I received this book from the author for review, and couldn't put it down once I started reading it.
Hogan's novel is about an ex-firefighter who runs away from his past to a very remote fishing island in Greece. He meets a bunch of characters who he cannot help but get to know due to the island's size, and because he has taken a job as the bartender of a popular fishing taverna. He soon becomes involved with the local politics and gossip of the town, and learns a few things about himself he originally wished he could have avoided in his solitary escape.
This Greek island is an aquatic reserve, yet it's inhabitants make a living from fishing.Throughout the story we see pro's and con's to the evolution of these remote areas that have the potential to draw tourists. Coming from my own little "fishing village" on an island, I found the story quite relevant.
Our main character learns of the love that animals bring to our lives, the importance of protecting them, and the value of culture through Hogan's talented writing style.This story is short, only 195 pages, but it is extremely thought provoking.
After not posting anything in quite some time, I've been having... cravings.. yes, cravings to blog again. I love reading and I love talking about books just as much as I love reading them...almost! I've never taken any English classes, or computer classes and clearly don't have a clue about what blogging actually entails.
I'm so sick of all the meme's on blogs and trying to navigate through so many blogs that I cant even remember whose I'm even reading.
I don't know how to get into it, how to network, or how to get the ARC copies of new books to review or anything. I've never even met an author of a book I've loved. I live kinda out in the middle of nowhere, and I like it.
So now I dont know what to do. Do I keep up the blog just as a hobby? Do I try and learn more and really get into it? Do I try vlogging? Or should I just stick to goodreads and reading other people's fabulous blogs, and spending a fair iof time on youtube. I do belong to a book club but the other club members do not have the passion for books the blogging community has. I feel like I belong here!
?
I'm so sick of all the meme's on blogs and trying to navigate through so many blogs that I cant even remember whose I'm even reading.
I don't know how to get into it, how to network, or how to get the ARC copies of new books to review or anything. I've never even met an author of a book I've loved. I live kinda out in the middle of nowhere, and I like it.
So now I dont know what to do. Do I keep up the blog just as a hobby? Do I try and learn more and really get into it? Do I try vlogging? Or should I just stick to goodreads and reading other people's fabulous blogs, and spending a fair iof time on youtube. I do belong to a book club but the other club members do not have the passion for books the blogging community has. I feel like I belong here!
?
I love it when a book isn't just a couple of pages you picked up and thought you might like. I love it when its more sentimental than that.
When I was still actively book blogging, and checking out that community, I really got a sense of how huge YA books have become, particularly in the paranormal romance genre. This isn't a genre I can really relate to, or even enjoy reading and I never really understood it's appeal. However, the more I read the more curious I became.
In 2011 I started hearing about people reading the ARC copies for Juliet Immortal. A twisted Romeo and Juliet story sounded like the type of YA paranormal romance I could read- you know exactly what you're getting into. So I entered every contest to win it and read the not-so-spoiler reviews hoping I would finally get the chance to read it.
Needless to say I didn't win, and the more YA I read, the more I wished I had spend my time reading adult paranormal romance. Then this Valentine's day, a local bookstore in town hosted a facebook giveaway for good ol' Juliet Immortal. I was one of four people to enter the contest, and probably the only one who knew what the book was even about. Of course, I didn't win this giveaway either. So there I was all mopey on Valentine's day without a quick-read guilty YA pleasure.
The next night I came home from the gym and my incredibly thoughtful boyfriend handed me a copy that had just gone out an purchased :)
This was a great Valentine's read. It was super fun to read and I absolutely love the re-creation of what really happened to Romeo and Juliet. This book is exactly what I thought it was going to be, and it filled my every YA paranormal romance craving!
Do I need to insert the synopsis? I think most of this community has heard of this one. But before you put down the awesome book you're probably reading, think, ' Do I need to read this just because everyone else has?' and, ' Do I feel like wasting a day or two of my life reading this?' because I wish I would have ask myself that.
Here is my goodreads review. It does contain a few minor spoilers.
Oh boy. I am still trying to figure out why so many people loved this book. I consider myself pretty open minded when it comes to reading books in genre's I don't particularly like ( chick lit & romance for example) but I just couldn't get into this one. Usually after a book club discussion, I love the books even more than I did whilst reading them, however that's just not the case with Fifty Shades. Although there were parts I did enjoy, it just didn't do it for me.
I had heard a fair bit about this book before I had decided to pick it up. Quite a few people had told me about the twilight comparisons, and the steamy BDSM scenes and the appeal of the main male character, Christian Grey. I think this spoiled it for me actually. Firstly, yes, I did notice the similarities to twilight particularly in the characters mannerisms (i.e Anastasia's clumsiness). I liked this actually because it helped me get a feel for the characters pretty early on. I actually liked Anastasia's character and her friend Kate. However, I felt that the writing of this book was almost geared to young adults. It was mature subject matter for sure, but I felt the writing style was similar to a lot of YA books I have read, like Twilight for example. It made me feel uncomfortable reading the sex scenes because I almost felt like Anastasia was a young Bella instead of a grown up strong woman with the ability to handle herself in these sexy/kind-of-scary situations ( for lack of a better term). The only grown up strong woman in this book was her "Inner Goddess" who was usually contradicting Ana's actions. I would have much like to read a story about Ana's Inner Goddess and Christian Grey as I think that would have "gotten me in the mood" more.
To say something positive, the relationship growth between Ana and Christian, to me, was the best part. I loved the scene where they are out eating oysters and the scene where Christian takes her gliding.
This book just didn't flow too well, I felt like there was quite a few good story lines that just didn't go anywhere, and a few ideas that were just left hanging. I felt like James was giving us too few snippets of the rest of the story besides the sex parts, and I was curious to know more about the other characters and how they played into the story, like their families, Jose ( people who we never really get to know) and their friends, and Taylor, the butler.
Perhaps this is why it was left on a cliff, and two more books are sitting on my shelf waiting to be read. I liked it enough to read the next two but I'm not sure I would recommend this to anyone other than my romance genre-loving friends.
My book club has decided to read the last two books for July. I was hoping my Bday month wouldn't include Christian Grey but alas, I can't just read one book in a series and not finish the others. until the next one my friends!
Here is my goodreads review. It does contain a few minor spoilers.
Oh boy. I am still trying to figure out why so many people loved this book. I consider myself pretty open minded when it comes to reading books in genre's I don't particularly like ( chick lit & romance for example) but I just couldn't get into this one. Usually after a book club discussion, I love the books even more than I did whilst reading them, however that's just not the case with Fifty Shades. Although there were parts I did enjoy, it just didn't do it for me.
I had heard a fair bit about this book before I had decided to pick it up. Quite a few people had told me about the twilight comparisons, and the steamy BDSM scenes and the appeal of the main male character, Christian Grey. I think this spoiled it for me actually. Firstly, yes, I did notice the similarities to twilight particularly in the characters mannerisms (i.e Anastasia's clumsiness). I liked this actually because it helped me get a feel for the characters pretty early on. I actually liked Anastasia's character and her friend Kate. However, I felt that the writing of this book was almost geared to young adults. It was mature subject matter for sure, but I felt the writing style was similar to a lot of YA books I have read, like Twilight for example. It made me feel uncomfortable reading the sex scenes because I almost felt like Anastasia was a young Bella instead of a grown up strong woman with the ability to handle herself in these sexy/kind-of-scary situations ( for lack of a better term). The only grown up strong woman in this book was her "Inner Goddess" who was usually contradicting Ana's actions. I would have much like to read a story about Ana's Inner Goddess and Christian Grey as I think that would have "gotten me in the mood" more.
To say something positive, the relationship growth between Ana and Christian, to me, was the best part. I loved the scene where they are out eating oysters and the scene where Christian takes her gliding.
This book just didn't flow too well, I felt like there was quite a few good story lines that just didn't go anywhere, and a few ideas that were just left hanging. I felt like James was giving us too few snippets of the rest of the story besides the sex parts, and I was curious to know more about the other characters and how they played into the story, like their families, Jose ( people who we never really get to know) and their friends, and Taylor, the butler.
Perhaps this is why it was left on a cliff, and two more books are sitting on my shelf waiting to be read. I liked it enough to read the next two but I'm not sure I would recommend this to anyone other than my romance genre-loving friends.
My book club has decided to read the last two books for July. I was hoping my Bday month wouldn't include Christian Grey but alas, I can't just read one book in a series and not finish the others. until the next one my friends!
The Dud Avocado follows the romantic and comedic adventures of a young American who heads overseas to conquer Paris in the late 1950s. Edith Wharton and Henry James wrote about the American girl abroad, but it was Elaine Dundy’s Sally Jay Gorce who told us what she was really thinking. Charming, sexy, and hilarious, The Dud Avocado gained instant cult status when it was first published and it remains a timeless portrait of a woman hell-bent on living.
“I had to tell someone how much I enjoyed The Dud Avocado. It made me laugh, scream, and guffaw (which, incidentally, is a great name for a law firm).” –Groucho Marx
I put out a recommendation request, looking for a chick-lit book that actually had a cool female MC in it. I read most of the books that were recommended to me, last being The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy. I was quite disappointed with the other books that were recommended but this one ( although not exactly what I was looking for) definitely got my attention.
This book was exactly like reading some type of Sex and The City movie , only it's set in France in the 1950's and instead of SJP, we have a pink-haired Sally Jay Gorce, who just wants to be young, and wild, and free.
I am NOT a Sex and the City fan, but this was definitely a fun read. It wasn't extremely exciting, definitely not a must read, and it did drag in the middle, but I still found it fun. It was like reading an old movie and it was exiting to picture what the characters looked like and what the night clubs were like and what Paris in the 1950's looked like. Just a good time!
Goodreads Synopsis
This is a book about a brother and a sister. It's a book about secrets and starting over, friendship and family, triumph and tragedy, and everything in between. More than anything, it's a book about love in all its forms.
In a remarkably honest and confident voice, Sarah Winman has written the story of a memorable young heroine, Elly, and her loss of innocence- a magical portrait of growing up and the pull and power of family ties. From Essex and Cornwall to the streets of New York, from 1968 to the events of 9/11, When God Was a Rabbit follows the evolving bond of love and secrets between Elly and her brother Joe, and her increasing concern for an unusual best friend, Jenny Penny, who has secrets of her own. With its wit and humor, engaging characters whose eccentricities are adroitly and sometimes darkly drawn, and its themes of memory and identity, When God Was a Rabbit is a love letter to true friendship and fraternal love.
Funny, utterly compelling, fully of sparkle, and poignant, too, When God Was a Rabbit heralds the start of a remarkable new literary career
At the end of this one, I needed a beer.
This book was a bit strange to me. The first half is about Elly's childhood and all the horrible things that happen in it. The second half is about her in her twenty-somethings and all the terrible things that happen in it. I thought this was supposed to be about the relationship between her and her brother, but really it's about Elly's life and HER relationship to him, and all the other characters in this book. I'm not sure still why the synopsis' make a point to tell you it is a brother/sister story because I didn't really feel that.
It wasn't a bad book at all. In fact, I gave it 4/5 stars. It was a very dark and intriguing book to me. It sort of reminded me of the move Little Miss Sunshine, because of all the dark things that happen sometimes hidden in humour.
In the Author's note, Winman tells us violence is one of the common themes in this book, as well as the "magic" of being about to start fresh when this is entirely impossible in real life, and we carry our past with us no matter how hard we try not to. I think she did a great job in sticking with these themes, and after reading her author's note, I feel like I "got it" because the whole second half of this book lost me. I still couldn't put it down but it went from this weird dark book about a child , to a very heavy, very realistic 9/11 story that almost had me in tears.
So although I do feel this book to be a bit strange, I am definitely glad I took the time to read it. I little out of my comfort zone genre wise but I like doing that from time to time.
Groovy
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