How to Read a Book by Monica Wood (Bibliolifestyle Book Tour)

 

Thank you, Partner @bibliolifestyle @marinerbooks for the review copy of How to Read a Book by Monica Wood.  This book was published on May 7^th.

Did you have a special person in your life who helped inspire your love of reading?  My Great-Grandma Kile gave me Litte House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder for my 8^th birthday, and it started my passion for reading.  I sat immediately down and read it in one afternoon.  I had many beloved librarians who helped me along the way such as Mrs. Hamp in elementary school and Mrs. Mack in middle school.  Many teachers inspired my love of reading as well including my high school English teacher and friend, Mrs. Smith. 

How to Read a Book by Monica Wood is a beautifully written book that I literally could not put down.  Harriet Larson is a retired English teacher who has started a book club at a local prison for women.  She and the women all find themselves inspired by their reading selections and each other.  One young woman, Violet, gets released from prison.  She later meets Harriet in a bookstore, and she also meets Frank, a retired machinist, whose wife that she was in prison for killing during a drunk driving accident.  After this meeting, their three lives intersect in a fascinating way.  Will they all be able to find forgiveness in their hearts to move forward with life?

My thoughts on this book:

·       Wow!  This book was a tour de force.  It was a short book, but it packed in quite a story.

·       The story was told in alternating chapters from either Violet, Harriet, or Frank’s viewpoints.

·       The characters were all wonderfully developed, engaging, and complicated.  For instance, Frank is hiding the fact that he felt relief when his wife died in the car accident.  She was on her way to a divorce lawyer to start the divorce proceedings as she was having an affair.  He feels very guilty for feeling this way.

·       I always love the themes of forgiveness and second chances.  Harriet sees the women in the prison for who they are, individual women who have made a mistake, but that deserve a second chance in life.  She listens to them and respects them as no one else seems to do in prison. 

·       I also enjoyed the look at letting go of your guilt.  Frank feels guilty for his feelings about his wife’s death and Violet feels guilty for both killing Frank’s wife and for her mother’s death from cancer while she was in prison.  They both go through the journey of moving on from their guilt and helping each other to do it.

·       I always love books about books.  I love Maya Angelou and loved that the prison book club enjoyed her poetry.  They also really enjoyed The Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters.  I remember learning about this book and reading a short snippet in American Literature, but I have never read the entire book.  This inspired me to move it further up my list!

·       I also enjoy second chance romance, which this book also had.

·       Violet gets a job working with Grey African Parrots and I loved it and learning more about the parrots.

·       This book really showed how having compassion for your fellow human beings helps not only them, but yourself as well.

·       The humor in this book gave me many a good chuckle.

·       This is a feel-good story, and I loved the ending.

Favorite Quotes:

“The line between this and that, you and her, us and them, the line is thin.”

“I’m just a person who hopes to be a good person.”

“I can accept your apology, which isn’t necessary.  But I honestly don’t know how to accept your forgiveness.”

Overall, How to Read a Book by Monica Wood is a beautifully written book about forgiveness, second chances, empathy, and the complicated feelings of being human.  I couldn’t put this book down and I highly recommend it.  It’s one of my favorite books of this year so far

Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa (Bibliolifestyle Book Tour)

 

Thank you, Partner @bibliolifestyle @harperperennial for the review copy of Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa.  This book was published on July 4, 2023.

Takoko has a great boyfriend and job, but she loses it all when he tells her one day that he is engaged to another woman.  She falls into a depression until her mother calls her and tells her that she should help out in her Uncle Satoru’s bookshop.  She accepts his offer and lives in a tiny room above the bookshop and works in the store.  As she lives there, she discovers she loves books and strikes up friendships within the neighborhood. 

This was a delightful gem of a book.  I loved Takoko’s journey.  I also loved how supportive Uncle Satoru was to her to help her to face her sadness and move forward with her life.  I like how he also had a journey of his own with his wife Momoko, who disappeared five years before and has suddenly reappeared. 

I also loved learning about Jimbocho, which is a book district in Tokyo.  It sounds like a place I need to visit on my bucket list.  I especially loved when the characters visit the Kanda Used Book Festival, which is an annual event in their book district.  It sounded like so much fun. I also loved Satoru’s secondhand book shop. 

This was a quick read.  The first half of the book is set when Takoko first arrives at the bookshop and the second half is a year later when Momoko has reappeared.  I loved how people bonded over books and this book was just a nice and peaceful read.  I enjoyed it!

Bookworm by Robin Yeatman (Bibliolifestyle Book Tour)

 

Thank you, Partner @bibliolifestyle @williammorrowbooks for the review copy of this book.

Do you daydream?  I know I do.  Victoria daydreams constantly and likes to imagine the lives of the people around her.  She is unhappily married to Eric and also likes to day dream about his demise so she can escape her marriage.   She also starts to daydream about a cute fellow reader that she has met at a coffee shop As she starts to feel more and more trapped in her marriage, her daydreams start to blend with reality.  Will Victoria get her happily ever after?

Bookworm is a tale of an unreliable narrator where it’s hard to tell at times what is real and what is imagined.  It reminded me of a blend of You by Caroline Kepnes and My Cousin Rachel by Daphne Du Maurier.  I finished the book on Saturday and I am still pondering about the ending and what really happened. 

I loved all of the literary references in the novel.  She talked about a lot of different books including Patricia Highsmith.  This seemed like a Patricia Highsmith novel combined with something else such as the short story of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty by James Thurber.  My favorite English teacher just passed away yesterday and she loved James Thurber which had me thinking about Walter Mitty and how he daydreamed his life away.  Victoria is a modern day Walter Mitty, but her daydreams take a darker turn and she is not usually the star.

I didn’t really like the character of Victoria at all, but I did think the story was unique and interesting.  This is the type of novel to pick up when you are looking for something new.

This book was published on February 14th.

BOOK SYNOPSIS FROM THE PUBLISHER: 

A wickedly funny debut novel—a black comedy with a generous heart that explores the power of imagination and reading—about a woman who tries to use fiction to find her way to happiness.

Victoria is unhappily married to an ambitious and controlling lawyer consumed with his career. Burdened with overbearing in-laws, a boring dead-end job she can’t seem to leave, and a best friend who doesn’t seem to understand her, Victoria finds solace from the daily grind in her beloved books and the stories she makes up in her head. One day, in a favorite café, she notices an attractive man reading the same talked-about bestselling novel that she is reading. A woman yearning for her own happy ending, Victoria is sure it’s fate. The handsome book lover must be her soul mate.

There’s only one small problem. Victoria is already married. Frustrated, and desperate to change her life, Victoria retreats to the dark places in her mind and thinks back to all the stories she’s ever read in hopes of finding a solution. She begins to fantasize about nocturnal trysts with café man, and imaginative ways (poisoned pickles were an inspired choice in Jane Smiley’s A Thousand Acres) of getting rid of the dread husband. 

It’s all just harmless fantasy born of Victoria’s fevered imagination and her books—until, one night, fiction and reality blur and suddenly it seems Victoria is about to get everything she’s wished for . . . .

Camp Austen: My Life as an Accidental Jane Austen Superfan by Ted Scheinman

 

Title:  Camp Austen: My Life as an Accidental Jane Austen Superfan

Author:  Ted Scheinman

Narrated by:  Ted Scheinman

Publisher: Macmillan Audio

Length: Approximately 3 hours and 43 minutes

Source: Purchased from Audible.com.  Thank-you!

 Do you have a fandom that you are a part of?   Sports, comics, movies, shows, books – there are a lot of things that people become part of a fan group.  Perhaps one of the most surprising would be the worldwide fandom for an author that has been dead for two hundred years, Jane Austen.

 Ted Scheinman is the son of a respected Jane Austen scholar.  He grew up with Jane Austen in the background, but wasn’t a super fan himself.  When he is in graduate school, he got the opportunity to participate in the first ever UNC-Chapel Hill Jane Austen Summer Camp.  Ted becomes immersed in the Janeite world and also attends his first Jane Austen Society of North American (JASNA) conference in Minneapolis as well.  This memoir is part academic discussing Austen’s works and information about the author herself, and also a look at the fans and fandom that is still running strong.  I loved listening to this on audiobook narrated by the author as it really felt like his personal tale.  It’s his experience learning about this fandom and he tells about all of the very different people that inhabit it from scholars to a couple keeping their romance alive with the dances.  He also gets to dress and play the part of Mr. Darcy which sounds like a lot of fun.

 I really loved learning about Rudyard Kipling’s love for Jane Austen and the discussion of the short story he wrote about Janeites who were veterans of the first world war.  I need to find this story!

Author Ted Scheinman was a fun narrator and I really enjoyed listening to his story.

 This was the January selection for the JASNA Northwoods book discussion.  I missed the discussion this month as I was sadly traveling back to Michigan for my Grandma’s funeral.

Overall, this was a fun look into the world of Jane Austen fandom.

Blame it on the Brontes by Annie Sereno

 Blame it on the Brontës by Annie Sereno

Title:  Blame it on the Brontës

Author:  Annie Sereno

Narrated by:  Katie Schorr

Publisher: Hachette Audio

Length:  11 hours

Source: Netgalley.  Thank-you!

 

What romantic hero did you pine for in your youth?  Did you like the brooding Bronte heroes? 

 Athena Murphy is an inspiring English professor who loves teaching but is behind on writing papers.  Athena needs to publish or perish so she takes time off to return to her hometown and determine the identify of C.L. Garland.  Garland is rumored to live in her hometown and is the bestselling author of the lit wit series of books, which are very spicy retelling of classic novels.  She takes a waitressing job at the café she used to work at and soon discovers it has recently been purchased by her ex-boyfriend, Thorne.  Thorne was Athena’s Bronte hero and great love.  She is still stung by their break-up and is not happy to be working with him.  Will she be able to find Garland and get her career back on track?  Will she be able to repair her relationship with Thorne?

 I enjoyed this light and fun audiobook.  The narration was great.  I loved all of the literary references.  I like books about books or in this case classic literature.  I am also a big fan of second chance romance and slow burn romance, and this had both. I really loved the town of Laurel and all of the secondary characters.  They were pretty funny and unique.  I also enjoyed the descriptions of the tasty food at As You Like It Café.  Overall, it was a fun audiobook.

The Vanishing Type by Ellery Adams (TLC Book Tour)

 

What is your favorite type of book to cozy up with?

Nora Pennington is enjoying the winter weather and creating new book displays at her shop, Miracle Books.  She is excited when Deputy Jasper Andrews asks for her help in creating a Little Women themed proposal for her friend Hester.  Mysteriously, right before the planned event, Nora discovers that all of her copies of The Scarlet Letter have had the name Hester cut out of them.  Nora knows that Hester gave up a baby for adoption in the past and hasn’t even told Andrews her secret.  Her family treated her like she had the scarlet letter embroidered on her and shamed her.  When a dead hiker shows up with ties to Hester’s past, will Hester’s secret come out?

This is the fifth book in the Secret, Book, and Scone Society Novel series.  I was able to read it as a stand alone novel, but I do want to go back and read the rest of the books in the series.  I greatly enjoyed it.  It’s been pretty stressful at work and with life lately and a cozy mystery was just what I needed.  I loved all of the characters, and really enjoyed the literary references and love for books.  I loved how the mystery was intricately tied to books as well.  The end of the novel had a list of all of the books referenced which I thought was great!  There were also book club discussion questions as well.  I wanted to live in Miracle Springs and help Nora and Sheldon with their book displays. 

Overall, The Vanishing Type is great cozy mystery filled with wonderfully developed characters, great food, and books galore.

Book Source:  Review Copy from Kensington Cozies as part of the TLC Book Tour.

The Bookshop on the Shore by Jenny Colgan

Jenny Colgan is my go-to author for a fun happy read.  I brought along The Bookshop on the Shore on a recent camping trip and had a great time reading it while watching the kids swim.  I really like how in a Jenny Colgan novel, the main characters are able to work through problems and find their way to a happy fulfilling life.

Zoe is a single mother struggling to meet ends meet in London.  She loves her son Hari, but can’t figure out why at age four, he still isn’t speaking.  Hari’s dad, Jaz, flies in and out of their lives as a DJ, but it too busy to help with the nitty gritty things like paying rent.  Jaz finally tells his sister, Surinder, about Zoe and Hari and she decides to help them out.  She gets Zoe a part time job helping her friend Nina with her bookmobile in Scotland and a second job as a nanny to three children at a grand estate.  Will Zoe be able to put her life back together in Scotland?  Will Hari be able to learn how to talk?  What is the mystery of the estate, the three children, their father, and their missing mother?

I loved this story.  It was enjoyable to have the characters of Nina, Surinder, and Lennox return from The Bookshop on the Corner, but this book stands on its own.  I was intrigued by the big house, Ramsey, his children, and his missing wife. The Bookshop on the Shore had a slight Jane Eyre vibe to it as Zoe tries to figure out the mystery and help the poor motherless children. I read the back of the book to my 9-year-old daughter Penelope and she predicted the ending.  She had me give her status updates to the story as I read along.  She was also satisfied by the story.  The happy ending may be predicted, but it is all about the journey along the way.  I liked that the story was able to discuss a variety of issues including mental health issues. 

I also love that this book loves books.  As with The Bookshop on the Corner, the traveling bookmobile bookstore is always trying to find the perfect book for patrons with Zoe at the helm with Nina laid up during her pregnancy.  Zoe is more about making money selling books to tourists than to the locals much to Nina’s horror.  Ramsey has a wonderful huge library in his home and is an antique book dealer, although he seems to like to collect the books more than he likes to sell them.  I loved the discussion of favorite books throughout the novel.  I just love reading about books!!

Overall, The Bookshop on the Shore was a perfect fun summer book.  I loved the Jane Eyre vibe, discussions of books, characters, discussions of mental illness, humor, and romance.  This book has it all!

Book Source:  Purchased at Barnes & Nobles

The Printed Letter Bookshop by Katherine Reay (TLC Book Tour)

The death of a beloved aunt and friend, Maddie Carter, brings together three unforgettable characters at one special book shop.  Maddie has run this Northeastern Illinois bookstore for years and is a fixture of the community.  After her death, who will run the store?  Will this important part of the community survive?

Madeline Cullen loved her Aunt Maddie, but after a family rift twenty years before, she has not spent much time with her.  Her busy career as a lawyer trying to make partner in downtown Chicago has left her with zero time for anything outside of work.  Will Madeline make partner?  Is her career the most important part of her life?

Claire is a mother, who is experiencing empty nest syndrome with her teenage kids no longer needing her and her husband always at work. She gave up a successful career to stay home with her kids, but after a marriage filled with constant moves, Claire feels like she no longer knows herself. When she gets a job at the Printed Letter Bookshop, Claire feels like she has a purpose again.  Will Claire be able to reconnect with her family?  What will the future hold with the store in peril?

Janet lost everything when she cheated on her husband which led to her divorce.  She has strained relations with her adult children and her friends are gone.  Her brusque personality did not fool Maddie Carter and Janet started to work at the book shop.  How can she put the pieces of her life back together?  Will the artist within her be able to shine through?

I loved how all three women were able to not only work on saving the store, but also found themselves in this novel. The novel was about friendship, but also about forgiving others and working through problems.  What fulfills you in life and makes you happy?  I loved that Maddie left each women a letter with book recommendations that helped her on her journey.  I loved the discussion of books and many of my favorites were discussed. There is a great list of all of the books mentioned at the end of the novel.

I really loved that Claire’s previous career had been in math.  It’s nice to see math and technical careers represented for ladies in literature.

Basically, this book is my fantasy - giving up a high-powered career path to own a beloved local bookstore.  I loved it.

Favorite Quotes:

“Crazy meant bold, daring, fearless.  It was a radiant word filled with virtue and supernatural strength.”

“But anger can be as irrational as it is visceral.”

Overall, The Printed Letter Bookshop is a wonderful book filled with great characters who all experience a life changing journey and its also filled with talk about great books.  I can’t beat that!

Book Source:  Review Copy as part of the TLC Book Tour.  Thank-you!  For more stops on this tour and information about this book, check out this link.