Below is a list of my favorite books I read this year, organized by mood. I linked my reviews wherever possible (some I read before I created the blog!) Continue reading
Month: December 2017
George
Synopsis: (as told by the back of the book)
Be who you are.
When people look at George, they think they see a boy. Buy she knows she’s not a boy. She knows she’s a girl.
George thinks she’ll have to keep this a secret forever. Then her teacher announces that their class play is going to be Charlotte’s Web. George really, really, REALLY wants to play Charlotte. But the teacher says she can’t even try out for the part… because she’s a boy. Continue reading
Christmas by the Book
In an unsurprising turn of events, almost every gift I gave this year involved a book. While I am posting this after the holiday itself, I’m sharing it because I’m proud of how each gift reflects the reading personality of the recipient and because maybe it’ll give you ideas for next year! Continue reading
A Most Extraordinary Pursuit
Thank you to the team at Berkley Pub for gifting me this copy of A Most Extraordinary Pursuit by Juliana Gray. All thoughts and images are my own.
Synopsis: (as told by the back of the book)
February 1906. As the personal secretary of the recently departed Duke of Olympia – and a woman of scrupulous character – Miss Emmeline Rose Truelove never expected her duties to involve steaming through the Mediterranean on a private yacht under the prodigal eye of one Lord Silverton, the most charmingly corrupt bachelor in London. But here they are, improperly bound on a quest to find the duke’s enigmatic heir, current whereabouts unknown. Continue reading
Sing, Unburied, Sing
Synopsis: (as told by the back of the book)
In Jesmyn Ward’s first novel since her National Book Award-winning Salvage the Bones, this singular American writer brings the archetypal road novel into rural twenty-first-century America. An intimate portrait of a family and an epic tale of hope and struggle, Sing, Unburied, Sing journeys through Mississippi’s past and present, examining the ugly truths at the heart of the American story and the power – and limitations – of family bonds. Continue reading
We Are Okay
Synopsis: (as told by the back of the book)
You go through life thinking there’s so much you need…
Until you leave with only your phone, your wallet, and a picture of your mother. Continue reading
Hiddensee
Thank you to the wonderful people at William Morrow Books for gifting me this copy of Hiddensee by Gregory Maguire. All thoughts and images are my own.
Synopsis: (as told by the back of the book)
Having brought his legions of devoted readers to Oz in Wicked and to wonderland in After Alice, Maguire now takes us to the realms of the Brothers Grimm and E.T.A. Hoffmann – the enchanted Black Forest of Bavaria and the salons of Munich. Hiddensee imagines the backstory of the Nutcracker, revealing how this entrancing creature came to be carved and how he guided an ailing girl named Klara through a dreamy paradise on a Christmas Eve. At the heart of Hoffmann’s mysterious tale hovers Godfather Drosselmeier – the ominous, canny, one-eyed toy maker made immortal by Petipa and Tchaikovsky’s ballet – who presents the once and future Nutcracker to Klara, his goddaughter. Continue reading
Salt to the Sea and Start Without Me
Salt to the Sea
Synopsis: (as told by the back of the book)
Winter, 1945. Four teenagers. Four secrets.
Each one born of a different homeland; each one hunted, and haunted, by tragedy, lies… and war. Continue reading