New Release Tuesday #3: August 11, 2015

Hello dear Readers,

This week, a Mystery, with all the elements you always hope to find in a book of its kind. The Beautiful Bureaucrat by Helen Phillips.

Title: The Beautiful Bureaucrat 

Genre: Thriller/Mystery

Author: Helen Phillips

Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
Publication Date: August 11, 2015

Language: English

Hardcover: 192 pages
Buy Me: Amazon Barnes&Noble Hastings

Book Description

A young wife's new job pits her against the unfeeling machinations of the universe in this dazzling first novel Ursula K. Le Guin hails as "funny, sad, scary, beautiful. I love it."

In a windowless building in a remote part of town, the newly employed Josephine inputs an endless string of numbers into something known only as The Database. After a long period of joblessness, she's not inclined to question her fortune, but as the days inch by and the files stack up, Josephine feels increasingly anxious in her surroundings-the office's scarred pinkish walls take on a living quality, the drone of keyboards echoes eerily down the long halls. When one evening her husband Joseph disappears and then returns, offering no explanation as to his whereabouts, her creeping unease shifts decidedly to dread.

As other strange events build to a crescendo, the haunting truth about Josephine's work begins to take shape in her mind, even as something powerful is gathering its own form within her. She realizes that in order to save those she holds most dear, she must penetrate an institution whose tentacles seem to extend to every corner of the city and beyond. Both chilling and poignant, The Beautiful Bureaucrat is a novel of rare restraint and imagination. With it, Helen Phillips enters the company of Murakami, Bender, and Atwood as she twists the world we know and shows it back to us full of meaning and wonder-luminous and new.

Wen

Upcoming Release #2: After You by Jojo Moyes

Hello dear Readers,

Another great book to be published next month. Personally, I am really excited about this one. I loved Me Before You and I cannot wait to have the sequel on my hands. 

After You by Jojo Moyes.

Title: After You

Genre: Contemporary

Author: Jojo Moyes

Publisher: Pamela Dorman Books
Publication Date: September 29, 2015

Language: English

Hardcover: 368 pages
Buy Me: Amazon Barnes&Noble Hastings

Book Description

When one story ends, another begins. The sequel to the belovedNew York Times million-copy bestseller, Me Before You.

How do you move on after losing the person you loved? How do you build a life worth living?

Louisa Clark is no longer just an ordinary girl living an ordinary life. After the transformative six months spent with Will Traynor, she is struggling without him. When an extraordinary accident forces Lou to return home to her family, she can’t help but feel she’s right back where she started.

Her body heals, but Lou herself knows that she needs to be kick-started back to life. Which is how she ends up in a church basement with the members of the Moving On support group, who share insights, laughter, frustrations, and terrible cookies. They will also lead her to the strong, capable Sam Fielding—the paramedic, whose business is life and death, and the one man who might be able to understand her. Then a figure from Will’s past appears and hijacks all her plans, propelling her into a very different future. . . .

For Lou Clark, life after Will Traynor means learning to fall in love again, with all the risks that brings. But here Jojo Moyes gives us two families, as real as our own, whose joys and sorrows will touch you deeply, and where both changes and surprises await.

After You is quintessential Jojo Moyes—a novel that will make you laugh, cry, and rejoice at being back in the world she creates. Here she does what few novelists can do—revisits beloved characters and takes them to places neither they nor we ever expected.

From the Hardcover edition.

Wen

Book Review: Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee/ Fiction/Published in 2015

Hello dear Readers,

Below, my book review of Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee. 

Title: Go Set a Watchman 

Genre: Fiction

Author: Harper Lee

Publisher: Harper, 1 edition 
Publication Date: July 14, 2015

Language: English

Hardcover: 288 pages
Rating: 4/5 Stars
Buy me: Amazon Barnes&Noble Hastings

Book Description

From Harper Lee comes a landmark new novel set two decades after her beloved Pulitzer Prize–winning masterpiece, To Kill a Mockingbird.

Maycomb, Alabama. Twenty-six-year-old Jean Louise Finch—"Scout"—returns home from New York City to visit her aging father, Atticus. Set against the backdrop of the civil rights tensions and political turmoil that were transforming the South, Jean Louise's homecoming turns bittersweet when she learns disturbing truths about her close-knit family, the town, and the people dearest to her. Memories from her childhood flood back, and her values and assumptions are thrown into doubt. Featuring many of the iconic characters from To Kill a Mockingbird, Go Set a Watchman perfectly captures a young woman, and a world, in painful yet necessary transition out of the illusions of the past—a journey that can only be guided by one's own conscience.

Written in the mid-1950s, Go Set a Watchman imparts a fuller, richer understanding and appreciation of Harper Lee. Here is an unforgettable novel of wisdom, humanity, passion, humor, and effortless precision—a profoundly affecting work of art that is both wonderfully evocative of another era and relevant to our own times. It not only confirms the enduring brilliance of To Kill a Mockingbird, but also serves as its essential companion, adding depth, context, and new meaning to an American classic.

My thoughts

The first thing I would like to say is reading Go Set a Watchman did not change or affect my opinion of To Kill a Mockingbird. I think both books are unique stories. I love Go Set a Watchman for exactly what it is and what it represents.

That being said, I am so glad this book was not published before To Kill a Mockingbird. Personally, all the characters, their experiences, their stories made a lot more sense to me having read TKAMB first. It was not easy to forget about Lee's first book while reading Go Set a Watchman but it was exciting to see these characters in a different way, a different perspective. I like we can still see Harper Lee's voice in this book and some of the elements of To Kill a Mockingbird. There are parts that remained of TKAMB.

Go Set a Watchman, the story of 26 years old Jean Louise (Scout), living in New York, who returns home, to Maycom Alabama for a few weeks and discovers in a sad and bad way that her father Atticus is not the perfect man she always thought he was. The only person she could trust and believe in. She experiences how her view of the world is changing, she learns how her family is changing. She cannot completely understand how her father raised her in a way and now he can have such different opinions, specifically, about black people. I like how this book shows us an imperfect side of Atticus because to me, it makes him more human. I like the confrontations between Atticus and Jean Louise because this shows us a different relationship between them. It was fascinating to meet the 26 years old Jean Louise, her views of the world and above all, the way she sees and visualizes black people, the way she feels about them.

This book explores and challenges the way we have come to see Atticus, Jean Louise, all these beloved characters we got to know in To Kill a Mockingbird. Another thing I like about this book is how we get to know the characters more. In my case, I had mix feelings about Alexandra. I did not like her that much in TKAMB but I was glad I got to see more of her. That helped me to have a better understanding about what she goes through in life and why she is the way she is.

I love and appreciate how sincere and honest the views and opinions are expressed in the book because it forces us, it makes us think and question ourselves, the readers about racism, about family, about life, about reality, about the decisions we make in life, not only as individuals but as members of a community, specially a small town as Jean Louise's hometown.

In general, I liked the book a lot. For a first draft, there are things that could have been written differently but the story and the message on it, I think it's a brilliant one. It is the perfect complement to To Kill a Mockingbird.

My Favorite Quote

"The only thing I'm afraid of about this country is that its government will become someday so monstrous that the smallest person in it will be trampled underfoot, and then it would not be worth living in it. The only thing in America that is still unique in this tired world is that a man can go as far as his brains will take him or he can go to hell if he wants to, but it won't be that way much longer".

Wen

New Release Tuesday #2: August 4, 2015

Hello dear Readers,

This week, a Novel, Goodbye Stranger by Rebecca Stead.

Title: Goodbye Stranger 

Genre: Growing Up/Friendship

Author: Rebecca Stead

Publisher: Wendy Lamb Books
Publication Date: August 4, 2015

Language: English

Hardcover: 304 pages
Buy Me: Amazon Barnes&Noble Hastings

Book Description

This brilliant novel by Newbery Medal winner Rebecca Stead explores multiple perspectives on the bonds and limits of friendship.

Bridge is an accident survivor who’s wondering why she’s still alive. Emily has new curves and an almost-boyfriend who wants a certain kind of picture. Tabitha sees through everybody’s games—or so she tells the world. The three girls are best friends with one rule: No fighting. Can it get them through seventh grade? 

This year everything is different for Sherm Russo as he gets to know Bridge Barsamian. What does it mean to fall for a girl—as a friend? 

On Valentine’s Day, an unnamed high school girl struggles with a betrayal. How long can she hide in plain sight?

Each memorable character navigates the challenges of love and change in this captivating novel.

Wen

New Release Tuesday #1: July 28, 2015

Hello dear Readers,

New books come out every Tuesday. I will be sharing a book every week.

Title: Dancing with the Devil in the City of God. Rio de Janeiro on the Brink 

Genre: History

Author: Juliana Barbassa

Publisher: Touchstone
Publication Date: July 28, 2015

Language: English

Hardcover: 336 pages
Buy Me: Amazon Barnes&Noble Hastings

Book Description

In the tradition of Detroit: An American Autopsy and Maximum City comes a deeply reported and beautifully written biography of the seductive and chaotic city of Rio de Janeiro from prizewinning journalist and Brazilian native Juliana Barbassa.

Juliana Barbassa moved a great deal throughout her life, but Rio was always home. After twenty-one years abroad, she returned to find the city that once ravaged by inflation, drug wars, corrupt leaders, and dying neighborhoods was now on the precipice of a major change.

Rio has always aspired to the pantheon of global capitals, and under the spotlight of the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games it seems that its moment has come. But in order to prepare itself for the world stage, Rio must vanquish the entrenched problems that Barbassa recalls from her childhood. Turning this beautiful but deeply flawed place into a predictable, pristine showcase of the best that Brazil has to offer in just a few years is a tall order—and with the whole world watching, the stakes couldn’t be higher.

With a cast of larger-than-life characters who are driving this fast-moving juggernaut or who risk getting caught in its gears, this kaleidoscopic portrait of Rio introduces the reader to the people who make up this city of extremes, revealing their aspirations and their grit, their violence, their hungers and their splendor, and shedding light on the future of this city they are building together.

Dancing with the Devil in the City of God is an insider perspective into a city on the brink from a native daughter whose life, hopes, and fortunes are entwined with those of the city she portrays.

Wen

Upcoming Release #1: Everything Everything by Nicola Yoon

Hello dear Readers,

Great books to be released in the next few months. Personally, I would like to let you know about this one. I received an ARC copy for review and I am very excited for its release.

Title: Everything Everything 

Genre: Teen-Fiction

Author: Nicola Yoon

Publisher: Delacorte Press
Publication Date: September 1, 2015

Language: English

Hardcover: 320 pages

Book Description

If you love Eleanor and Park, Hazel and Augustus, and Mia and Adam, you’ll love the story of Maddy, a girl who’s literally allergic to the outside world, and Olly, the boy who moves in next door . . . and becomes the greatest risk she’s ever taken. This innovative and heartfelt debut novel unfolds via vignettes, diary entries, illustrations, and more.

 

My disease is as rare as it is famous. Basically, I’m allergic to the world. I don’t leave my house, have not left my house in seventeen years. The only people I ever see are my mom and my nurse, Carla. 

 

But then one day, a moving truck arrives next door. I look out my window, and I see him. He's tall, lean and wearing all black—black T-shirt, black jeans, black sneakers, and a black knit cap that covers his hair completely. He catches me looking and stares at me. I stare right back. His name is Olly.

 

Maybe we can’t predict the future, but we can predict some things. For example, I am certainly going to fall in love with Olly. It’s almost certainly going to be a disaster.

July 2015 Wrap-Up

Hello dear Readers,

During the month of July, I only managed to read four books, but they were great books. I posted Reviews for all of them except for Got Set A Watchman, which I will be posting my review pretty soon. I will leave the links down below.

• Spinster by Kate Bolick

https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7860558930985903980#editor/target=post;postID=6425739478470364761;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=3;src=link

• Shattered by Nicole Banks

https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7860558930985903980#editor/target=post;postID=8569194153932751611;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=7;src=link

• Everything I never told you by Celeste Ng

https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7860558930985903980#editor/target=post;postID=5589518035095617007;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=2;src=link

• Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee

Wen

July 2015 Book Haul

Hello dear Readers,

This is my July 2015 Book Haul. 

Physical Books

• The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins (Spanish Edition)

• Go Set A Watchman by Harper Lee (Spanish Edition)

• Go Set A Watchman by Harper Lee

• Spinster by Kate Bolick

• Armada by Ernest Cline

E-Books (Kindle Books)

• Into Pieces by Nicole Banks

• To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee (Spanish Edition)

Wen

Book Review: Shattered (Shattered Hearts Series Book 1) by Nicole Banks/ New Adult-Romance- Contemporary

Hello dear Readers,

Below, my book review of Shattered (Shattered Hearts Series Book 1) by Nicole Banks. 

Title: Shattered (Shattered Hearts Series Book 1) 

Rating: 5/5 Stars

Genre: New Adult- Romance- Contemporary

Author: Nicole Banks

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
Publication Date: February 12, 2013

Language: English

Paperback: 238 pages

Book Description

He was finally home. But guilt weighed heavily on his soul. She's been broken, running from a past she can't seem to escape. Two childhood friends, beaten down by life, find their way back to each other after years of pain and torment. As passion and desire rises, can Jasmine and Angel find solace in each other’s arms? Or, are the shattered pieces of their lives too much for either of them to put back together? Join them on an intoxicating ride through life. With ups and down, laughs and tears, they’ve survived for this long being broken. Can they survive it just a little longer to find their own happy ending?

My thoughts

This book is amazing. I enjoyed it a lot. Jasmine and Angel, their love story, it took my breath away. Every chapter was intense. Sadness, happiness, joy, pain, doubt, anger, remorse, fear, guilt, friendship, love, passion. All these feelings and emotions, all these things in one book. What a wonderful reading experience. I just wanted to know more about the characters, their stories, their struggles and their journey to happiness. It was a little frustrating at times to see how stubborn Jasmine and Angel are but I kept reminding myself that what they go through in life is really hard and that they do their best to be patient to each other. 

I liked the book is told from different perspectives. That gives readers the chance to know more about the characters and how their stories relate to the main character's ones, and how this gives a better understanding of the story and what is going on. I like how the Author gives every character their place. This is a very engaging, beautiful and easy to follow story.

I totally recommend this book. I cannot wait to read the second book on the series. Thanks to the Author for writing such an amazing book.

My Favorite Quote

"But that's life; it moves on with or without you".

Wen

Book Review: Spinster by Kate Bolick/ Social Science-Feminism/ Published in 2015

Hello dear Readers,

Below, my book review of Spinster by Kate Bolick. 

Title: Spinster 

Genre: Social Science-Feminism

Author: Kate Bolick

Publisher: Crown

Language: English

Hardcover: 308 pages

Book Description

So begins Spinster, a revelatory and slyly erudite look at the pleasures and possibilities of remaining single. Using her own experiences as a starting point, journalist and cultural critic Kate Bolick invites us into her carefully considered, passionately lived life, weaving together the past and present to examine why­ she—along with over 100 million American women, whose ranks keep growing—remains unmarried.

This unprecedented demographic shift, Bolick explains, is the logical outcome of hundreds of years of change that has neither been fully understood, nor appreciated. Spinster introduces a cast of pioneering women from the last century whose genius, tenacity, and flair for drama have emboldened Bolick to fashion her life on her own terms: columnist Neith Boyce, essayist Maeve Brennan, social visionary Charlotte Perkins Gilman, poet Edna St. Vincent Millay, and novelist Edith Wharton. By animating their unconventional ideas and choices, Bolick shows us that contemporary debates about settling down, and having it all, are timeless—the crucible upon which all thoughtful women have tried for centuries to forge a good life.

Intellectually substantial and deeply personal, Spinster is both an unreservedly inquisitive memoir and a broader cultural exploration that asks us to acknowledge the opportunities within ourselves to live authentically. Bolick offers us a way back into our own lives—a chance to see those splendid years when we were young and unencumbered, or middle-aged and finally left to our own devices, for what they really are: unbounded and our own to savor.

My thoughts

*I gave 4/5 stars on Goodreads

For being the first book I read on its type, Social Science, Feminism, Feminism Theory, Spinster was an enjoyable read. However after finishing it, it was not what I was expecting it to be. After reading the title and the description of this book, I was expecting it to be about a woman staying single for life, either by choice or because she has to. I expected it to be about the pros and cons of being a single person in this world we are living. I expected it to be about spinsterhood, about not having a partner in life. It is not that I did not like the book, it is just that I was expecting something else. What I feel I got was the author's kind of memoir on her own social and dating life, and she talks a lot about these five women that serve as her role models in life. I did not feel the book touches the subject the title is intended for: Spinster. Have to say though, her opening line "Whom to marry, and when it will happen-these two questions define every woman's existence", is a very powerful and interesting line because in one way or another, when you read that line it makes you think about it, about being single or wanting to be married. It makes you question it. Something else I liked about the book is the author's writing style, it is a book easy to read and enjoyable, just not the story that the title suggests it will be about.

"I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review".

My Favorite Quote

""Whom to marry, and when it will happen-these two questions define every woman's existence".

Wen

Celebrating One Year of Writing, Reading, Living

Hello dear Readers,

Today I would like to share a very special message.

A little over a year ago I started my blog. It has brought me a lot of enjoyment and happiness. 

To be able to share with you my passion for books and writing has been amazing. An awesome adventure. 

Your support and knowing that through my blog and social media I am part of a great book and writing community, all these things mean a lot to me and make it worth every minute I spend on it.

I made a few changes on the blog. Hope you like the new design and the new sections.

Thank you everyone who is taking the time to stop by and visit and I am looking forward to the next year.

Wendy

Go Set a Watchman-New Harper Lee Book

Hello dear Readers,

Today has been a very exciting day. A day that many people say is the most anticipated book event of the year, the most anticipated book release in decades if you will.

July 14th 2015 has marked the release of Go Set a Watchman,  a landmark new novel set two decades after Harper Lee's beloved Pulitzer Prize–winning masterpiece, To Kill a Mockingbird.

Since I knew this book was going to be published, I got very interested. I love to Kill a Mockingbird and part of me hopes that Go Set a Watchman is going to be not the same as To Kill a Mockingbird because one book cannot be exactly the same as the other, but a book that will remain with me forever, a book that I will like.

I will have my copy until Friday but for those of you who are reading the book today or are planning on reading it, hope you enjoy it and Happy Reading.

Below are the links for some of the most popular websites where you can purchase the book.

Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/Go-Set-Watchman-Harper-Lee/dp/0062409859/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1436903886&sr=8-1&keywords=go+set+a+watchman&pebp=1436903890865&perid=0MMSKZGKSFE1KHN0KJ90

Barnes & Noble

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/go-set-a-watchman-harper-lee/1121151104?ean=9780062409850

Target

http://www.target.com/p/go-set-a-watchman-by-harper-lee-hardcover/-/A-17098821#prodSlot=medium_1_3&term=go+set+a+watchman

Walmart

http://www.walmart.com/ip/43374615

Hastings

http://www.gohastings.com/product/BOOK/Go-Set-a-Watchman/sku/296035209.uts

Wen

Wendy Recommends-#4

Hello dear Readers,

Today, I would like to recommend a book that I love and is one of the best books I have ever read. 

The Great Gatsby by F.Scott Fitzgeral

Title: The Great Gatsby

Author: F.Scott Fitzgerald

Genre: Fiction/Classics

Publisher: Scribner

Language: English

Paperback: 180 Pages

Book Description

The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s third book, stands as the supreme achievement of his career. This exemplary novel of the Jazz Age has been acclaimed by generations of readers. The story of the fabulously wealthy Jay Gatsby and his love for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan, of lavish parties on Long Island at a time when The New York Times noted “gin was the national drink and sex the national obsession,” it is an exquisitely crafted tale of America in the 1920s.The Great Gatsby is one of the great classics of twentieth-century literature.

My thoughts

*I gave 5/5 stars on Goodreads

I know most of you have heard of this book and read it. In the least case, heard of it. A classic of the Literature. A book that I am glad I gave a second chance because now I know the story of Gatsby and Daisy. A beautiful story, sad in a way, but one that thanks to a beautiful writing style shows us how powerful words, a story can be.

The Great Gatsby is one of these books that made me cry, made me laugh, made me feel part of the story. I loved the characters, and as I mentioned before, the writing style on this book is magnificent. A book that will remain with me forever and one that I will definitely re-read in the near future. A superb Classic. I totally recommend this book.

Wen

Book Review: Everything I never told you by Celeste Ng/Fiction-Family Life/ Published in 2015

Hello dear Readers,

Below, my book review of Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng. 

Title: Everything I Never Told You 

Genre: Fiction/Family Life

Author: Celeste Ng 

Publisher: Penguin Books

Language: English

Paperback: 297 pages

Book Description

Lydia is dead. But they don’t know this yet.” So begins this exquisite novel about a Chinese American family living in 1970s small-town Ohio. Lydia is the favorite child of Marilyn and James Lee, and her parents are determined that she will fulfill the dreams they were unable to pursue. But when Lydia’s body is found in the local lake, the delicate balancing act that has been keeping the Lee family together is destroyed, tumbling them into chaos. A profoundly moving story of family, secrets, and longing, Everything I Never Told You is both a gripping page-turner and a sensitive family portrait, uncovering the ways in which mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, and husbands and wives struggle, all their lives, to understand one another.

My thoughts

*I gave 5/5 stars on Goodreads

This book made me cry from the very beginning. I was touched by this story in ways I was never before with a book. It sure will remain with me for the rest of my life. For a first novel, Celeste Ng delivers such an amazing, well written and magnificent piece of fiction. I could not stop reading it. With every page, I wanted to know more about the characters and got more and more interested in the story.

Everything I never told you is a story of family, love, regrets, forgiveness, fear, doubt, infidelity, racism, and secrets. The story of an American-Chinese family living in 1970's small-town Ohio, and all the events following the disappearance and death of Marilyn and James Lee's oldest daughter Lydia. How each member of the family, Marilyn, James and their other two children, Hanna and Nath deal with Lydia's death and embark in the pursue of the truth of what happened to Lydia. 

It is always hard to read books like this but I like how the Author approaches the subject and the way she presents the story. It is sad, but at the same time it is powerful and beautiful. I also like how it goes back and forth in time. We get to know the story of how Marilyn and James meet and when they get married and we also get to know their lives after they get married and start their family.This helps us to understand in more detail what is going on in their lives and how this affects the lives of their children, Lydia, Nath and Hanna.

I also like the complexity of the characters. Marilyn. The mom and the wife. The one that always wants to defy society and what for people is "correct" or "normal". She does not want to end up like her mom and fights her whole life a desire to become a doctor even if it means sacrificing her family. James, the dad and the husband. The one that had to deal with racism, and what others thought of him from a very young age and how he carried all this and his insecurities and how we can see them reflected on his own children, especially with son Nath.

Overall, it is a great read. A beautifully written one. With all the elements you always hope to find in a book. A fantastic plot, well developed characters, a gorgeous writing style, mystery and a structure that allows readers to understand the story. I totally recommend it.

My Favorite Quote

"There is nowhere to go but on".

Wen