Books, Books, Books, and a Cat

  Books like this are why I read as much as I do.  After coming home after a long day of work, it is the comfort I find reading about what someone else is going through.  I can laugh, cry, and find comfort in the pages of someone else's story.  This is one of those stories.  Sadie is a starving artist and is hopeful that she is about to have her big break after she finds out that she is a finalist at a portrait contest.  She almost dies but is saved by a good Samaritan.  While at the hospital she finds out that she will need to have brain surgery.  She decides that she is going to put it off because of the contest coming up but her father has other plans.  Sadie's past is complicated so she decides to just have the surgery and make her father happy.  However the surgery does not go as planned and now Sadie is face blind which is the worst possible outcome considering her occupation.  What follows is an incredible romance with a grea...

 Lucky Girl is a story that will transport you to Kenya and then New York as you follow Solia on her life's journey. Solia has a very strict upbringing in Kenya.  Her father died when she was very young and her mother is a devout Catholic with rigid rules that Solia has to follow.  Solia finds solace in photography and the dream of one day traveling to America to attend college.  After overcoming several obstacles, she is finally able to attend college in New York City.  There she will make new friends, discover love, and go through some of life's most difficult challenges.  She will also have to war with her own desires versus her mother's expectations.   There was so much to this novel. It addressed racism in America and cultural differences in Africa.  The novel was set in the 1990s and 2000s and I was about the same age as Solia during this time, so I loved reading about her journey.  The novel moved quickly for me as I devoured the ...

  Every now and then you read a book that touches your heart and this is one of those books.  You cannot help but fall in love with all three of the main characters.  Gemma is an artist who volunteers her dog at the local hospital as a therapy dog.  Dan is meeting his 12 year old daughter for the first time after not being there for her in her early life.  Casey is a 12 year old who is struggling to go through treatment for her brain cancer and also trying to make a connection with her father who she has never had a relationship with.  The three of them are all trying to figure out how to forge their new relationships but also not let the past destroy them.   I loved the dynamic between all three characters. I felt transported to their world and I was invested in what happened to them.  There were so many good moments in this book that helped me forget about the troubles in my own life.  I just wanted to read about their lives and see ho...

  This was not your typical romcom.  Kate is successful, has her own place, and has a great group of friends.  However she has been unlucky in love and suffers from insomnia which allows her to bake way too much.  While she is waiting for her next freelance job to start she finds out that her best friend, Andy might be in trouble.  She ends up traveling to Turkey to try and find out what is happening.  However she doesn't go alone.  Daniel, another one of Andy's friends also goes.  The problem is Daniel and Kate do not get along after something that happened in the past.  The last thing Kate wants is to spend time with him.  While on the trip Kate's feelings start to change and she might even imagine a future with Daniel.  There are other forces at work that threaten to destroy what might be a possible romance of a lifetime.  I have read many different books with a similar plot line but this one felt different.  Kate is an...

  I absolutely adored this unique and refreshing fantasy novel! Emily Wilde is a professor from Cambridge who travels to remote Norway to do field work on the fae that live there. The novel is set in a world where fae are recognized by everyone and Emily has dedicated her life to studying them. Emily is socially awkward and on her first night in Hrafnsvik she offends the head woman in the village. This causes all sorts of trouble for Emily so that she is relieved when her only friend, Wendall Bembleby, comes to join her academic quest, even though he drives her a bit mad. Emily while trying to do her research tries to also find out why the fae in this small village are so prevalent. There was so much to love about this book! There were strong story telling elements and there were little snippets of fae stories throughout the novel as Emily told different stories from her research. The overall story though of Emily and Wendall had me enchanted. I had to keep reading as I wa...

Andrew Rannells second memoir is highly relatable, interesting, insightful and comical.  I gained insight into his life and the struggles that he has been through.  I also have a very strong desire to go watch him on Broadway right this minute.  I had seen him in the show Girls on HBO, but I have never seen him perform in musical theater.  Before I started this book I knew very little about him. After reading this book I feel connected and would love to watch more of the productions he is in.  I also would like to read his first memoir. The books starts out with an introspective on when he felt he became an adult.  I found out that we are exactly the same age born only one month apart, so I could relate with so many of the different cultural aspects he discussed.  Many times during this book I laughed out loud at the different stories he told.  My absolute favorite though was his time at the Auburn theater in the Finger Lakes.  I am also from...