Books and Sensibility

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Book Review : Salty, Bitter, Sweet by Mayra Cuevas

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Rating: Unrated | 320 pages | Blink YA | Contemporary | Release Date: 03/03/20

Mayra Cuevas debut is a coming of age novel for fans of decadent food and charming European cities. Seventeen-year-old Isa has a passion for French cooking, which has kept her afloat now that she has left Chicago for the scenic coastal city of Nantes, France with her father and his new wife–the woman he cheated on her mom with.

The situation is a little awkward but it’s all worth it when Isa is accepted into a cutthroat culinary program where failure is not an option. She is determined to keep her focus– even if her family’s new charming young house guest proves to be a bit of a distraction.

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Audiobook Review: Memorial Drive by Natasha Tretheway

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Rating: 5 out of 5.

 5 hours 9 min. | Harper Audio | Non-Fiction  | Release Date: 7/28/2020 

I’ve finally been in the mood for nonfiction again and picked this one up while browsing the new release shelf with no context whatsoever. I skim read it was about a murder and thought it was maybe true crime (it’s not). I didn’t even look at the cover long enough to realize Tretheway is a Pulitzer Prize winner and former U.S. Poet Laureate.

Memorial Drive feels less like a memoir and more like a eulogy to Trethway’s mother, who was shot and killed by her abusive ex-husband in 1985 while Tretheway was away at college. The book begins with Tretheway’s experiences growing up as a biracial girl in 1960s South, she takes us along through all of the triumphs and heartbreaks she faces with her mother as they make their way to Atlanta for a new life together.

Tretheway has a Pulitzer Prize in poetry so it’s no surprise that the writing is amazing.  There is a large section where the narrative voice switches to second person and it is done flawlessly. I was listening to this on audio and it took me a minute to even realized she’d switched.

Speaking of the audiobook, Tretheway is a great narrator as she relays her story. The book includes transcripts of phone taps between her mother and her eventual murderer the day before he killed her and I can’t imagine those were easy to read. 

At one point Tretheway says when she hears songs she and her mother loved she feels a kind of “joy tinged grief” and that is the perfect way to describe this haunting memoir. I have a feeling this will be making an appearance come National Book Award season.

Book Review: A Love Hate Thing by Whitney D. Grandison

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Rating: Unrated | 448 pages | Inkyard Press | Contemporary | Release Date: 01/07/2020

This book has a lot of mixed reviews and I think part of it is because it has a premise I thought we left behind in the early 2000s. You know– a kid from the hood is dropped into an affluent neighborhood where he finds redemption and peace through writing.

In A Love Hate Thing Tyson Trice is taken in by family friends after a horrific tragedy and reunited with his childhood best friend Nandy. Nandy wants nothing to do with Trice and makes snap judgments about him because he was raised in the hood, while Trice sees her as the spoiled popular girl who only thinks of herself. To rekindle their friendship these stubborn teens have to get past their prejudices and learn to trust each other again.

The Weekly Share Vol. 2

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Welcome to The Weekly Share! Inspired by some of our favorite content creators we are going to end the week on a positive note– by sharing some of our favorite bookish happenings, links, recommendations and book deals from the week.

Bookish Happenings

Julie Moody-Freeman’s two part interview with retired romance editor and founder of RWA Vivian Stephens on The Black Romance podcast is a must-listen for romance readers. It’s fascinating to hear her experiences with romance publishing in the 80s.

OprahMag.com created this great interactive guide to Black owned independent bookstores, I’ve already placed an order in at Loyalty !

Aiden Thomas’ Cemetery Boys debuted on the NYT Bestsellers list, making it the first fictional YA book by an openly trans author to hit the list. It has also been longlisted for the National Book Award,

Links & Reccomendations

When it comes to at-home workouts I want ones that are fun and never feel boring or repetitive. This week I thought I’d recommend four of my favorite at-home workouts – Kat

I just discovered Target Threshold’s Wax Melts. They are affordable fire-safe ways to fill a room with fragrance plus they have a ton of dupe Bath and Body Works scents.

Looking for new podcasts? I’ve recently added Audibly Addicted and the Audiobook Lovin Podcast to my rotation of work from home podcast, both feature in-depth interviews and conversations with some of your favorite romance audiobook narrators. – Jess

Book Deals

Audiobook Review: The New David Espinoza by Fred Aceves

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Rating: 4 out of 5.

 Audiobook length: 7 hours 50 min. | Publisher: Harper Audio | Genre: YA Contemporary| Release Date: 2/11/20

Jess gave a glowing review to  Fred Aceves debut, The Closest I’ve Come, making me particularly eager to pick up his sophomore novel.

After a video of 17-year-old David Espinoza getting slapped unconscious goes viral, David is too embarrassed to ever show his face around town. He’s tired of being bullied for how thin he is and spends the summer of his senior year working out to attain a physique like his favorite action movie stars. He joins a bodybuilding gym where he is slowly pulled into the insanely toxic community of professional bodybuilding and steroids.

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Kat Recs BookTubers!

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I’ve been working from home more and in the course of finding things to keep me company, I’ve gotten into BookTube. Like every part of the bookternet, Booktube has it’s problematic elements but it’s a diverse place with readers of every kind if you know where to look.

Noira from Noira Reads

Noria is a Nigeran BookTuber living in Lagos with a bubbly and entertaining personality that is exactly what you want in a Booktuber. Her enthusiasm is infectious and I could listen to her talk about books all day. The videos I’ve watched of hers have mostly focused on SFF and genre fiction but she seems to read across the board. If you need a laugh she has a video where she attempts to get her hyperactive cat to pick her TBR.

Erica from The Broken Spine

I discovered Erica’s channel during booktube’s town hall on race and inclusion. Watching her videos is like checking in with a friend’s reading life. She reads a lot of Black and African fiction and I’m always picking up recs I don’t see anywhere else.

Bree from In Love and Words

Bree is a romance booktuber and I like that she does a lot of Kindle Unlimited focused videos. I have a KU account and it can be hard to find books if you don’t have recs. She also does a lot of “evergreen” videos where she recs books based on a theme or author.  Bree has multiple sclerosis and is always offering recs on disability romance from an #ownvoices perspective. Also, she sells stickers on Etsy.

Adri from Perpetual Pages

From book hauls to reviews Adri does just about everything on their channel with a focus on boosting marginalized voices. Their reading tastes are somewhat similar to my own and I am just in awe of how Adri’s ability to book talk. Even if they don’t like the book they can distill theme, context and story into concise digestible tidbits that make me want all the things. They are also a great source for #ownvoices reviews of Latinx, Non-binary/Trans/Pan/Aro books.

Ben from Benreadsbooks

Ben is a British reader and science fiction writer. He does in-depth reviews of science fiction and adult fiction along with videos about writing craft. I like his channel because he has an introspective and serene presentation that makes it easy to listen to while I’m working. He is also one of the few Booktubers I’ve seen do a video shouting out bloggers.

These are just a few of the creators on my YouTube subscriptions. Do you watch booktube ? Let me know some content creators you like in the comment section !