Review: Tell Me How This Ends Well by David Samuel Levinson

About the Book: Why is tonight different from all other nights?
Tonight we kill dad.
 
In 2022, American Jews face an increasingly unsafe and anti-Semitic landscape at home. Against this backdrop, the Jacobson family gathers for Passover in Los Angeles. But their immediate problems are more personal than political, with the three adult children, Mo, Edith, and Jacob, in various states of crisis, the result, each claims, of a lifetime of mistreatment by their father, Julian.

My Thoughts: I enjoyed this book. I liked the story but I was kind of annoyed throughout it. The 3 main characters are siblings. They all have the same pain in the ass problem and that is their father who made their lives a living hell. Not to mention, they are Jewish. We find out that Israel is no more and has been split up three way between Iran, Syria and Lebanon and the Jews are being hated and terrorized once again. They aren't safe anywhere. 

This book is in 5 parts which each part being one of the siblings and then the mother and father. I disliked the writing style a lot because there were no chapters. Each part was a big chunk of the book with no breaks. It was very confusing to keep up with and difficult to look back to reference. I found it very repetitive when it was talking about the father, how he called his children nasty names and immoralized each of them, including the mother. 

This book is very diverse with the cultural religious aspects. Jacob is gay and the sister Edith aka Thistle has severe anxiety. 

About the Author: DAVID SAMUEL LEVINSON is the author of the novel, Antonia Lively Breaks the Silence and the story collection, Most of Us Are Here Against Our Will. He has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and has received fellowships from Yaddo, the Jentel Foundation, Ledig House, the Santa Fe Arts Institute, the Sewanee Writers’ Conference and the Marguerite and Lamar Smith Fellowship for Writers.

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

Around the World in 80 Books Challenge: April & May Update

I am going to be combining last month and this month into this challenge update. I am not keeping up with this like I hoped, and I am going to spend a few hours today going over my list again. I am doing great and if it wasn't for my review copies I get from Blogging For Books, I doubt that I would be getting this many countries done every month.

April: The first country for April was the Netherlands. I read The Dinner which this book set place.

(Source: Dreamstime.com)

The BFG setting was in England/ United Kingdom

(Source: United Kingdom map)

The fourth book in the Robert Langdon series, Inferno. Took place in Italy. 

(Source: Colorful Italy Map)

May: The first book for May was The Blood Rose Rebellion. It started out In London, but it mostly took place in Hungary, mainly around Pest.

(Source: Hungary map)

The book I am currently reading now is called Tell Me How This Ends Well. The main character lives in Berlin, but the whole story takes place in Los Angeles.

(Source: colorful Germany map)

I have a good handful of countries read so far this year, and it makes me happy. I know I won't get to all 80 countries this year and I am OK with that.

Freebie Haul 5/22- 5/27

I am back from my week long break. It was not planned, it just happened and it was well needed. We had a busy week last week. I had a lot to get done before we start our summer school session on Tuesday. This week, I got a good handful of freebies. 

Monday: I got a freebie for my grandma. She has the cutest little puppy names Brownie. 

Beneful Grain Free dog food

Tuesday: The biggest freebie day.

Skin Ceuticals Triple Lipid Restore

When I Grow Up: Sally Ride book from Kellogg's Family Rewards

Grizzly Hunter kit

Wednesday: No Freebies

Thursday: magazine and another free book for the kids

May 29, 2017 issue of Sports Illustrated

Scooby Doo Howling on the Playground from Kellogg's Family Rewards

Friday: a lone magazine day

June 1, 2017 issue of Rolling Stone

I Love Lorde!!!

Saturday: No Freebies

I have missed blogging and will be back to posting on a regular basis this week!

May Book Outlet Haul

May book haul time. I have another box from Book Outlet to  share with you all. I finished getting the Puffin Chalk Collection and I got some box sets, and also another book in a series that I have been wanting to start reading since 2009. 

Aztec Revenge by Gary Jennings.

I bought book 2 from Books A Million back in 2009 and I have never had time to start the series. This is book 6 in the series. I will be starting this series either later this year, or beginning of next year.

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (Puffin Chalk Edition)

Pippi Longstocking  by Astrid Lindgren(Puffin Chalk Edition)

Hold Me Closer Necromancer by Lish McBride.

I bought book 2 months ago during a sale on Book Outlet and finally saw book 1 and had to get it since it's a duology.

The Wizard of Oz by Frank Baum (Puffin Chalk Edition)

Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts

I won book 2 of this series on a Goodreads Giveaway and I wanted to start this series and this book was hella cheap.

The Duck Commander Collection

I loved Duck Dynasty and the Robertson family is the best.

CHERUB Collection box set book 1-6

I have so many books that I have to read laying all over my room and filling up my master closet. I have no more room on my bookshelves. I have to tone it down with the book buying. I am putting myself on a permanent book buying ban until I get through my TBR shelf and at least half a stack of unread books in my closet.

Review: Never Fade by Alexandra Bracken

I am so in love with this series. It is pretty close to being like my love for The Hunger Games. I am even more excited for the movie franchise now after reading this. Ruby has turned into a full fledged bad-ass. She is going on OPs and has her own little team that she is the leader of. We meet some new characters. Vida is a loyal bitch. She has that I don't care about you and I will stomp your ass to the ground attitude but she is fiercely protective and loyal to those close to her. She is a blue. The next one is Jude who is a yellow. Jude got my heart just like Zu in the first book. His character gave me so many emotions. I was annoyed with him, I was terrified for him, I was rooting for him, I cried for him. This books made me cry, yes!! And the third is Nico. He is a green and he is the quiet suspicious one from the get go. He is the techie and loves to figure out things. I hate how his character turned out, but it was an amazing part of the story.

One of the best things for me is that LIAM IS BACK with a brother. I was hurting for Liam while he was being held by the vicious blue tribe and I love how he got his memories somehow back. I loved how he was angry and showing emotion finally. I want to know why he and his brother hate each other with a passion. We also find out some very important details about his brother Cole. I was also very excited to have Chubbs back. Chubbs has to be my second favorite in this series. He is jumpy and paranoid and I love his nickname from Vida. She calls him Grannie and I about died laughing.

Also the douchebag Clancy Gray reappears. UGH, the dude needs to make himself go jump off a cliff. I can't wait to read the third and final book in this series. I need to know what happens to the group and what happens between Liam and Ruby. Are Chubbs and Vida going to get together.

The ending is a sort of a cliffhanger. I am going to type one word and then I am done.

RESEARCH???

Freebie Haul 5/15- 5/20

It's a good freebie week ya'll. I got a lot of goodies, but on some days, I didn't check the mail. There is a reason for this. About a month ago, my central air unit broke down. It was scorching hot all last week, and I was taking blankets off beds and putting them over windows and running our one little window unit on high. We had to buy two more portable fans, and our ceiling fans are on high constantly. There were days that the only time the front door opened was when Cayce came home from work and that's when I asked him to check the mail. The only times we did go outside was after supper in the backyard, when the sun was being shaded by the house, and it was getting cooler faster than inside. So some freebies might be on the wrong days as to when they actually received them, but it's whatever. Story time over.

Monday: No Freebies

Tuesday: It was the hottest day and the lipsticks were almost ruined.

Red Seal measurement tool

Maybelline Lipsticks from Elle Inner Circle

June 2017 issue of Better Homes & Gardens

Wednesday: The mail did not get checked today, so I don't know if I got anything.

Thursday: Sample source time!!

Natural Vitality Anti Stress drink mix

Sample Source box: Rephresh, coupon for free box of Clairol Root touch up, Trojan chain reaction lubricant, Beyond cereal protein bar, Go Organically fruit snacks, and breathe right strip

Friday: Got my next review copy and some hair care

Tell Me How This Ends Well from Blogging For Books

Dove nutritive solutions shampoo and conditioner & coupons from Rite Aid

Saturday: The big freebie day, mostly magazines though.

$2.00 off coupon for Viva paper towls

Owl Diaries Eva's treetop Festival from Kellogg's Family Rewards

One a Day Pre- Pregnancy vitamins from Smiley360

** No I am Not trying to get pregnant or pregnant. I am done having babies. I nipped that in the bud* 

June 2017 issue of redbook

June 2017 issue of Fast Company

June 2017 issue of Men's Health

June 2017 issue of Allure magazine

Great freebie week. I am going to be definitely purging magazines this week and going through freebies that I am not using and give them away, toss them or use them before anything else.

School Week 37 Photo Diary

 I am so glad that it is over and we are ready for summer. I have combined last week with our last two days because two posts would have been useless. I have already put everything away for safe keeping. I put their planners in a safe and I just cannot be bothered to go get them so this post will not be detailed as usual.

Monday 5/8: This was the start of a long and frustrating week. It felt never ending. I printed off some worksheets for Samantha to do. It was a sentence unscramble and it was the most frustrating thing. Reading is not her strong suit and she will be focusing on that only this summer.

Ariana reading to herself. She loves reading

Tuesday 5/9:  Started the day with reading time together. I had Samantha do some Reading Eggs and then Ariana did her sentence scrambler worksheets.

Wednesday 5/10: Reading time together again today. We started our last History lesson for the year. I realized that I skipped over the 13 colonies, so we watched 3 YouTube Videos on the New England colonies, the Middle colonies, and the Southern colonies.

Thursday 5/11: I think they watching a documentary on Netflix called Life, and this was scene of one of the big cats attacking an ostrich. I didn't take many pictures that day

Friday 5/12: I was ready to get this day and week over with. It was a productive day that I remember, I just can't remember what they did off the top of my head. They got further along on the puzzle. 

Monday 5/15: Workbook pages started the day. We started reading Adventure According to Humphrey and it was a good 1st last day of school. 

Tuesday 5/16: Last day of our 2016-2017 school year. We took our annual last day of school pictures. We worked on some Easy Peasy lessons and they had separate reading times. We finished the day with reading Humphrey and watching a couple more videos on the 13 colonies. We also reviewed and discussed what they liked most about each subject through the year.