Jolissa
Read my full review at https://literaryquicksand.com/2022/04/review-ways-the-world-could-end-by-kim-hooper/
Ways the World Could End is a story with so much heart. Dave and Cleo's relationship after losing Jana is just this tender thing that changes as the story goes on. I loved being inside Dave's head as he thinks about his daughter, and about his relationship with the world in general. He ends up being a bit of a doomsday prepper, and that's where the title of the book comes from. Each time Dave narrates a part of the story, he comes in with a way the world could end.
Kim Hooper gets grief and the aftermath it creates, and that comes across so clearly in her writing. It's those day-to-day details after something so huge and life-changing happens that I can imagine are hard to capture in a story, but she does it so well. Having been through a couple big grief events myself, I appreciate this so much. Those little details are where life happens, and she gets those spot-on.
Cleo is just trying to figure out who she is, both on her own and as a daughter/friend/girlfriend. Such a tender age to lose her mom. I loved watching her grow throughout the novel, and also how she interacts with her dad, knowing he's neurodivergent. The relationship building in this book was just awesome. It gave me all the feels.
This review is published on my blog: https://literaryquicksand.com/2022/04/what-we-read-in-march-2022/
This was my book club's pick in March. I don't read the thriller/suspense genre much at all, so I wasn't super excited to read this one. When I started, though, I couldn't stop, and finished it in 2 days. It just sucked me in and I had to find out what happened. That said, there was a lot going on in this book...lots of characters and side stories to lead you astray from who the real killer might be. I liked it for the most part, but it got to be a little bit much. A fun read though!
First of all, I'm so thankful to Ballantine Books via NetGalley for letting me read Unlikely Animals before it comes out. This was one of my favorites of the year so far!
I tend to really enjoy books with quirkiness done well, and this one just hits that out of the park. I mean, it's narrated by the ghosts of people in the town who've died and are now buried in the town's graveyard. One of the main characters sees and interacts with a ghost (and not-real animals), and another main character is doing her job of teaching a group of endearing 5th graders without any prior experience (or education) in education.
All of that made this story so unique, fun, funny, and heartwarming. If you've read Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson, I'd compare this book to that one in terms of quirkiness and endearing-ness.
I think my favorite character in this story was Clive. He continue losing some of his cognitive function to a brain disease as the book goes on, but he's just the most interesting guy with a heart of gold. I loved that he told his daughter to do a C-average job at teaching the kids so nobody expected too much of her. And of course, the fact that he interacts with a ghost on a daily basis makes him rather interesting.
Here's my full review: https://literaryquicksand.com/2022/03/review-unlikely-animals-by-annie-hartnett/
This review is published on my blog: https://literaryquicksand.com/2022/04/what-we-read-in-march-2022/
This book came unexpectedly in the mail from Celadon Books for my little free library. I was between books when it arrived, and I foolishly opened it to read the first couple pages. I was immediately hooked and had to just go ahead and read the whole dang thing
I listened to the audiobook version of Brooklyn. I remembered that it was a popular movie, even though I haven't seen it. I thought maybe I'd listen to the book, then try to stream the movie. It was...just okay. It was super character driven, which I usually tend to like, but this one got boring at times for me. I enjoyed it for the most part, but it just wasn't what I was expecting from such a popular movie.
This review is published on my blog: https://literaryquicksand.com/2022/03/what-we-read-in-february-2022/
This idea behind this book is just so wonderful. All proceeds from Alone Together, which is a collection of essays and poems about pandemic life, go to The Book Industry Charitable Foundation (Binc), a nonprofit organization that coordinates charitable programs to strengthen the bookselling community. In short, it went to bookstores that struggled to stay open during the pandemic. What an awesome idea, and the content of the book totally delivers. I connected with some essays more than others, but appreciated it all. The only reason I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 is I kind of wish it would be all essays instead of essays plus poetry. Poetry that requires me to analyze each line to figure out what the author is really talking about is just not something I love
I listened to the audiobook version of Brooklyn. I remembered that it was a popular movie, even though I haven't seen it. I thought maybe I'd listen to the book, then try to stream the movie. It was...just okay. It was super character driven, which I usually tend to like, but this one got boring at times for me. I enjoyed it for the most part, but it just wasn't what I was expecting from such a popular movie. 3 1/2 stars
A Ballad of Love and Glory is described as A Long Petal of the Sea meets Cold Mountain, and I can definitely see that. It's very detailed on the historical side of things, alongside a love story between what seems like an unlikely couple, but their love transcends culture and ethnicity.
In a word: epic.
We follow Ximena and John separately at first, and then together as their worlds collide through the war. Their love story is so unlikely, yet at the same time, it makes sense. They both have broken lives due to the war, and it brings them together.
There's just a ton going on in this book. The historical element is very well defined and you get a lot of background into what's happening and why. Having also just read A Long Petal of the Sea, I can see how the writing is similar, with so much history rolled into it, but I actually like Love and Glory better because it didn't take as much time out of the story in order to go over history lessons.
Besides a ton of historical facts, this book is also pretty raw in the details. It's a book about war, and it doesn't shy away from some depictions of what things were really like. There's a lot of violence, a lot of death, and a lot of suffering. I wasn't quite expecting that to be honest, and it made the book pretty heavy at times. I had a hard time picking it up a few times, knowing I was descending into a land of death and destruction, but I also couldn't stay away.
Read my full review: https://literaryquicksand.com/2022/03/review-a-ballad-of-love-and-glory-by-reyna-grande/
Find my full review here: https://literaryquicksand.com/2022/02/review-home-or-away-by-kathleen-west/
We're big Kathleen West fans around here – she used to write for LQ! Home or Away is her third book and I was so excited to get approved to read it early via NetGalley.
Home or Away is Kathleen's third book, and I could definitely tell while I was reading it that she's growing and morphing as a writer. I rated both Minor Dramas & Other Catastrophes and Are We There Yet? 5 stars. I loved them! So I was really excited to dive into Home or Away.
The first thing I'll say about this one is that it's definitely the most serious of Kathleen's books so far. Sure, the other two had some serious things happen, where relationships were on the brink of combusting and lives were disrupted. Home or Away, though, deals with the most serious subject matter: Leigh's inappropriate relationship with her coach when she was vulnerable.
This book had a lot of building up to the most dramatic moments, but it was slower than Kathleen's other two. That's the only reason why I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 – it was just a bit slow for me. I knew it was building up to something and I definitely still wanted to read it, but I needed more to happen at times.
I did struggle a little to connect with Leigh. She's just so very opposite of me in some ways that I couldn't quite understand why she was doing what she was doing. There were definitely flashes, though, of her inner workings that clicked more with me. She's so hard on the outside but just fraught with grief on the inside.
The glimpse into serious youth hockey was – man, sports parents can be nuts! The kids are just strung along for the ride sometimes. I just wanted to give the kids some hugs and tell them to have fun.
The tension and awkwardness between Leigh and Susy was hard to read sometimes. I just wanted to shake Leigh and tell her to snap out of it and talk about what happened to her so she could find some healing and some friendship! I really liked Susy – she may just be my favorite character.
Overall, this book was great and suspenseful and deep. Definitely worth a read!
This review is published on my blog: https://literaryquicksand.com/2022/02/what-we-read-in-january-2022/
Need some cute quirkiness in your reading life? I highly recommend Nothing to See Here! This book was recommended to me by multiple people on bookstagram, so I finally picked it up off my shelf. Man, it was so good! The story is similar to The House in the Cerulean Sea, except there's a lot more swearing and the kids are human, with a slightly fantastical element: they can burst into flames. This book was so fun and entertaining. Put it on your list right now!
The characters in this story were so loveable. I loved both Mukesh and Aleisha, and the side characters you meet throughout, too. They each had something really difficult in their lives – him a recent widower, and her living with a mentally ill mom. And things get harder before they get easier.
The way the author depicts grief I thought was really well done. Both of the main characters are grieving something or someone, and you can see them struggling to find themselves in it and adapt to their worlds.
I also loved the thread of the reading list tying their stories (and side characters) together so closely. It's a little bit of a mystery, because you don't know who made the reading list they find, but the author started weaving in more clues as the story went on. I thought that was a really fun way to make the reveal.
The only thing I didn't love about this book, the thing that took it down from 5 stars to 4, is the ending.
Read my full review: https://literaryquicksand.com/2022/02/review-the-reading-list-by-sara-nisha-adams/
First of all, I have to talk about how unique this book is. The mystery element mixed in with the history made it something so different from other books I've read like this. It reminded me a little bit of The Lost Apothecary, with that kind of vibe, although definitely not as dark.
I have to admit, it did start out a little bit slow for me. I wasn't sure I loved Alice and thought she was beyond a normal level of timid. She's so quiet, so unsure of herself...I wasn't sure if she was entirely realistic. She did come alive for me later in the book, though, so I was really happy to see her get more sure of herself.
This book is told from multiple points of view, and at times it almost seemed like too many. It was a little hard to keep track of what was going on with all the characters: all of their relationships, backstories, and how they related to the honeybee emeralds. This is another thing I figured out better as we got towards the middle of the book.
Beyond those couple things, this book was SO fun. I just flew through it, especially after I hit the half way point. The whole story picked up, I knew the characters better, and I was really into the fun history stuff. I was also really rooting for some of the characters and was excited when good things happened for them.
Read my full review: https://literaryquicksand.com/2022/01/review-the-honeybee-emeralds-by-amy-tector/
The Seed Keeper is one of those stories that hits you hard, then sticks with you long after you've read it. It was haunting and heartbreaking and beautiful and hopeful and it just swept me away.
Rosalie's story is interwoven with her ancestors' stories, and they were all just as compelling as hers. I fell into them so naturally – there was no awkwardness in switching stories. Every story was immersive and told with the same passion. I couldn't help wanting to read more of every storyline.
This book is easily headed to my all-time favorites shelf. 5 stars.
Read my full review here: https://literaryquicksand.com/2021/12/review-the-seed-keeper-by-diane-wilson/
This story tackled some really complicated feelings, and it did it really well. Zane and Skye are two teens who have to make really difficult decisions at very young ages, then learn how to live with those decisions. If you like complicated family stories, I'd definitely suggest picking this one up.
Skye ended up being a really likable character, and I definitely felt for her and the position she's in. How do you make a decision as a mother about letting the kid's father back into the picture, after he's gotten clean? Then, when you struggle to figure out your feelings about the guy, how do you go about dealing with those?
I thought everything about this book was well done, including all the throwbacks to the grunge era. There were a lot of references I enjoyed, even though I wasn't really into grunge as a kid. I enjoyed getting lost in the struggle of these characters, and their reconciliations with the past and who they used to be. There were a couple times when I couldn't quite get into Skye's head to figure out why she was making certain decisions, mainly about Zane and her relationship with him.
Read my full review: https://literaryquicksand.com/2021/12/review-come-as-you-are-by-jennifer-haupt/
This book had so many moments that I wanted to bottle up and save for a time when I need something inspiring. I think a lot of people can identify with Gussie and what she's going through. So many of us have had experiences where we've gone through these changes where we're not sure who we are and what we want to be.
The descriptions of the Indian landscape, architecture and people are just gorgeous. The author clearly has the ability to capture sights, sounds and feelings in a way other authors can't. It's just an immersive story that I got lost in, and I looked forward to picking it back up every time I had to stop reading.
Like I mentioned earlier, there are a whole bunch of inspirational passages in the book that worked really well for me. Sometimes I can't help but roll my eyes at that kind of thing, but it's done so well in Every Word Unsaid that it just gave me the warm fuzzies instead of the eye rolls.
Read my full review: https://literaryquicksand.com/2021/11/review-every-word-unsaid-by-kimberly-duffy/
This book was good and I enjoyed it, but it also wasn't quite what I was expecting. I went into it expecting a lot of adventure, and the adventure was more in bits and pieces in between more family/friend/relationship content. I also had no idea that there would be so much sex and lust in this book! I don't have a problem with sex and lust, but I just didn't expect it. Lust, though, becomes a theme throughout the entire book: lust both for other humans and for what you really want in life.
Marian's story was very well done. I felt like a really knew her as a character, understood her motives, and rooted for her throughout the book. Her life story was super interesting and fun to read.
Hadley, on the other hand...wasn't my favorite. I've read some other reviews of this book and have seen that there are quite a few others who feel the same. I just didn't think this book needed her side of things to be great. Marian's story was so compelling, so unique, and so exciting, and Hadley's was just not. I mean, it was okay, but it just felt unnecessary. In fact, the further on I got in the book, I felt like I was racing through Hadley's parts to get back to Marian's. At 600+ pages, I think Hadley's part of the story just didn't need to be there.
I also enjoyed the mystery portion of this book. You kind of know how it's going to end, but you're not exactly sure, and then as the book goes on, you get these clues that the end you thought was coming might actually not be coming. I loved the way Shipstead weaved that in there!
Read my full review: https://literaryquicksand.com/2021/11/review-great-circle-by-maggie-shipstead/
Wow, there was a lot to this book. It's the story of an entire lifetime, so there's definitely a lot to get through!
I loved the beginning of Violeta. Her life as a child was so incredibly interesting, and I found myself feeling sad when the story continued and she was older. I loved the story of the woman who comes to her home as a nanny...their relationship is fascinating, and continues to be that way throughout the book.
While I was really engaged for about the first half of this book, the second half didn't shine as brightly for me. It's certainly an incredible story, and there's no doubt that Isabel Allende is an experienced, immersive storyteller. I've heard good things about other books of hers (specifically A Long Petal of the Sea), and I would like to pick up one of those.
Violeta, though, gets a little bit too mired in politics for me. I enjoyed reading about the politics of a region I don't know as much about, but the story got too focused there for me, with longer descriptions about what was going on with the politics in multiple countries. I like a side of politics with my stories...this verged too far into the political content for me.
Read my full review: https://literaryquicksand.com/2021/10/review-violeta-by-isabel-allende/
Find my full review here: https://literaryquicksand.com/2021/09/review-dear-mrs-bird-and-yours-cheerfully-by-a-j-pearce/
While the story focused a lot of women's empowerment, which was fun to read, it didn't get as serious as Mrs. Bird. It just stayed on the light side of things for me the whole time.
And because it stayed light, I have to admit I got a little bit bored. I felt invested in the story and liked it enough to keep going, but I was somewhat disappointed.
So for ratings, I gave Dear Mrs. Bird 4.5 stars and Yours Cheerfully 3. If you're a historical fiction lover, definitely pick up Dear Mrs. Bird! But I'll leave Yours Cheerfully up to you.
Read my full review here: https://literaryquicksand.com/2021/08/book-review-all-are-welcome-by-liz-parker/
I had some mixed feelings about this book, but overall rated it pretty highly in the end!
Alright, where do I start with this book? Haha there was a lot going on!
Let's start with Tiny and Caroline's relationship. There are seeds of doubt sown pretty much immediately for the reader to wonder why they're getting married, because there are clearly some issues. This was one of the parts of the story I wasn't sure if I liked. It was so immediate that we see that this whole wedding thing probably isn't going to end well.
Tiny and Caroline's families are both flawed in many ways. There's a lot of emotional distance, heavy drinking, and uncertainty about Tiny's choice to marry another woman. It was honestly a little hard to read at times, because of the hemophobia from Tiny's brother and weird, closeted feelings from her father. I really don't doubt though that those tough situations exist in real life, so it made sense to me to include it in the book.
Every character in this book was very flawed in some way, which ended up making it...well, enjoyable. It was a massive train wreck that you could see coming, although there were a few surprises for me that I didn't predict. It's one of those stories where everything gets worse and worse, until finally there's some sort of moment of reckoning.
My full review is here: https://literaryquicksand.com/2021/09/review-dear-mrs-bird-and-yours-cheerfully-by-a-j-pearce/
When I found out I would be able to receive an ARC of Yours Cheerfully in exchange for an honest review, I decided that I'd read Dear Mrs. Bird first. Although it's possible for Yours Cheerfully to stand alone, I definitely think reading them in order helped me enjoy the second one more. Although it goes over some of the big points of what happened in Mrs. Bird, I'm glad I read it first.
When I started Dear Mrs. Bird, I had a little bit of a hard time at first getting into the writing style. It's different than what I've read in historical fiction before. The author chooses to capitalize some things, and that's a style that put me off a little. For instance, Emmy might explain something as “having become Quite the Big Thing.” However, as I kept reading, I got more used to it and it didn't bother me quite so much. Still, the grammarian in me had kind of a hard time!
The plot was really light to begin with, but it got deeper and less fluffy for sure. Still, even when the subject matter got heavy with war fallout, Emmy is so good-natured and talks in such a...sweet? way that it's heavy without feeling too gloomy.
Overall, I found Dear Mrs. Bird light, yet it tackles difficult subject matter. The portrayal of friendship was so heartwarming, it was just a fun read. I gave it 4.5 stars overall.
Find my full review at https://literaryquicksand.com/2021/07/review-the-last-birthday-party-by-gary-goldstein/
This book was just a hoot. It was funny, endearing, and just a good book overall.
Jeremy is a likable guy, if a bit hapless, but that makes him really accessible as a main character. I think we can all identify with that moment when something big goes wrong, and you realize you've seen it coming but just...didn't want to think about it, so you didn't. And now it's here, and you're screwed.
That's the situation we meet Jeremy in (on the day after his 50th birthday), and it just goes from bad to worse very quickly when his wife is gone and then he falls and injures his shoulder (while trying to reach the alcohol cuz, well, his wife is gone).
Honestly, after that, not much really happens in this book. Sure, Jeremy is in the midst of figuring out his love life and his career, but there's not really much for action here. I love a good character-driven novel, so this was fine with me. It does have to be GOOD though, and this one fit the bill.
My full review appears here: https://literaryquicksand.com/2021/06/review-no-hiding-in-boise-by-kim-hooper/
If the synopsis of this book makes it sound heavy, you're right — it deals with some pretty heavy subject matter. Yet, the book as a whole doesn't feel like this big, depressing, heavy thing.
This book isn't so much about the traumatic event itself. Instead, it's about the aftermath: the stuff we're much less likely to see on the news.
The story takes a deep dive into the lives of three women affected by the shooting. One of them was there, one of them is the shooter's mom, and one of them is wondering what the heck her injured husband was doing at a bar in the middle of the night when he was supposed to be in bed with her. Each one of them is affected in a different way, yet the happenings of that night start to bring them all together.
There's also a little undercurrent of mystery to this book. What was Angie's husband doing at that bar? Since he's too injured to speak up, Angie has to try to piece things together herself.
I don't really want to say a lot about this book, because I don't want to give anything away! I will say that I thought it was beautiful. I tend to love super realistic depictions of grief and trauma and broken people, because that's also when life (and books) can very unexpectedly be the most beautiful.