blogger reads: one book, two takes

I've been trying to consciously choose more Black authors when I pick from my TBR pile this year, and so I'm glad that blogger book club with Dana gave me another opportunity, when we decided to both finally get around to reading Nic Stone's Dear Martin, a timely and powerful YA book that weaves together a contemporary high school coming of age story with a raw look at race relations in the US - originally published in 2017 but still (unfortunately) very timely in terms of current headlines.

Two-sentence summary: Justyce McAllister is top of his class and Ivy League-bound, but he learns the hard way that being "good" won't protect him from police bias or from being unfairly judged. Trying to figure out how to handle his feelings in the aftermath of injustice, he embarks on a project of writing letters to Martin Luther King Jr., exploring how and if MLK's teachings from the Civil Rights era still have relevance today and if he can find any guidance there for how to live his life and make a difference. 

What I liked/what frustrated me: This book is powerful and well-written, with great characters; I especially liked how Justyce and some of the other supporting characters really had depth. They weren't just good or bad, but they sometimes made mistakes or poor decisions - they're real people rather than just villains or heroes, which is something we need to remember when talking about race and racism and people's actions in real life. (Also, I must say, I really liked the small, sweet romance element, giving you a bit of the heart pitter patter and banter that lightens things up a bit.)

Overall I thought that the book dealt with big issues well from a teenaged perspective (and I think YA can be really great for this, because authors can be a bit more overt with characters' feelings and activism when it comes to issues), but there were a couple of times where it felt like we were dealing with every issue surrounding racism and police brutality and code switching and affirmative action, and maybe the focus could have been narrowed a bit at times. 

Favorite quote: “Yeah, there are no more 'colored' water fountains, and it’s supposed to be illegal to discriminate, but if I can be forced to sit on the concrete in too-tight cuffs when I’ve done nothing wrong, it’s clear there’s an issue. That things aren’t as equal as folks say they are.”

Recommended for: fans of issues-based YA, particularly authors like Angie Thomas. Also, even though it's YA fiction, it's an interesting companion for something like Ta-Nehisi Coates' non-fiction Between the World and Me, which addresses the challenges of growing up a Black boy.

Star rating: 4/5 stars 

I think I might love Angie Thomas' work more (which I think is an excellent comp for the type of subject/characters/writing in Dear Martin), but that might just be because I tend to like female protagonists best - but I did appreciate getting Justyce's perspective and will definitely add more Nic Stone books to my reading list after this one - it looks like there's a sequel to this one just about to publish, in fact, and it looks great. 

Have you read this one? Check out Dana's take on it here and chime in if you have thoughts!

blogger reads: one book, two takes

It's virtual book club time! For this quarter's read, Dana and I decided on a page turner (always great for summer) that is on brand, with a book club as the central characters: The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires. The horror twist (that's an actual vampire in the title) was a bit outside of my wheelhouse, but it definitely was an intriguing page-turner with a campy vibe.

Two-sentence summary: A group of housewives in 1990s Charleston are just as proper and hospitable as you might think - aside from the unusual true-crime, pulp fiction type books they are most fond of in their book club. And their "good" neighborhood is just as Southern charm-ful as you might think, until James Harris moves in down the street and they realize too late (as always happens in true-crime books), that they've welcomed a monster into their midst - and they'll need to draw on all of their vampire story knowledge to get rid of him and protect their families.

What I liked/what frustrated me: I enjoyed having a story that totally kept me on the edge of my seat and went places I didn't expect (thanks to the vampire/horror genre mash-up), along with some unexpected protagonists (some of the caricatures/dialogue of the southern housewife were rather amusing) - but that also had an interesting social commentary underneath, about class, race, misogyny, and how we marginalize certain groups, like discounting women as "just" housewives and undervalue their work, or how society wouldn't pay attention to bad things happening to Black people's children, until that thing comes from our own. Good material for actual book club discussion!

What frustrated me was that I have zero familiarity with the horror genre, so there were times when I wondered whether some of the events, like a crazed old lady found eating raccoon entrails or a crazy infestation of attacking rats, were conforming to the standard tropes, were poking fun at them, or were just plain weird pieces to the story line. Felt like I might have missed something in that sense. (Note though that while the "horror" elements kind of creeped me out - and I'm pretty squeamish about stuff like that, especially the sex-tinged parts of the vampire violence - it didn't scar me for life or anything, because I could think of it as surreal and other-wordly, not like a realistic serial killer story or something, and because of the campy vibe to the whole book's tone, it just seemed over-the-top at times rather than completely horrifying. So it is handleable even for people who don't love scary stuff.)

Favorite quote: "Sometimes Patricia wanted to be challenged. Sometimes she yearned to see what she was made of. Sometimes she remembered being a nurse before she married Carter and wondered if she could still reach into a wound and hold an artery closed iwth her fingers, or if she still had the courage to pull a fishhook out of a child's eyelid. Sometimes she craved a little danger. And that was why she had book club."

Recommended for: someone who enjoys stories with a real-world basis that tack on a dose of the surreal (such as Kevin Wilson's Nothing to See Here, for example), or something with humor that's a bit dark/morbid like My Sister, the Serial Killer (which is an excellent read, by the way!). In general, recommend for anyone who is up for a page-turning thriller with everyday people facing something unnatural.

Star rating: 3.5/5 stars - kept me turning the pages, got me thinking, but grossed me out at a couple of times because horror isn't my thing

Have you read this one? I'm very curious to hear what others think. A trusted source, Annie Jones of the From the Front Porch podcast, loved it, but then I think she also likes scary movies (which I don't). Pop over here for Dana's review too!

blogger reads: one book, two takes

Having Dana as my blogger book twin means that we read a lot of the same books - but it apparently also means that we don't read the same books, as we noticed we'd both had the contemporary/women's fiction I'm Fine and Neither Are You on our lists, unread, for quite a long time. Mine was actually sitting right on my Kindle this whole time, ready to read... so we used each other as motivation and set it as our blogger reads discussion book for this quarter. And though it wasn't perhaps my favorite entry into this sort of "mother juggling it all" subgenre, I still am glad I finally got around to it, as it had some relevant and relateable things to consider (plus one of the characters is a lifestyle blogger, so that was fun to read alongside another blogger!).

photo via the author

Two-sentence summary: Penelope Ruiz-Kar is a wife, mother, and primary breadwinner who is just barely managing everything she's juggling - not loving her job, stagnating in her marriage - and then things come crashing down when her best friend, Jenny Sweet, is found dead. This tragedy both reveals that Jenny's apparently charmed life/marriage/blogging career were not exactly as perfect as they seemed and spurs Penelope to finally confront the issues in her marriage - forcing her to face whether full honesty really is what she wants, or whether it might make her relationship finally implode.

What I liked/what frustrated me: I liked that part of the story was the re-building of a marriage - I think it's very true to life that work and parenting and just life in general can build up to times of disconnect and little resentments in a long-term relationship, and gradually what was a shiny new head-over-heels relationship could become pretty much just being roommates. I haven't encountered as many books that look beyond the swoony start of relationships to show how characters have relationships in the everyday, years down the road. Also liked the glimpses of Penelope as a mom, really engaged and sweet with her kids. What frustrated me was that it took a long time to figure out what this book wanted to be - was it serious or snarky? Was it a friendship story or a marriage story or a working mom story or a grief story? Turned out to be kind of everything all in one, which sometimes felt like too many things, but other times did help propel the story along and give plenty of angles of things to ponder about being a modern-day woman. Also Penelope's husband was such an annoying deadbeat at the beginning - ugh.

Favorite quote: "I had finally started writing the proposal I would be presenting the next morning. There would be no time to edit it, but just as well; I would be spared one of my supervisor's infamous revisions in which nouns were forced into verbitude."

(Doesn't exactly illustrate the story aside from showing how Penelope was always running out of time for things because she had so much on her plate, but it does give you a little idea of the tone. Mostly picked it because as an editor I loved this little aside about Penelope's micro-managing boss.)

Recommended for: fans of books like The Overdue Life of Amy Byler or books by authors like Maria Semple or Abbi Waxman for their take on motherhood/having it all and how women handle that (with a bit of quirk but also very relateable); also, people looking for stories of middle-marriage and making it work, even things like What Alice Forgot.

Star rating: 3.5/5 stars


Now to further this mini bookclub discussion, I'm excited to pop over to Dana's blog and see what she thought - and I hope you'll chime in too if you've read this one! (Or, if it sounds up your alley, it's free for Prime members on Kindle...)

Help us find fun books to add to our lists too - feel free to link up any book review posts below, and then come back to join us again on June 7 for our next quarterly installment, in which we'll be reading one of my most anticipated new releases of the year: Emily St. John Mandel's new novel that comes out later this month, The Glass Hotel.

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blogger reads: one book, two takes

Are you a fan of those classic Tom Hanks romantic comedies? It's been years since I've watched one, so I wouldn't call myself a superfan, but I definitely have vivid memories of New Year's Eve movie nights with my sister and parents, going through the Tom Hanks canon - Sleepless in Seattle, You've Got Mail. And if those are fond memories for you too, then my latest buddy read with Dana will be a fun one: Waiting for Tom Hanks.

Two-sentence summary: Annie Cassidy is an aspiring screenwriter and romantic comedy fanatic living a quiet life in Columbus, Ohio, literally waiting for her Tom Hanks - comparing all relationships she has to that high standard, and seeming like she'll never get that screenwriter role or real-life romance. But then she learns that the next big rom-com, starring heartthrob Drew Danforth, is going to be filmed down the block, and her uncle just happens to know the movie's director... and you won't be surprised what happens from there.

What I liked most and what frustrated me: it's quite a standard rom-com plot, and in this case, I loved that about it. I knew what exactly I was going to get from the plot so it was just fun to go along for the ride, especially because Annie's version of Columbus feels so very cozy, with her corner coffee shop where everyone knows her, to her old, drafty house where she lives with her endearing uncle. Kinda fell in love with Drew Danforth myself too, so it was fun to read her star-struck, totally rom-com meet-cute and subsequent relationship with him. I read it in about 2 sittings by the pool, but with the winter setting (you even get a snowstorm) it would be perfect too for a couple of sittings by a fireplace. What I didn't love? Annie is a bit sad-sack at times; it takes a lot of prodding from others for her to get any gumption, so it's a bit of a stretch to think that she actually could have dreams of being a screenwriter... while I grew to love her, it maybe took a little longer than some other characters I've encountered in similar type books who have a little more initial spunk.

Favorite quote: "Maybe not everything about romantic comedies is real, and maybe Tom Hanks is just an actor playing fictional characters. But what they taught me about love, and about being honest, and about growing as a person ... that feels pretty real to me."

(And while that encapsulates the spirit of the book quite well, I couldn't resist marking this quote too: "If Nora Ephron was here, she would march onto that set and she would get shit done.")

Recommended for: anyone who loves romantic comedy movies, particularly the classic Tom Hanks and/or Nora Ephron variety. Also had some elements that made me think of Evvie Drake Starts Over in terms of the tone and banter (but that book is even better written, in my opinion) and the type-A, solitary, self-deprecating protagonist of The Bookish Life of Nina Hill (though liked this one much better than Nina, personally) - so if you liked those rom-com reads, you'll be interested in this one too.

Star rating: 3.5/5 stars (pretty light and fluffy, won't stick with me forever, but a fun poolside experience for sure, enough that I'll pick up the sequel when it comes out, as a good beach read for next summer).


Have you read this book? Or anything else good lately? Check out Dana's take on Waiting for Tom Hanks, and then you can link up any book review post to share your latest recommendations.

Oh, and if you want to read along with us, the next little blogger book club will be March 1, and we're going to read I'm Fine and Neither of You, which we've both had a copy of forever but haven't yet gotten around to. Yay for buddy reading getting us to read down our shelves!

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blogger reads: one book, two takes

For this installment of our blogger reads series, Dana and I picked With the Fire on High, which one could choose based just on the Instagram hype it was getting, or pick just on the amazing cover art that it has - but I'm happy to report that one should definitely also pick it up for the characters and the writing and the story. It's all great!

Two-sentence summary: Emoni Santiago has more responsibilities than your average high school senior - a 3-year-old daughter to care for, a job to help her aging grandmother cover the bills - and also more talent in the kitchen than your average 17-year-old, with an intuitive and passionate sense for cooking. When she finds out that her school is going to offer a culinary elective that includes a trip to Spain, she has to decide whether to do the "smart" thing and keep to a practical path, or whether to pursue this seemingly impossible dream.

What I liked most and what frustrated me: What I liked most besides the great cover? Emoni! The story is told from her perspective, and her voice is just so good. Strong, knows what she wants, carries herself with pride, but is still vulnerable and reflective - that mix of being forced to grow up early, but still being a teenager felt powerfully real and also inspiring. And the food angle was just plain fun, reading about her mouthwatering creations, or getting these excellent food metaphors in general.

What frustrated me was that while I agree that someone's talent can have somewhat "magical" effects on others, there were just a couple of random mentions of reactions to Emoni's cooking that bordered on a magical realism approach to the narrative (like she can make people fall in love because of eating her food). Those distracted me a bit and seemed unnecessary (and unfitting with the rest of the story), because we already got plenty of feel for how innate and wonderful her talent is.

Favorite quote: "Home. I come from a place that's as sweet as the freshest berry, as sour as curdled milk; where we dream of owning mansions and leaving the hood; where we couldn't imagine having been raised anywhere else."

Recommended for: lovers of YA, especially selections with a bit of grit or these kick-ass protagonists who are figuring out how to navigate difficult life circumstances at the same time as the standard high school relationships and responsibilities, like in On the Come Up or The Hate U Give. Also would compare it to something like Far from the Tree in dealing with teenage pregnancy/emotions and to I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter in dealing with teenagers navigating race, - all while just trying to be a teen.

Star rating: 4.5/5 stars


Have you read this one yet? Or tried any of the tempting recipes that are at the beginning of the sections?

After you check out Dana's take on it, let us know what else you've been reading lately by commenting, or by linking up any book review post below, and maybe it'll help us pick a future selection! In the meantime, we're planning on Waiting for Tom Hanks for our December 1 post, if you want to read along and link up then.

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blogger reads: one book, two takes

It's fun having blog friends who are into the same books as I am, but even better when they're books that I'm just dying to discuss. This one brought up so much about parenting, immigrant stories, small-town life, secrets and how little decisions or lies can lead to life-altering consequences - so I'm glad I've got a buddy reader in Dana to bring you both of our takes on Miracle Creek today (and I'm hoping to hear she enjoyed the read as much as I did!).

Two-sentence summary: a literary courtroom drama about a Korean immigrant family who ran the Miracle Submarine, in which patients would go for pressurized oxygen "dives" to purportedly help with all manner of things from autism to infertility, and in which many families are pinning their hopes and dreams for cures. You know from the start that there was an accident leading to an explosion, and the death of an autistic boy for which his mother is on trial - but many others' secrets and lies will be uncovered over the course of the trial in this rural Virginia town.

What I liked most and what frustrated me: the slow-burning ride of uncovering what everyone's secrets are! It starts out seeming like a cut-and-dried case for the jury, but there's so much simmering below the surface for all of the characters, which makes it unputdownable. I loved how the courtroom drama was interspersed with the backstory, and how it was done from various characters' perspectives - so you get the perfect mix of page-turning plot but also intriguing character development/back story - and how it made me think about the lengths parents are willing to go for their kids. Really loved this book, so I guess the "frustration" part is more of a "heart-wrenching" part - it's not a spoiler to note that there is a little kid who dies, and reading about that and about the horrible grief and guilt of his mother, as well has reading about the struggles of parenting a special-needs kid in general, is not always easy (but definitely thought provoking) for a mom...

Favorite quote: “Good things and bad—every friendship and romance formed, every accident, every illness—resulted from the conspiracy of hundreds of little things, in and of themselves inconsequential.”

Recommended for: fans of literary mysteries/courtroom dramas, fans of books like Celeste Ng's Little Fires Everywhere or Liane Moriarty's Big Little Lies, in which you know at the beginning what major event happened, and you get to enjoy some great twists and turns to uncover how it all went down, also while delving into the character's relationships and psyches.

Star rating: 4.5/5 - hard to put down and makes you think = winner for me.

Have you read Miracle Creek yet? Or anything else good lately? Dana and I would love to have you join us, to link up any recent book review post so we can all share some more book buddy love. And if you want to join in again on our next read (or just link up any book post), we'll be back with a discussion of With the Fire on High on September 1.

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blogger reads: one book, two takes

My book/closet twin Dana and I are back with our latest shared read - and I'm going to have trouble keeping my responses to our book review questionnaire brief, because goodness was this ever a fun read. Without further ado: Daisy Jones & The Six!

Two-sentence summary: Tells the story of the meteoric rise of and subsequent infamous breakup of (fictional) iconic singer Daisy Jones and the rock band The Six in the 1970s, told as an oral history from the viewpoint of band members, producers, biographers, etc. You get the sex and drugs and egos and artistic differences that you'd associate with rock and roll, but also a look at chasing dreams, the power of music and artistry, the pressures of "arriving", finding love and self-acceptance, and more.

What I liked most and what frustrated me: I loved the unique format - I've never read anything quite like it. I'd say it's almost like reading the transcript of a really great documentary, so you've got snippets from various players all mixed together in a way that they're talking about the same event or time period, but not talking to each other. Makes for really interesting interplay between characters even though they're not actually interacting, in the ways their memories differ or are subjective. I was impressed that without any actual narrative story, these interview snippets really did come together to make such a compelling story that I could hardly put down. Also liked that the interview format allowed for the characters to reminisce about the past and reflect on it. The poor choices related to sex and drugs would have started to bother me if it was told as a story in the present tense, but the reflective nature made it totally different, in a coming out the other side kind of way. The only frustrating thing was that the albums I was learning so much about the writing and recording of seemed like they just had to be real. Bummer when I remembered it's actually fiction - I wanted to listen to them!

Favorite quote: "She had written something that felt like I could have written it, except I knew I couldn't have. I wouldn't have come up with something like that. Which is what we all want from art, isn't it? When someone pins down something that feels like it lives inside us? Takes a piece of your heart out and shows it to you? It's like they are introducing you to a part of yourself"

Recommended for: anyone looking for a good read! Liking music/rock bands is definitely not necessary for enjoyment. But if you like celebrity memoirs/documentaries or behind-the-scenes/backstage looks at the artistic process or the lives of (fictional) famous people, this'll be an especially good fit.

Star rating: 4.5/5 (Very enjoyable read, worth the hype, but probably won't stick with me forever in the way a 5-star book would.)

Have you read Daisy Jones & The Six yet? Or any others by Taylor Jenkins Reid? I really enjoy her fun but not too fluffy women's fiction/romancey type books like Maybe in Another Life and One True Loves - and I'm super impressed by how well she pulled off something so entirely different here.

If you have thoughts on this book, link up a post below! Be sure to check out Dana's take here. And if you want to read along again, we're going to be going through the same Q&A for Miracle Creek on July 7.


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blogger reads: one book, two takes

When Dana and I realized how much of closet twins we are (i.e,. owning many of the same items in our wardrobe), our two bloggers, one item series was born. When we realized that we're kind of bookshelf twins too, we joked about a spinoff series of two bloggers, one read - but then stopped laughing because actually, it's a great idea! So here's our first installment - we both read Angie Thomas' new book, On the Come Up, and today we're both filling in the same Q&A with our take on it.

Two-sentence summary: Sixteen-year-old Bri's dream is to be a rapper, but getting her come up - that is, hitting it big - feels more than a dream; it feels crucial to one day getting out of her neighborhood, as her mom struggles to make ends meet, her beloved aunt is in danger of getting caught dealing drugs, and her own school experience feels fraught with unfair labeling and treatment from white teachers and school guards. When an incident with a guard escalates, she becomes central to a controversy where the media and broader public assumes she is one thing, and she has to figure out how to channel her anger through her rapping in a way defies and redefines society's labels for young black people - with some tough decisions and stumbles along the way as she finds her voice.

What I liked most and what frustrated me: I loved how the characters feel very three-dimensional and full of heart - like how Bri is a kick-ass budding rapper and confident young woman but also has her moments of anxiety or selfishness or self-doubt or teenage poor decision making. Loved the dialogue that just sparks too, especially the rapport between Bri and her friends. And my frustration is really not the book's fault, but I would say that I would have loved the book more if I were into hip-hop/rap myself. There are so many references to songs/artists that it is clearly an homage to this genre, but I just don't have the strong associations with it as others that would put this over the top as a 5-star book for me personally.

Favorite quote: “I'm somebody's hope and I'm somebody's mirror.”

Recommended for: anyone who enjoyed Angie Thomas' The Hate U Give, of course, and other YA titles that deal with teens who are just trying to live their high school lives, but are also facing major social/racial issues (Dreamland Burning and The Sun Is Also a Star are two others I liked). Also anyone who might have a background like me (white lady) who would like to diversify their selection of authors or read/understand more about the ways people of a different race/ethnicity/religion/etc. experience the world - it's just plain a good read on its own, but it adds that element too.

Star rating: 4/5

Have you read this one yet? I think I liked The Hate U Give even more but recommend both of Angie Thomas' books for sure. And I also think you should hop on over to Dana's post to see her take on it!


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