Books

Book 1,009: Long Time Coming – Ava Olsen

Book cover of "Long Time Coming"I’m not sure how I stumbled across this one, it was probably a random email from Prolific Works that I just happened to actually open and they happened to profile a MM Romance novel in it.

It’s the story of Chase, a news anchor, and Ashton, a nonprofit CEO, college acquaintances who reconnect later in life at a gala event hosted by Ashton. There’s drama and office gossip and Ashton’s adorable kid, Trent, calling things like they are even when the adults won’t.

Continue reading “Book 1,009: Long Time Coming – Ava Olsen”

Books

Book 950: Kaleidoscope – Cecily Wong

Book cover of When someone from the publisher reached out about Kaleidoscope, this line caught me: “This book is heart-wrenching and hopeful and the characters truly shine on the page. It’s one of those books where I wish I could read it again for the first time all over again. And I’m so happy that you get to.”

And I downloaded a copy almost immediately, but of course sat on it for a few months, allowing me to forget about the blurb and the subject and go into this completely blind.*  This approach, if you’ve followed me for a while, sometimes works for me and sometimes it doesn’t. This time it sort of worked mostly because the intro was a little abrupt and different from the rest of the story, but that’s on me, not the author.

Continue reading “Book 950: Kaleidoscope – Cecily Wong”

Books

Book 937: Burn Rate – Andy Dunn

Book cover of "Burn Rate" with Amazon Affiliate linkWhen someone in the marketing department at the publisher reached out about this because I’d positively reviewed David Chang’s Eat a Peach, I had to take a few minutes to really think if I wanted to go back into this world.*

In Chang’s book, his mental health struggles are peripheral, but in Dunn’s Burn Rate, he centers them. I spent quite a bit of time reading about bipolar disorder, alcoholism, and other mental health issues before my mom died a few years ago to try and understand what she was going through and what my sister and I were experiencing. And that REALLY hit home when the first quote Dunn uses in his book is a quote from Kay Redfield Jamison who wrote THE book (An Unquiet Mind) about brains and bipolar/manic depression/brains in general.

Continue reading “Book 937: Burn Rate – Andy Dunn”

Books

Book 913: Word Nerd – John D. Williams, Jr.

Book Cover of "Word Nerds" with Amazon Affiliate linkI have no idea where I stumbled across this book. At first, I thought it was The Allusionist or 99% Invisible podcasts, but can’t find any mention of it on their sites and there’s nothing on NPR, aside from a review which I usually avoid, points to where it came from. I also didn’t purchase it from Amazon or any other online book retailer, so I must’ve randomly picked it up in a physical store and not tracked the purchase.

I’m glad I picked it up though! Not because I play SCRABBLE, because I’m not great at it, but because it just had a great title and subtitle and I figured it’d be an interesting read and it truly was.

Continue reading “Book 913: Word Nerd – John D. Williams, Jr.”

Books

Book 906: Black Cake – Charmaine Wilkerson

Book cover of "Black Cake" with Amazon Affiliate linkWhen someone from the publisher reached out to me about Black Cake, it wasn’t an immediate yes or an immediate no.* I honestly had no idea what I was going to do, I thought it was a beautiful cover (even if I didn’t notice the woman on it for ages) and the multi-generational story drew me in.

What ultimately decided for me was that it was a debut novel, love those most of the time, and my reading list is seriously lacking authors of color and I’ve been saying for years I’m going to expand my reading list. And holy shit y’all I’m so glad I did, this book took me for so many rides.

Continue reading “Book 906: Black Cake – Charmaine Wilkerson”