The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

 

     T This: Why did I read *This* book?

    This was a reread. I read this book in 2016 and it has stuck with me since. This is a book I recommend to people. I have gifted it four or five times. I gifted this for my wedding (that didn't happen because COVID but...oh well). This book is one that I think everyone should read. 

    I have been wanting to reread this book for quite some time but I kept putting it off. Recently I felt in the mood for something sad and something familiar. This was glaring at me and telling me to pick it up. I had to listen. It was so good to be back in this world even though it is a book that rips your heart out and stomps on it.

    A Atmosphere: How did it make me feel? What was the world like? This might include overall tone. 

    I felt so many things while reading this. It is a WWII historical fiction and seeing the suffering slowly unfold was heartbreaking. Seeing the people murdered and hated for being different was hard.  

    I used to read WWII historical fiction and wonder how that could happen? How could people stand by and let all that happen and then 2016-2020 happened and I realized that so many people can be complicit in hatred. So many people can embrace the systemic racism that they get caught up in it and things like this happened. You'd think we would learn from our history but it seems like hate will always be prevalent in our society.

    The world came to life. My anger and sadness were palpable.  It takes a good writer to make me fall in love with a place I have never been especially when that place is set during a horrible time in history.

    S Style: What was the writing style like? Simplistic or sophisticated? Clunky or beautiful?

    The writing style made the characters and world come to life. It was eloquent and beautiful and I felt like I was standing beside the characters while they were going through the scenes.

    P Plot/Pace: Was it engaging? Were there holes? Did it feel too rushed or too long?

    The plot was engaging and hooked me right from the start. It was reread but there were things I did not remember and they hit me hard. I think it was evenly paced and you got to see the growth and change in the characters over the years that the book takes place.

    E Enjoyment: Was it a chore to finish or compelling enough that I picked it over other fun           activities?

    Enjoyment is a difficult one because this is a depressing book but at the same time it gives you hope and makes you believe that there are good people in the world. You see that characters and people are able to grow and change and I always love when we see that within a story.

    C Characters: Were they believable, sympathetic, interesting?

    All the characters were believable. I fell in love with the two main characters, Vianne and Isabelle. They were so different and so stubborn and they made so many mistakes along the way. They felt so real and seeing their growth and the exploration of changes humans go through was fundamental to the book.

    The side characters seemed just as real and just as fleshed out. Sometimes side characters get lost in the main plot of the book but that did not happen here. Without the side characters the story would have been less full and less believeable

This was a five star and I will continue recommending it.

 

 

Rhapsodic by Laura Thalassa

      

 

 T This: Why did I read *This* book?  

    Fantasy romance is a genre that I own a lot of but I do not gravitate towards because it intimidates me. I am not one who likes romance all that much. I started listening to it in 2018 and 2019. It is definitely something light to read after a heavier read but it is still something that I rarely add to my TBR. 

    I have said that fantasy is my favorite genre and I am okay if there is a little bit of romance thrown in. This novel focuses more on the romance and steamy sex scenes and less on plot. I was intimidated but I have heard so many good things that I had to give it a try.

A Atmosphere: How did it make me feel? What was the world like? This might include overall tone

    This book made me feel so many different things. I fell in love with both characters and for the first time in my reading life I developed a crush on a fictional character. I like the main character too but Des is the best thing ever. 

    One thing I loved about this book was while there was a lot of romance, there was a plot and the plot actually gave me the creeps. I do not typically get the creeps when reading books so that's a pretty big thing. 

    The world was developed and I hope that in the following books we will learn more about the otherworld. The land where all the faeries live.

    This book is definitely one of those books where the main love interest is tall, dark, handsome and has an evil yet kind streak. It's the typical girl falls in love with bad boy because he has a good heard. I suppose this is a trope I like. I mean, to be honest, I do not think I could ever fall in love with a bad boy (I prefer IT nerds). They're too much work, really. But, it worked for this book and I cannot wait to read more.

   S Style: What was the writing style like? Simplistic or sophisticated? Clunky or beautiful?

    This is a self published novel and I think it could have used better editing. There were some mistakes that could have been fixed if they'd been gone over a bit more extensively. That being said, I do not feel like the mistakes were bad enough to detract from the writing. I always get nervous about self published books because "What if it's awful" and I was pleasantly surprised. I hope to pick up more self published books this year.

    P Plot/Pace: Was it engaging? Were there holes? Did it feel too rushed or too long?

    I picked this up when I was slumping a bit and it pulled me out. There were no glaring plot holes but my biggest weakness is not noticing or not caring about plot holes. I felt like the length was just perfect. The story was wrapped up well enough but the author left you with just enough interest to want to read the nest book.

    E Enjoyment: Was it a chore to finish or compelling enough that I picked it over other fun           activities?

    I was pleasantly surprised by this novel. It was definitely a read I expected to feel meh about and now I have a new favorite series.

    C Characters: Were they believable, sympathetic, interesting?

    Des and Callie are amazing. They're a bit dumb because neither is open but that's another trope. 'Does he love me as much as I love him', 'Does she love me as much as I love her'. It worked in this novel.

 I loved Callie's best friend Temper and I hope we will see more of her in the second book.

 Overall, I rated this book 5 stars. I was pleasantly surprised and cannot wait to pick up the second one.

Angel Of Greenwood by Randi Pink

 

 

  I was slogging through the Eye of the World and decided I needed something quick and sad because I am glutton for punishment. Angel of Greenwood was a book I was hoping to get to last weekend but read a lot of books with heavier topics and needed a break.

    This weekend I was ready to read it but nervous because it is 280 page book that seemed like it wanted to cover a lot. Would the length and storyline be ruined because it was too short? So why did I decide to read it? 

     T This: Why did I read *This* book? 

 I decided to read it because I knew absolutely nothing about the Tulsa Race Riots until last year. African American history and the brutality that white men and woman have/continue to inflict upon them is often white washed or ignored. 2020 was an awful year, with an awful fucking president and world where black men and woman were fighting to be heard. These race riots came up during all of this and I wanted to learn more but I was not in the mental space to do so. This book was on my radar because it seemed like a lighter book that covered a heavier topic? I thought it would intrigue me and help me learn a bit about these awful events.

         A Atmosphere: How did it make me feel? What was the world like? This might include overall tone. 

    This book made me feel so much. It is a short book but I felt like the author was able to make the characters come alive. The tone started out light. Two black teens getting to know each other and falling in love. I believe this book was set in Greenwood because at one time it was idyllic. It was a place where black men and woman could fall in love and not have to worry about racism. It was a utopia so to speak. That is the tone I got. The book focused a bit on race but you got to see how different racism was for the individuals in Greenwood. In many ways they were safe and free of it compared to their counterparts living in other parts of the country.

    S Style: What was the writing style like? Simplistic or sophisticated? Clunky or beautiful?

    The writing was simplistic but I still felt like the author was able to character build and make the book come alive. I think the writing was one of the weaker points because of how simplistic it was. Would I recommend it?  Yes, but is the writing something I could say was best ever? No. I would say that the story was important to read and learn.

    P Plot/Pace: Was it engaging? Were there holes? Did it feel too rushed or too long?

    I did not notice any plot holes but I typically do not unless they are glaringly obvious. I felt like this book slogged a bit towards the end and made me a bit bored. It's a short read so this definitely brought the rating down.

    E Enjoyment: Was it a chore to finish or compelling enough that I picked it over other fun           activities?

    I enjoyed this novel for the most part. Like I said, there were some slow portions that dragged it down a bit but I still found myself wanting to read more to find out what would happen. This novel also made me eager to read a non fiction account of what happened in Greenwood.

    C Characters: Were they believable, sympathetic, interesting?

       I liked the characters. I think they were well developed and you feel for them and you want the best for them. It is a love story and it was a bit instalovey but, also, they were teenagers falling in love for the first time so it makes sense. I loved that at the core of this novel was a love story. It showed how horrible racism is while also showing how life should be safe for black men and woman.

    This was a four star read for me. I think it intrigued me enough to pick up a nonfiction book about Tulsa Massacre. It is definitely something that highlights the awfulness of racism, both overt, passive and systemic. It festers and destroys. Kind of like what we saw throughout the last four years and the tension finally exploded into the chaos of 2020.

Introduction

    Here I am making my first post in this blog. I just got put in facebook jail for calling out a racist Trump supporter. I should probably preface this blog and say that, I don't support or condone Trump or his followers. As such, there might be reviews posted that condemn Trump and his cult followers. If you are a Trump supporter, no matter your justification, my blog might not be the place for you. 

    I plan to mainly write book reviews and the occasional review or discussion of games I play. I will break down the way I plan on reviewing soon but I want to make it clear that I might talk about my frustration with the political climate and it won't be kind to Trump or his supporters. The world is a mess and there's all these Trump supporters who are trying to justify their vote. There is no justification and until they own up to it and accept the passive/systemic racism that went behind their votes for him, we cannot move forward as a country. Albeit there was some active racism in the vote for Trump...Look at the white nationalist terrorist that tried to start a resurrection...but passive/systemic racism is a huge issue as well and the coddling of these people led to Trumps presidency and the events we've seen recently and over the past four year.

    Like I said, this blog probably won't be the best place to frequent if you voted for Trump and continue to be complicit in his actions and the actions of the GOP. I warned you and since I am in facebook jail for condemning the racism, there might be a bit more venting about the current situation. I will likely vent on the 20th when I anticipate a lot of issues but I am hoping they've prepared more than they did on the 6th. I am also hoping they won't be as kind to any of the terrorists that showed up. They've been harsh with BLM so I expect nothing less ... although lets be real and acknowledge that the white terrorist will probably be afforded more coddling and acceptance than the black and brown protesters did.

    Now, I am going to break down my reviewing. I use CAWPILE for tracking books and my statistics. I don't always like the method for reviewing but I like the tracking method so I will continue using it. I am not good with spreadsheets and no one in my life is, so CAWPILE it is. I might research other spreadsheet trackers over this year and see if I find one that I like better. I mention this because CAWPILE is an acronym for Characters, Atmosphere, Writing, Plot, Intrigue, Logic and Enjoyment. However, I don't feel like CAWPILE really works with my frame of reviewing. When I use it the star rating does, typically, match what's in my head but I mainly use it for the stats such as genre percentage, adult/YA/MG percentage, tracking of POC authors etc. 

    With that in mind I did research and I happened to have a friend that made the decision to try and review more books. She came up with an Acronym and a review system that I like a ton more than CAWPILE (no spreadsheet or I'd make the change immediately). For this blog I will be using my friends acronym. I'll share her blog link and also quote her Acronym.

(You should check her out because she is an honest and engaging reviewer who I like a ton. She also has a podcast where they read a book and then watch the adaptation. They're great) 

    Here is her blog link: https://kayliametcalfe.com/2021/01/14/perhaps-reviewed-redux/

    Her acronym is ASPECT and it's broken down like this:

    A Atmosphere: How did it make me feel? What was the world like? This might include overall tone.

    S Style: What was the writing style like? Simplistic or sophisticated? Clunky or beautiful?

    P Plot/Pace: Was it engaging? Were there holes? Did it feel too rushed or too long?

    E Enjoyment: Was it a chore to finish or compelling enough that I picked it over other fun           activities?

    C Characters: Were they believable, sympathetic, interesting?

    T This: Why did I read *This* book?

    I will try and go in order but when reviewing sometimes changing the order makes more sense. This will be a work in progress. I'll ramble and I likely won't review all the books I read. I read 144 last year and 263 books in 2019. That would be a lot of reviewing and I cannot guarantee I'll commit to that.

    Lastly, my blog will be a bit more stream of consciousness mixed with typical writing and formatting. I might go on tangents but I am hoping that I'll be able to share my true thoughts and opinions about books, games(?), movies/shows and politics.