life_full_ofbooks's reviews
2518 reviews

4.5-
I have to admit, I had no idea who Trevor Noah was before I read this and the reason why I read it was because my 17 year old needs to read it for AP Lang so I thought it would be fun to read it and discuss it with her. Because I didn’t know who Trevor Noah was before I read this I went into it with zero expectations.
This is not written as a traditional memoir. While it is different stories of his life growing up in South Africa, it doesn’t follow any real timeline and his stories tend to crisscross with bits of one time being told at one part and then told again in more detail at a later part. That makes it sound confusing, but it really isn’t and it works very nicely.
I found certain parts of this to be very deep and while I never highlight books on my Kindle I found myself highlighting certain sentences and paragraphs to be able to look upon later and for that I am very grateful I bought the Kindle version instead of the Audible or taking it out of the library.
I think the real MVP of this book, though, is Mr. Noah’s mother. She raised him in such a unique way for how kids, especially biracial children, were raised in South Africa during the eighties and nineties. She taught him that he is not bound by what society says he should be and because of that he was able to get himself out when others were being dragged under.
A lot of this book discusses the racism in South Africa both during and after Apartheid. While I knew about Apartheid, I honestly didn’t realize how bad racism was afterwards. Reading about everything Mr. Noah went through was eye opening. His sense of humor is refreshing and makes the hard issues a little easier to stomach.
I am very happy I decided to read this and very glad I now know who this is amazing man is.

3.5-
I love The Great British Bake Off so when I discovered a novel that was exactly that I jumped at the chance to read it. I then discovered the sequel is on my A to Z Challenge (Paris Daillencourt is About to Crumble) and thought, “How fortuitous!” I jumped eagerly at the chance to read this.
Rosaline Palmer is 27, a single Mom, and the daughter of two overachievers who feel like her life isn’t where it should be. Baking is a hobby and she enters a televised baking contest in hopes of changing her situation from always relying on her parents. The baked goods are T the only steamy happenings in this book, some of her interactions with the contestants get a bit steamy too.
Things I loved about this book: Rosalind’s daughter Amelie, her ex and now best friend Lauren, and a couple of the other contestants. I truly enjoyed seeing the behind the scenes of a baking contest, from how it was filmed, to seeing the stress of baking with cameras in your face, and the laugh out loud scenes.
I was all set to give this book 4 stars, even with the word “lowkey” used as an adverb which is like fingernails on a chalkboard to me because the main story was so charming.
It slid down to 3.5 stars because just like a soufflé that is startled by noise, it suddenly deflated towards the end. The ending was very rushed, Rosaline’s mother had a complete turnaround in a matter of minutes, and the blossoming romance between Rosaline and a contestant appeared to have completely fizzled out with nary a word as to why.
All of that being said, I am still excited to read the sequel and I hope some of these same characters make an appearance. Even if they don’t, baking shows are always fun to read about and perhaps the ending won’t be as sticky.

Oh my goodness!! You know how sometimes you read a book and you see yourself on the pages, this is exactly what reading Maame was for me; never mind the fact that I am a 45 year old, white, Jewish, American woman and Maddie is a 25 year old Ghanaian British woman. I saw myself from my early twenties loud and clear, and it was eye opening.
Maddie (her mother affectionately calls her Maame [Mah-meh], Ghanaian for woman) is the sole caretaker for her ailing Dad. While an aid does come in a few times a week, most of it falls to Maddie, and thus at 25, she is still living at home, working at a job she hates, and hasn’t been in a relationship. When her mother comes home for an extended period of time, Maddie moves out to start her life. As scary as it is, she figures out who she is amongst trials and tribulations. Watching the growth Maddie went through was truly spectacular. Jessica George had written a masterpiece of a book. She has left her heart (and probably some tears) on the paper, but she has created a character and story that nearly everyone can relate to in one way or another.
I knew this had a bunch of accolades going into this and I’m happy to say it definitely lives up to all the hype.

I have only read one other Camille Pagán book, but when I saw this was an Amazon First Reads pick for February, I didn’t hesitate to grab it.
Aly Jackson is treading through her life. While she’s been in her dream job as editor in chief of a magazine for 6 months, her brother died nearly a year ago, and she isn’t coping well. When she overhears 2 coworkers talking poorly about how she’s doing her job, she goes on a very public rant that get posted on the internet. After being asked to step away from the magazine she heads to the lake house her brother left her, and she’s in for a huge shock when she realizes it was left for her to share with her brother’s best friend, Wyatt. While at first she thinks this is a terrible turn of events, it’s just what she needs to work through her grief and find herself again.
This has the perfect mix of drama, comedy, and romance and in true style of Ms. Pagán, wonderful character development. The self discovery both Aly and Wyatt go through helps to make this book something special.
Aly is a very complex character and the fact that she is so real is a testament to the talent Ms. Pagán has as an author. This book is filled with layers of depth and if all of her books are like this, I can’t wait to read them all.

I honestly didn’t know what to expect when I started this. I knew it had received lots of accolades, but that was all. By the end of the first chapter, I was hooked and knew all of the praise for this was well deserved.
Eleanor Bennett’s adult children are summoned to her attorney’s office after she died so they can hear the story of her life. They discover she was never who they thought she was and discover more about themselves in coming to terms with their mother’s secrets.
This is written from multiple viewpoints and multiple timelines, and like the flavors of the cake often mentioned, they meld together beautifully.
Watching Eleanor’s life unfold, from even before she was born until she died, not just through her eyes but through those of her father, friends, and children makes this one of the most engaging books I’ve ever read.
There is a lot of history of Chinese immigrants in the Islands, but because the Island on which Eleanor grew up is never mentioned, and because some of the places mentioned are fictional, I’m hesitant to categorize this as historical fiction. Honestly, it doesn’t truly matter under which category this falls, as it is so wonderfully written.
In reading the Author’s Note, the Acknowledgments, and the preface to the reader’s guide, I found out this came to be because of the traditional Black Cake Charmaine Wilkerson’s mother used to make for weddings (it’s a Jamaican tradition). The fact that she could write such a beautiful book based from a simple prompt is mind-blowing to me. This is her debut novel and I truly hope she has more to give us.

4.5-
This is another book my daughter read for Battle of the Books and after she read it she insisted I read it as well. I’m really glad I took the time to do so, because this was filled with amazing imagery and a beautiful story.
Sila’s life is different since her mother had to go back to Turkey to fix an immigration issue. It was supposed to be 8 days, but that has stretched into months. Life with her Dad is quiet, school isn’t as fun as it used to be, and time is spent counting the days since her Mom left. All of that changes when Veda, a retired circus elephant, enters her life.
Elephants are my favorite animal and I loved watching Sila interact with Veda; I especially loved the small parts where we got to see things from Veda’s point of view. Veda helped Sila grow as a person throughout the book and the character development was fantastic. The other supporting characters in this book all offer something to the story and to Sila. Gio and Mateo give Sila a different perspective of friendship and what it means to be a friend. This is definitely one that should be on the radar of every parent or teacher of a middle schooler.

4.5-
I am always amazed when an author can write novels that are so drastically different in content, but same in depth, and Ann Napolitano has done just that. I loved Dear Edward, so when I saw this was an advanced copy on NetGalley I jumped at the chance to read it. This is a completely different style than Dear Edward, but equally as good. Throughout reading this I had to keep reminding myself who the author was because it felt like a mix of The Most Fun We Ever Had and Ask Again, Yes (honestly I’m really not sure why the latter kept popping into my head, but it did).
Hello Beautiful is a beautiful story of the large, loud, and loving Padavano family; the 4 sisters Julia, Sylvie, and twins Cecilia and Emeline, their parents Charlie and Rose, and the boy who enters their lives, William. Told through the years of the late 70’s through 2008, we are given a first row view of the joys and sorrows of this amazing family.
I loved how for each period Ms. Napolitano writes from the perspective of 4 different characters. This style gives such a depth to the story taking it from 2D images of just words to 3D imagery.
These characters are all so well developed, they feel like they are real people, not just characters imagined from the author’s mind. I fell in love with so many of them, while a few others just aggravated me, but isn’t that how it is in every family?
Hello Beautiful will be available to the public March 14. Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for this advanced copy.

Just as when a restaurant critic realizes he made a mistake on a review of a restaurant, I must post a retraction of my 2 star review of Little Fires Everywhere.
I think when I wrote my review I was so determined to hate it because I hated the characters and part of the storyline. I didn’t allow myself to ruminate about how a book that evokes that much emotion can actually be a good book.
At my book club meeting this past week I started off insisting how much I hated it, but as we discussed it I came to the realization that I actually enjoyed it most of it, while still hating the characters.
I really did love how it was written and I greatly appreciated the social commentary of it. I also had a lot of introspection on my childhood and had I thought more deeply about my thoughts I would have rated it 4 stars originally. I greatly thank the members of my book club for opening my eyes to my superficial review and for helping me reflect on the deeper part of this book.

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This is the second time I’m read this, the first time being 3 years ago and I have docked it a full star from the first time. When I rated it back then, I gave pretty much everything I liked 5 stars, so it being less than 4 stars tells me I didn’t like it, but I probably didn’t want to give it something too low. I’ve definitely become more hardcore in my rating scale since then. I knew I didn’t like it going into it this second time, but I couldn’t remember what. I remembered quite clearly about 10% in. I kept dragging my feet to read this, which is always a sign that I’m just not enjoying it. I finished it since it was my book club’s pick for this month.
This takes place in Shaker Heights, OH during 1997 and 1998. The Richardson family, parents Bill and Elena, and kids Lexie (18), Trip (17), Moody (16), and Izzy (15) are very well to do. At the beginning of the school year, Mia and her daughter Pearl (16) move into the duplex the Richardsons rent out and over a few weeks find themselves integrated into the Richardson family. This book covers many deep topics: maternal guilt, abortion, and the question of what truly makes a mother- biology or love.
While I really like the writing style of multiple third person views, forays into the past, and glimpses into the future, I hated all of the characters. I found Elena Richardson to be an abhorrent person, and many times I wanted to reach into the book and shake her. I found the 3 older Richardson children to be entitled, and I found Mia to be selfish. The only character I actually liked was Izzy. It’s hard to enjoy a book when you really can’t stand the majority of the characters.
There isn’t just one story line, rather there are 2 that are interwoven and the second of these had my blood boiling. I remember being upset by it when I read this years ago, so I guess it’s an interesting study to show my morals haven’t changed.
Oddly enough, I really enjoyed the Hulu miniseries, which I wasn’t expecting to, but it brought the characters to life in a way that made them easier to tolerate.
All in all, I am glad I reread this since it gave me an opportunity to write a thorough review, and should it ever come up again, I’ll know immediately not to read it.

3.75- I really wanted to like this book. My 8th grader read this for Battle of the Books earlier in the school year and kept begging me to read it. While the topic is very interesting, the story didn’t grip me in the way I hoped it would.
During the late 1800’s, Russia occupied Lithuania and banned any text written in Lithuanian. Instead of just accepting this, several Lithuanians fought back by smuggling books printed in Prussia to citizens in Lithuania. Audra’s parents were smugglers, but to keep her safe they kept that hidden from her. They also never taught her to read in an attempt to keep her safe. As the Russians were capturing them, Audra’s parents gave her a book and instructions as to how to find a safe house in the next town, and just like that Audra became a book smuggler.
As stated earlier, I found the topic fascinating. I never knew Russia had banned all Lithuanian texts and that book smugglers were a thing.
While Audra wasn’t terribly likable in the beginning, she quickly rose to heroine status and watching her true self emerge was fun. I enjoyed the other characters as well, with the exception of Audra’s mother. While I understand her attempt to keep Audra safe I couldn’t get behind not teaching her to read. I always enjoy a twist and I enjoy it more when I don’t see it coming. This had 2, and both pleasantly surprised me. Unfortunately, the ending felt very rushed and I wished there was a little more substance to it.
In reading what I’ve written I’m trying to put my finger on what about this didn’t grip me and the only thing I’m coming up with is the fact that I started this in the middle of the night while waiting for my daughter to get back from her 8th grade trip and I was exhausted. Every time I picked it up after that, I immediately felt tired. I’ve tried not to let this effect my rating.

This is my third time reading this, having first read it 30 years ago and again about 15 years ago. It’s one book that has stuck with me through the years and that I felt the need to read again.
The Joy Luck Club is comprised of 4 immigrant couples who meet to play Mah-Jongg, invest in the stock market, and eat. The women talk about their children, especially their daughters, and that is the heart of this book.
The mothers Suyuan, Lindo, An-Mei, and Ying-Ying and their daughters Jing-Mei, Waverly, Rose, and Lena have different views on life since each of the mothers immigrated to America after a trying past in China and each of the daughters have been raised as American. The mothers desperately try to instill Chinese values in their daughters, but the daughters want nothing to do with it.
The writing is so beautiful, with each chapter being told from a different character. The chapters alternate and through different narrators and times we are given a clear look at how each woman grew from child to adult, and how each experience changed them in the process.
I especially love how brilliantly Ms. Tan captures the annoyance daughters have for their mothers when their mothers are just passing on advice. That’s definitely something every mother daughter duo can relate to!
I love how even reading it for the third time it still sucked me in and made me a part of these wonderful women. I know this isn’t the last time I’ll read this, and I think I can safely say it’s the only book I’ll gladly reread.