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Book 837: Fifty Words for Rain – Asha Lemmie

I feel hollow after finishing this book—I’m not sure emotionally drained is the right word because I feel like I have so many emotions going on that they’ve just forced each other out and there’s just nothing.  And when you take in that this is a debut novel, damn.

I’m not sure what I was expecting, but it’s been on my radar since the publisher reached out last year when it was first published but I didn’t get to it until the paperback was recently released.* I really should’ve prioritized it from back then because I feel like Dutton never steers me wrong looking at the books I’ve read from them.

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Book 806: The Music of Bees – Eileen Garvin

I had no expectations of this going in. I grabbed a copy from NetGalley after re-upping my name on the Dutton ARC/Review copy list and if I’m honest I totally chose it because of the cover and the lyricalness of the title.*

I was so glad when I started reading that I fell right into it. Garvin has a way of building place and chosen family that does sometimes feel slow—it’s like COME ON you’re totally going to be BFFs forever we all can see it, just get there—but really is the perfect pace. She also clearly has s huge respect for bees and their place in the pollination cycle.

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Book 800: Body of Stars – Laura Maylene Walter

Aaannnnndddddd we have a new entry into the creepy AF, almost could be true speculative fiction world that has a lot of potential to really explode. When the publisher reached out I was vaguely interested until I read it was about freckles/moles determining the future of girls and women I HAD to read it.*

I have a ton of freckles—including what I call my angel wings that spread across my back down my arms—and found the idea terrifying that the future could be told in markings on your body. And I’m not talking palm reading, which the book discusses, but like actual fated fact. Shudder . . .

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Book 696: The Last Day – Andrew Hunter Murray

I’m not sure I generally would’ve opted to read a post-apocalyptic fiction novel right now (thank you global pandemic). However, I thought my dedicated readers (oh hey all 10-or-so of you :-D) might like a change up from all the MM romance novels I’ve been blasting through. That, and this was sent by the publisher back in mid-February . . . so yeah, here it is!*

The world has come to a standstill. As in it has stopped rotating on its access and is stationary as it revolves around the sun leaving half the world in darkness and the other half in sunlight with the population surviving most in the twilight areas. The world is now an eat or be eaten world, but not quite as bad as Mad-Max (there is a throw away reference to the desert people being a bit similar), but everything rests on the UK and the government that took over after the Stop.

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Book 572: Tip of the Iceberg – Mark Adams

I REALLY want to go back to Alaska. Like really really want to go back and reading this book is almost enough to make me want to LIVE there. And that’s just crazy for me who has a love/hate relationship with cities. I received a copy Tip of the Iceberg: My 3,000-Mile Journey Around Wild Alaska, The Last Great American Frontier from the publisher* and I really wish I would’ve read it earlier.

Adams has a way with words and really putting you into the place he’s visiting. I remember when I tried to recap our Alaskan cruise I struggled (and still struggle) to talk about the beauty and the sheer immensity of everything you see when you’re there. We only visited the panhandle (the furthest north we went was Skagway) and I cannot even imagine visiting some of the places Adams visited during his trek.

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