Top Ten Tuesday: Winter 2021 TBR

 

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jana from That Artsy Reader Girl.

This week's prompt is your winter 2021 TBR. This is basically my December TBR because it's the end of 2021. The first four I have already read and they were good. 

BLOG TOUR: Wider Than The Sky by Katherine Rothschild

I am thrilled to be hosting a spot on the WIDER THAN THE SKY by Katherine Rothschild Blog Tour hosted by Rockstar Book Tours. Check out my post and make sure to enter the giveaway!

 

About The Book:

Title: WIDER THAN THE SKY

Author: Katherine Rothschild

Paperback Pub. Date:  December 7, 2021

Publisher: Soho Teen

Formats: Hardcover, Paperback, eBook, Audiobook

Pages: 288

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

In the wake of sudden tragedy, twin sisters uncover a secret that rips open their world. Katherine Rothschild explores the pain and power of forgiveness in a stunning debut novel that will shatter your heart and piece it back together, one truth at a time.

Sixteen-year-old Sabine Braxton doesn’t have much in common with her identical twin, Blythe. When their father dies from an unexpected illness, each copes with the loss in her own way—Sabine by “poeting” (an uncontrollable quirk of bursting into poetry at inappropriate moments) and Blythe by obsessing over getting into MIT, their father’s alma mater. Neither can offer each other much support . . . at least not until their emotionally detached mother moves them into a ramshackle Bay Area mansion owned by a stranger named Charlie.

Soon, the sisters unite in a mission to figure out who Charlie is and why he seems to know everything about them. They make a life-changing discovery:their parents were hiding secrets about their sexual identities. The revelation unravels Sabine’s world, while practical Blythe seems to take everything in stride. Once again at odds with her sister, Sabine chooses to learn all she can about the father she never knew. Ultimately, she must decide if she can embrace his last wish for a family legacy--even if it means accepting a new idea of what it means to be a family.

 

Praise for Wider than the Sky

“Sabine’s struggle to reconcile her memory of her father with the man he really was—and to make room in her life for his hopes as well as her own—cuts to the heart of what it means to love someone unconditionally. Wider than the Sky skillfully weaves multiple character arcs together to examine the ideas of home, hope, and family in surprising new ways.”—Misa Sugiura, It's Not Like It's a Secret

"Lyrical and lovely, Wider than the Sky is one of those rare books that has everything—masterful storytelling, a great love story, important themes, razor-sharp wit, and memorable characters. It's a gorgeous debut that will capture your heart."—Corina Vacco, Delacorte Prize–winning author of My Chemical Mountain
 
“I haven’t stopped thinking about these sisters since I first read Wider than the Sky. Sabine and Blythe will leap off the page and live in your memories like old friends. There is so much heart and humor in Katherine’s writing; even as her characters grapple with serious concerns and issues, she captures how life can slice us open and yet give us the ability to laugh and love and hope through the deepest pain and loss.”—Jennifer Chambliss Bertman, New York Times bestselling author of Book Scavenger

“Rothschild’s story showcases how secrets impede a person’s ability to see the world clearly and that self-acceptance and honesty are the keys to a happy ending.”—School Library Journal

“Change comes suddenly to the lives of 16-year-old Sabine and her identical twin sister, Blythe, when their father dies unexpectedly, prompting their mother and a strange man named Charlie to move the girls to the small town of Thornewood . . . Rothschild’s first novel is accomplished and nicely plot-rich with some interesting quirks, chief among them being Sabine’s deep-rooted love for Emily Dickinson’s poetry and her compulsive need to recite it.”—Booklist

“Kath Rothschild’s Wider than the Sky is pitch perfect! Young adult readers will fall in love with her wonderfully quirky narrator Sabine and her swoony romance with Kai. Combine that with family secrets and a mysterious stranger and you have the ingredients for a compelling read. I cannot wait to put it in the hands of my young customers!”—Kathleen Caldwell, A Great Good Place for Books (Oakland, CA)

 

NO REVIEW

 

About Katherine Rothschild:

Katherine Rothschild is a Lecturer in the Program in Writing and Rhetoric at Stanford University, a former ballet and Arabic dance instructor, and an obsessive Twitter food truck-follower. Her first-person essays have been published on KQED/NPR, in The San Francisco Chronicle, and other Bay Area and California publications. She holds an MFA in Fiction Writing, a PhD in Composition and Applied Linguistics, has received artist’s grants from Vermont Studio Center and Kindlings West, and is a longtime member of the SCBWI. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her family. Her debut novel is Wider Than the Sky from Soho Teen. Find her on Twitter @Kath_Rothschild.

Website  | Facebook  | Twitter  | Instagram | Pinterest | Goodreads

 

Giveaway Details:

3 winners will win a hardcover copy of WIDER THAN THE SKY, US Only.

3 winners will win a paperback copy of WIDER THAN THE SKY, US Only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tour Schedule:

Week One: 

12/6/2021	BookHounds YA	Promo Post
12/7/2021	Kait Plus Books	Promo Post
12/8/2021	perusewithcoffee	Promo Post
12/9/2021	Mythical Books	Promo Post
12/10/2021	Phannie the ginger bookworm	Promo Post
12/11/2021	GivernyReads	Promo Post

Week Two:

12/12/2021	Lifestyle of Me	Promo Post
12/13/2021	Nonbinary Knight Reads	Promo Post
12/14/2021	Eye-Rolling Demigod's Book Blog	Promo Post
12/15/2021	100 Pages A Day	Promo Post
12/16/2021	Two Chicks on Books	Promo Post
12/17/2021	Never Hollowed By The Stare	Promo Post
12/18/2021	@readingwordsmith	Review

Week Three:

12/19/2021	The Momma Spot	Promo Post
12/20/2021	Eli to the nth	Review
12/21/2021	Emelie's Books	Review
12/22/2021	Two points of interest	Review
12/23/2021	Rajiv's Reviews	Review
12/24/2021	#BRVL Book Review Virginia Lee Blog	Promo Post
12/25/2021	Karen Dee's Book Reviews	Review

Week Four:

12/26/2021	@jypsylynn	Review
12/27/2021	@thebookishfoxwitch	Review
12/28/2021	brittreadsalattebooks	Review
12/29/2021	My Fictional Oasis	Review
12/30/2021	@coffeesipsandreads	Promo Post
12/31/2021	Lexijava	Review

Review: Windfall by Jennifer E. Smith

 

My third book within a two month span that has a main character named Alice. Was it confusing at the beginning... HELL YEA! I chose this book for my Buzzword Readathon challenge for December. The buzzword was day, week or season, so I chose this because Fall. 

Going into this book, I knew that it was centered around a lottery ticket. It reminded me of a fanfiction that I read years ago that had the same plot. I expected it to be a girl buys lottery ticket and then expects a cut of the winnings. What I didn't expect was the girl who bought the lottery ticket to be so in love with the boy that she bought it for and refuse his offer to share the money with her. 

The book starts off with Alice in a convenience store buying a Powerball ticket for her best friend Teddy who is celebrating his 18th birthday. Alice has no idea what to do and she chooses numbers that are personal to her. She goes to Teddy's party and gifts him the ticket. He eventually loses it in the garbage after they realize that Teddy has a winning ticket. 

Of course, the rest of the story is fairly predictable. Teddy lets the winnings go to his head and starts buying a bunch of junk. His dad who has a gambling addiction comes back into the picture wanting some of the money. Alice just wants Teddy back to herself and she also has a little love triangle going on. Overall I give a 4 out of 5 stars for this fast paced slow burn. 

Review: Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia

 

After having this on my TBR for the longest time, I have finally gotten around to it and I have to say it was a book that really made me think and have all the feels. I felt so much stress just reading through Eliza. She created this huge fandom, she was branded the mother of a fandom and she kept it all close to her with only a few people knowing. I felt nostalgia with her relationship with Wallace and I felt anger at Wallace and her parents.

Eliza is the creator of a famous web-comic called Monstrous Sea. It is a story that she wanted and that she drew. It has millions of followers and it has impacted her life. In the real world, she is known as Eliza Mirk, a weird nobody who doesn't care about anyone, not even herself and thinks the whole world is out to get her. Her online persona is LadyConstellation. LadyConstellation talks to her fans and interacts with them during reality TV show marathons. She doesn't read the comments when ever she uploads new pages every Friday. 

She is not real close to her parents or her two little brothers and during the duration of this story she learns how much she has really isolated herself from her brothers because she has no idea that one of her brothers is really into singing and wants to do the school musical. She rails against her parents every chance she gets because she feels that they just don't get her and there is a reason why... she DOESN'T TALK TO THEM! I hated how she treated her parents. 

When Wallace enters the picture, I thought he was ging to be a cool character. I mean he is the well known fanfiction writer for Monstrous Sea. Of course Eliza keeps her secret and tries to tell Wallace, but then it is told to the world and this is when Wallace turns into a big ass douche canoe asshole who is very selfish. Eliza's identity has been leaked to the world. Her millions of followers now know everything about her personally. Wallace then tries to guilt trip her into finishing the comic so he could finish the fanfiction and get a book deal. He is looking for his own personal gain and not giving a damn about what Eliza is going through. He feels that Eliza lied to him when he told her his own sob story. He was attacked by the fact that she was monetarily successful and didn't have to worry about paying for college. 

Review: Vassa In The Night by Sarah Porter

 

WHAT THE HELL WAS THIS. This book was all kinds of confusing. It is based on a Russian Folklore and I take part of the blame for not reading the folklore before reading this. It is based on a girl named Vassalisa who lives in a forest with her wicked stepmother and stepsisters and the step mother has her do all these weird errands and it also has Baba Yaga. 

The only thing I knew about Baba Yaga going in, was that she is an old lady and she has something to do with chicken legs. 

We follow a girl named Vassa and she lives in a small apartment with her half sister and step sister and her step mom. Her dad has left to have this major transformation and that was one of the major WHAT THE FUCK moment. They have to deal with long nights that never end and there is a store in the neighborhood called BY's and it is run by Baba Yaga and her helpers who are two disembodied hands named Sinister and Dexter and a completely black humanoid being who drives in circles in the parking lot. There are also severed heads in the front of the store who were stealing from the store.

One night, Vassa is sent to the store by her half sister who has secretly unscrewed every lightbulb in the house and she makes Vassa go by more lightbulbs at the only store that is open at night. Vassa goes and plans to never go back. She has the only "person" she needs in her life who was given to her my her mother when she died and she is the one who gets Vassa into the most trouble. 

This was magical realism at its most confusing. It's one that I will re-read again in the future just to try to get a better understanding of most parts. I was disgusted at the end when there was a murder and the body was hacked up and Vassa was trying to piece the body back together and making sure that the windpipe, throat and veins and all of that was perfectly aligned. 

TBR Thursday #5

I have been wanting to read this book since February and I absolutely LOVED the first book. 

 

Theodora: Actress, Empress, Whore, Stella Duffy's chronicle of this amazing woman's early years, delighted readers with its exquisite blend of historical detail and vivid storytelling. Now, The Purple Shroud chronicles Theodora at the height of her power, bringing the ancient world alive in another unforgettable, epic saga.Theodora and Justinian have been crowned Emperor and Empress, but ruling an empire is no easy task. The two factions of Christianity are still battling for dogmatic supremacy, the Empire's borders are not secure, and Theodora worries about the ambitions of Justinian's two best generals. But the most pressing concern is close to home: Constantinople's two factions, the Blues and the Greens, are beginning to unite in their unhappiness with rising taxes. When that unhappiness spills over into all-out violence, thousands are killed (including someone very close to Theodora) and many of the City's landmarks are destroyed, including Theodora's beloved Hagia Sophia. In the aftermath of the riots, Theodora guides Justinian in gaining back the love and trust of the people, her unerring instinct for what the people want proving invaluable. Justinian promises to rebuild the Hagia Sophia to be even more spectacular than before. Theodora comes to realize that being the Augusta is simply another role she must play, though the stakes are much higher and there is no offstage. It's a role she was born to play.

WWW Wednesday #4

 This weekly meme is hosted by Sam @ Taking on a World of Words.

The three W's: 

1. What are you currently reading?

2. What did you recently finish reading?

3. What do you think you'll read next?

It's the beginning of December. Currently in the middle of one book and that is A Boy Called Christmas. This has just become a movie on Netflix and I picked up ASAP from my library. The book I am starting today is Windfall and it is one of my choices for the Buzzword readathon for the month.

I have a good handful of books that I want to get to next. I just don't know which ones I will pick up first.

I may pick up Golem and the Jinni or Magonia next because these are library copies and they are due back soon. 

I finished a good hand full of books in the past week. I have reviews up for these on my blog now and later on this week.