’s show “wrap it up” music, lol. My favorite part of the novel is when she is describing a rap song that she hears while walking and it clearly is a song that she has heard before but she doesn’t know the title or artist but she does enjoy the music. I think I read that particular passage twice, lol. I will add picture of the passage to this review.

This is a novel that I would have a hard time recommending only because there isn’t anything in it that is a selling point for myself. I am interested in seeing what the author has to offer for her next novel. I do hope that it is not centered around a wordy old woman though.

Rating:

I have to give this novel 3.5 stars

Availability:

This book is available wherever books are sold.

book review · books

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman {Review}

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If you have read and enjoyed Fredrick Backman’s Britt Marie Was Here, I think you would enjoy this novel by Gail Honeyman.

Goodreads Blurb:

Meet Eleanor Oliphant: She struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she’s thinking. Nothing is missing in her carefully timetabled life of avoiding social interactions, where weekends are punctuated by frozen pizza, vodka, and phone chats with Mummy. All this means that Eleanor has become a creature of habit (to say the least) and a bit of a loner.

My Review:

I received this book thru my Book of the Month subscription for December and it was my first pick from my TBR jar that I have dedicated to this year’s  Unread Shelf Project. What attracted me to this novel was my thought that it was so similar to the above mentioned novel by Fredrick Backman. I recently read Britt Marie Was Here and thoroughly enjoyed it.

In Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, you meet a 30 year old woman who is basically living the life of a 65 year old grandma. If her age was not mentioned you could imagine her as an uptight old lady. To be such a young woman, she is a creature of routine and habit. You can’t help but laugh at her ways from time to time. The more serious she is, the funnier her situation seems, until you learn about her past.

Eleanor survived a horrific fire during her childhood but as a result of it, she had to grow up in the foster care system. She does not have any friends, she is socially awkward, and her life is controlled indirectly by her mother. As the story progresses, you learn to love Eleanor and cheer for her from your reading spot because she attempts to make changes in her routine even if at first it is only because she is preparing to meet the love of her life. She steps into the world of technology and the world of beauty. I think her experience with waxing was my favorite funny part.

Even with her attempts to make changes, Eleanor’s life takes a near devastating turn. She then has to learn how to love herself and accept the love and friendship of others.

This is a quick, quirky read but is full of life. This book subtly addresses alcoholism and child abuse. It also touches on mental health and help.

I gave this novel 4.5 stars. It is available now.

book review · books · Family

Educated by Tara Westover {Review}

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This story is not about  Mormonism.

I have to admit that I do not usually read the Author’s Note, but that one line captivated me. Probably because I was thinking that it was going to be about the religion and the effects of it. It turned out that that line was completely correct. Even without the line, I don’t think that I would have considered Tara Westover’s family devoted Mormons.

This memoir is my first non fiction feature on my blog. Definitely something different from what I usually read and review. I welcomed this story with open arms. This was an unexpected arrival and I chose to not read the synopsis before diving into the story.

The story follows Tara who is a native of Idaho and a member of a family who is living off the grid.

Goodreads Blurb:

Tara Westover was seventeen the first time she set foot in a classroom. Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, she prepared for the end of the world by stockpiling home-canned peaches and sleeping with her “head-for-the-hills bag.” In the summer she stewed herbs for her mother, a midwife and healer, and in the winter she salvaged in her father’s junkyard.

That is just a piece of what this book entails.

My review:

I don’t usually read physical copies of memoirs, but I am glad that I read this one. Sitting down with this book was like stepping into a world that I have only been involved with thru media such as movies or news articles. Tara’s family lived in the mountains of Idaho and were basically living in their own universe and not concerned with the “corrupted” world. Tara grew up experiencing life with a parent who probably suffered from a mental illness, a mother who seemed to be complacent, and a life with a sibling who is physically and mentally abusive.

Tara may have started life in that unusual environment but she was strong enough to desire a different style of life for herself, although it was not an easy task. Tara stepped foot in school at the age of 17 and it was not a high school classroom but a college classroom. By stepping into this life outside of her mountain life, she realizes that she has been sheltered from a world that has gone on and she knows nothing of it. I believe that Tara was like a sponge and absorbed all the information that she could. There were times that she was discouraged or felt that she was being a traitor to her family. Tara ended up risking her spot in her family and became the “black sheep” because she wanted a different life for herself. She wanted to discontinue the lifestyle that she was raised in.

I loved the language that the author used in her story. The story was well written and read like a novel instead of a memoir which I enjoyed. I definitely would not have believed that Tara didn’t start going to school until she was 17 years old and that most of what she learned had to be self taught.

I gave this novel 4.5 stars

I received this novel from Random House. I am was very pleased to give an honest review.

This book is set to be released February 20, 2018 from Random House.

Book Birthday · book review · books · crime · meet the mrs · Publishing Day · suspense

Happy Publishing Day! 1-9-18

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Two books that I have done reviews on are now available for purchase today!

The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen {St. Martin’s Press}

I read and reviewed this book back in November and gave it 4.5 stars. It is definitely a good psychological thriller to start off your 2018 year of reading. It has some great twists in it that you don’t see coming. I always love to be taken by surprise with a thriller.

The Chalk Man by CJ Tudor  {Crown Publishing}

I read and reviewed this book last week. It was my first review of the year. If you like England and kids doing weird things like being kids and being mischievous, with a dash of crazy thrown in, then you’ll definitely enjoy this read. I forgot to put my star rating in my review, so I will put it here, I gave 4.5 stars. ESPECIALLY because of the ending!

Thank you to both publishers for providing me with advanced copies of these books and giving me a chance to review them. I hope that everyone enjoys these novels as much as I did.

Both books will have you like:

Happy reading, folks!

ReaderthenBlogger

books · podcasts

Not a review, just some words

KalaLeave a comment

This week is off to a good start. I binge watched  Stranger Things season 1 this past weekend and picked up Janet Evanovich’s Hardcore Twenty-Four from the library. I probably could have finished that book yesterday but I was in the middle of a hardcore binge session, lol.

I like to start my week off by listening to the podcasts that I am subscribed to. Mondays have a longer work morning for me at work than any other day of the week, unless there is a holiday that I am off. I work in a post office, btw. This morning because of all the mail, I was able to listen to 3 Book Girls and one of the Book Riot podcasts called The Podcast. My podcasts get my work week going and my book week going.

This week I plan to finish Hardcore Twenty-Four and also continue reading The Heart’s Invisible Fury by John Boyne which won Book of the Month’s  Book of the Year award. I can definitely see why. I will be honest, the month that this book was offered in Book of the Month, I picked it solely based on the number of pages. I wasn’t all that familiar with the storyline until I heard about it on one of the podcasts that I listen to. I am looking forward to doing a review on this book once I am finished.

So, it is a new year and I know many people have resolutions. I don’t usually make any but this year one of my resolutions is to read more of the books that I already own. And, of course I have a mile long list of books that are coming out this year that I want to read as well, lol. Ha! I just got another blog post idea from this paragraph, which is a really good thing because I also want to become more active with my blogging.

Well folks, that’s about all I have for you at this time. Happy reading! See ya soon!

ReaderthenBlogger

book review · books · crime · psychological thriller · suspense

The Chalk Man by CJ Tudor {Review}

KalaLeave a comment

Hello everyone!!! Welcome to my first book review of 2018!!!

So here we have one of 2018’s scheduled for release thrillers, The Chalk Man by CJ Tudor. This is her debut novel.

The story follows Eddie and his four childhood friends who grow up in an English village. You think you have just the typical group of friends who grow up together and go thru the typical adolescent trials and tribulations. However, there are much darker issues that they have to deal with and secrets that they keep. Eddie is our narrator and he narrates the story flipping between current day 2016 and past 1986. The form of the story put me in the mind frame of Stephen King’s It. I think that is what drew it to me most.

In 1986, Eddie and his friends stumble upon a dismembered body of a local girl who survived a freak accident only to come up dead later. What draws them to this body are chalk figures which were an idea of the kids to communicate with each other but someone has found out about their secret language and used it against them, or so they think.

Fast forward to 2016, Eddie and his friends are all grown and living their own lives not thinking about what happened to them back in 1986. However, certain events lead them all back to their home and to the secrets and events that they have all tried to forget. As the story unfolds, more secrets are discovered.

The story unfolds as a thriller should but then you get to the end and BAM!!!! HOLY COW!! I literally cursed out loud at the character in the book.

This was not a long novel and can probably be read in one sitting. Even though it was a quick read, I feel that the story was developed in a timely fashion and I absolutely LOVED the ending. Definitely a great debut novel from CJ Tudor and I look forward to see what else she has in store.

The book will be available for purchase January 9, 2018. I received this book from Blogging for Books in exchange for an honest review.

I gave this novel 4 stars!!!

books

Thank you!

KalaLeave a comment

Well, I want to start of by thanking everyone who read my posts, liked my posts and a very special thank you to my 10 followers. That’s not a lot to most folks but it is a lot to me. I started my blog a couple of years ago but only really got into blogging this past summer. Now that I am almost getting the hang of it, I plan to blog even more in 2018. I have had an amazing year filled with a new job that I enjoy and expanding my love for reading into a blog and a bookstagram account. I was even a guest on the podcast 3 Book Girls(which was exciting, fun, and totally wrecked my nerves cause I was nervous, lol). I hope you all had a wonderful 2017 and hope that you have an even better 2018. I have spent my last day of 2017 reading, cooking, eating, spending time with my bookworm children, and lastly working on my TBR for 2018. Love and blessings to you all!

Happy New Year!