Book Reviews

Audiobook Review: #famous by Jilly Gagnon

April 25, 2017 Leave a Comment

Release Date: February 14^th 2017

Audiobook Hours: 7 hrs 53 minutes

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books (HarperCollins)

Did I pick up this book because the cover reminded me of Fangirl ? Maybe. Yes, yes I did.

When high school junior Rachel Ettinger secretly snaps a photo of Kyle Bonham and tweets, ahem, I mean flits it it to her best friend she thinks nothing of it.

Until the pic goes viral.

While Kyle becomes an overnight internet sensation Rachel becomes a target for harassment and cyberbullying.

So, in case you aren’t familiar, this book was inspired by the phenomenon that is Alex from Target.

#famous had a strong start, we see a lot of the rampant sexism online and I really thought Gagnon was going to flesh out Rachel’s story through this lens, but the online abuse gets dropped pretty early to focus on a tedious plot where Kyle recruits Rachel to repeatedly appear with him on an Ellen type talk show.

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Audiobook Review: The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness

April 22, 2017 Leave a Comment

Release Date: October 6th 2015

Length: 6 hours and 23 minutes
Genre: Contemporary / Paranormal YA

Publisher: HarperTeen

17-year-old Mikey Mitchell just wants to enjoy his last few months of high school with his best friends and hopefully getting his OCD under control. But he’s also kind of stuck in the middle of your favorite paranormal YA novel, except you know. . . he’s a background character. Strange blue lights and mysterious deaths means the indie kids–those high school kids with the capital D destinies and weird names–are up to something. Mikey just hopes the indie kids don’t blown up up the high school….again.

Patrick Ness is a mix bag of an author, you just never know what you’re going to get. The concept of having a Mikey’s contemporary narrative adjacent to the indie kid’s paranormal adventure made for an entertaining listen. The indie kid’s plot is a parody of e those paranormal YA books of the early 2010’s and Ness creates a loving satire of the genre.

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100% Real by Sam Talbot

March 27, 2017 Leave a Comment

Publisher: Time Inc. Books/Oxmoor
House
Genre: Cookbook
Release Date: April 4^th
2017

I’m not sure why it took Top Chef Season 2 finalist Sam Talbot (who should have totally been asked to leave along with Cliff. I’m just saying! ) so long to write a cookbook, but here it is and it features 100 recipes that are 100%real. The book itself is a mix of Talbot’sadvocacy for type 1 diabetics and his philosophy of eating whole and natural foods. He covers the spectrum featuring recipes that are vegetarian, vegan, dairy free, and gluten-free.The inside of this book has a simple layout with bright colors and tons of photos of Talbot in the kitchen or
hanging out at the farmer’s market, reflecting his laid back East coast lifestyle.

Talbot introduces readers to his five tips for keeping [food] real, advice on setting up a pantry and a few equipment essentials. There are even more tips on sourcing ingredients in the back of the book, which you will need because there are some very specific ingredients that might be intimidating to a rookie cooks.The recipes have tons of herbs and spices, he re-imagines comfort foods and creates magical looking salads. Because this is a book isn’t about fad dieting you won’t find calorie counts in these pages, you’ll just find real food.

*ARC provided by Netgalley

The School of Good and Evil by Soman Chainani

March 21, 2017 Leave a Comment

Release Date: May 2013
Hours: 13.75
Genre: Middle Grade/Fantasy
Publisher: HarperCollins

Every four years the villagers of Gavaldon will stop at nothing to protect their children from a shadowy figure who whisks them away to a magical school, never to be seen again. Except maybe in the pages of your favorite storybook.

This magical school us where students are trained to become the villains and heroes in your favorite fairytales. When best friends Sophie and Agatha find themselves on different sides of the divide, they must fight to hold on to their friendship and who they truly are.

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