A life of books . . .
After finishing Strawberry Kisses rather than do the responsible thing and keep going down my galley list to the next nonfiction book I wanted to get done before the end of 2020, I sought out the book Novak mentions these characters made their first appearance.
SO responsible right? I at least enjoyed it, I’ll just have to remind myself that as I slog through those nonfiction works in the next few weeks.
I have no idea where this book came from. I was 100% certain it was a recommendation by Kat Chow on the NPR podcast Pop Culture Happy Hour, but I can’t find a reference to it anywhere. I did, however, find this wonderful story (profile?) in The Atlantic written by Kat about spending an afternoon with Vuong, who happened to be a few years ahead of her in high school.
No matter where it came from I’ve been trailing this book from the BPL for months. I was on hold for a long time and then it finally came available at the same time they offered the ability to delay claiming the book, so I delayed for weeks. I knew I needed to be in the right mindset to read it, but I couldn’t remember why. Well, I finally felt ready to read it and I’m SO glad I waited.
Continue reading “Book 741: On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous – Ocean Vuong”
I think I saw this on some bookstagram post and liked the cover and blurb enough to request it from the library. I had no expectations going into it, but I can tell you I was NOT expecting to have the air pulled out of my lungs constantly through the last half of the book.
Seriously though, the only thing I can compare it to is when you’re sobbing so hard and you can’t catch your breath and you just keep gasping trying to breathe but you’re only getting enough oxygen to keep sobbing. Jo and Kurl’s story was brutally beautiful.
Continue reading “Book 727: We Contain Multitudes – Sarah Henstra”
In the final book of Annabeth Albert’s Frozen Hearts series, she takes the heat and turns it up in a winter setting! I felt this was one of the only things missing from the previous two entries in the series (Arctic Sun and Arctic Wild), especially because the protagonists living in Alaska put so much effort and emphasis on whether the mainlanders would survive an Alaskan winter.
Arctic Heat introduces us to Quill, the stoic ranger who was part of the team who rescued Toby and Reuben in Arctic Wild, and Owen, a cancer survivor checking things off his bucket list which included volunteering for a winter in Alaska. And if there’s one thing about this series that Owen nails in one line, it’s the opening line of this novel: “Come for the snow. Stay for the ranger porn.” So maybe it doesn’t fit the entire series, but I guess if you put “rugged outdoors man” instead of ranger you’d get it in one.
Continue reading “Book 709: Arctic Heat (Frozen Hearts #3) – Annabeth Albert”
Along with Walker’s The Weight of It All and Throwing Hearts, I picked this up as part of my Kindle Unlimited download spree after Tim got me a new Oasis for our anniversary.
If I’m honest, I picked this one because it didn’t have the traditional half-dressed/watermarked/super-model handsome cover model on it. Even with the super-hokey heart as an “o”, I liked how clean and simple the cover was. And maybe more importantly, I liked that I got to envision the characters without constantly thinking their descriptions are nothing like the cover models (which yes, I spend WAY too long thinking about this).
Continue reading “Book 708: Hotline (Murmur, Inc. #1) – Quinn Anderson”