The Bluest Eye (Lovely prose, but not my cup of tea)

The Bluest Eye
by Toni Morrison
2/5 stars
⭐⭐


The Bluest Eye is about some young African-American girls and their lives and the things that happen, and the things they hope for.

I tried something new with this book, and I listened to it as an audio book.
While it was nice to hear the different inflections, etc, I kind of had a hard time following the action and the storyline, and I doubt I will do this again. For me seeing the words and reading them makes the story more linear and it makes it easier for me to understand.

As far as the story itself, It was just OK for me, I felt like it really jumped around.
It started with the 2 little girls, then talked about Polly the Mom, then the Charlie the Dad, then some other people who I wasn't really sure how they fit in...

The prose and writing are lovely, but the story is just all over the place.
I get that it's a very important topic and very powerful and resonates strongly with some groups, but it just didn't hit that note for me.

Afterlife -The Arcadia Chronicles-Book One (Total Garbage IMHO)

Afterlife
The Arcadia Chronicles-Book One
by JK Ishaya and Kenneth Mader
2/5 stars
⭐⭐


Afterlife is the story of Elaine Ways, whose husband is brutally murdered on the night of their anniversary. 
Her husband Derek, had been a key designer of a mysterious project that "treated" children with a very specific type of brain tumor. The tumor affected the children in a way that caused them to have psychic gifts. Halfway through the book, after the main character undergoes a transformation her name just "changes" to Arcadia because she dreamed it that way. Really?? Give me a break. 

Those sentences pretty much sum up the first part of this very confusing and unclear book. 
So much gobbledygook science here.  Everything from astral projection to hypothermia to gyroscopes. 
I'm sorry, but I AM actually a scientist by trade, and this book was just garbage to me.  
If you can get past the first half of this nonsense, some of the action is OK, the interpersonal storylines are nice, however, there is a lot of description of various Asian weapons etc., so perhaps some explanation of what these are would be nice if this is intended to be a Book #1. 
Be aware some of the descriptions of what is done to the children by the villains is very graphic and disturbing.
I cannot in all good conscience recommend this book, for me it was a hot mess.  

I received a free ARC from NetGalley for my honest opinions which are my own. 

The Little Shop of Happy Ever After (A Treat for Every Book Lover!)

The Little Shop of Happy Ever After
by Jenny Colgan
4/5 stars
⭐⭐⭐⭐


Jenny Colgan is one of my favorite authors.
I know what I'm going to get in her stories, but I still love them.
She loves books, baking, Scotland, love stories, and I'm a sucker for all of those things.

In this adorable tale, Nina gets sacked from her job in a library that is downsized and buys a van which she fills with books and turns into a mobile bookshop in Scotland.
There are hurdles to overcome, love stories gone wrong, and families getting help from a whole town as well as fun Scottish festivals and dances.
What more could you want?

Although it took me a while to read this, it's not because it was a hard read, it was just on and off my reading stack, and I often have multiple books going at once, prioritizing the ones that have to be returned to the library or reviewed for NetGalley first.

I could read Jenny Colgan every day- she is delightful-

Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows ( A fun and Sexy East meets West Adventure!)

Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows 
by Balli Kaur Jaswal
4/5 stars
⭐⭐⭐⭐


This book is about a young British girl, Nikki, who is trying to find her way in life, and take on teaching what she thinks is going to be a creative writing workshop for Punjabi women, hoping to do some feminist consciousness-raising. She is surprised to find out the organizer means for her to actually teach the women how to read, beginning with ABC's and then the women themselves, who are all widows, give the workshop a decidedly different turn.

With fun, well-told erotic stories, a mystery and a love story sprinkled in between, this is a delightful and fast read, as well as being a fascinating glimpse into a different culture.

The writing is lovely, and very descriptive, painting a great word picture for the reader. In addition, the mystery aspect plays out well, without giving everything away too early as many do. I also loved the aspect of using the widows to tell the stories, how they still have so much yearning and love, with no one to bestow it upon. The viral character of how the stories grow was tons of fun.

I recommend this highly- so fun, read it, you'll love it!

A Longer Fall by Charlaine Harris- (Pretty Good, but not a Wow)

A Longer Fall
by Charlaine Harris 
3/5 stars 
⭐⭐⭐


A longer fall is the story of Lizbeth Rose a "Gunnie" or hired gun, who is hired along with a few others in a crew to protect a mysterious chest on a journey into a southern country called Dixie in what seems to be an Alt-USA. The story depends heavily on the existence of people who are some type of wizard called Grigori, trained in the old Holy Russian Empire, descendants of Rasputin.

I liked the book OK, I felt it was well-written, but then it is by Charlaine Harris, who is the author of the Sookie Stackhouse (True Blood) books, so we know she has writing chops. 
The story moved along OK, but maybe I just suffered as a reader because this is book #2 and I have not had the opportunity to read book #1. Still, I do think books should be written to stand alone, and then enhance if you have read others in the series. 

I also felt that the concept of the Grigori and why their vests were so important needed more explanation, but maybe this was accomplished in book #1. Same point for a character named Dan that seems to have some importance towards the end of the story- I didn't understand who he was or why he mattered. 
I was also confused with the geography- A map of the various regions might be helpful- where is Dixie, Texoma, etc. I mean you have an idea from the names, but a map would be even better. 
I read an e-version, maybe a print version will have one. 

The action in the story moved along well, and action sequences were well-written, however, I know this author can write steamier bedroom scenes, so it must have been a conscious choice here to write the bedroom scenes in a very dry fashion. All in all this book was a fairly enjoyable read, not the worst or best of the year, but not bad. 

Thanks to NetGalley for a free ARC of this book, my opinions and reviews are my own. 

https://www.goodreads.com/user/year_in_books/2019?int=yyib_sa

Crazy fun visuals about my year in books from Goodreads!

On Division (A worthwhile diversion)

On Division
by Goldie Goldblum
4/5 stars 
⭐⭐⭐⭐


What a joy to read a coherent, beautifully written book, 
with fully realized characters that follows an actual plot line!
(Can you tell I've read some stinkers lately?)
This book is about an older Chassidic mother who unexpectedly conceives twins,
 and how this affects her relationships with those around her.
It's a fascinating glimpse into a community many don't know much about.
This was a very fast read, and extremely well-written.
In addition, you always knew when the action was taking place, 
and who the narrator was.
By the end of the book, I really felt like I knew Surie and her family,
the characters were described well, 
and I appreciated the family tree at the front of the book as well,
although I would like to have known more about the ancestors.
I recommend this book with no reservations!

Fleishman is in Trouble (and so is this Book!)

Fleishman is in Trouble 
by Taffy Brodesser-Akner
1/5 stars
⭐

Well, another book I just did not like at all.
I just felt like this book was the equivalent of literary masturbation.
A lot of the time I simply could not figure out who the narrator was,
(WHY not just start the chapters by noting WHO is speaking and what day it is?? 
One of my pet peeves ) and even when I could, none of the characters were likable, 
and they all seemed so self-indulgent and whiny.
I guess I just basically rejected the whole premise of this book which was that marriages can't be happy, and that "if you are a smart woman, you cannot stand by and remain sane once you fully understand, as a smart person does, the constraints of this world on a woman."
Brodesser-Akner, Taffy. Fleishman Is in Trouble (p. 368). Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

I feel like the last few books I've read are so incredibly poorly written, that it is simply shocking. I just don't know how this drivel gets published.
I am absolutely aching for a decent story that I can at least give 3 or 4 stars to, where there is a coherent narrative thread, and gasp! maybe a chronological story actually told.
There were entire chapters of this book where the story was just repeated over and over.
I get that it was to illustrate the mental breakdown of the character in question,
but it was just tedious to read by the third or fourth go round.
and I still don't know WHO the hell she was talking to.
I can NOT recommend this book at all. 

The Guest Book by Sarah Blake - 1/5 stars

The Guest Book 
by Sarah Blake
1/5 stars
⭐

The Guest Book was a complete stinker for me.
I would absolutely not have wasted my time finishing this book if not for the fact that my book club had picked it.

SO BORING.
I just kept thinking, why should I care about these people?
It was like the first 7/8 of this interminable volume was the setup and you finally got the pay-off only at the very end, and even that wasn't much of a pay-off.
The characters I was really interested in, (Elsa and Willy) we never really find out much about, and the other characters, Reg and Len, just sort of disappear after a pivotal scene.
Just a lot of blather about guilt because we are so white and so privileged, blah, blah, boring.

I don't even really understand why the title is the Guest Book.
They should have called it "The Island" or "Guilty Island"
They only even refer to the eponymous guest book maybe once in this whole bloated tome.
Anyhow, this is a phenomenal stinker- don't waste your time!

Fire & Blood by George RR Martin.

Fire & Blood 
by George RR Martin
2/5 stars
⭐⭐

This was a real slog to get through
In retrospect, I'm not even sure why I bothered to finish it.
I was hoping to get more about Viserys and Danerys and the fall of the Targareyns,
but it never even got that far, it really only went about 1/3 of the way into the dynasty and you learned more about Mushroom, the fool, than anyone else.
I think Martin should forget about this nonsense and finish writing GOT already!
This was absolutely NOT the book I was hoping for-
it was a very dry history, long recitations of names,
with little empathy and character-driven writing.
Pass.