Reviews of Books that I've Won In Giveaways

I love to read and share reviews! I read a new book every month as part of a local book club, but I also have been fortunate to win a few books from Goodreads giveaways, from The Book Club Cookbook, and also as a Celadon Reader. This was my recent collection of recently-read books, and more are on my "to be read" pile.  

BirdGirl: Looking to the Skies in Search of a Better Future by Mya-Rose Craig

Author Mya-Rose Craig was raised in Bristol, England, by parents who were involved with the hobby of "twitching"--a new term for me--to describe birdwatching to an almost obsessive level. Craig grew up shuttling across the country, as well as seven continents, to catch sight of rare birds, observing over 5,000 birds by the time she was a teenager. She also chronicles her mother's severe bipolar mental illness in her memoir in a poignant way and her struggles with diagnosis, medications, and treatments. I could feel Mya's joy as she describes the thrill of filling her bird list with exciting sightings of birds such as hummingbirds and eagles, etc, and then the confusion she felt living with a mentally ill mother. Finally, Mya shares in her memoir her resolve to work against the threats of climate change that threaten both bird habitats and our future. If you are a bird lover, a naturalist, or care for our environment, you will enjoy reading "Birdgirl: Looking to the Skies in Search of a Better Future." Thank you to Celadon Books for an advanced reader copy paperback of this book! 

"Maybe Next Time" by Cesca Major

Emma is a busy London literary agent, wife, and mother, but overly engrossed with her phone, reading and answering (or disgustedly ignoring) countless text and "WhatsApp" messages, much to the detriment of her family. Her husband Dan feels neglected, as do her children who are enduring a pre-teen crisis because of their own involvement in social media. It all begins to change when the unthinkable happens and Emma is caught in a revolving repetition of re-living a tragic day. Can she change? Can she control fate? Will she find a way to be the person she finds she needs to be?
I enjoyed this fast-paced contemporary novel by Cesa Major. Aren't we all a little preoccupied with life's demands and the constant notification "pinging" on our phones alerting and distracting us all day? Do we forget what is really important? You will dislike Emma at times, and then cheer her on. She will make you wonder how you would react to a never-ending "Groundhog Day" and then how we might wish we all had that chance to change fate.
I won an ARC copy of this novel in a Goodreads giveaway. Thanks to author Cesca Major for the opportunity to review it!

Last Dance on the  Starlight Pier" by Sarah Bird

Set during the Great Depression, Sarah Bird's "Last Dance on the Starlight Pier" is a novel about one woman—and a nation—struggling to be reborn from the ashes.
July 3, 1932, shivering and in shock, Evie Grace Devlin watches the Starlite Palace burn into the sea and wonders how she became a person who would cause a man to kill himself. She'd come to Galveston to escape a dark past in vaudeville and become a good person, a nurse. When that dream is cruelly thwarted, Evie is swept into the alien world of dance marathons. All that she has been denied—a family, a purpose, even love—waits for her there in the place she dreads most: the spotlight.
Last Dance on the Starlight Pier is a sweeping novel that brings to spectacular life the enthralling worlds of dance marathons and the family-run empire of vice that was Galveston in the Thirties. Unforgettable characters tell a story that is still deeply resonant today as America learns what Evie learns, that there truly isn't anything this country can't do when we do it together. That indomitable spirit powers a story that is a testament to the deep well of resilience in us all that allows us to not only survive the hardest of hard times, but to find joy, friends, and even family, in them.

I won this novel through a The Book Club Cookbook e-mail contest! I really enjoy this website, reviews, and book club recipe ideas.

"A Woman of Intelligence" by Karen Tanabe

Karen Tanabe's "A Woman of Intelligence" is an exhilarating classic spy thriller of post-war New York City, and one remarkable woman’s journey from the United Nations, to the cloistered drawing rooms of Manhattan society, to the secretive ranks of the FBI.   

With a Fifth Avenue address, parties at the Plaza, two healthy sons, and the ideal husband, what looks like a perfect life for Katharina Edgeworth is anything but. It’s 1954, and the post-war American dream has become a nightmare. A born and bred New Yorker, Katharina is the daughter of immigrants, Ivy-League-educated, and speaks four languages. As a single girl in 1940s Manhattan, she is a translator at the newly formed United Nations, devoting her days to her work and the promise of world peace—and her nights to cocktails and the promise of a good time. Now she is the wife of a beloved pediatric surgeon Katharina is trapped in a gilded cage, desperate to escape the constraints of domesticity. So when she is approached by the FBI and asked to join their ranks as an informant, Katharina seizes the opportunity and begins a harrowing assignment.

Thank you to Goodreads and to the author Karen Tanabe.  I won this book in a giveaway.

"Maame" by Jessica George

When I first began reading Maame,"" I thought it would be a simple tale of a young girl's first romance, but I was in for a surprise as it was so much more! Protagonist Maddie, a 25-year-old British Ghanaian woman, had to function as an adult, a "Maame" for most of her life, and because of all her responsibilities, she was deprived of the natural ebbs and flows of growing up. Isolated by caring for a father with debilitating Parkinson's disease, and with a mostly absent mother and older brother, Maddie's only avenue for advice was querying the Google search engine for answers to her problems. She knows much is expected of her but she inwardly desires a life of freedom, friends, romance, and fulfillment in her job. When her mother arrives from Ghana, Maddie finally begins to seek out all those desires independently, but then her father suddenly dies and Maddie is faced with guilt. She faces a new reality that she is unable to find joy in those desires any longer. Her struggles are poignant, and as you read on you will want to help and enlighten her to find the life she deserves.
Thank you author Jessica George, Read With Jenna, and The Book Club Cookbook for a copy of Maame to review. I truly enjoyed reading it!

"The Christie Affair" by Nina deGramont

Why would the world's most famous mystery writer disappear for eleven days? What makes a woman desperate enough to destroy another woman's marriage? How deeply can a person crave revenge?. This intriguing novel answers these questions in this fast-paced spellbinder. The story takes place in 1925 London, in the socialite world of the Christies. Miss Nan O’Dea became Agatha's husband Archie's mistress, luring him away from his devoted and well-known wife, Nan O'Dea's plot began decades before, in Ireland when Nan was a young girl. She and the man she loved were a star-crossed couple who were destined to be together, until the Great War, a pandemic, and shameful secrets tore them apart. Then acts of unspeakable cruelty kept them separated. It is a tale of two very different women who want the very same things in life. The greatest mystery wasn't Agatha Christie's disappearance in those eleven infamous days, it's what she discovered.

This was another wonderful win by The Book Club Cookbook giveaway contest! Check out their website for wonderful reviews and delicious recipes from authors for book club menu ideas in their "Novel Noshes" section.

"Life is like a book. Every day is a new page, every month is a new chapter, and every year is a new series." 

I hope you might find a few books from my reviews that sound interesting to you, dear reader. Please let me know a book that you have recently enjoyed.  

Happy Reading!

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