Review: The Testaments by Margaret Atwood *SPOILERS*

This was one of my most anticipated books of 2019 and I absolutely LOVED IT! I was kind of hesitant that it would be three totally different characters that we have never heard of, but that was not the case.

If you have not read The Handmaid's Tale, or watched the tv adaption, do not read ahead because I will be spoiling.

I did not know who the three points of view would be, but once I started reading I was very satisfied. The testimonies in this book are from Agnes "Hannah", Daisy " Baby Nicole" and Aunt Lydia. SCREAMING!!!!!!

The main question that everyone has been asking is what happened to Offred after she stepped into the black van. The second season of the show answers that she didn't get killed. She had the baby and the Baby Nicole was smuggled into Canada.

We learn that Agnes remembers somewhat of being in the woods and her time growing up and becoming a woman and arranging to be married but also being saved by Aunt Lydia and trained to be an Aunt.

I did curse Margaret Atwood when Daisy was lead back into Gilead but she got back out. I also LOVED Aunt Lydia's back story and it was way better than the small amount that we got in the show.

I cried my eyes out at the end because Baby Nicole and Agnes are united and it is implied that they meet their fathers which means that Nick is still alive.

I just loved how this answered some questions. I hope that the Hulu writers will work in this new content in the upcoming seasons.

Review: Vengeful by V.E. Schwab

If someone had said in one of the many reviews that I watched about this book, that the mob is the main plotline, I would have picked this up way sooner instead of waiting a year. I loved Vicious, but this book was even better. If I could give this 10 stars I would.

The mob is one of my most favorite things to watch and read about. Mob wives are just as dangerous as the men because they are sidepieces. They watch and listen to everything and that is exactly what Marcella Riggins was before her husband tried to kill her. Marcella becomes a bad bitch and intends to take over the city of Merit. She learns that there are others like her and she intends to bring the dangerous ones into her fold.

Eli and Victor are the main characters who became EO's by choice. They chanced death on their own free will and gave themselves powers. Which also made them enemies.

V.E Schwab, please write more in the Villians series. There are definitely more stories to tell.

BLOG TOUR: Dr. Seuss's Horse Museum by Dr. Seuss

Title: DR. SEUSS'S HORSE MUSEUM

Author: Dr. Seuss & Andrew Joyner (Illustrations)

Pub. Date: September 3, 2019

Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers

Formats: Hardcover, eBook

Pages: 80

Find it: Goodreads, Amazon, Kindle, Audible, B&N, iBooks, Kobo, TBD

A never-before-published Dr. Seuss book about creating and looking at art!

Based on a manuscript and sketches discovered in 2013, this book is like a visit to a museum--with a horse as your guide!

Explore how different artists have seen horses, and maybe even find a new way of looking at them yourself. Discover full-color photographic art reproductions of pieces by Picasso, George Stubbs, Rosa Bonheur, Alexander Calder, Jacob Lawrence, Deborah Butterfield, Franz Marc, Jackson Pollock, and many others--all of which feature a horse! Young readers will find themselves delightfully transported by the engaging equines as they learn about the creative process and how to see art in new ways.

Taking inspiration from Dr. Seuss's original sketches, acclaimed illustrator Andrew Joyner has created a look that is both subtly Seussian and wholly his own. His whimsical illustrations are combined throughout with "real-life" art. Cameo appearances by classic Dr. Seuss characters (among them the Cat in the Hat, the Grinch, and Horton the Elephant) make Dr. Seuss's Horse Museum a playful picture book that is totally unique. Ideal for home or classroom use, it encourages critical thinking and makes a great gift for Seuss fans, artists, and horse lovers of all ages.

Publisher's Notes discuss the discovery of the manuscript and sketches, Dr. Seuss's interest in understanding modern art, the process of creating the book, and information about each of the artists and art reproductions in the book.

REVIEW: Dr. Seuss's books should be a staple in everyone's personal library. I remember reading them countless times in my childhood and eventually including a couple of titles in my senior project in High School. I am a homeschooling mom who reads Dr. Seuss out loud whenever I am asked. I figured my two youngest would love this one and my oldest who is ten would just think it 'meh". 

The artwork that is included and the styles of art that it discusses had my ten year old asking me to look up some local art museums in our area because she wants to see more. This potentially opened a new door to my children and I could not be more thrilled for them to learn more about the world and that's thanks to Dr. Seuss. 

About Dr. Seuss:

Theodor Seuss Geisel was born 2 March 1904 in Springfield, MA. He graduated Dartmouth College in 1925, and proceeded on to Oxford University with the intent of acquiring a doctorate in literature. At Oxford he met Helen Palmer, who he wed in 1927. He returned from Europe in 1927, and began working for a magazine called Judge, the leading humor magazine in America at the time, submitting both cartoons and humorous articles for them. Additionally, he was submitting cartoons to Life, Vanity Fair and Liberty. In some of his works, he'd made reference to an insecticide called Flit. These references gained notice, and led to a contract to draw comic ads for Flit. This association lasted 17 years, gained him national exposure, and coined the catchphrase "Quick, Henry, the Flit!"

In 1936 on the way to a vaction in Europe, listening to the rhythm of the ship's engines, he came up with And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, which was then promptly rejected by the first 43 publishers he showed it to. Eventually in 1937 a friend published the book for him, and it went on to at least moderate success.

During WW II, Geisel joined the army and was sent to Hollywood. Captain Geisel would write for Frank Capra's Signal Corps Unit (for which he won the Legion of Merit) and do documentaries (he won Oscar's for Hitler Lives and Design for Death). He also created a cartoon called Gerald McBoing-Boing which also won him an Oscar.

In May of 1954, Life published a report concerning illiteracy among school children. The report said, among other things, that children were having trouble to read because their books were boring. This inspired Geisel's publisher, and prompted him to send Geisel a list of 400 words he felt were important, asked him to cut the list to 250 words (the publishers idea of how many words at one time a first grader could absorb), and write a book. Nine months later, Geisel, using 220 of the words given to him published The Cat in the Hat, which went on to instant success.

In 1960 Bennett Cerf bet Geisel $50 that he couldn't write an entire book using only fifty words. The result was Green Eggs and Ham. Cerf never paid the $50 from the bet.

Helen Palmer Geisel died in 1967. Theodor Geisel married Audrey Stone Diamond in 1968. Theodor Seuss Geisel died 24 September 1991.

Also worked under the pen name:
Theo Le Sieg 

Website | Goodreads

Andrew Joyner is an internationally published illustrator and author. His popular books include The Terrible Plop, written by Ursula Dubosarsky. He lives in South Australia.

Website | Instagram | Goodreads

Giveaway Details:

3 winners will receive finished copies of DR. SEUSS'S HORSE MUSEUM, US Only.

Rafflecopter link:

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/e2389ba2976/?

Tour Schedule:

Week One:

9/2/2019- BookHounds Ya- Review

9/3/2019- 100 Pages A Day- Review

9/4/2019- Book-Keeping- Review

9/5/2019- Christen Krumm, Writer, Reader, Serious Coffee Drinker- Review

9/6/2019- Fictitious Fox- Review

Week Two:

9/9/2019- Inspired by Savannah- Review

9/10/2019- Lifestyle Of Me- Review

9/11/2019- Little Red Reads- Review

9/12/2019- two points of interest- Review

9/13/2019- Eli to the nth- Review

BLOG TOUR: City Of Beasts by Corrie Wang

Title: CITY OF BEASTS 

Author: Corrie Wang

Pub. Date: September 17, 2018

Publisher: Freeform

Formats: Hardcover, eBook

Pages: 384

Find it: Goodreads, Amazon, Kindle,  B&N, iBooks, Kobo, TBD

"If you see a beast, and you have the shot, don't hesitate. Kill it."

For seventeen years, fees have lived separate from beasts. The division of the sexes has kept their world peaceful. Glori Rhodes is like most other fees her age. She adores her neighborhood's abandoned Costco, can bench her body weight, and she knew twenty-seven beast counter attack moves by the time she was seven. She has never questioned the separation of the sexes or the rules that keep her post-nuclear hometown safe. But when her mother secretly gives birth to a baby beast, Glori grows to love the child and can't help wondering: What really is the difference between us and them?

When her brother, at the age of five, is snatched in a vicious raid, Glori and her best friend, Su, do the unthinkable - covertly infiltrate the City of Beasts to get him back. What's meant to be a smash-and-grab job quickly becomes the adventure of a lifetime as the fees team up with a fast-talking, T-shirt cannon wielding beast named Sway, and Glori starts to see that there's more to males, and her own history, than she's been taught. Glori, Sway, and a motley cohort of friends will go to the ends of the earth to find her little brother. And maybe save their divided world while they're at it.

Excerpt 1 City of Beasts by Jaime Arnold on Scribd

Corrie Wang is passionate about libraries, recycling, and eating all the food, everywhere. Corrie grew up in Buffalo but spent her formative years in Brooklyn, where one of her last paying gigs was managing a three-story nightclub on the Lower East Side.

Writing to fix things that make her angry and explore things that frighten her, Corrie’s novels are about girls unapologetically conquering scenarios they should have little control over. Tired of seeing women and girls lose in this culture - spoiler - they never do in her stories.

Her debut novel, The Takedown was chosen as one of the best books of 2017 by the New York Public Library and a 2018 YALSA selection for Best Fiction for Young Adults. City of Beasts is her second novel.

Seeing, as Corrie wrote an entire novel about the freakiness and perils of socializing too much on the internets her existence there is haphazard at best. Now, more than ever, she feels it is time for everyone to look up. (Also stand up, step up, and eat up.

Woot!) That being said, you may follow her poor photography skillz on INSTAGRAM. 

AND P.S. Wang rhymes with 'song' y'all.

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Goodreads

BLOGGERS WHO HAVE POSTS BEFORE SEPTEMBER 16^TH, PLEASE POST THIS PRE-ORDER CAMPAIGN INFO!

CITY OF BEASTS PRE-ORDER CAMPAIGN

Please submit proof of purchase to CORRIEWANGBOOKS [at] GMAIL [dot] COM. All formats apply (physical & e-book). Open to the United States only. Last day to submit is MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 16 at 11:59 PM.

PRE-ORDERS FROM BLUE BICYCLE BOOKS

http://bluebicyclebooks.bigcartel.com/product/corrie-wang-city-of-beasts

Each signed pre-order copy of City of Beats will come with:

• 1 set of 5 Battle Cards featuring different mercenaries
• A special paperclip necklace made by Mouse which makes you a part of the City of Beast family
• Entry to win 1 of 3 raffle prizes
• 1^st prize is a Jackrabbit Filly t-shirt/patch/ $10 gift card
• 2^nd prize $10 gift card to Jackrabbit Filly and t-shirt
• 3^rd prize $10 gift card to Jackrabbit Filly

ANY PREORDERS FROM AN INDEPENDENT BOOKSTORE

Pre-order City of Beasts at your local indie and you will receive:

• A signed bookplate
• A set of 5 Battle Cards featuring different mercenaries
• A special paperclip necklace made by Mouse, making you part of the City of Beast family

PRE-ORDERS FROM ANYWHERE BOOKS ARE SOLD!

ANY PREORDERS FROM AN INDEPENDENT BOOKSTORE

Pre-order City of Beasts anywhere else books are sold you will receive:

• A signed bookplate
• 1 of 5 Battle Cards at random

Giveaway Details:

3 winners will receive finished copies of CITY OF BEASTS, US Only.

Rafflecopter link:

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/e2389ba2975/?

Tour Schedule:

Week One:

9/2/2019- Country Road Reviews- Excerpt

9/3/2019- Two Chicks on Books- Excerpt

9/4/2019- Character Madness and Musings- Excerpt

9/5/2019- Shelf-Rated- Review

9/6/2019- BookHounds YA- Review

Week Two:

9/9/2019- Lifestyle of Me- Review

9/10/2019- Daily Waffle - Excerpt

9/11/2019- A Dream Within A Dream- Review

9/12/2019- Life of a Simple Reader- Excerpt

9/13/2019- Here's to Happy Endings- Review

Week Three:

9/16/2019- Jena Brown Writes- Review

9/17/2019- Kati's Bookaholic Rambling Reviews- Excerpt

9/18/2019- Wishful Endings- Excerpt

9/19/2019- Book-Keeping- Review

9/20/2019- Jade Writes Books- Review

Week Four:

9/23/2019- Eli to the nth- Review

9/24/2019- two points of interest- Review

9/25/2019- The Layaway Dragon- Review

9/26/2019- Smada's Book Smack- Review

9/27/2019- PopTheButterfly Reads- Review

Week Five:

9/30/2019- lori's house of reviews- Review

BLOG TOUR: Charlotte Bronte Before Jane Eyre by Glynnis Fawkes

Rockstar Book Tours is hosting a month-long blog tour for a new historical nonfiction graphic novel about the life of Charlotte Bronte.

Title: CHARLOTTE BRONTE BEFORE JANE EYRE

Author: Glynnis Fawkes

Pub. Date: September 24, 2018

Publisher: Disney-Hyperion

Formats: Hardcover, Paperback, eBook

Pages: 112

Find it: Goodreads, Amazon, Kindle, Amazon Paperback, B&N, iBooks, Kobo, TBD

Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong!--I have as much soul as you,--and full as much heart!

Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre is a beloved classic, celebrated today by readers of all ages and revered as a masterwork of literary prowess. But what of the famous writer herself?

Originally published under the pseudonym of Currer Bell, Jane Eyre was born out of a magnificent, vivid imagination, a deep cultivation of skill, and immense personal hardship and tragedy. Charlotte, like her sisters Emily and Anne, was passionate about her work. She sought to cast an empathetic lens on characters often ignored by popular literature of the time, questioning societal assumptions with a sharp intellect and changing forever the landscape of western literature.

With an introduction by Alison Bechdel, Charlotte Brontë before Jane Eyre presents a stunning examination of a woman who battled against the odds to make her voice heard.

EXCERPT:

About Glynnis:

I'm an cartoonist and illustrator living in Burlington, VT.

My most recent book is Charlotte Bronte Before Jane Eyre, Center for Cartoon Studies Presents series, will be published in September 2019 by Disney/Hyperion. Also in September, Secret Acres will publish Persephone’s Garden, a collection of autobiographical comics that have appeared in the New Yorker and other places.

I began working on excavations as illustrator in 1998 and have worked on sites in Greece, Crete, Turkey, Israel, Cyprus, Syria, and Lebanon.  I continue to work in Greece every year.   My illustrations have been published in several books and many articles.  

Many of my personal comics reflect a career in archaeology and family life.  Greek Diary is about working on a dig and traveling with children.  My drawings about my children were published regularly on Muthamagazine.com  and were nominated for an Ignatz Award at the Small Press Expo in 2016.

Another project, Alle Ego, is about my first trip to Greece and how it launched my work in the direction of archaeology.  A draft of this book won the MoCCA Arts Festival Award in NY in 2016.  I drew most of it during a residency at La Maison des Auteurs in Angouleme, and I plan to return to work on this book in the future.

I’m currently working on a middle grade adventure set after the eruption of Thera in Late Bronze Age Greece.

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Pinterest |  Tumblr | Goodreads

Giveaway Details:

3 winners will receive signed finished copies of CHARLOTTE BRONTE BEFORE JANE EYRE, US Only.

Tour Schedule:

Week One:

9/2/2019- Odd and Bookish- Excerpt

9/3/2019- Country Road Reviews- Excerpt

9/4/2019- dwantstoread- Review

9/5/2019- A Dream Within A Dream- Excerpt

9/6/2019- Lifestyle Of Me- Review

Week Two:

9/9/2019- Christen Krumm, Writer, Reader, Serious Coffee Drinker- Review

9/10/2019- Careful of Books- Review

9/11/2019- Character Madness and Musings- Excerpt

9/12/2019- Fictitiouswonderland- Review

9/13/2019- Fyrekatz Blog- Review

Week Three:

9/16/2019- Little Red Reads- Excerpt

9/17/2019- Book-Keeping- Review

9/18/2019- Life of a Simple Reader- Excerpt

9/19/2019- Kati's Bookaholic Rambling Reviews- Excerpt

9/20/2019- Inspired by Savannah- Review

Week Four:

9/23/2019- History from a Woman’s Perspective- Review

9/24/2019- Wishful Endings- Excerpt

9/25/2019- Just Another Reader- Review

9/26/2019- Jade Writes Books- Review

9/27/2019- Rants and Raves of a Bibliophile- Review

Week Five:

9/30/2019- two points of interest- Review