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Memoir Monday: Fast Girl by Suzy Favor Hamilton

Fast Girl by Suzy Favor Hamilton

This week's memoir is Fast Girl by Suzy Favor Hamilton. Those familiar with USTF will remember Suzy Hamilton as one of America's middle distance track athletes and participant in multiple Olympic games. What many may not know is that following her retirement from running, Suzy became the second most sought after female escort in Las Vegas. To me, this was mind boggling - I mean, how does an Olympic athlete go from living a very public life as a professional athlete to working as a high end call girl in Las Vegas? And why?!

Friday Reads & A Goody for you

Happy Friday!

Congratulations, you've made it through another week and it's time for the weekend!
A couple of highlights from this week:

I changed up the look on the blog! Crazy, I'm still working on the graphics and tweaking a few things, but so far so good.

Barnes and Noble played #90sabook on Twitter and it was hilarious. Some of my faves were "Harry Potter and the Virgin Who Can't Drive," "Clarrisa Explains It All The Light We Cannot See," "Back to Goodnight Moon" and "The Pager of Dorian Gray." There were a lot of good ones, so check it out on twitter if you need a laugh.

Five Romances that Will make you Cry (and I love them all)




If you're anything like me, you love a good romance novel every once in a while (or all the time). While I definitely prefer my characters to all end up happily coupled off and living blissfully ever after, that is not always realistic or the best way to end a story. Sometimes the best stories have the saddest endings or not the ending you wanted for the characters. Below are five of my favorite romance novels that are beautiful love stories even though they didn't end up the way I wanted them to. Curl up, grab your tissues and maybe warn anyone in the house that it is very likely you're going to ugly cry - and it's best they leave you alone. Or lock the door so no one can take incriminating photos. Because I probably would.

New Release Tuesday: The Summer Before the War, by Helen Simonson

Title: The Summer Before the War, Helen Simonson
Print Length: 496 pages
Publisher: Random House
Publication Date: March 22, 2016
Rating: 4/5 Stars

I was lucky enough to read an advanced copy of this charming novel by Helen Simonson. Set in 1914, the summer before the outbreak of the Great War, we meet the inhabitants of Rye, a small town in Sussex England who are more focused on the perfect summer weather and garden parties than the rumored war on the continent. It is to this idyllic country town that Beatrice Nash arrives just as life for everyone is about to change.

Memoir Monday: Life on the Road by Gloria Steinem


It's Memoir Monday and continuing with works inspired and written by women (it is women's history month after all), this week's memoir was My Life on the Road by Gloria Steinem. For those unfamiliar with Steinem, she is in my opinion one of the most influential women's rights advocates and activists in this country. Not only was she huge in the women's rights movement, she was part of the civil rights movement and I found her memoir riveting and more importantly - a must read for humanity. If you are a human being - you need to read this.

5 Novels for Saint Patrick's Day



Happy Saint Patrick's Day! While your friends and family are out pinching people who are not wearing green, proudly displaying their "Kiss Me, I'm Irish" shirts and generally enjoying the raucous holiday that is Saint Pat's - why not curl up with one of these titles and your celebratory green beer or wine while spending the holiday swept up in Ireland via a book? My motto always is, have book will travel (in my mind I suppose).

New Release Tuesday: Burning Down the House by Jane Mendelsohn


It's new release Tuesday!
This week the much anticipated novel by Jane Mendelsohn, Burning Down the House is available on kindle and in print.

From Amazon:
"In cinematic, dazzlingly described scenes, we enter the lavish universe of the Zane family, from a wedding in an English manor house to the trans-global world of luxury hotels and restaurants—from New York to Rome, Istanbul to Laos. As we meet them all—Steve’s second wife, his children from his first marriage, the twins from the second, their friends and household staff—we enter with visceral immediacy an emotional world filled with a dynamic family’s loves, jealousies, and yearnings. In lush, exact prose, Mendelsohn transforms their private stories into a panoramic drama about a family’s struggles to face the challenges of internal rivalry, a tragic love, and a shifting empire. Set against the backdrop of financial crisis, globalization, and human trafficking, the novel finds inextricable connections between the personal and the political."

This sounds to be an interesting novel, I'm adding it to my list of new releases to check out. Have you read it? I'd love know what your thoughts were.

Buy it here.

Memoir Monday: Hunger Makes Me A Hungry Girl by Carrie Brownstein

Hunger Makes Me A Modern Girl, Carrie Brownstein


Happy Monday!

Today is the beginning of a new series on The Book Gawker in which a memoir that I read the past week will be featured every Monday! Memoirs are some of my favorite books to read. They lend a sort of authenticity and relatability to people who we typically see from afar, their stories laid out for us to read or listen to in a such a way that we might understand the experiences that shaped their lives both privately and publicly.

It's Women's History Month, so I found it fitting that this week's memoir was, Hunger Makes Me A Modern Girl by Carrie Brownstein. Maybe (presently) best known for her work in the comedy series, Portlandia, Carrie Brownstein first made her name known as one third of the indie punk rock girl band trio, Sleater-Kinney. I found her memoir to be funny and insightful as she chronicled her days growing up in Redmond, Washington putting on talent shows with neighborhood children, to haunting record stores as a highschooler and eventually making her way into the indie punk rock scene after leaving college to pursue her career as a musician.

Review: I'm Glad About You by Theresa Rebeck




Title: I’m Glad About You, Theresa Rebeck
Print Length: 375 pages
Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons
Publication Date: February 23, 2016
Rating: 4/5 Stars


How much of yourself are you willing to sacrifice for your dreams and to what end?
This is the underlying theme in a story about two people who despite the love between them just can’t seem to get it right.

Alison is a sharp tongued, clever, green eyed beauty who will do whatever it takes to become the actress she’s always dreamed of becoming. She moves to New York, leaving her family and high school boyfriend, Kyle, for a life of endless auditions, sleazy directors and tiresome agents. But as she navigates New York City and the cut-throat world of show business, Alison begins to realize the high cost of success that accompanies a life in the limelight may not be what she wanted after all.

Book Worm: February Book Reviews




Here's a recap of what I read in February! Basically it was a good month for YA Fiction, love stories and one of the most wonderful WWII novels that I've read. Read on for full reviews of this past month's books!