Rockin’ Reads, Part 7: More Reviews from Adult Summer Challenge Participants

Posted on August 7, 2018August 6, 2018 by Tracy Dimond

What’s next on your to-read list? Adult Summer Challenge participants have some suggestions:

Michael H. on Storm in a Teacup by Helen Czerski: Loved this book! Great combination of readability and reliability, applies physics principles to everyday life. Enjoyed reading anecdotes to my wife.

Connie G. on Factfulness by Hans Rosling: Superb—a must-read for anyone interested in clear, dispassionate thinking about the serious problems facing us now.

Brynez R. on Year of Yes by Shonda Rhimes: Great self-help and empowering book around being open to all possibilities despite your fears and the good that can come when you do that.

Meredith V. on The Penderwicks at Last by Jeanne Birdsall: This remains one of the sweetest and most delightful series ever. I really enjoyed spending the book with Lydia. I kind of wanted some more time with the older girls, but I understand why the book wasn’t written that way. And the ending made me literally hug the book in happiness. I’m going to pretty immediately go back and start the series over.

Meri R. on Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan: Jennifer Egan does not disappoint. I read this book in a day, which is very fast for me, but every turn in the story was true and richly described. For a period novel, this book included details that felt lived in and personally important instead of carefully researched and curated. I highly recommend this book to anyone.

Zachary F. on Off Armageddon Reef by David Weber: The concept of this book is really interesting. Essentially humanity has to revert to the dark ages with a repressive religion and one person who remembers the pinnacle of civilization has to try and bring this backward version of humanity into the future. The implications of having a religion that had eight million people around for the creation of the world and saw entities they believed to be archangels is really interesting. The plot is solid. I love the parts where they discuss advancing technologies. Some parts are a little over the top and sometimes the dialogue is a bit more wordy than necessary.

Kelly H. on All We Ever Wanted by Emily Giffin: This is an incredibly timely novel but it’s also got a new slant: it’s told from the perspective of the parents (Finch’s mom and Lyla’s dad) and not the teens themselves. It was especially interesting to hear from Finch’s mom, because it’s clear that she struggles with loving and wanting to protect her son but, at the same time, being horrified at what he did (and with it seeming like he doesn’t fully get exactly why it was so wrong). This novel also touches on class differences (Lyla is at the school on scholarship; Finch can have pretty much literally anything and everything he wants) and that’s also interesting. Finch’s dad believes that his money can get them out of any predicament (he tries to bribe Lyla’s dad to drop the matter and gives him $15,000. It’s clear that he doesn’t think of that as a large amount of money…which I can’t even imagine, btw). If you want your beach reads to be more than a guilty pleasure, check this one out.

Join the fun! For a chance to win fabulous prizes in the Adult Summer Challenge, create a free Beanstack account and log each book you finish between June 13 and August 15.

Rockin’ Reads, Part 6: More Reviews from Adult Summer Challenge Participants

Posted on July 30, 2018July 30, 2018 by Tracy Dimond

Here’s another taste of what our Adult Summer Challenge participants have been reading:

Lucie F. on The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware: A chillingly atmospheric modern take on the classic Agatha Christie family-inheritance-murder plot. I loved that I was able to guess some of the mystery but as I puzzled over it, Ware stayed one step ahead of me!

Laura R. on Pachinko by Min Jin Lee: Great family saga dealing with issues of immigration and discrimination is perfect for our times. I didn’t know anything about the Korean/Japanese history so it was interesting history as well. A good read.

Sarah B. on The Thousandth Floor by Katharine McGee: The higher you rise, the farther you fall, and nowhere is this more true than in this book. Set in a vividly imagined 1000-floor skyscraper in the year 2118, it follows the lives of five teens from very different backgrounds and the ways their lives interlock, with exciting, romantic, surprising, and disastrous consequences. With a great prologue and a climax that left me scared about what a girl was wearing (the mark of ingenious writing), the story pulled me in and made me want to live among the well-developed and realistic characters. I look forward to reading the sequel and the release of book three next month!

Aaron B. on The Shape of Water by Guillermo del Toro and and Daniel Kraus : A novelization of a film should expand on that film’s concepts & themes. Kraus & del Toro achieved that with an equally moving & romantic companion piece to del Toro’s Oscar-winning (& deserving) motion picture. A brilliant piece of romanticism.

Julie J. on The Soul of America by Jon Meacham: Brilliant, historical review of our American history when citizens and presidents have come together, not without struggles, to fight and survive battles of integration, racism, immigration, hate, just as we still do present-day. Yet, just published in spring 2018, brings a timely reminder with calming wisdom, that Americans must keep the faith and hope in our heritage. Author is Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer and writes beautifully.

Nayantara B. on Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi: Persepolis is the autobiographical story of the author’s coming of age in Iran after the Islamic Regime amidst the Iran-Iraq War. Though life in this time is very bleak, Satrapi’s use of the graphic novel genre is irreverent and ironic. It provides a window into a very different world while still highlighting the universal heartaches of losing innocence.

Howell B. on Hope Never Dies by Andrew Shaffer: This book with a preposterous premise—that an Amtrak conductor has died and Joe Biden and Barack Obama work together to figure out what happened—is funny and enjoyable. It will provoke many appreciative laughs.

Lucy J. on Death in Ecstasy by Ngaio Marsh: This Roderick Alleyn mystery surprised me a little with its relevance to today’s issues—heroin use in the 1930s? Always interesting to read Kiwi grande dame Ngaio Marsh’s books.

Join the fun! For a chance to win fabulous prizes in the Adult Summer Challenge, create a free Beanstack account and log each book you finish between June 13 and August 15.

Rockin’ Reads, Part 5: More Reviews from Adult Summer Challenge Participants

Posted on July 24, 2018July 24, 2018 by Tracy Dimond

Ready for another great set of reviews from Adult Summer Challenge participants? Here you go!

Himani S. on Exit West by Mohsin Hamid: A great story of war and refugees and immigration. The author uses magical realism to give us the multitude of issues that countries are grappling with when refugees seek safety and life. I want to read more written by this author. Terse compact sentences that were nevertheless poetic in delivery.

Shawna P. on All Summer Long by Hope Larson: Graphic novel + music + finding oneself? Sign me up! I loved All Summer Long! The main character, Bina, was full of spunk and loneliness after her best friend leaves for summer camp. After some misses trying to befriend the older sister, losing the cat of the child she’s babysitting, and feeling left out of her BFF’s life, Bina finally finds that music is the one thing that she has that really makes her shine. Music helps her deal with her sadness and rebuilds the ties with her BFF and the older sister. A great book to read for the summer library reading challenge theme! c:

James K. on The Chilbury Ladies’ Choir by Jennifer Ryan: This delightful novel is perfect for summer reading. Its depiction of life in a village in Kent during World War II is poignant and never dull. The narrative takes the form of journal entries and letters written by the various characters and it works well to show the perspectives and motivations of each character. It is not overly sweet and sentimental—there are plenty of bad actors. All the truly irredeemable characters are men, interestingly. The musical theme of this book centers around the classic English hymns that the ladies’ choir sings in competitions and at special events throughout the book. Anglican hymnody has been an important part of my own spiritual journey, so I identified closely with the healing power of this particular type of music. I highly recommend this book.

Mike K. on The Power by Naomi Alderman: I loved this book which imagines what would happen if women developed the power to electrocute others. The story is engaging enough, but it is also thought-provoking—insinuating a theory of gender disparity. Highly recommend!

Jacki G. on Anything is Possible by Elizabeth Strout: A whirlwind tale about a small town in Illinois. I think anyone from a small town can relate to something in this tale. Terrific writing.

Theresa C. on The Mother of Black Hollywood by Jenifer Lewis: Can’t help but love Jenifer Lewis. To learn all she endured to get to where she is puts her in the “legends” category. This book is so precise and fast-paced. Couldn’t put it down. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Lauren R. on Situation Momedy by Jenna Von Oy: Fun, frivolous read. I like Jenna’s down-to-earth attitude and silly storytelling style. This book is an antidote to so many parenting books; it’s memoir rather than instructional. Enjoy it as you do mamahood.

Join the fun! For a chance to win fabulous prizes in the Adult Summer Challenge, create a free Beanstack account and log each book you finish between June 13 and August 15.

Rockin’ Reads, Part Two: More Reviews from Adult Summer Challenge Participants

Posted on July 3, 2018July 5, 2018 by Tracy Dimond

Looking for your next good read? Take a tip from one of our Adult Summer Challenge participants:

Noelani L. on The Last Black Unicorn by Tiffany Haddish: Hilarious and heartfelt! Audiobook read by the author is excellent. Enjoyed this on my commute to and from work.

Leslie J. on The Sleepwalker by Chris Bohjalian: Love his books. Can’t put them down. This one had me up late into the night trying to figure out who done it.

Laura M. on Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders: The book is written in a fascinating style of quotes from fictional characters and historical accounts of Willie Lincoln’s illness, and imagined experience in the graveyard neighborhood, during Abraham Lincoln’s presidential term. It’s emotional, touching, and imaginative. Quite funny in parts. If you liked Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book, you will probably like Lincoln in the Bardo.

Robert B. on Grant by Ron Chernow: Most of us think of Ulysses Simpson Grant as a great general but a poor president. Ron Chernow’s tour-de-force biography casts Grant in a completely different mold, emphasizing his fight against the Ku Klux Klan in the post-Civil War South as well as his determined support for African American rights. Chernow also enumerates those qualities of Grant that made him the first modern general to emerge from the Civil War. This is a large book but definitely worth the time and effort it takes to make your way through it.

Holly T. on Cake Wrecks: When Professional Cakes Go Hilariously Wrong and Wreck the Halls: Cake Wrecks Gets “Festive” by Jen Yates: […]Cake Wrecks is an active blog in which people submit pictures of professionally made confections that are just freakin’ WRONG. The books are the best of the worst of these submissions. Laughable spelling and grammar, literal interpretations of instructions, and questionable icing choices are among some of the travesties you’ll find, and they’re made even more amusing by the author’s commentary. The way the world is right now, we could all do with some laughter, and the Cake Wrecks books deliver.

Lakeisha H. on Any Known Blood by Lawrence Hill : […]Walking the streets that I’m familiar with in this book was a comfort and joy. The main character finds not only his personal story but the very deep and historically valid and important story of African Americans in Baltimore. What is wonderful is Baltimore becomes a character in the book. It’s not often you get to read about Baltimore in any other capacity other than crime and violence. The glory of Uptown, the impact of the A.M.E., the beauty of Charles Village, and the people of Baltimore are showcased in this book that could be considered a historical fiction. Extremely worth reading.

Tammra F. on First Star I See Tonight by Susan Elizabeth Phillips: Cooper and Piper made for a very interesting storyline. Piper was a treat to read about. She reminded me of a little bit of myself. She seems to think out loud and it makes for a very funny and interesting read. Cooper is just wonderful and I love that he doesn’t give up on Piper and seems to understand her better than she understands herself.

Join the fun! For a chance to win fabulous prizes in the Adult Summer Challenge, create a free Beanstack account and log each book you finish between June 13 and August 15.