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    My Town : Hotel

    My Town : Hotel

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    How fun to pack your suitcase and go on a hotel adventure! With many rooms to explore, there are new...

One Day in December: A Christmas Love Story
One Day in December: A Christmas Love Story
Josie Silver | 2017 | Fiction & Poetry
10
8.6 (8 Ratings)
Book Rating
I loved the idea of this book and it sounded just my perfect romance read.  However it was so much more than I could have hoped for!  I read it in one sitting and found the lovely sunny day had gone dark and wet by the time I moved from the sofa - but oh! what a day I had in the world of this amazingly beautiful love story!

The story is told over a ten year period, beginning in December 2008 which is where the Christmas part comes in.  The story is told in sort of diary form from the characters perspectives and jumps many months at a time so you get the good bits whilst the story unfolds. 

It sounded like it could be yet another love triangle with the obvious difficulties however it is so unlike anything I have read before.  It is a book for all ages – no nasty double crossing, no detailed erotic sex scenes or nasty, bitchy comments we are so used to being part of daily lives – however, there  are many tear-worthy moments in this absolutely wonderful true love story. 

The author has found a way of telling a story in today’s times without having all the drama that we are so used to seeing in these types of situations.  Everyone deals with events in a very mature way and forgiving way which ensures that whilst reading you can live in a feel-good bubble.  I did plenty of bubbling while reading and many sharp intakes of breath at times too.  It is a story of love, heartache, friendship and the unbreakable bonds.

I can honestly say I will be recommending this to everyone I speak to in person, on twitter, Facebook and anywhere else that I can.  It’s amazingly beautiful – you really should go read it!

Thanks to Josie Silver, NetGalley and Penguin for giving me the opportunity to read and review prior to the paperback release in October 2018.
  
Meddling Kids: A Novel
Meddling Kids: A Novel
Edgar Cantero | 2017 | Science Fiction/Fantasy
9
8.1 (15 Ratings)
Book Rating
I fell in love with the cover of this book and immediately downloaded it. The amazon page showcases a review from the USA Today that says “…it scratches a nostalgic itch for those who grew up on Saturday morning Scooby-Doo cartoons and sugar-bombed breakfast cereal.” I started reading and then opened good reads and noticed that it suggested a bunch of Steven King books as similar reads.

I panicked. I don’t read horror. I was sure this book was going to leave me terrified. I wouldn’t let my husband leave while I was reading it.

I shouldn’t have worried.

This book was great. It was about as scary as a Scooby-Doo movie (think Scooby-Doo! and the Witch’s Ghost). It was funny and fun with a great nostalgia factor.

I loved the representation in this book. It was nice to see minorities represented and normalized.

The way the book is written could turn people off. It’s either going to be something you love or something you hate. It’s prose mixed with stage directions and random author(?) interjections which makes it feel a little haphazard and messy.

Over all, I loved it and though it hearkens back to mythical horror themes it’s not too scary just like old time Scooby-Doo.
  
The Waiting Room
The Waiting Room
Emily Bleeker | 2018 | Fiction & Poetry
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Great story, clever and keeps you on your toes! (0 more)
Super Twister Turny!
Somebody get my Chiropractor on the line! I think I have whiplash from all the twists and turns! What a ride!

Emily Bleeker can consistently weave a story like nobody's business and The Waiting Room is no exception!
Just when you think you have it all figured out - WHAM! Whiplash. I cannot even explain my love for her writing, and the way she crafts these incredibly suspenseful stories. Knocked this one out of the park. Totally out of the park and past the parking lot, and across the highway... It's so hard to give any synopsis of the story without spoiling too much. It's just that good. There were about 4-5 scenarios I had going on i my head as to the direction this was going, and I was wrong about them all!

Just after children's book illustrator Veronica Shelton's daughter is born, tragedy strikes. Her loving, smart, funny, doting-father husband is killed and her entire life falls apart So, so badly. It's so bad that grieving Veronica can't even TOUCH her own baby daughter. She thinks she's a terrible mother, is now having her own mother taking over most of her child's duties, and is clinging onto hope she can somehow get over this through a new therapist, and very carefully, slow, tiny baby steps. But then strange things start to happen - a break-in, weird figures in her book illustrations, and then - the unthinkable. Her daughter goes missing.

Incompetent police seem to turn the tables on her and she begins to feel like a suspect. Targeted because of her fragile mental state since losing her beloved husband. Veronica decides she's going to finally be the mother that Sophie deserves, and go out and find her daughter on her own. With some strange new friends and the shreds of motherly instinct that remain inside her - she sets off to do just that.

....and cue the whiplash. Just when you think you've got it figured out. Nope, try again. That person's a good guy? Sorry - not the case! Everything going to be OK? Um... hahaaaaa! Nice try. And that ending.. PHEW! Shocker after insanely clever shocker!

Now, I like to think I'm not totally dim, and can be fairly clever at figuring things out. But Emily Bleeker is SO good at making you feel so silly for even thinking you had ANY idea what was going on. She's definitely one of my favorite authors and I was totally thinking about sending her my chiropractor bill, but it just didn't seem fair seeing as how fun the ride was :)
  
Beautiful Trauma by P!nk
Beautiful Trauma by P!nk
2017 | Pop
Revenge, Beautiful Trauma, Barbies, I Am Here (0 more)
Pink is my Hero
This might not be Pinks Punk, Fun, Upbeat album, but if you listen to the deeper stories in these songs, it still can lift you up. Her voice is one to be reckoned with, even though she has never been one to champion her voice over her message. I personally am obsessed with Revenge where she teams up with Eminem. It is such a fun different kind of song I'm addicted to. When describing this album, she says life is beautiful and life is traumatic, leading to her title song Beautiful Trauma where she makes the old classic comparison of love and drugs. The song Barbies speaks to us about the maturity of Alecia now that she's raising two kids, and wanting them to grow up being loved in a perfect world. Remember the easy days? As usual, Pink loves to reflect on the political climate, and What About Us does exactly that. Lose yourself in this album like I did, you won't regret it. Pink is my Hero and will always be.
  
The Midwife of Auschwitz
The Midwife of Auschwitz
Anna Stuart | 2022 | History & Politics
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
This is one of those books that hits you and stays with you for a long time and although it is a work of fiction, the author has clearly done her research and there is a lot of this book that is based on fact.

As you can imagine, this is a hard book to read; it's a story filled with despair, death and unimaginable suffering but it's also a story filled with hope, the power of friendship and love.

Ana and Ester are the two main characters and oh what characters they are; strong and with a will to continue to do good whilst all around them descends into chaos and madness.

This book had my emotions in a constant state of flux; angry, sad, tearful, horrified but also hopeful and in awe and wonder of the people who went through such despicable crimes but continued to keep their humanity unlike the Nazis!

Like I said, this is a difficult read but, I think, an essential one and I must thank Bookouture and NetGalley for enabling me to read it and share my thoughts.
  
You and Me on Vacation
You and Me on Vacation
Emily Henry | 2021 | Fiction & Poetry, Humor & Comedy
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin General UK for the advanced copy of this book

I read Beach Read last year and I did enjoy it but it didn't blow me away, this one, however... WOW! That's all I can say. A book about travel was always going to be right up my street but a slowburn friends to lovers story about travel. I was positively OBSESSED! The relationship between these two characters was so raw and honest and you were truly rooting for them from the very beginning. I related so hard to the character of Poppy too, like way too hard, there were moments when I genuinely thought that Emily Henry had been spying on me with how accurate some of these seemingly random character traits were to my life and I loved exploring the world through her eyes. I also think Alex Nilsen may be the new literary love of my life. I'm just so so so in love with this story and I probably shouldn't be typing this at midnight but that's when you get my most honest thoughts. I just have so much love for this book and I can already see it being one of my favourites of the year!
  
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Neil Hannon recommended Sketches of Spain by Miles Davis in Music (curated)

 
Sketches of Spain by Miles Davis
Sketches of Spain by Miles Davis
1960 | Rock
6.5 (2 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"Somebody gave it to me in the late nineties, just on a blank cassette and then yep, I was completely dubious, because when people mention Miles Davis or jazz in general, I would just think of those crazy funk-jazz things they did in the seventies, and I didn't know he was capable of this incredible orchestral soundscape. It helps that he's reading from an already fantastic piece of music but what he did to it was astonishing again, so I love it. It's just the most evocative record. Recently I had the pleasure of a train journey from Bilbao to Madrid and I put that on my headphones and it was like, "oh yeah, everything is cool". Actually, it didn't [unveil new layers to the record], as I think it was really cool to experience it on the train going through Spain and yet I always think that music is so powerful that the images that you have in your head if you're listening to it in your bedroom are as powerful, if not more so, than if you were in some incredible vista. After that I went back and bought the early Blue Note records, which are generally brilliant. I'm not a real jazz aficionado and if I've put on an old jazz record, it's mostly about mood, because I can't really understand what's going on. Whereas with Sketches Of Spain, it seems more orchestral, where I can understand what's going on better."

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