pages: 310
read: 2/18-26/2019
rating: good kids book / read
book: 23 in 2019
“If you didn’t have bad things, you wouldn’t have good things. They would all just be things. Did you ever think about that?”
In one day, four lives weave together in unexpected ways. Virgil Salinas is shy and kind hearted and feels out of place in his crazy-about-sports family. Valencia Somerset, who is deaf, is smart, brave, and secretly lonely, and she loves everything about nature. Kaori Tanaka is a self-proclaimed psychic, whose little sister, Gen, is always following her around. And Chet Bullens wishes the weird kids would just stop being so different so he can concentrate on basketball.
They aren’t friends, at least not until Chet pulls a prank that traps Virgil and his pet guinea pig at the bottom of a well. This disaster leads Kaori, Gen, and Valencia on an epic quest to find missing Virgil. Through luck, smarts, bravery, and a little help from the universe, a rescue is performed, a bully is put in his place, and friendship blooms.
“That’s the problem. People don’t want to listen to their thoughts, so they fill the world with noise.”
MY THOUGHTS
SHORT VERSION
man, what are kids made of these days? i know its a kid's read, but I'm glad i read it. i think if you have kids, this is something good to read with them.
LONG VERSION
another amazon win!
I picked this book up purely because of the cover but I ended up loving it.
I'm not sure if it's because I'm older but kids stories man, they kill me.
I love the whole fate theme. I'm a huge believer of fate and karma and timing and coincidence so this story appealed to me.
But I love it not only for that. I love it because Virgil finally finds his voice and that was one of the best things about this book. Sometimes shit has to hit the fan in order for you to find out who you truly are.
So glad I gave this book a read.
I'm not sure if it's because I'm older but kids stories man, they kill me.
I love the whole fate theme. I'm a huge believer of fate and karma and timing and coincidence so this story appealed to me.
But I love it not only for that. I love it because Virgil finally finds his voice and that was one of the best things about this book. Sometimes shit has to hit the fan in order for you to find out who you truly are.
So glad I gave this book a read.
I'd read it in bed close to bedtime so I'd read this as much as i could and then go to sleep happy to have read something with such a good message.
the synopsis gives you the entire gist of the book (duh, les. that's it's job!) so there's not a whole lot more i can say without spoiling it for ya.
all i can say is Virgil definitely has a lot of love to give. and you can tell that Valencia wants more than she leads on. everyone wants a friend. as much as being alone is great, it's still pretty painful to not have anyone at a time of need or just anyone period. i love her character for being so alert. i mean, obvs she has to be. but not only is she SO GOOD, she doesn't let that stop her from being kick ass. having someone with a disability and showing them in a positive light was such a good idea for this story. and i think it's a great thing that it's shown throughout the book continuously.
i loved grandma Lola and the relationship she has with Virgil. i think it's an amazing thing to have an adult talk to you like a human vs a kid who doesn't "know" things. i believe kids know more than we give them credit for. and the author does such a good job showing you that parents aren't always the best even though you know they definitely don't mean you any harm. they're just being parents.
I'm not a huge believer in Astrology mostly cause its not something that I've ever looked into but i liked reading about it in this book and i love that Kaori loves it with all her heart. i love even more that as much as she is right, she is wrong and for the most part her little sister is just as wise even if it's not as it says it is in the stars. i think she did a good job making this subject work both ways.
overall, this was a really cute, good read and it is aimed for younger kids so this is something that would be good for kids to read. just you know, don't let them go near a well. and maybe talk them and teach them to not be little shits to other kids. (:
jump over for spoilers!
thanks for reading!
#lesreads on IG
published: 2019
pages: varies
heard: 2/18/2019
rating: no thanks
book: 15-22 in 2019
(also, not that it matters but when its a group of several books like this, i go into my goodreads account and add the additional X amount of books to my "challenge" cause i technically count these all as 1. they're too small to me to eat up 1 book and get me closer to "my goal" . idk I'm weird!)
SYNOPSIS
read all about em here!MY THOUGHTS
SHORT VERSION
WTF!?
LONG VERSION
WTTTFFF!!!???
I don't uh, i don't even know.
once again, amazon reads releases a few short stories and I'm all "okay, let's give it a go!"
these stories are about women and their sexuality and their need to use it to gain some sort of control or power or honestly, i don't even know.
it's been awhile since i heard them and i can still say that i don't care for them and I'm still wtf over a few of them.
I wrote down what each one is basically about but I've decided to leave that all in the spoilers because essentially that's what they are. and i also didn't want to make this an unnecessarily long ass post right upfront.
...let's leave that for books i looooove. or dislike. or i just really have something (a lot) to say on.
i can say that i really didn't care for any of these stories....they didn't do much for me.
BUT Eleanor.
that bitch got me fuuuuucked up.
i just could not get that one 1000 ways to die episode of my head as she was doing what she did.
and just what she did... no...not what im even mentioning on top but that OTHER THING!, like if you want revenge, fine. but don't do what you fucking did. in my head, all i think about is, all the wrongs that could have happened to everyone else because of her actions.
U G H ! ! !
anyway, jump over if you want to know what they're about.
thanks for reading!
pages: 276
heard: 2/14-15/19
rating: possibly my favorite book of 2019
book: 14 in 2019
"sometimes it is impossible to move forward without understanding what happened."
“We’ve been waiting for an hour.” That’s what Audrey says. She states it with a little bit of an edge, her words just bordering on cursive. That’s the thing I think first. Not: Audrey Hepburn is at my birthday dinner, but Audrey Hepburn is annoyed.”
At one point or another, we’ve all been asked to name five people, living or dead, with whom we’d like to have dinner. Why do we choose the people we do? And what if that dinner was to actually happen? These are the questions Rebecca Serle contends with in her utterly captivating novel, THE DINNER LIST, a story imbued with the same delightful magical realism as One Day, and the life-changing romance of Me Before You.
When Sabrina arrives at her thirtieth birthday dinner she finds at the table not just her best friend, but also three significant people from her past, and well, Audrey Hepburn. As the appetizers are served, wine poured, and dinner table conversation begins, it becomes clear that there’s a reason these six people have been gathered together.
Delicious but never indulgent, sweet with just the right amount of bitter, THE DINNER LIST is a romance for our times. Bon appetit.
MY THOUGHTS
SHORT VERSION
YES!!! I LOVE THIS BOOK SO FREAKING MUCH. YES!!!!!
LONG VERSION
this freaking book man!
thank you library audiobook section!!!!
i have been wanting to read this book since it was released. mostly because of the cover and mostly because of the premise but as all, it fell to the back.
luckily, it was available for immediate listen.
AND I AM SO GLAD THAT I GOT AROUND TO IT!!!!!!
i don't know what i was expecting.
i mean, who would you invite to dinner? everyone's been asked this since the beginning of time. and after reading this book, i have to genuinely think about who my 5 would be. tbh, prior to this, i've never really thought about who my 5 would be.
i don't know man, this book was something else.
it gave me more than i thought it was going to.
and to this day, i beat myself up that i didn't physically read this book and instead listed to it. this is one of those books that I NEED TO OWN for my own personal library.
i think im a sucker for sappy love stories where it doesn't work out no matter what you do because i feel like i can say that i've been in the position where maybe "the one" did get away and, so, yea,...bah! *cue Katy Perry*, so they hold a special place for me.
tmi maybe. i'll leave it at that but yea.
tmi maybe. i'll leave it at that but yea.
Sabrina has dinner with Audrey, her best friend Jessica, her father (whom she didn't grow up with) - Robert, her favorite professor Conrad and her ex Tobias.
and at first, i was like *head scratch* okay....odd choice? well, not odd just, i had no idea where this was going.
and it's going good. you delve into her life and how she meets Tobias. how her friendship with jessica is. how her relationship with her father was....and then BOOM!!!!!!
it hits you.
i did not see that twist coming.
i had to stop playing the audio real quick and mentally take in what i had just heard and even write it down to make sure that if i forgot it, i could look down at it and get back to it. but you don't forget something like that.
you can't.
you can't.
and OMG that shit killed me internally.
i felt that.
"the most important thing in communication is hearing what isn't said."
the story then takes you into what its about and everyone has their little bits to add to the story to make her realize. and you learn so much about her relationship with everyone at the table.
you get to see how adulthood shapes her relationships (i mean more specifically hers and jessica's in this instance.) how their stubbornness affects their relationship (hers and tobias'). how her father leaving at a young age and then building another family affects her as well.
and then the end.
it was closure.
it's all about closure.
and there's stubbornness but you can see her coming to her senses.
you can see her accepting it for what it is. and she makes her amends where she needs to for peace of mind for all those involved.
honestly, i need to physically read this book because just doing the audio doesn't do it justice. it doesn't do me justice.
i think i'll get a better grip of it. i feel like i'd understand it more.
i think i can see why Audrey was there but i still feel like she slipped from under me.
i think reading this book again will give me even more understanding than what i got from it the first time.
i absolutely loved this book.
and that cover! not even the cover so much but the yellow! i love the yellow. and it's made me realize i need more yellow books in my life.
i will re-read this and ill give it a better "review" next time.
for now, i'll just do the main spoiler.
once i re-read this, i'll take better notes and give a more in-depth spoiler.
thanks for reading!
#lesreads on IG
pages: 334
read: 2/7-12/2019
rating: good second book.
book: 13 in 2019
SYNOPSIS
Nina has always known who she's supposed to be. But is that who she truly is?
Nina Gregory has always been a good daughter. Raised by her father, owner of New York City's glamorous Gregory Hotels, Nina was taught that family, reputation, and legacy are what matter most. And Tim--her devoted boyfriend and best friend since childhood--feels the same. But when Nina's father dies, he leaves behind a secret that shocks Nina to her core.
As her world falls apart, Nina begins to see the men in her life--her father, her boyfriend, and unexpectedly, her boss, Rafael--in a new light. Soon Nina finds herself caught between the world she loves, and a passion that could upend everything.
More Than Words is a heartbreaking and romantic novel about grief, loss, love, and self-discovery, and how we choose which life we are meant to live.
MY THOUGHTS
SHORT VERSION
good read.
LONG VERSION
its been a while since I've read this book. and the entire time since I've been done reading it, all i can keep telling myself is that it does not compare to her first book. and i know that i shouldn't compare because it'll never be the same but....
this was a good read.
and even though i kept telling myself "it's whole new story", i still felt like it was missing a little something. it's missing the umph her first book had for me.
maybe because i saw myself in her first book. maybe because i connected with Lucy more when it comes to love vs Nina who is discovering who she is.
(why the fuck am i comparing myself to these 2 fictional women? especially when i am nowhere near where they are.)
Nina is doing her thing but has to step into her father's shoes once he falls ill. she thought she had more time but it turns out she didn't.
her personal life family wise has just fallen apart because of her father's death.
her personal life relationship wise is falling apart because not only did she lose her boyfriend but she lost her best friend.
her personal life, her life, life is falling apart because she needs to find a middle between who she wants to be vs who she's meant to be vs who she's supposed to be because of her last name.
she's all over the place.
but even then.....she's no Lucy. I don't feel for her like i did with Lucy. (i know. i hate myself for comparing them but its how i feel!)
Nina is trying to figure herself out and then comes across family secrets once its too late to confront her father about them. of the 2, the first one is pretty fucking huge. and i don't think she gave it the "proper" amount of grief, anger, wtf'ness that it deserved. i know if i was ever in her shoes with that secret, it would rock my fucking world.
the second one...well, had she done her research like her father had asked her...well she could have discussed that with him.
All decisions were affected by the time in which they were made. nothing existed in vacuum.maybe Santopolo's intentions weren't to focus on the negative and more on the whole Nina discovering who she is meant to be and if that's the case, then good. she did a good job there.
eventually, after the continuous self doubt, Nina finally figures out who she is meant to be.
at times i found myself yelling at Nina internally because on page as you read the dilemma, you can feel what she wanted to say but it was never the case.
one of my favorite scenes has to be where she is with Tim and she needs release. and she shows him her actual sexual side. she's been with him under a year but sex with him was safe and in this scene she's raw and energized and so sure of herself and she gives him a glimpse of who she is (that wasn't really a spoiler...but sorry) and you start getting glimpses of who she is meant to be.
that was the Nina that I liked. and I'm glad that in the end, that is who she gets to be.
of course, in the end it works out as its meant to....and it is a good story. i know i make it out to seem like its not BUT IT IS. i think all of me is just hung on a beautiful story that i personally think might be hard to recreate or i mean, follow up, come close to (?). but still, if this is what Santopolo is giving us, then i can safely say that I will continue to read as she publishes. she's not someone whose book's i want to miss out on.
Love was complicated. It didn't disappear because someone did something horrible. Something you didn't agree with. It lived there with the disappointment, the disapproval. You had to figure out how to hold both in your heart or you'd lose everyone, everything. (pg 178)
have you read it?
whatcha think?
spoilers as always! down below.
thx!
pages: 354
read: 2/4-6/2019 (i listened to it)
rating: it angered me so i guess it did its job.
book: 12 in 2019
SYNOPSIS
It’s been a year since Billie Flanagan—a Berkeley mom with an enviable life—went on a solo hike in Desolation Wilderness and vanished from the trail. Her body was never found, just a shattered cellphone and a solitary hiking boot. Her husband and teenage daughter have been coping with Billie’s death the best they can: Jonathan drinks as he works on a loving memoir about his marriage; Olive grows remote, from both her father and her friends at the all-girls school she attends.
But then Olive starts having strange visions of her mother, still alive. Jonathan worries about Olive’s emotional stability, until he starts unearthing secrets from Billie’s past that bring into question everything he thought he understood about his wife. Who was the woman he knew as Billie Flanagan?
Together, Olive and Jonathan embark on a quest for the truth—about Billie, but also about themselves, learning, in the process, about all the ways that love can distort what we choose to see. Janelle Brown’s insights into the dynamics of intimate relationships will make you question the stories you tell yourself about the people you love, while her nervy storytelling will keep you guessing until the very last page.
MY THOUGHTS
SHORT VERSION
once this "review" is up, i doubt I'll think about it again. but if you like books that fuck with you, then yea, it's good.
(update: before this was even published i forgot about it. i forgot about it once i was done writing this down,) gah.
LONG VERSION
UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
and that's it.
okay no but seriously.
i don't hate it...because it was a free library audio listen. had i paid for it, there probably wouldn't be enough dislike in the world to convey how i feel about this book.
it's not that it wasn't written well. it's not that it wasn't a very well told story it's just that if i could travel back in time and tell myself not to read this book, i would tell myself to skip this book....and maybe this one too.
Billie was just ugh. that bitch! and Harmony. that dumb bitch! and JONATHAN!! dude!!! i know you're hurting and need closure but come on! in your own home, think about your daughter first before you think about getting your dick wet. gah!
i cheated and looked for spoilers and luckily i was able to get some and i think that helped me pay more attention to the story. i think it was helping me piece everything together a bit faster. since i knew what happened at the end, i wanted to find out how it got to that point. had i not been able to find it, i think i would have given up on it.
you know what it is?
this story is supposed to be about finding Billie.
and while you delve into her past and then the search for her and i get that all that needs to be there, there was just too much extra going on. Olive was dealing with her shit and then that whooooole other thing that honestly would have been fine not being in the story! Jonathan was dealing with his shit. harmony was..., harmony was weird because honestly she could have just told Jonathan everything instead of letting him find out and then her being like "Oh, yea!, i knew." she could have saved us all some time. so she was just a bag of dicks. and Natalie (Olive's so called friend) was just a little shit. this "feminist, women do everything" little bitch just turns her back on her friend at an important time in her life instead of practicing what she preaches.
u g h!!!!!
AND BILLIE!!!!!!!!!
uuuuuuuughhhhh Billie.
all it was was that she was having a mid life crisis because Olive turned into a teen.
YES!
kids will love you til they hit 13. then they hate you for a couple of years and then you cant get rid of them! turst me! i know. im 31 and im not trying to leave my momma!!!!
ahhhhhh!
i think this kind of made her revert to her old ways. had she been able to penetrate Olive into what she wanted (for lack of a better phrase) i think she'd still be alive.
Billie is a bitch.
in the allness of it. Billie is just...evil.
is that a bit of a spoiler? meh, maybe. it depends.
baaah!, let me tell you how i really feel! lol.
it's just, too many things going on.
too many little sub stories trying to make their way into the bigger story and it was just too much. I can see how R brings them all together but it was just...why couldn't Billie just be who she was without bringing 45 different people from all over the globe into the story?
over all, if it's free to listen to and you got the time and you're okay knowing that you might dislike it eventually then go for it.
but i wouldn't buy the book...i think that it's saving grace; that i didn't buy it.
BTW, it's been about a month since i heard this and yes, this book still pisses me off. so you know.....know that these feels have had time to be what they are.
dear Billie,
I'm glad you are gone.
dear Jonathan & olive,
move the fuck on. you're both better off.
dear hannah & natalie,
dick.
dear calvin,
you're a dick too.
i hope you get caught.
(buuuut i can understand from a business point of view.)
thx for reading!
#lesreads on IG
published: 2018
pages: not sure. its an ebook / you can also listen to it.
read: 1/29/2019
rating: good quick read / listen to. love her!
book: 11 in 2019
Dear stranger…
A desperate young woman in Southern California sits down to write a letter to a man she’s never met—a choice that will forever change both their lives.
My heart goes out to you, David. Even though I do not know you…
The correspondence between Carrie Allsop and David Mayer reveals, piece by piece, the painful details of a devastating affair between their spouses. With each commiserating scratch of the pen, they confess their fears and bare their souls. They share the bewilderment over how things went so wrong and come to wonder where to go from here.
Told entirely through the letters of two comforting strangers and those of two illicit lovers, Evidence of the Affair explores the complex nature of the heart. And ultimately, for one woman, how liberating it can be when it’s broken.
MY THOUGHTS
SHORT VERSION
pretty cool quick read! pretty cool quick listen to if you have amazon prime!
good short story with a pretty dope twist!
LONG VERSION
this one was up for grabs as a free ebook so i went for it AND THEN it was up for grabs for free with the audio so i was like heck yes!!!
the only other TJR book that i have read is TSHOEH and i ABSOLUTELY loved that book. its probably my fave read of 2018. (and now on sale on b&n and amazon! def pick it up. I DID!) so of course i was going to read this if it was free. (tbh, i have yet to read her other books but I'm hoping to make better on that soon!)
this was a suuuper quick listen to. since falling in love with audiobooks this year, i have absolutely loved listening to all sorts of books while at work doing my work. and those that are pretty quick to the point are my fave!
like it states above this story is told only in letters from Carrie to David and vice versa. first its her telling him about the affair and then both of them finding a sense of community (for lack of a better word) in the pain that brought them together.
it starts just as letters and it ends with a pretty huge life changing reveal. (to me anyway...i think if that happened to me id be like oh shit!)
i gotta say, the ending was probably my favorite. mostly because even though i knew it was "impossible" for her, i was surprised that it happened. and I'm wondering what David is going to do.
in this case, I'm not mad at all about the drop off ending although i do wish to know what all the involved parties thought in the end. like imagine "you gon' cheat on me? well guess what motherfucker! SURPRISE" bahaha. lets just say in my ending, Carrie definitely has the last laugh. erm well, the nicer equivalent of that.
anyway, there's not much to say without giving away spoilers so....I'll leave it at this.
thanks for reading!
#lesreads on IG
published: 2019
pages: 304
read: 1/27-29/19
rating: .....it had potential but it fell short for me. or maybe, this just aint my genre.
book: 10 in 2019
Those affected by the illness, doctors discover, are displaying unusual levels of brain activity, higher than has ever been recorded before. They are dreaming heightened dreams—but of what?
MY THOUGHTS
SHORT (and not all confusing) VERSIONyea but maybe not the ending. i feel like it had potential but it was a no for me, dawg...just the ending anyway.
LONG (and what am i even talking about!) VERSION
i mean, look at that cover!!!!ehm, i took a crappy picture but i loved the cover a lot. that's honestly one of the main reasons i wanted to read this book. that and the synopsis. it sounds pretty intriguing. THAT and EVERYONE was raving about it on IG (maybe one day I'll learn my lesson).
first and foremost, i feel for Mei. i think of everything that happened in this story, i feel the most for Mei. she was misunderstood (?) by friends, family and even her classmates. in the all-ness of this story, i feel the most for her and i was really sad about her overall role in this story vs everyone else's. mostly cause i feel that for her, it was wrong place right time. had she gone to any other school, well....
this story is told weirdly.
first its just a narrator telling you the story as its happening and as its going to be in the future. then its told by the characters and their point of views.
it kind of works out and i think that made the book flow a bit better for me.
BUT....it left a lot of unanswered questions.
more than enough to justify the ending we get. i feel like the ending was....rushed? not rushed but maybe not well thought out?
like,
here's the story - - - - - drama - - - - - hella questions - - - - the end - - - - (all these questions floating in space).
not well thought out sounds bad and i'm not trying to make it sound like that or discredit the author but i feel like it wasn't sealed up to its full potential.
-what caused it to begin with? (i can actually live with the "it just happened" explanation)
-what where they all dreaming?
-was Mei really dreaming about good stuff as shit went down?
-did she sense in a way that Andrew (1000% not sure that's his name but lets say it is) was leaving her behind?
-the couple....would they have made it in general?
-the kids that escape and pass it around somewhere in CA....what happens to them and the people they spread it to? we just know they spread it and that others will suffer but das it.
-does Rebekah really never tell Caleb!??
overall....look, it wasn't bad. i liked it enough. but then again, this goes back to my "i like it because i read the book for free. had i bought it i probably would've not liked it and i would have been pissed" theory.
i feel that this book had a lot of promise but it left waaaaaay too many unanswered questions. too many to justify letting them go and liking the book for just what it gives you.
you get all this UMPH! as shit hits the fan, things start moving and happening and then the end...just ends. there was no nothing to it. it didn't make me feel anything.
this book was compared to Station 11 and i didn't like that book. so maybe its just me and this genre not clicking.
either way, good premise, quick, meh ending.
...BUT!!!!, good cover!
overall...im either way about it. am i glad i read it yea...will i re-read it? probably not. will i think about it from time to time? at this moment i can say that i absolutely will not. but im not at all mad that i read it. and that's a good thing cause i never say that.
anyway, as many spoilers with the wrong names as i can remember below.
thanks!
#lesreads on IG
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