Thanks so much to the author, NetGalley, and Andrews McMeel Publishing for the advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest thoughts. All of my reviews can be found on Instagram @Tackling_TBR and on Goodreads. { partner }
What is there even to say about Catana Comics? These sweet comics have been in my life and bringing me immense joy since I first saw them around two years ago, or so. And they are not only adorable, but so relatable. Sometimes I feel almost attacked with how much my fiance and I relate them to our own relationship. Socially awkward? Wants all of the pizza? Nothing but cuddles and no pants? Attacks their partner with all of the kisses and weird reactions? I feel you, girl. Especially during the year and a half that my fiance and I were long distance – we sent these back and forth to each other daily, and they always made us feel closer together, and definitely helped us get through that time. So I knew going in that I was going to love this.
This is a very quick read, as each comic is only a few panels on a page, so I just read through them all in about 25 minutes. I would highly, highly recommend this to absolutely anyone. It is funny, and sickly sweet, and I guarantee that every single person will find at least one (likely way more) that will make them smile!
Blog Tour Stop : Kate Rock Book Tours courtesy of She Writes Press
Thanks so much to the author, Kate Rock Book Tours, and She Writes Press for the complimentary finished copy of this book in exchange for my honest thoughts, and participation in this blog tour. { partner }
BOOK DESCRIPTION FROM GOODREADS :
Her mom was working as a maid. Her dad’s Alzheimer’s was in high gear. And the rent on her parents’ small Chicago apartment had just fone up. AGain. But Lori was holding it all together: helping care for her dad and pat her family’s bills, figuring out how to navigate graduate school and four jobs on top of her family responsibilities, and, somehow, continuing to believe that there was more to life than this.
And there was.
An exciting job teaching at a prestigious school in China. Although the previous month, she had turned down a job offer in Iowa – thinking it was too far away from her family – she felt completely at ease accepting a hob in China. Grasping on to the fierce determination she’d had since childhood, Lori found herself in Guangzhou, China, where she fell in love with the culture and with a man from a tiny town in Hubei province.
What followed was a transformative adventure – one that will inspire readers to use the bitter to make life even sweeter.
MY THOUGHTS/REVIEW (4 Stars) :
I always find that memoirs, these types of memoirs in particular, are difficult for me to review. It’s one thing when you pick up a celebrity memoir of someone that you already have fully formed opinions of, and you buy the book because you love the celebrity and just want to learn more about where they come from. I picked up this memoir having read the description above and knowing that I would be on this tour, but going in to this story without any additional knowledge about the author or her story made this a very personal and emotional read.
I really enjoy learning about cultures and experiences that I wouldn’t likely get to experience for myself, and so the fact that this book is truly the story of the author experiencing these other sights and cultures was really interesting and enjoyable for me. It certainly isn’t all a walk in the park for her (the chapter about the trouble they had leading up to their wedding was crushingly difficult to read.) But getting to follow along with her as she first sees and immediately loves the sights, the sounds, and the people all the way on the other side of the world, was really beautiful to get to see.
Overall I know that memoirs aren’t for everyone, and they aren’t even my go to genre by any means, but I would recommend this one to anyone who wants to dip their toes in and fall in love with China vicariously through the author’s story.
Thanks so much to NetGalley, the author, and St. Martin’s Press for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are entirely my own. { partner }
I knew that I was interested in this book early on before publication, because I love getting to learn about different perspectives and read about experiences that I wouldn’t necessarily have in my lifetime. This memoir definitely fit the bill in that respect. This was a really interesting read, although I will say that it isn’t exactly a fun or easy read. Like, I wouldn’t take it to the beach or anything, but I am glad that I got the chance to read it.
That being said, I don’t think that this will end up being my favorite read of the summer. There was a ton of really amazing detail throughout the entire book, about everything – but at times there was a bit more detail than I really needed about certain aspects of the author’s story and it made parts of the book seem a bit long. Things like knowing exactly what stop she used on the subway, and all of the stops that lead up to it, and the entire layout of the shops and city. While I know that where you grow up and where you go to college tend to have a great impact on a person’s story so I definitely don’t mind a bit of that type of background and detail, but it seemed to me that it took up a good chunk of the book and made it a bit of a slow read for me. It’s completely personal preference, but it just made the book drag a bit for me in some parts.
This story, and the author, are definitely at their best when they’re focused on the human interactions – specifically between the author and her mother, as well as the rest of her family. One of the best things about non-fiction, when written in a truthful and realistic tone, is that you get to see the flaws that everybody has. This author and her family are no exception, but her mom is especially fascinating, and the many conversations that take place between she and the author surrounding her true parentage (both before it is really revealed to her as well as after) are incredibly interesting. I loved getting to see behind the curtain a little bit and get a taste of what those difficult conversations would have looked like.
I will say that if you are a reader who prefers happy endings that are tied up in a bow, this may not do it for you. The author is a strong, independent woman who finds herself through the course of finding who she is, and through becoming in touch with the heritage that she wasn’t sure she shared. And in that fact alone, it is a happy ending. But know that there are still many questions that are left unanswered. For instance, despite all of her research and looking, by the end of the story the author has not met her biological father. But maybe along the way her strength showed her that maybe she didn’t need to after all.
This story gave me a very different look into white privilege, biracial identity, and other topics that I wouldn’t have had this insight into on my own. And I would recommend it to anyone else who would like to take a closer look at one of the many stories of identity and change and finding who we are, specifically a story that may be very different than ours. Just know that it may be a bit of a long read, so prepare yourself to wade through some lengthy bits of description. And I’m not kidding, probably not a beach read. Preferably read it while sitting by a fireplace with a blanket and a cup of tea or a glass of wine. Trust me, you’ll want to feel cozy!
Thanks so much to NetGalley, the author, and St. Martin’s Press for the advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are completely my own. { partner }
Read the synopsis of this book. Even start reading this
book. Think you have some ideas about what is going on, and who (if anyone) is
telling the truth? Think again.
Get to the point where you only have three chapters left
until you get to the end of this book. Think you’ve figured it out at that
point, since you’re so close to the end? You’re still wrong. Think again.
This book took me a while to get all the way to the end,
because I kept re-reading parts that I had just read, because I was trying to
figure out the twists and turns before they happened. I was re-reading trying to
instead read between the lines and see what the underlying secrets may have
been. And yet I was wrong the entire time, and every time that I thought I had
figured it out it turns out not only was I not on the same page but I was in a completely
different chapter. This book kept me on my toes the entire time, I loved
getting lost in the mystery of it, and my poor fiancé is probably glad that I’m
finished with this read so that I can be done bursting out of confusion and
trying to talk through it with him.
We get this story from multiple points of view – Caroline
Stark, the woman who says she’s under attack; Aiden Callahan, the man who says
that he loves her; and then later also from Lieutenant Jess Messina, the woman whose
job it is to find out what is really the truth.
I loved getting all three of these perspectives – the first
part of the book “Before the Storm” being told by Caroline and Aiden, and then
the second part titled “After the Storm” being told to us by Aiden and Jess. One
thing that I found really interesting is that Caroline’s side of the story is
written in first person, while Aiden’s chapters are written in third person.
This immediately, at least in my opinion, makes the reader feel more trusting
of Caroline and feel like they are on her side, because she is talking directly
to the reader almost like they are just having a conversation, or she is
trusting us and letting us in on her secret. Meanwhile the third person
perspective from Aiden feels isolating, and like either he or the readers are on
the outside looking in, and we’re just hearing it secondhand, which
automatically makes it seem like that information is less reliable. I think
that this was a really brilliant decision in the writing on the author’s part,
and it definitely helped to cause a good deal of my confidence in what parts of
the stories I was and was not believing, as well as my confusion when I found
out how wrong I was about everything all along.
There is very little that I can go into detail on with this
book without having to give a massive spoiler alert, and I want to give
everyone the opportunity to think they know what is happening and see if they
are as off track as I was, without me spoiling any of the surprises for them.
So I will just say this: I highly, highly recommend this book. I knew that I was picking up a highly reviewed and highly anticipated psychological thriller. What I did not know what that I was probably picking up one of my favorite reads of the month, possibly of the summer. This read was clever, confusing, manipulative, and extremely well written. While yes there were parts that maybe felt a little bit longer than they needed to be, and yes there were a few parts that weren’t my favorite. But when speaking overall, I really loved this read, and am so glad that I got the experience to read it, and will be recommending it to all of my girlfriends who love thrillers and murder shows (you know who you are.)
Thanks so much to the author for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are entirely my own. { partner }
Sells Sea Shells follows a handsome young man, Ismail, who is an illegal Moroccan immigrant who makes his way by selling goods to rich tourists along the beach. In doing so he strikes a very odd acquaintance with a wealthy Italian man, who offers Ismail a very unusual agreement as a way to get out of his situation. But Ismail is good, and compassionate, and he isn’t sure he will be able to live to his side of this bargain.
I don’t often read novellas, but I’m starting to think that I should sprinkle them in to my reading more often! This was such a quick read, only coming in at about 100 pages, and it felt so nice that I had something that I could sit and read at a comfortable pace and still finish in one sitting.
However, for the short length, there is a lot that author Mara Mer fits in to this story. While reading, there were moments that seemed like she had been planning a full length novel, and so to a certain extent the ending seemed a little bit rushed and borderline unfinished to me. But overall it was a really interesting read. It is a beautifully emotional look into the lives of these immigrants, and looking at the world that we are still living in as it is, it seemed a little bit too non-fiction in a few places. I think that this novella was interesting, intense, and has a level of emotion that depicts the author’s heart hanging from her sleeve.
I would recommend this to my friends who enjoy historical fiction, and may want a quick read from a point of view that they won’t hear from in many other places.
Thanks so much to NetGalley, the author, and Flatiron Books for the early review copy in exchange for my honest review. All opinions in this review are entirely my own. { partner }
I finished this book a little while ago, and honestly had been waiting around to review it because I wasn’t quite sure what I was going to say. Did I like it? Love it even? Or was it just slightly missing something for me? And in all honesty, I’m still not quite sure. So here goes nothing.
It took me a long while to really get into this book when I started reading it. Not because I didn’t like it. Even in the beginning I was enjoying the characters (anyone who has read basically any of my reviews now knows that I am obsessed with character driven stories.) But for some reason that I can’t quite put my fingers on, the first half of the novel took me approximately a forever to get through.
I always enjoy when we get to hear a story from the perspectives of different characters, and when you get to see the situations a couple of different ways. However, this book is told from a total of five characters perspectives, which I think may have ended up being just a few too many voices for me. It made it kind of fun for the parts of the book where each character was off doing their own thing, and each chapter was sort of jumping you to a different part of the island, but for the parts of the book where they were all in the same spot and situation, it wasn’t my favorite. In those parts of the story we didn’t get to jump back in time a few minutes and see how the other character felt or saw what we had just read about, at least not most of the times, instead we stayed in the same moment and switched to another perspective right in the middle. Between this and how many characters there were in general, I just found that I almost didn’t have any long enough stretch of time with any one character to care about most of them or their situations. Also, just since this seems to be a previously unknown pet-peeve of mine, one of our key narrators isn’t introduced as such until halfway through the book. I get why she was an important narrator, and I did end up really enjoying her point of view, and I even get why she wasn’t needed in the first portion of the story. But I stand by it – I really don’t like when there is a new narrator introduced that late to the game. I know it happens, and sometimes can be done well. But these are my opinions, and it’s my review, so I’m sticking to it here.
Now here we get to the part of the review where I get to talk about the parts of the book that I really loved, because I promise you that there were a few. First and foremost, the setting of Greece, and how much the book dove into all of the gorgeous sites and history that come along with it. I wanted to immediately jump on a plane, explore some ancient ruins, have a glass of wine or three, and then jump immediately into some clear blue water! Doesn’t that sound perfect right now? But I digress.
I ended up, overall, enjoying the second half of the book better than the first. Whether this is because I was more invested in the characters by then and therefore the jumping around didn’t quite bug me as much, or if the story had gotten going enough that I was more invested and was more invested to see what happened next. And part of it was definitely how busy and crazy my life was while trying to read this during the first round, so definitely take this with a grain of salt. But compared to the first half, the second half completely flew by for me. The only thing that I would say about the ending is that, once I did get fully invested in the characters and their stories, I think I would have liked to get some more information about the choices that they made after “the end.” What I’m saying is, I could have used a Harry Potter style “10 years later” moment, you know? I’m all for a cliffhanger or open ending in case there’s a possibility of a sequel, or more information at a later date, but I’m not sure whether or not I would read a sequel for this particular tale, so I would have liked to get it tied up a little bit better at the end here.
And the last thing that I loved – there are some really beautiful relationships in this book. Not necessarily the romantic ones, but the friendships and the familial relationships that we see throughout the story. There isn’t too much to say about this part, but I just really loved a lot of them.
Overall, I would recommend this book to my friends. It is a really interesting look into the life of a woman and her family, when their lives are seemingly falling apart around them, but possibly falling together instead. This was a fairly fun read, set in a beautiful place, and had a good amount of interesting characters. While I think I’m ready for infidelity (slight spoiler? You learn early on, I’m going to let it pass) to not be one of the main conflicts in such a high percentage of books that I am reading, but there was enough else happening that it didn’t bug me too much. I would just give my friends that I am recommending it to a small heads up before reading it, in case they’re tired of reading about it too. But if it’s something that you don’t mind reading about, or it’s something that you can look past, I think that this is a great choice for a summer read! So pull up a glass of wine and maybe a lounge chair, and then you are all set.
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