AUGUST READING WRAP UP

For the fast ass month of August, I read 9 books in total. That is a good number for someone who was stressed for the majority of the month and the last two weeks were focused on getting a good rhythm of the new school year. Also, these books are not in order that I read them. I don't have time for that as this post is already way behind schedule. I also did a buddy read Good Omens with one of my YouTube friends but that didn't work out so well as she is working on her Masters. You go girl!!! 

1. Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

2. American Sniper by Chris Kyle

3. The Unseen World by Liz Moore

4. Caraval by Stephanie Garber

5. Broke Millenial Takes On Investing by Erin Lowry

6. Star Wars Galaxy's Edge: A Crash of Fate by Zoraida Cordova

7. Everything Everything by Nicola Yoon

8. The Lost Girl by Anne Ursu

9. The Tea Dragon Society by Katie O' Neil

BLOG TOUR: Who Put This Song On by Morgan Parker

Title: WHO PUT THIS SONG ON?

Author: Morgan Parker

Pub. Date: September 24, 2018

Publisher: Delacorte Press

Formats: Hardcover, eBook, Audiobook

Pages: 336

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

In the vein of powerful reads like The Hate U Give and Girl in Pieces, comes poet Morgan Parker's pitch-perfect novel about a black teenage girl searching for her identity when the world around her views her depression as a lack of faith and blackness as something to be politely ignored.

Trapped in sunny, stifling, small-town suburbia, seventeen-year-old Morgan knows why she's in therapy. She can't count the number of times she's been the only non-white person at the sleepover, been teased for her "weird" outfits, and been told she's not "really" black. Also, she's spent most of her summer crying in bed. So there's that, too.

Lately, it feels like the whole world is listening to the same terrible track on repeat--and it's telling them how to feel, who to vote for, what to believe. Morgan wonders, when can she turn this song off and begin living for herself?

Life may be a never-ending hamster wheel of agony, but Morgan finds her crew of fellow outcasts, blasts music like there's no tomorrow, discovers what being black means to her, and finally puts her mental health first. She decides that, no matter what, she will always be intense, ridiculous, passionate, and sometimes hilarious. After all, darkness doesn't have to be a bad thing. Darkness is just real.

Loosely based on her own teenage life and diaries, this incredible debut by award-winning poet Morgan Parker will make readers stand up and cheer for a girl brave enough to live life on her own terms--and for themselves.

EXCERPT:

Susan

This is a story about Susan. Draped permanently on the back of Susan’s chair is a sweater embroidered with birds—­that type of lady. She has this thing I hate, where she’s just always medium, room temperature. Susan looks like a preschool teacher with no emotions. She smiles, she nods, but she almost never laughs or speaks. That might be the number one thing I hate about coming here. She won’t even laugh at my jokes! I know that life with me is a ridiculous hamster wheel of agony, but I’m kind of hilarious, and I’m just trying to make this whole situation less awkward.

I’m the one who begged for my first session, but I was desperate, and it was almost my only choice. Now that I’m actually doing this, I hate it. I just want Susan to buy my usual pitch: I am okay. I am smart and good. I am regular, and I believe in God, and that means I am happy.

By the way, of course my therapist’s name is Susan. It seems like everyone I meet, everyone telling me how to be, is a Susan.

I don’t trust a Susan, and I don’t think they trust me either.

I don’t like Susan, but I want to impress her—­I’m usually so good at it.

But this is what I mean about the bird sweater. I know the bird sweater is awful, and just uncool and unappealing in every way—­it doesn’t even look comfortable. But other Susans like it, and generally all Susans do. It is a sensible piece of clothing; it is normal, and it makes sense. Wouldn’t it be so much easier if I liked the sweater, if I just wore the fucking sweater and didn’t make such a big deal out of everything?

Copyright © 2019 by Morgan Parker

PublisherDelacorte Press

About Morgan:

Morgan Parker is the author of the poetry collections Magical Negro (Tin House 2019), There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncé (Tin House 2017), and Other People’s Comfort Keeps Me Up At Night (Switchback Books 2015). Her debut young adult novel Who Put This Song On? will be released by Delacorte Press on September 24, 2019. A debut book of nonfiction is forthcoming from One World/ Random House. Parker received her Bachelors in Anthropology and Creative Writing from Columbia University and her MFA in Poetry from NYU. She is the recipient of a 2017 National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship, winner of a 2016 Pushcart Prize, and a Cave Canem graduate fellow. Parker is the creator and host of Reparations, Live! at the Ace Hotel. With Tommy Pico, she co-curates the Poets With Attitude (PWA) reading series, and with Angel Nafis, she is The Other Black Girl Collective. Morgan is a Sagittarius, and she lives in Los Angeles.

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Goodreads

Giveaway Details:

3 winners will receive finished copies of WHO PUT THIS SONG ON?, US Only.

Rafflecopter link:

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/e2389ba2977/?

Tour Schedule:

Week One:

9/2/2019- Becky on Books- Excerpt

9/3/2019- A Dream Within A Dream- Excerpt

9/4/2019- Lifestyle Of Me- Review

9/5/2019- Life of a Simple Reader- Excerpt

9/6/2019- jade writes books- Review

Week Two:

9/9/2019- Kait Plus Books- Excerpt

9/10/2019- Here's to Happy Endings- Review

9/11/2019- Jena Brown Writes- Review

9/12/2019- Country Road Reviews- Excerpt

9/13/2019- Paper Reader- Review

Week Three:

9/16/2019- Eli to the nth- Review

9/17/2019- Book-Keeping- Review

9/18/2019- The Layaway Dragon- Review

9/19/2019- Wishful Endings- Excerpt

9/20/2019- Kati's Bookaholic Rambling Reviews- Excerpt

Week Four:

9/23/2019- BookHounds YA- Review

9/24/2019- Confessions of a YA Reader- Excerpt

9/25/2019- dwantstoread- Excerpt

9/26/2019- Two Chicks on Books- Excerpt

9/27/2019- two points of interest- Review

Week Five:

9/30/2019- Bookish Rantings- Excerpt

Review: The Unseen World by Liz Moore

I have absolutely no idea where to begin with this book. When I filmed my August TBR, I let people choose what I was going to read and this was one of the recommendations that the library had. It is a massive brick and I had no idea what it was about and the synopsis is also very vague. I was completely bored. I think the only reason it was recommended to me is that the main character Ada was homeschooled. 

It takes place in the '80s and it has time jumps throughout the book and there were no chapters in this book. It was implied that there were new "chapters" but technically not. Ada is being raised by her single father David who is this scientific genius. He is also a control freak and quite manipulative of Ada. Ada is socialized but not around kids her own age. He keeps the news of his sickness away from Ada and that is not all. Apparently, David is not really who he says he is and has "conned" everyone.

The ending was weird and didn't really make a whole lot of sense. The character Ada doesn't have a whole lot of growth. The rest of the characters were all bland. The only thing I enjoyed about this was "David's" history and who he really was.

Review: American Sniper by Chris Kyle

After pretty much wanting to read this since the minute I spotted it in Dollar Tree last year and having it on so many of my TBR's, I finally read it. And man was it a freakin doozy. I had to adjust myself for the tone of the writing real quick and change my expectations after I read the first couple of pages.

Chris Kyle was a tough man who is from the south as I am. He tells his story in parts and long paragraphs, which is one of my favorite writing styles to read. He had the southern twang and Texas terms in his stories. After reading a couple of the beginning parts, I had to put it down and wrap my head around it because he talked about his first kill with a sniper rifle in the first few pages. I was not expecting that. Also, when I put the book down and picked it back up, I read it in the voice of a dear friend of mine who could be a twin. This friend of mine went into the service and got deployed and got medically discharged. I finished this book in his voice and it made it more bearable to read about all the sniper kills that Chris Kyle had under his belt.

What I didn't like was how his wife's commentary didn't mesh up well with what he was talking about in the story. He could be talking about how he couldn't stand doing the admin work and the computer and his wife's commentary would be about how she would know that if re-enlisted, that she would know that all the words that he said to her would be just lies.

I also enjoyed reading about the making of the movie and how Chris was alive when the screenplay was being written and his murder obviously changed his story and the script had to be rewritten. 

BLOG TOUR: Charlie Hernandez and the League Of Shadows by Ryan Calejo

Excited to be hosting with Rockstar Book Tours to shed some light on this novel. The first in a series which has a sequel coming out this November.

Title: CHARLIE HERNANDEZ AND THE LEAGUE OF SHADOWS (Charlie Hernández #1)

Author: Ryan Calejo

Pub. Date: October 23, 2018

Publisher: Aladdin

Formats: Hardcover, Paperback, eBook, audiobook

Pages: 330

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

“This is a perfect pick for kids who love Rick Riordan’s many series, particularly for those eager for mythologies beyond Greek and Roman stories.” —Booklist (starred review)

“A winner for all kids, but it will be especially beloved by Latinx and Hispanic families.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) 

The Lightning Thief meets the Story Thieves series in this middle grade fantasy inspired by Hispanic folklore, legends, and myths from the Iberian Peninsula and Central and South America.

SUMMARY: Charlie Hernández has always been proud of his Latin American heritage. He loves the culture, the art, and especially the myths. Thanks to his abuela’s stories, Charlie possesses an almost encyclopedic knowledge of the monsters and ghouls who have spent the last five hundred years haunting the imaginations of children all across the Iberian Peninsula, as well as Central and South America. And even though his grandmother sometimes hinted that the tales might be more than mere myth, Charlie’s always been a pragmatist. Even barely out of diapers, he knew the stories were just make-believe—nothing more than intricately woven fables meant to keep little kids from misbehaving.

But when Charlie begins to experience freaky bodily manifestations—ones all too similar to those described by his grandma in his favorite legend—he is suddenly swept up in a world where the mythical beings he’s spent his entire life hearing about seem to be walking straight out of the pages of Hispanic folklore and into his life. And even stranger, they seem to know more about him than he knows about himself.

Soon, Charlie finds himself in the middle of an ancient battle between La Liga, a secret society of legendary mythological beings sworn to protect the Land of the Living, and La Mano Negra (a.k.a. the Black Hand), a cabal of evil spirits determined to rule mankind. With only the help of his lifelong crush, Violet Rey, and his grandmother’s stories to guide him, Charlie must navigate a world where monsters and brujas rule and things he couldn’t possibly imagine go bump in the night. That is, if he has any hope of discovering what’s happening to him and saving his missing parents (oh, and maybe even the world).

No pressure, muchacho.

CHAPTER ONE EXCERPT:

Myths, my abuela used to say, are truths long forgotten by the world.

Which is probably why she collected them the way some people collect stamps. Or mugs with pictures of kittens on them. She gathered tales of enormous, horned, snakelike sea creatures, of two-headed vampire dogs with glowing red eyes, of terrifying man-eating ghouls that stalk the night, searching for naughty children to kidnap.

The myths came from all over the Spanish-speaking world. From Madrid to Quito. Mexico City to Buenos Aires. Most of them were hundreds of years old, almost as old as the cultures that had inspired them. Some had spread quickly around the globe, spread like wildfire. Others never even left the tiny rural towns where they’d first been told.

All her life my grandma had been obsessed with Hispanic mythology, with all the legends and stories and folklore, and had spent years teaching them to me.

When I was little we used to hang out in the kitchen on lazy Saturday afternoons, me in my Power Rangers pj’s and chancletas, my abuela telling her favorite tales from memory, making the epic battles and ghoulish monsters come to life with every gesture of her brown and wrinkled hands.

Afterward, she would quiz me on what I’d heard; we played this little game, sort of like Pictionary, where she’d draw a quick sketch of one of the characters, and I would have to guess who—or, in most cases, what—it was. If I got four in a row, she’d let me eat leche condensada right out of the can, which might’ve been the only thing I enjoyed more than listening to her stories.

At the time I thought it was all just for fun, a cool little game between the two of us. But I should’ve known better; my abuela hated party games.

Ryan Calejo was born and raised in south Florida. He graduated from the University of Miami with a BA. He’s been invited to join both the National Society of Collegiate Scholars and the Golden Key International Honour Society. He teaches swimming to elementary school students, chess to middle school students, and writing to high school students. Having been born into a family of immigrants and growing up in the so-called “Capital of Latin America,” Ryan knows the importance of diversity in our communities and is passionate about writing books that children of all ethnicities can relate to. His first novel was Charlie Hernández & the League of Shadows.

Simon & Schuster Webpage | Twitter | Goodreads

Giveaway Details:

1 winner will win a signed hardcover of CHARLIE HERNANDEZ AND THE LEAGUE OF SHADOWS, US ONLY

Rafflecopter link:

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/e2389ba2967/?

Tour Schedule:

Week One:

8/19/2019- BookHounds YA- Interview

8/20/2019- Savings in Seconds- Excerpt

8/21/2019- Twirling Book Princess- Excerpt

8/22/2019- Country Road Reviews- Review

8/23/2019- Lifestyle Of Me- Review

Week Two:

8/26/2019- Rhythmicbooktrovert- Review

8/27/2019- Wonder Struck- Review

8/28/2019- Two Chicks on Books- Interview

8/29/2019- Aunt Addie's Bookshelf- Review

8/30/2019- The Desert Bibliophile- Review

Week Three:

9/2/2019- The Layaway Dragon- Review

9/3/2019- Random Bookish Banter- Review

9/4/2019- Eli to the nth- Review

9/5/2019- Novel Novice- Guest Post

9/6/2019- Fyrekatz Blog- Review

Week Four:

9/9/2019- Nicole's Novel Reads- Review

9/10/2019- Marshmallow Pudding- Review

9/11/2019- Nerdophiles- Review

9/12/2019- PopTheButterfly Reads- Review

9/13/2019- two points of interest- Review

Review: Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon

After having this on two spring TBR's this year and last year, I have finally read this book and it was good. I knew the premise and what to expect and halfway through I kind of figured out what was going on and it answered so many questions that I had from watching the movie trailer.

Maddy has an illness that makes her allergic to everything. She has been stuck inside of her airtight controlled home for 18 years. Her mother is her primary care physician and a regular doctor to other patients throughout the day. Maddy is a book worm and kind of anal about everything. One day, she gets new neighbors and she looks at the guy and is instantly in love which I was not a fan of.

The relationship between Olly and Maddy was cute and it did make me smile and remind me of the goofy things my Cayce did when we started dating.

The illustrations throughout the book were my favorite and I love how Nicola Yoon collaborated with her husband with both of her books.

I did guess how everything was going to go and it reminded me a lot of a new show/movie on Hulu similar to what the mom was doing with the daughter.

Review: Caraval by Stephanie Garber

To be honest, if I had not bought the limited edition Owlcrate box for the third book in this series, I do not know when I would have picked up this book and that makes me sad because I fucking LOVED this book. It reminded me of evil Princess Sofia from the Belles and the amount of description and all the exotic imagery reminded me of The Belles and I loved it. I loved the quest aspect and how there was a clue to be found for every day of the duration of Caraval. I also have a new book boyfriend in Julian. Yes, he kind of seems like a douchebag sleaze ball, but it all makes sense in the end... DUH!

The two sisters Scarlett and Donatella are really unlikable. Donatella especially and she is only in the book for maybe 20% of it. Scarlett was irritating to no end. She would worry about her sister and then worry about her marrying the count who has a funky eye.

The magic was definitely magical and I was sucked into the game thinking it was all real. I kind of want to find some fanfiction where certain scenes stayed the way they "ended" and what certain characters would do. I think this book could have gone in so many other directions and been just as amazing. I will definitely be reading Legendary next month. That decision has solidified my September TBR where I will only be reading sequels.