It’s time for my first half of March book review! I have read more books so far this month than I normally do in the first half of the month, so I am saving at least one of them for my favorite books post, which will come later! I do apologize for the overabundance of books! The Amazon links to the books I’ve read are affiliate links and if you use them and make a purchase, I may receive a small commission. If you’ve read any of these books or are interested in them, I’d love to hear about it in the comments! I also read Milk Fed which I reviewed separately and I included two new reviews in my Books For, By, and About Women post – The Four Winds and Starfish.
Title: Maybe One Day
Author: Debbie Johnson
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Publisher: William Morrow, 3/2/21
Source: Publisher
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review
My Rating: 4 Stars
Maybe One Day by Debbie Johnson includes a quest. Jess and her friends set out to find out what happened to her former boyfriend Joe. They trace his travels and meet people whose lives he touched along the way.
“The truth changes everything. For years Jess believed that Joe—the father of her child and the only man she ever loved—had abandoned her during her greatest time of need. That belief nearly destroyed her. Seventeen years later, when cleaning out her mother’s house, Jess unpacks a box of cards and letters hidden in the attic and makes a discovery that changes everything about life as she knows it. Shaken but empowered, Jess—and her two stalwart best friends—set out on a remarkable journey to follow a set of faded postmarks around the world. Is Joe still alive? Does he know that Jess never forgot him? Maybe their love story isn’t over. Maybe one day they’ll find each other again…”
This book was sad and includes the loss of a child. I wouldn’t call it a romance, although you get a look at Jess and Joe’s relationship in flashbacks. I enjoyed the traveling that Jess did in order to discover what happened to Joe.
Title: Layla
Author: Colleen Hoover
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Montlake, 12/8/20
Source: Swap Gift
Why I Read It: TBR / Buddy Read with Friend
My Rating: 4 Stars
While I was reading this book, I thought it was pretty strange! It did keep me turning the pages and wondering what was going to happen next!
“When Leeds meets Layla, he’s convinced he’ll spend the rest of his life with her―until an unexpected attack leaves Layla fighting for her life. After weeks in the hospital, Layla recovers physically, but the emotional and mental scarring has altered the woman Leeds fell in love with. In order to put their relationship back on track, Leeds whisks Layla away to the bed-and-breakfast where they first met. Once they arrive, Layla’s behavior takes a bizarre turn. And that’s just one of many inexplicable occurrences. Feeling distant from Layla, Leeds soon finds solace in Willow―another guest of the B&B with whom he forms a connection through their shared concerns. As his curiosity for Willow grows, his decision to help her find answers puts him in direct conflict with Layla’s well-being. Leeds soon realizes he has to make a choice because he can’t help both of them. But if he makes the wrong choice, it could be detrimental for all of them.”
I can’t really go into what happens because it would give things away. I did guess part of what happens, but not completely, and I expected there to be a further twist at the end that didn’t occur. It was also interesting that the book was all from the viewpoint of Leeds. This wasn’t my favorite by Colleen Hoover – Verity holds that spot for me!
Title: Sarahland
Author: Sam Cohen
Genre: Literary Short Stories
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing, 3/9/21
Source: Publisher
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review
My Rating: 4 Stars
Sarahland is a book of short stories about people named Sarah containing both Jewish and Queer representation. My favorite stories in this book were Sarahland – about college friends and finding yourself individually when everyone seems the same, and The First Sarah – a reinterpretation of the story of the biblical Sarah and her family.
“In Sarahland, Sam Cohen brilliantly and often hilariously explores the ways in which traditional stories have failed us, both demanding and thrillingly providing for its cast of Sarahs new origin stories, new ways to love the planet and those inhabiting it, and new possibilities for life itself. In one story, a Jewish college Sarah passively consents to a form-life in pursuit of an MRS degree and is swept into a culture of normalized sexual violence. Another reveals a version of Sarah finding pleasure—and a new set of problems—by playing dead for a wealthy necrophiliac. A Buffy-loving Sarah uses fan fiction to work through romantic obsession. As the collection progresses, Cohen explodes this search for self, insisting that we have more to resist and repair than our own personal narratives. Readers witness as the ever-evolving “Sarah” gets recast: as a bible-era trans woman, an aging lesbian literally growing roots, a being who transcends the earth as we know it. While Cohen presents a world that will clearly someday end, ‘Sarah’ will continue.”
This book does contain some difficult topics including a casually mentioned antisemitic trope, so reader beware. Though I normally don’t appreciate literary fiction, I think these short stories were a perfect way to experience that type of writing.
Title: Dear Black Girl
Author: Tamara Winfrey Harris
Genre: Non-Fiction, Letters
Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publications, 3/9/21
Source: Get Red PR
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review
My Rating: 4 Stars
Dear Black Girl is a collection of letters to Black girls on the topics of identity and self love, family, friends, career, tough topics, mental health, sex, and advice. While this book was not written for me, I felt that I was able to benefit from reading it.
“‘Dear Dope Black Girl, You don’t know me, but I know you. I know you because I am you! We are magic, light, and stars in the universe.’ So begins a letter that Tamara Winfrey Harris received as part of her Letters to Black Girls project, where she asked black women to write honest, open, and inspiring letters of support to young black girls aged thirteen to twenty-one. Her call went viral, resulting in a hundred personal letters from black women around the globe that cover topics such as identity, self-love, parents, violence, grief, mental health, sex, and sexuality. In Dear Black Girl, Winfrey Harris organizes a selection of these letters, providing ‘a balm for the wounds of anti-black-girlness’ and modeling how black women can nurture future generations. Each chapter ends with a prompt encouraging girls to write a letter to themselves, teaching the art of self-love and self-nurturing. Winfrey Harris’s The Sisters Are Alright explores how black women must often fight and stumble their way into alrightness after adulthood. Dear Black Girl continues this work by delivering pro-black, feminist, LGBTQ+ positive, and body positive messages for black women-to-be–and for the girl who still lives inside every black woman who still needs reminding sometimes that she is alright.”
I think young Black teens would definitely benefit from this book, and if anyone knows of anyone who would love to receive my copy, I’d be happy to pass it on!
Title: Finlay Donovan Is Killing It
Author: Elle Cosimano
Genre: Mystery
Publisher: Macmillan Audio, 2/2/21
Source: Publisher
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review
My Rating: 4 Stars
I heard amazing things about this book and when I had the opportunity to receive the audio version, I jumped on it! It starts out with a hilarious look at motherhood and the hijinks continue on from there.
“Finlay Donovan is killing it . . . except, she’s really not. She’s a stressed-out single-mom of two and struggling novelist, Finlay’s life is in chaos: the new book she promised her literary agent isn’t written, her ex-husband fired the nanny without telling her, and this morning she had to send her four-year-old to school with hair duct-taped to her head after an incident with scissors. When Finlay is overheard discussing the plot of her new suspense novel with her agent over lunch, she’s mistaken for a contract killer, and inadvertently accepts an offer to dispose of a problem husband in order to make ends meet . . . Soon, Finlay discovers that crime in real life is a lot more difficult than its fictional counterpart, as she becomes tangled in a real-life murder investigation.”
Mistaken for a killer, Finlay accidentally succeeds on her first assignment! Since she’s a writer, she begins to write the story of this accidental success and I just kept wondering if the author of the book wrote a book within a book about something that had happened to her in real life! This book was funny, contains a mystery, and is the start of a series, so I recommend picking it up for sure!
Title: Are We There Yet?
Author: Kathleen West
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Publisher: Berkley, 3/16/21
Source: Publisher
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review
My Rating: 4 Stars
I recently read a few books about parenting, and this was one of them! Reading this book was hard for me with having a son just about the same age as the young characters described in the book, and another one soon to be that age!
“Alice Sullivan feels like she’s finally found her groove in middle age, but it only takes one moment for her perfectly curated life to unravel. On the same day she learns her daughter is struggling in second grade, a call from her son’s school accusing him of bullying throws Alice into a tailspin. When it comes to light that the incident is part of a new behavior pattern for her son, one complete with fake social media profiles with a lot of questionable content, Alice’s social standing is quickly eroded to one of ‘those moms’ who can’t control her kids. Soon she’s facing the very judgement she was all too happy to dole out when she thought no one was looking (or when she thought her house wasn’t made of glass). Then her mother unloads a family secret she’s kept for more than thirty years, and Alice’s entire perception of herself is shattered. As her son’s new reputation polarizes her friendships and her family buzzes with the ramification of her mother’s choices, Alice realizes that she’s been too focused on measuring her success and happiness by everyone else’s standards. Now, with all her shortcomings laid bare, she’ll have to figure out to whom to turn for help and decide who she really wants to be.”
Kids in the middle school age group are so impulsive and malleable, they will do whatever comes to mind without thinking it through. I could sympathize with Alice, the mom, as well as with her son Teddy, as they navigated the landscape of junior high plus social media. Since reading this, I have already talked to both boys about not sending nude pictures and not keeping any of anyone else, but I forgot to ask them if they knew what a finsta is!
Title: Something Happened to Ali Greenleaf
Author: Hayley Krischer
Genre: Contemporary YA
Publisher: Razorbill / Penguin Audio, 10/6/20
Source: Library Audio App and Publisher via Net Galley
Why I Read It: Catching up on Net Galley reviews
My Rating: 4 Stars
I found Something Happened To Ali Greenleaf a difficult read, as it is about the aftermath of a sexual assault. Ali has a crush on Sean, who takes her upstairs at a party. But just because she had a crush on him didn’t give him the right to do whatever he wanted to her! The second character in the book is Sean’s best friend Blythe, who may have a crush on him herself. At his request, she befriends Ali and tries to keep her from acknowledging what Sean did.
“Ali Greenleaf and Blythe Jensen couldn’t be more different. Ali is sweet, bitingly funny, and just a little naive. Blythe is beautiful, terrifying, and the most popular girl in school. They’ve never even talked to each other, until a party when Ali decides she’ll finally make her move on Sean Nessel, her longtime crush and the soccer team’s superstar. But Sean pushes Ali farther than she wants to go. When she resists–he rapes her. Blythe sees Ali when she runs from the party, everyone sees her. And Blythe knows something happened with Sean; she knows how he treats girls. Even so, she’s his best friend, his confidant. When he tells her it was a misunderstanding, she decides to help him make things right. So Blythe befriends Ali, bringing her into a circle of ruthless popular girls, and sharing her own dark secrets. Despite the betrayal at the heart of their relationship, they see each other, in a way no one ever has before.”
This book looks at the culture around assault and the author mentions in her note at the end how someone like Sean could go on to be a Brett Kavanaugh one day. While this book is YA, I wouldn’t recommend it to a younger teen. It seems like the type of book a class could read and discuss together, if this sort of issue was discussed in schools. It also includes drug use.
Title: Girls With Bright Futures
Author: Tracy Dobmeier and Wendy Katzman
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Publisher: Sourcebooks, 2/2/21
Source: Publisher
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review
My Rating: 4 Stars
This was the second book I recently read about the hard parts of being a parent. Or maybe it’s the hard part of being a kid while having crazy parents, at least in the case of this one! Girls With Bright Futures follows the students at an elite high school who are hoping to secure their spots in elite colleges. For some reason, Stanford puts a quota on the school and says they only have one more spot, but there are three families who want it. This amps up the competition and betrayals. Most of the characters are awful people!
“College admissions season at Seattle’s Elliott Bay Academy is marked by glowing acceptances from top-tier institutions and students as impressive as their parents are ambitious. But when Stanford alerts the school it’s allotting only one spot to EBA for their incoming class, three mothers discover the competition is more cutthroat than they could have imagined. Tech giant Alicia turns to her fortune and status to fight for her reluctant daughter’s place at the top. Kelly, a Stanford alum, leverages her PTA influence and insider knowledge to bulldoze the path for her high-strung daughter. And Maren makes three: single, broke, and ill-equipped to battle the elite school community aligning to bring her superstar down. That’s when, days before applications are due, one of the girls suffers a near-fatal accident, one that doesn’t appear to be an accident at all. As the community spirals out of control, three women will have to decide what lines they’re willing to cross to secure their daughters’ futures…and keep buried the secrets that threaten to destroy far more than just college dreams.”
This was a fun story to read, although it made me nervous for when my kids have to deal with college applications! This book contains difficult content including rape, drugs, sexual harassment, and a sick child, so be aware if those things are hard for you to read about.
Title: This Time Next Year
Author: Sophie Cousens
Genre: Contemporary Fiction / Romance
Publisher: GP Putnam and Sons, 11/1/20
Source: Book of the Month
Why I Read It: Buddy Read on Instagram
My Rating: 4 Stars
This is a sweet book about a man and woman who have had many mixed connections throughout their lives. In fact, Minnie grew up thinking her luck in life was stolen by Quinn, when his mother named him the name Minnie’s mom meant to name her. When she actually meets him, she realizes he isn’t what she expected.
“Minnie Cooper knows two things with certainty: that her New Year’s birthday is unlucky, and that it’s all because of Quinn Hamilton, a man she’s never met. Their mothers gave birth to them at the same hospital just after midnight on New Year’s Day, but Quinn was given the cash prize for being the first baby born in London in 1990–and the name Minnie was meant to have, as well. With luck like that, it’s no wonder each of her birthdays has been more of a disaster than the one before. When Minnie unexpectedly runs into Quinn at a New Year’s party on their mutual thirtieth birthday, she sees only more evidence that fortune has continued to favor him. The gorgeous, charming business owner truly seems to have it all–while Minnie’s on the brink of losing her pie-making company and her home. But if Quinn and Minnie are from different worlds, why do they keep bumping into each other? And why is it that each fraught encounter leaves them both wanting more?”
I really enjoyed the missed connections aspect of this book. I wanted a little more from the ending, but overall I enjoyed it!
Title: The Intimacy Experiment
Author: Rosie Danan
Genre: Rom Com
Publisher: Berkley, 4/6/21
Source: Publisher via Net Galley
Why I Read It: Jewish representation, on my TBR
My Rating: 4 Stars
I really enjoyed The Roommate by Rosie Danan and was quite interested to see what she would do with a Reform Jewish rabbi as her main male lead in this book! I think the book did give a good depiction of Reform Judaism and showed how Naomi struggled with her Jewish identity. Ethan wants to blend his customs with modernity and proves that Reform rabbis can date too.
“Naomi Grant has built her life around going against the grain. After the sex-positive start-up she cofounded becomes an international sensation, she wants to extend her educational platform to live lecturing. Unfortunately, despite her long list of qualifications, higher ed won’t hire her. Ethan Cohen has recently received two honors: LA Mag nominated him as one of the city’s hottest bachelors and he became rabbi of his own synagogue. Low on both funds and congregants, the executive board of Ethan’s new shul hired him with the hopes that his nontraditional background will attract more millennials to the faith. They’ve given him three months to turn things around or else they’ll close the doors of his synagogue for good. Naomi and Ethan join forces to host a buzzy seminar series on Modern Intimacy, the perfect solution to their problems–until they discover a new one–their growing attraction to each other. They’ve built the syllabus for love’s latest experiment, but neither of them expected they’d be the ones putting it to the test.”
While Naomi may have objectified Ethan a bit at first, I appreciated how she got to know him as a person as well. Both of the characters were inspiring speakers and made a great couple!
Title: Kids On The March
Author: Michael G. Long
Genre: YA Non-Fiction
Publisher: Algonquin Young Readers, 3/23/21
Source: Publisher
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review
My Rating: 4 Stars
Kids on the March contains 15 stories of kids involved in protests from 1903-2020. It covers protests from mill workers striking for shorter work weeks, protests for better schools, running for clean water at Standing Rock, the March for Our Lives after the Parkland shooting, school strikes for the climate, marches for Dreamers, and the Black Lives Matter protests this past summer.
“From the March on Washington to March for Our Lives to Black Lives Matter, the powerful stories of kid-led protest in America. Kids have always been activists. They have even launched movements. Long before they could vote, kids have spoken up, walked out, gone on strike, and marched for racial justice, climate protection, gun control, world peace, and more. Kids on the March tells the stories of these protests, from the March of the Mill Children, who walked out of factories in 1903 for a shorter work week, to 1951’s Strike for a Better School, which helped build the case for Brown v. Board of Education, to the twenty-first century’s most iconic movements, including March for Our Lives, the Climate Strike, and the recent Black Lives Matter protests reshaping our nation.”
The kids described in this book are inspiring, and it is written in a way that can inspire other kids, including ways to get involved in marches or to start their own.
Title: My Last Summer With Cass
Author: Mark Crilley
Genre: YA Graphic Novel
Publisher: Little Brown Books for Young Readers, 3/16/21
Source: Publisher
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review
My Rating: 4 Stars
Graphic novels are super quick ways to read a story! This one had beautiful illustrations, even though my advanced copy was only black and white and the final novel will be in color!
“Megan and Cass have been joined at the brush for as long as they can remember. For years, while spending summers together at a lakeside cabin, they created art together, from sand to scribbles . . . to anything available. Then Cass moved away to New York. When Megan finally convinces her parents to let her spend a week in the city, too, it seems like Cass has completely changed. She has tattoos, every artist in the city knows her. She even eats chicken feet now! At least one thing has stayed the same: They still make their best art together. But when one girl betrays the other’s trust on the eve of what is supposed to be their greatest artistic feat yet, can their friendship survive? Can their art?”
I really liked the focus on female friendship, describing how Megan and Cass grew up together, grew apart somewhat, remained friends, and coped with a betrayal. I can see why my kids enjoy graphic novels so much!
Title: The Boy and The Lake
Author: Adam Pelzman
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Jackson Heights Press, 10/7/20
Source: Suzy Approved Book Reviews
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review
My Rating: 3 Stars
I signed up to participate in this book tour due to it being another book with Jewish representation. It also takes place in New Jersey! I believe the town in the book is meant to be White Meadow Lake, while instead it is called Red Meadow Lake. Unfortunately, this book was a little slow for me, and when it could have been more of a mystery, it was more of a character driven coming of age story.
“Set against the backdrop of the Newark riots in 1967, a teenage Benjamin Baum leaves the city to spend the summer at an idyllic lake in northern New Jersey. While fishing from his grandparents’ dock, the dead body of a beloved neighbor floats to the water’s surface—a loss that shakes this Jewish community and reveals cracks in what appeared to be a perfect middle-class existence. Haunted by the sight of the woman’s corpse, Ben stubbornly searches for clues to her death, infuriating friends and family who view his unwelcome investigation as a threat to the comfortable lives they’ve built. As Ben’s suspicions mount, he’s forced to confront the terrifying possibility that his close-knit community is not what it seems to be—that, beneath a façade of prosperity and contentment, darker forces may be at work.”
Although I haven’t read him since high school, in a way this book reminded me of Philip Roth. While this book wasn’t a win for me, I would still recommend it to those who like more literary character studies and quieter stories.
Title: The Kindest Lie
Author: Nancy Johnson
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Publisher: William Morrow, 2/2/21
Source: Publisher
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review / Buddy Read
My Rating: 3 Stars
I was quite excited to read this book as the premise sounded really interesting and I had heard good things. Unfortunately, it was a little slow for me and I didn’t care enough about the main characters to want to keep reading.
“It’s 2008, and the inauguration of President Barack Obama ushers in a new kind of hope. In Chicago, Ruth Tuttle, an Ivy-League educated Black engineer, is married to a kind and successful man. He’s eager to start a family, but Ruth is uncertain. She has never gotten over the baby she gave birth to—and was forced to leave behind—when she was a teenager. She had promised her family she’d never look back, but Ruth knows that to move forward, she must make peace with the past. Returning home, Ruth discovers the Indiana factory town of her youth is plagued by unemployment, racism, and despair. As she begins digging into the past, she unexpectedly befriends Midnight, a young white boy who is also adrift and looking for connection. Just as Ruth is about to uncover a burning secret her family desperately wants to keep hidden, a traumatic incident strains the town’s already searing racial tensions, sending Ruth and Midnight on a collision course that could upend both their lives.”
One thing that bothered me in this book was Ruth’s seeming disregard for the fact that the child she’d left behind had been adopted. She seemed to want to reclaim him after 11 years. This wouldn’t be fair to him! I did appreciate some of the exploration of class and race shown in this book, but I think it could have used more emotion overall.
Title: The Midnight Library
Author: Matt Haig
Genre: Contemporary Fiction / Fantasy
Publisher: Penguin Audio, 9/29/20
Source: Publisher via Volumes App
Why I Read It: Curiosity
My Rating: 4 Stars
I had heard that this book was very well liked but I wasn’t sure if I would like it myself. When I saw that the audio was available for review from the publisher, I decided to listen to it. It was a quick listen, and I could see why it was well liked.
“Somewhere out beyond the edge of the universe there is a library that contains an infinite number of books, each one the story of another reality. One tells the story of your life as it is, along with another book for the other life you could have lived if you had made a different choice at any point in your life. While we all wonder how our lives might have been, what if you had the chance to go to the library and see for yourself? Would any of these other lives truly be better? In The Midnight Library, Matt Haig’s enchanting new novel, Nora Seed finds herself faced with this decision. Faced with the possibility of changing her life for a new one, following a different career, undoing old breakups, realizing her dreams of becoming a glaciologist; she must search within herself as she travels through the Midnight Library to decide what is truly fulfilling in life, and what makes it worth living in the first place.”
The book begins with Nora choosing to end her own life. She is then given the option to see how her life could have been if she had made a variety of other choices along the way. I found it amusing that she was so talented in so many areas that she had the possibility of becoming things that most others never would have been able to (a rock star, an Olympic athlete). Of course, each of the other lives she tried out had their own issues, and she was able to realize that she wanted to continue to live in the life she had ultimately lived. I wrote down two quotes from the book: “Never underestimate the big importance of small things,” and “You don’t have to understand life. You just have to live it.”
There you have it – 15 of the books I read this month (please, you don’t need to comment that I read a lot. I know.) Of these books, 11 were print, 1 was an e-book, and 3 were audio books. Some were very quick reads, including a book of stories, a book of letters, and a graphic novel. I gave 13 of them 4 stars and two of them 3 stars!
Have you read any of these books or do you want to? What have you been reading lately?