Friday Reads: All Formats Edition

Happy Friday fellow book friends!

This week has been a fun one for new book releases. Karma Brown's new book, In this Moment, was released, R.S. Grey - my favorite romcom author - released her latest book, The Foxe and the Hound, and there are some great new YA releases this week with new books from Sandhya Menon who's YA contemporary, When Dimple Met Rishi is one of the genre's most anticipated books this spring, Maureen Goo's latest, I Believe In a Thing Called Love, and Sara B Larson's Dark Breaks the Dawn.

To all of you who are suffering from some a serious case of Book Expo America and Book Con FOMO: I am with you! The Instagram stories and tweets are giving me some serious planning vibes - because I am so planning on being there next year! I saw the set up for Marie Lu's WarCross ARCS and about died. So if you're there and for some strange reason you're actually reading this blog - first, why are you reading this?! Kidding - I'm so happy you're reading, but seriously you have much cooler things to be doing, so please go have fun. Know that those of us left to pen blog posts on our couch are with you in spirit, and we may be harboring secret feelings of jealousy - but really want you to have a good time because that's the kind of people we are. Go with God and enjoy all those amazing ARCS you're going to get.

So while I daydream about being at BEA17 and Bookcon, here's what I'm reading this weekend:

On Audio:

Illuminae (Illuminae Files no. 1) by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

So I typically try to listen to one or two audiobooks per week. In this format I tend to choose memoirs and other non fiction, typically read by the author themselves. For some reason a lot of time a single narrator covering the entire cast of the book doesn't work for me.
That's not the case with this book!
This book has multiple narrators and a full cast behind it! It also has amazing sound effects - which is essential because it's set in SPACE!
Okay, the format of this book is a little different and could be offputting for some readers because it's made up of documents and conversations. If you tried the book and couldn't get into it because of the unique format, give the audio a try because it's one of the best audio versions of a book I've ever heard and the narrators are really good. Also, this story is amazing and it's giving me life right now. I'll probably finish this up by reading the actual book at some point this weekend - but the audio is amazing.

On eBook:

The Song of the Current by Sarah Tolcser (Bloomsbury, June 6, 2017)

This is a book that I received an ARC of via Netgalley - it's out for the rest of the world next Tuesday, June 6. Right now, I am over half way done and I am loving the story. It's a YA fantasy with some seriously fun pirate vibes! The main character, Caro, is a wherryman who lives aboard a small cargo vessel on a river system with her father. Together they navigate the rivers delivering their cargo, until Caro's father is arrested. Caro suddenly finds herself on a mission to deliver a mysterious crate in order to get her father out of the brig. Pursued by pirates, Caro's life is at stake every part of the way.
This book is so much fun! It's a quick read and I'm looking forward to finishing it up - keep an eye out for a full review sometime in the next week or so.

In Paperback:

A French Wedding by Hannah Tunnicliffe (Doubleday, June 6, 2017)

This is a galley that was sent to me by Doubleday and I'm really excited to read more! I've only gotten through the first few chapters and already the setting is beautiful and I'm starting to get into the story.
A French Wedding is out on June 6 - so keep an eye out for a review from me.
For now, here's a little blurb about the book from Amazon:

A French Wedding is a delicious novel about six college friends reuniting on the coast of Brittany to celebrate one of their own's fortieth birthday. With sumptuous food and plenty of wine, the table is set for tricky romantic entanglements, fiery outbursts, and a range of secrets. Readers who loved The Vacationers and The Little Paris Bookshop will devour this irresistible novel

So that's what I'm reading this weekend!
TGIF to all my reading friends, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Christmas Time is Here...

It's nearly Christmas and the kiddos are on holiday break, you're frantically shopping for last minute gifts to go under the tree, wrapping up that project at work before you go on vacation, or perhaps doing some holiday baking?

When you get a moment to breathe, maybe you'd like to curl up with a cup of cocoa or coffee and just enjoy a good holiday read. I know that's what I like to do! But what to read?
I have a few suggestions!

1. For the person who loves a crazy family at Christmastime:

The Winter Street Trilogy by Elin Hilderbrand
Meet the Quinn family who spends their holidays running the Nantucket Winter Street Inn. Kelley Quinn looks forward to spending Christmas with his family, but things get complicated when he walks in on his wife kissing Santa Claus! With the kids coming home for Christmas with troubles of their own - things get pretty wild.
Read this if your favorite Christmas movie is The Family Stone
1. Winter Street
2. Winter Stroll
3. Winter Storms

2. For the person who enjoys the classics:

 

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
What's Christmas without the classic Dickens tale? Pick it up if you're feeling sentimental.

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
I love this classic tale about the March girls - while not exclusively a Christmas novel it has everything you need for a great holiday read.

3. For the person who loves a good Hallmark Christmas movie:

Winter Solstice by Rosamunde Pilcher
A failed actress, a musician, a broken hearted woman, and a single man find themselves in a large Scotland estate during the Winter Solstice. Each battling his or her own demons, they are brought together and forever changed by unthinkable circumstances. Think Crash meets Love Actually in this heartwarming holiday story about love, loss and healing by one of my favorite authors!

The Gift by Cecelia Ahren
A modern day Scrooge story about a successful businessman who is frustrated with spending more time working than with his family. He thinks his problem may be solved when he meets a young man with an unusual ability, but will it help him to see what is truly important in life?


4. For the Kiddos:

Eloise at Christmastime by Kay Thompson
Follow Eloise around the Plaza at Christmastime, you never know what kind of mischief she'll get into during the holidays! This is one of our favorites!

How to Catch an Elf by Adam Wallace
Kids will love this fun holiday story about catching one of Santa's favorite helpers!

These are just a few of my favorites for this time of year and I hope you enjoy them. Do you have any holiday favorites? I'd love to hear what your favorite holiday books are!

From my home to yours, wishing you Happy Holidays and a very Merry Christmas filled with hot cocoa, family stories and warmth.
-Whitney the Book Gawker

Book Review: Euphoria, Lily King

Title Euphoria, Lily King

Print Length: 273 pages

Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press

Publication Date: June 3, 2014

Rating: 5/5 Stars

S Y N O P S I S

Part Romeo and Juliet, part anthropological essay, Lily King's Euphoria tells the story of three anthropologists studying native tribes in New Guinea during the 1930s. Nell Stone, a controversial and famous anthropologist, and her husband Fen are fleeing a cannibalistic tribe when they run into Andrew Bankston, a British anthropologist studying river tribes on his own. Lonely and suicidal, Bankston clings to the intelligent Nell and charismatic Fen, helping them to find a new tribe for their research. Nell and Fen are introduced to the Tam - a female driven, artistic river tribe. Here Nell studies the customs and values of the Tam while Fen, desperate to emerge from beneath the shadow of his famous wife, is focused more on antiquities than anthropological research. Tensions rise between the three anthropologists as Bankston and Nell draw closer to each other and Fen plots to commit an unforgivable crime with deadly consequences. Taut, sensual and beautifully written, this critically acclaimed novel is worthy of all the praise it received.

M Y  T A K E

Lily King's novel, Euphoria, is sensual, riveting and brilliant. It was named book of the year by the New York Times, Vogue, Time and many other publications. This book truly is a stand out - but please allow me to warn you, it's not for everyone. What made this novel work for me was the beautiful language and descriptions of the native people by Nell and Bankston. Together they make the story beautiful, emotional and sensuous. Because this book is so beautifully and hypnotically written I rated it five stars - it is wonderful. Some readers may find this book slow to start, I believe that this is good. It allows for a gradual build up to the climax of the story and gives the reader a better sense of the characters. Fen is brooding and jealous, Bankston hopelessly romantic and Nell pragmatic and methodical. Euphoria is a masterfully crafted story about love, jealousy, science and the beauty that comes with understanding someone other than oneself. I found it to be uncomfortable - an emotion that I feel great literature should evoke from its reader - beautifully written and tragic. This novel isn't for the faint of heart - it is not a beach read or airplane book but it is a wonderful example of modern literature.

Buy it on Amazon
Buy it at Barnes & Noble

A B O U T  T H E  A U T H O R

Lily King grew up in Massachusetts and received her B.A. in English Literature from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and her M.A. in Creative Writing from Syracuse University. She has taught English and Creative Writing at several universities and high schools in this country and abroad.

Lily’s first novel, The Pleasing Hour (1999) won the Barnes and Noble Discover Award and was a New York Times Notable Book and an alternate for the PEN/Hemingway Award. Her second, The English Teacher, was a Publishers Weekly Top Ten Book of the Year, a Chicago Tribune Best Book of the Year, and the winner of the Maine Fiction Award. Her third novel, Father of the Rain (2010), was a New York Times Editors Choice, a Publishers Weekly Best Novel of the Year and winner of both the New England Book Award for Fiction and the Maine Fiction Award. Lily's new novel, Euphoria, was released in June 2014. It has drawn significant acclaim so far, being named an Amazon Book of the Month, on the Indie Next List, and hitting numerous summer reading lists from The Boston Globe to O Magazine and USA Today. Reviewed on the cover of The New York Times, Emily Eakin called Euphoria, “a taut, witty, fiercely intelligent tale of competing egos and desires in a landscape of exotic menace.”

Lily is the recipient of a MacDowell Fellowship and a Whiting Writer's Award. Her short fiction has appeared in literary magazines including Ploughshares and Glimmer Train, as well as in several anthologies.

Eight Must Have Books for the Fashionable Reader

As children we often exhibit behavioral tendencies that we sometimes carry with us throughout our lives. Take a second and think back to when you were a child. Got it? Great. Now was there anything that you used to do that you maybe still do today as an adult? Here's what I have:

I used to go through three or four different outfits in a day - not because my clothes got messy or dirty - I simply enjoyed changing my outfit multiple times a day.

Sorry mom for all the extra laundry you had to do when I was a kid.

This is something that I still do today. On an average day I'll probably change my outfit three to four times a day. (BTW I now do my own laundry)

Book Review: Eligible by Curtis Sittenfield

Title: Eligible, Curtis Sittenfield

Length: 512 pages

Publisher: Random House

Publication Date: April 19^, 2016

Rating: 4/5 stars

Countless retellings of Jane Austen’s classic, Pride and Prejudice have been published, made into movies or miniseries specials, but none are so fun and smart as Curtis Sittenfield’s, Eligible, which offers a modern day take on Austen’s original rom-com. Liz Bennet is a brash, quick witted woman living in New York working as a writer for popular women’s magazine, along with her sister Jane, who is a yoga instructor, both rapidly approaching forty and still single (much to their mother’s chagrin).  

When their father’s ailing health brings both eldest Bennet sisters back to their childhood home of Cincinnati, they arrive to find their home in disrepair, the family’s finances askew and the younger Bennet sisters unemployed and ignorant to their family issues. Kitty and Lydia are too preoccupied with their social lives consisting of cross fit, manicures and paleo dieting to help their parents and Mary is a professional student, completing multiple degrees, and her only social activity consisting of mysterious Tuesday night outings, where she goes she won’t say.

Chip Bingley is fresh off a season of a popular TV Reality dating series, Eligible, where he infamously refused to propose to either woman at the end of the show, and has relocated from Los Angeles to the mid-west for a position as an ER Doctor in a Cincinnati Hospital. Accompanied by his friend, Fitzwilliam Darcy, a proud and aloof neurosurgeon, he encounters the Bennett family at a Fourth of July barbeque hosted by their co-worker, Dr. Lucas – I’m sure you’re seeing where this goes…

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.

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).