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Guess what y’all!! I’m back! Trying to get back in the reviewing groove. Life has been crazy busy for the past few months and while it’s not slowing down anytime soon, I’m going to try to keep up at least somewhat.

Be prepared. Comin at ya.

#ashleesbookishadventure #booklr #books and libraries #book blog #underrated books #currently reading #book reviewer #booknerd #books #book reviews #bookworm

[ashlee910]

When your purple bath bomb doesn’t make the water purple, it just makes it look like dirty water 🤦🏼‍♀️

#books #reading #currently reading #ashleesbookishadventure #bath selfie #the sun is also a star

[ashleesbookishadventure]

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

Eleanor is the new girl in town, and with her chaotic family life, her mismatched clothes and unruly red hair, she couldn't stick out more if she tried.

Park is the boy at the back of the bus. Black T-shirts, headphones, head in a book - he thinks he's made himself invisible. But not to Eleanor... never to Eleanor.

Slowly, steadily, through late-night conversations and an ever-growing stack of mix tapes, Eleanor and Park fall for each other. They fall in love the way you do the first time, when you're young, and you feel as if you have nothing and everything to lose.

Okay, I know I am way behind the times with this one but honestly I’ve had it on my shelf for years and didn’t pick it up until the cohost of a podcast I listen to discussed it. This is the story of Eleanor, a weird little ginger girl with a shitty home life, and Park, the popular ½ Korean kid she meets on the bus. This is a slow burn romance that, being YA, is a little angsty. But the angsty-ness is kind of alright because they’re also pretty adorable.

Let. Me. Tell. You. This book was not at all what I was expecting. I laughed and happily sighed but I also cried and got super angry more than once. Definite TW for poverty, abuse, and subtle racism. Please don’t let those TW deter you if you are not an HSP (highly sensitive person) because outside of that this is a wonderful story.

I listened to this on audio and with the dual narrators, it was wonderful. 4-stars.

Rainbow Rowell writes books. Sometimes she writes about adults (ATTACHMENTS and LANDLINE). Sometimes she writes about teenagers (ELEANOR & PARK, FANGIRL and THE SIMON SNOW BOOKS.). But she always writes about people who talk a lot. And people who feel like they're screwing up. And people who fall in love. When she's not writing, Rainbow is reading comic books, planning Disney World trips and arguing about things that don't really matter in the big scheme of things. She lives in Nebraska with her husband and two sons.

#ashleesbookishadventure #books #currently reading #tbr #reading #tbr post #booklr #book review #book reviews #book nerd #eleanor and park #rainbow rowell

[ashleesbookishadventure]

American Royals by Katharine McGee

What if America had a royal family?

When America won the Revolutionary War, its people offered General George Washington a crown. Two and a half centuries later, the House of Washington still sits on the throne.

As Princess Beatrice gets closer to becoming America's first queen regnant, the duty she has embraced her entire life suddenly feels stifling.

Nobody cares about the spare except when she's breaking the rules, so Princess Samantha doesn't care much about anything, either . . . except the one boy who is distinctly off-limits to her.

And then there's Samantha's twin, Prince Jefferson. If he'd been born a generation earlier, he would have stood first in line for the throne, but the new laws of succession make him third. Most of America adores their devastatingly handsome prince . . . but two very different girls are vying to capture his heart.

An alternate history of The United States where instead of becoming president, George Washington becomes America’s king. Now, for the first time ever, the heir to the throne is female. Beatrice will be America’s first queen. Is she ready? Does she have what it takes? Bea also has younger twin siblings who get into their own trouble. Romance, turmoil, secrets, sibling love and rivalry, this story has it all. It’s an interesting look at what might have been. Overall this story is pretty great. Is it realistic? Based on what we know about England’s royals, probably not but it’s nice to pretend. I liked it.

4 stars.

Katharine McGee is the New York Times bestselling author of American Royals and The Thousandth Floor trilogy. She studied English and French literature at Princeton University and has an MBA from Stanford. She lives in her hometown of Houston, TX with her husband.

#ashleesbookishadventure #books #currently reading #tbr #reading #tbr post #booklr #book review #book reviews #book nerd #american royals #katharine mcgee

[ashleesbookishadventure]

The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell

Soon after her twenty-fifth birthday, Libby Jones returns home from work to find the letter she’s been waiting for her entire life. She rips it open with one driving thought: I am finally going to know who I am.

She soon learns not only the identity of her birth parents, but also that she is the sole inheritor of their abandoned mansion on the banks of the Thames in London’s fashionable Chelsea neighborhood, worth millions. Everything in Libby’s life is about to change. But what she can’t possibly know is that others have been waiting for this day as well—and she is on a collision course to meet them.

Twenty-five years ago, police were called to 16 Cheyne Walk with reports of a baby crying. When they arrived, they found a healthy ten-month-old happily cooing in her crib in the bedroom. Downstairs in the kitchen lay three dead bodies, all dressed in black, next to a hastily scrawled note. And the four other children reported to live at Cheyne Walk were gone.

The can’t-look-away story of three entangled families living in a house with the darkest of secrets.

This book was super creepy and weird in the best way. It tells the story of Libby who, upon turning 25 years old, just found out she’s inherited a house in the Chelsea neighborhood. She has no idea why but assumes it has something to do with the family she’s never known. I loved not knowing what was going to happen and even with the different viewpoints, one of which was before Libby was born, I still couldn’t figure out who was who and what was what. What really happened to everyone who lived there? The writing is fantastic. It’s a slow burn mystery that leaves you wanting more.

4 stars

Lisa was born in London in 1968. Her mother was a secretary and her father was a textile agent and she was brought up in the northernmost reaches of London with her two younger sisters. She was educated at a Catholic girls’ Grammar school in Finchley. After leaving school at sixteen she spent two years at Barnet College doing an arts foundation course and then two years at Epsom School of Art & Design studying Fashion Illustration and Communication. She worked for the fashion chain Warehouse for three years as a PR assistant and then for Thomas Pink, the Jermyn Street shirt company for four years as a receptionist and PA. She started her first novel, Ralph’s Party, for a bet in 1996. She finished it in 1997 and it was published by Penguin books in May 1998. It went on to become the best-selling debut novel of that year. She has since written a further nine novels, as is currently at work on her eleventh. She now lives in an innermost part of north London with her husband Jascha, an IT consultant, her daughters, Amelie and Evie and her silver tabbies, Jack and Milly.

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[ashleesbookishadventure]

The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix

Fried Green Tomatoes and Steel Magnolias meet Dracula in this Southern-flavored supernatural thriller set in the '90s about a women's book club that must protect its suburban community from a mysterious and handsome stranger who turns out to be a blood-sucking fiend.

Patricia Campbell had always planned for a big life, but after giving up her career as a nurse to marry an ambitious doctor and become a mother, Patricia's life has never felt smaller. The days are long, her kids are ungrateful, her husband is distant, and her to-do list is never really done. The one thing she has to look forward to is her book club, a group of Charleston mothers united only by their love for true-crime and suspenseful fiction. In these meetings, they're more likely to discuss the FBI's recent siege of Waco as much as the ups and downs of marriage and motherhood.

But when an artistic and sensitive stranger moves into the neighborhood, the book club's meetings turn into speculation about the newcomer. Patricia is initially attracted to him, but when some local children go missing, she starts to suspect the newcomer is involved. She begins her own investigation, assuming that he's a Jeffrey Dahmer or Ted Bundy. What she uncovers is far more terrifying, and soon she--and her book club--are the only people standing between the monster they've invited into their homes and their unsuspecting community.

This book has a lot of spicy opinions surrounding it. Some people loved it; some people hated it. I thought it was alright.

The protagonist, Patricia, is a typical Southern wife. She stays home, tends to the children and house, and is an active member of a local book club. Some strange stuff starts to happen in their sleepy, safe little town and Patricia is convinced the new neighbor in town has something to do with it. Hijinks ensue. This book is funny, it’s gory, and there are parts that make you really question some things but overall, it was good.

If you’ve read it, continue below, otherwise….I’m giving this one 4 stars. I liked it but it did have some issues.

***Some Spoilery Stuff***

I want to give my thoughts on the notion that the book is racist and sexist. This is a work of fiction. Yes, the fact that the men so obviously discredit the women sucks. I would never allow my spouse to treat me that way. Yes, the fact that the poor children were all black children sucks. Anyone can be poor. Hendrix should have done better on that front. But again, this is a work of fiction. To say these poor children do not have more freedom/less supervision is incorrect. It makes sense to me that the first children affected by this monster would be those whose parents are paying less attention to them. That’s not incorrect. Maybe the stereotypical Southern housewife troupe is wrong but, again, fiction. It’s not different in my eyes than showing New Yorkers as pushy corporate types or people from So-Cal having “surfer” accents and being airheads. I will not be offended if someone writes a book about a 30-something white mom from the suburbs who drinks Diet Coke constantly, because that’s what I am. If that’s what you are, then that’s what you are. The author doesn’t state “all women are like this”.

Grady Hendrix is an American author, journalist, public speaker, and screenwriter known for his best-selling 2014 novel Horrorstör. Hendrix lives in Manhattan and was one of the founders of the New York Asian Film Festival.

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We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

My name is Mary Katherine Blackwood. I am eighteen years old, and I live with my sister Constance. I have often thought that with any luck at all I could have been born a werewolf, because the two middle fingers on both my hands are the same length, but I have had to be content with what I had. I dislike washing myself, and dogs, and noise, I like my sister Constance, and Richard Plantagenet, and Amanita phalloides, the death-cap mushroom. Everyone else in my family is dead...

This book was super weird. I was listening to the audiobook and I kept having to rewind it thinking I was just missing parts. Nope, it’s just that weird. I finally watched the movie to see whether I would even want to finish the book. I’m all in support of the unreliable narrator but they were all just too weird. I liked the writing but it’s the characters themselves that were strange. I had a really hard time connecting or even not being annoyed with any of them. I can appreciate a certain level of strangeness but they were just too much.

I can acknowledge this book has good writing and potentially others will love it. Therefore I am giving it 3 stars. It just was too weird for me.

Shirley Jackson was an influential American author. A popular writer in her time, her work has received increasing attention from literary critics in recent years. She has influenced such writers as Stephen King, Nigel Kneale, and Richard Matheson.

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The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins

A missing God.

A library with the secrets to the universe.

A woman too busy to notice her heart slipping away.

Carolyn's not so different from the other people around her. She likes guacamole and cigarettes and steak. She knows how to use a phone. Clothes are a bit tricky, but everyone says nice things about her outfit with the Christmas sweater over the gold bicycle shorts. After all, she was a normal American herself once.

That was a long time ago, of course. Before her parents died. Before she and the others were taken in by the man they called Father. In the years since then, Carolyn hasn't had a chance to get out much. Instead, she and her adopted siblings have been raised according to Father's ancient customs. They've studied the books in his Library and learned some of the secrets of his power. And sometimes, they've wondered if their cruel tutor might secretly be God. Now, Father is missing—perhaps even dead—and the Library that holds his secrets stands unguarded. And with it, control over all of creation.

As Carolyn gathers the tools she needs for the battle to come, fierce competitors for this prize align against her, all of them with powers that far exceed her own. But Carolyn has accounted for this. And Carolyn has a plan. The only trouble is that in the war to make a new God, she's forgotten to protect the things that make her human.

So…this book...I...wow...I really don’t know what to make of this. I can’t really tell you anything about the book without giving everything away. Just know there is a girl and there is a guy, there are other characters as well but these two matter. There is violence, lots of it. Don’t go into this one with a weak stomach. Also, pay attention, if you blink I swear you will miss something important. It’s bizarre in the best way. I really liked this book but be aware that this book is not for everyone. It’s got some weird stuff going on. I couldn’t put it down.

5 stars.

Scott Hawkins is an author who also works as a computer programmer. He lives in Atlanta with a large pack of foster dogs. He is the author of The Library of Mount Char which is a hot Webinar title for 2015

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Sadie by Courtney Summers

A missing girl on a journey of revenge. A Serial―like podcast following the clues she's left behind. And an ending you won't be able to stop talking about.

Sadie hasn't had an easy life. Growing up on her own, she's been raising her sister Mattie in an isolated small town, trying her best to provide a normal life and keep their heads above water.

But when Mattie is found dead, Sadie's entire world crumbles. After a somewhat botched police investigation, Sadie is determined to bring her sister's killer to justice and hits the road following a few meager clues to find him.

When West McCray―a radio personality working on a segment about small, forgotten towns in America―overhears Sadie's story at a local gas station, he becomes obsessed with finding the missing girl. He starts his own podcast as he tracks Sadie's journey, trying to figure out what happened, hoping to find her before it's too late.

CW: sexual abuse, pedophilia, violence, drug abuse, death/murder

When 13-year old Mattie is found murdered, her older sister, 19-year old Sadie disappears. On one hand, we have the story told from the point of view of West McCray who has been hired to find Sadie, sort of. McCray hosts a podcast and is doing a series called The Girls which focuses on Mattie and Sadie and what happened to them. On the other hand, we have the story from Sadie’s point of view. She is not missing; but has left to find her sister’s murderer.

I’m not sure how I feel about this book. I found Sadie to be a really unlikable character so I had a hard time caring about her journey. That being said, the set up of the book was really great. I love the back and forth between the podcast and the story. I listened to this on audio and it was done with a full cast which was amazing. I love the fact that the main character, Sadie, has a stutter. It only happens when she speaks to others so her inner monologue doesn’t have the stutter. She speaks about how frustrating it is when she has to speak aloud because no one takes her seriously. I love that. We don’t often see a character with a stutter. It was done very well on audio as well.

I’m gonna go with 4 stars.

Courtney Summers is the bestselling author of several novels. Her work has been released to critical acclaim and multiple starred reviews, received numerous awards and honors--including the Edgar Award, the John Spray Mystery Award, the Cybils Award, the Odyssey Award, the Audie Award--and has enjoyed the recognition of many library, state, 'Best Of' and Readers' Choice lists. Courtney has reviewed for The New York Times, is the founder of the 2015 worldwide trending hashtag #ToTheGirls, and in 2016, she was named one of Flare Magazine's 60 under 30. She lives and writes in Canada. Her new novel, THE PROJECT, is available now from Wednesday Books.

#booklr #books and libraries #book blog #ashleesbookishadventure #underrated books #bookmad book club #currently reading #Sadie #courtney summers

[ashleesbookishadventure]

A Good Girl's Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson

The case is closed. Five years ago, schoolgirl Andie Bell was murdered by Sal Singh. The police know he did it. Everyone in town knows he did it.

But having grown up in the same small town that was consumed by the murder, Pippa Fitz-Amobi isn't so sure. When she chooses the case as the topic for her final year project, she starts to uncover secrets that someone in town desperately wants to stay hidden. And if the real killer is still out there, how far will they go to keep Pip from the truth?

Let me just start by saying it’s a little far-fetched that a high school student could solve a murder as a school project, but I digress. I really liked this book. I thought Pip was great although not the brightest. I felt like she put herself in a lot of questionable circumstances and somehow managed to get herself out every time. Maybe it’s because I’m a Scooby-Doo fan but I didn’t dislike that. I’m not saying this is a master of literature or that it’s in any way realistic but it’s fun. If we can suspend belief for a moment, this is a fun book. It seemed a little Pretty Little Liars-ish, everyone has someone to hide and everyone is a suspect. Was this book full of red herrings? Definitely. I firmly believe that there was a bunch extra thrown in to get us off the scent. But, like I said, it’s fun. Even without all the extras, I’m not sure I could have guessed this one.

I have the sequel to this checked out from the library but I haven’t read it yet and I’m not sure if I’ll read it or return it. Still deciding.

4-stars.

Holly Jackson was born in 1992. She grew up in Buckinghamshire and started writing stories from a young age, completing her first (poor) attempt at a book aged fifteen. 'A Good Girl's Guide to Murder' is a YA Mystery Thriller and her debut novel. She lives in London and aside from reading and writing, she enjoys binge-playing video games and pointing out grammatical errors in street signs.

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The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

The Vignes twin sisters will always be identical. But after growing up together in a small, southern black community and running away at age sixteen, it's not just the shape of their daily lives that is different as adults, it's everything: their families, their communities, their racial identities. Many years later, one sister lives with her black daughter in the same southern town she once tried to escape. The other passes for white, and her white husband knows nothing of her past. Still, even separated by so many miles and just as many lies, the fates of the twins remain intertwined. What will happen to the next generation, when their own daughters' storylines intersect?

Weaving together multiple strands and generations of this family, from the Deep South to California, from the 1950s to the 1990s, Brit Bennett produces a story that is at once a riveting, emotional family story and a brilliant exploration of the American history of passing. Looking well beyond issues of race, The Vanishing Half considers the lasting influence of the past as it shapes a person's decisions, desires, and expectations, and explores some of the multiple reasons and realms in which people sometimes feel pulled to live as something other than their origins.

This story is really good. Stella and Desirae leave their tiny town when they are just 16 years old. They move to the city and get jobs. When Stella can’t continue on with her laundry job, she pretends to be white so she can get a secretary job. It will bring on more money and the sisters will have a better life. But somewhere along the line Stella decides to stay white and disappears. Desirae doesn’t see her sister again for more than ½ her life. The story goes on to tell the story of life for both twins and eventually their respective daughters. Jude who grew up black like her mom and moves away to college, and Kennedy, who has no idea she has any black blood in her let alone 50%. 

It's an interesting look at race in the 1960s. Stella lives an “easy” life in the suburbs whereas Desirae struggles. It’s an interesting look at families and how our decisions affect not only our lives but the lives of those around us, especially our children. 

I’m giving it 4 stars. 

Born and raised in Southern California, Brit Bennett graduated from Stanford University and later earned her MFA in fiction at the University of Michigan, where she won a Hopwood Award in Graduate Short Fiction as well as the 2014 Hurston/Wright Award for College Writers. She is a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 honoree, and her debut novel The Mothers was a New York Times bestseller. Her second novel The Vanishing Half was an instant #1 New York Times bestseller. Her essays have been featured in The New Yorker, the New York Times Magazine, The Paris Review, and Jezebel.

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[ashleesbookishadventure]

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

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A tender, moving tale of unconditional love in a family that, despite its profound flaws, gave the author the fiery determination to carve out a successful life on her own terms.

Jeannette Walls grew up with parents whose ideals and stubborn nonconformity were both their curse and their salvation. Rex and Rose Mary Walls had four children. In the beginning, they lived like nomads, moving among Southwest desert towns, camping in the mountains. Rex was a charismatic, brilliant man who, when sober, captured his children's imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and above all, how to embrace life fearlessly. Rose Mary, who painted and wrote and couldn't stand the responsibility of providing for her family, called herself an "excitement addict." Cooking a meal that would be consumed in fifteen minutes had no appeal when she could make a painting that might last forever.

Later, when the money ran out, or the romance of the wandering life faded, the Walls retreated to the dismal West Virginia mining town -- and the family -- Rex Walls had done everything he could to escape. He drank. He stole the grocery money and disappeared for days. As the dysfunction of the family escalated, Jeannette and her brother and sisters had to fend for themselves, supporting one another as they weathered their parents' betrayals and, finally, found the resources and will to leave home.

What is so astonishing about Jeannette Walls is not just that she had the guts and tenacity and intelligence to get out, but that she describes her parents with such deep affection and generosity. Hers is a story of triumph against all odds, but also a tender, moving tale of unconditional love in a family that despite its profound flaws gave her the fiery determination to carve out a successful life on her own terms.

For two decades, Jeannette Walls hid her roots. Now she tells her own story.

“We may not have insulation, but at least we have each other” - Rose Mary Walls

Wow, there are so many things wrong with this story. But none of them are in the way it was written. Jeannette Walls’ memoir The Glass Castle is the story of her life as a child growing up with two very unconventional parents. They frequently went without food, heat, electricity, etc. Jeannette’s parents weren’t quite as interested in raising their children as they should have been. 

Overall, this should be a very depressing, sad story but, on the contrary, the way Jeannette tells the story is magical. Such optimism and candor told in the manner of a child telling the story of their life as they age. This is the story of her life, it’s not a woe-is-me tell-all admonishing her parents, and she tells it very matter of factly. 

I would say this book might not be for the faint of heart. As previously stated, the children often went without food and there was quite a bit of neglect as well as a sprinkling of sexual assault. All that being said, I’m giving this story 5 stars. I couldn’t put it down. It was wonderful. I listened to it on audio read by the author and, if you can, I highly recommend this book on audio.

Jeannette Walls is a writer and journalist. Born in Phoenix, Arizona, she graduated with honors from Barnard College, the women's college affiliated with Columbia University. She published a bestselling memoir, The Glass Castle, in 2005. The book was adapted into a film and released to theaters in August, 2017.

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[ashleesbookishadventure]

After the Flood by Kassandra Montag

A little more than a century from now, our world has been utterly transformed. After years of slowly overtaking the continent, rising floodwaters have obliterated America’s great coastal cities and then its heartland, leaving nothing but an archipelago of mountaintop colonies surrounded by a deep expanse of open water.

Stubbornly independent Myra and her precocious seven-year-old daughter, Pearl, fish from their small boat, the Bird, visiting dry land only to trade for supplies and information in the few remaining outposts of civilization. For seven years, Myra has grieved the loss of her oldest daughter, Row, who was stolen by her father after a monstrous deluge overtook their home in Nebraska. Then, in a violent confrontation with a stranger, Myra suddenly discovers that Row was last seen in a far-off encampment near the Arctic Circle. Throwing aside her usual caution, Myra and Pearl embark on a perilous voyage into the icy northern seas, hoping against hope that Row will still be there.

On their journey, Myra and Pearl join forces with a larger ship and Myra finds herself bonding with her fellow seekers who hope to build a safe haven together in this dangerous new world. But secrets, lust, and betrayals threaten their dream, and after their fortunes take a shocking—and bloody—turn, Myra can no longer ignore the question of whether saving Row is worth endangering Pearl and her fellow travelers.

A compulsively readable novel of dark despair and soaring hope, After the Flood is a magnificent, action packed, and sometimes frightening odyssey laced with wonder—an affecting and wholly original saga both redemptive and astonishing.

Holy cow this book was so interesting! The majority of the earth is covered with water due to a great flood. The survivors are living in a post apocalyptic type setting, boating from place to place trying to survive. Myra is on a mission to find her daughter Row who was taken from her by Row’s father. Now that there’s been a possible sighting of Row, Myra, along with her young daughter Pearl, set off to see if they might be able to track her down. Along the way they encounter poachers, thieves and other dangers. Will they make it? Is Row even alive?

My only complaint is that there wasn’t much about how the world became flooded or much about what happened from the start until present-times. I think having a preface or something similar telling us what happened would really make the story.

4 stars

Kassandra Montag grew up in rural Nebraska and now lives in Omaha with her husband and two sons. She holds a master’s degree in English Literature and her award-winning poetry and short fiction has appeared in journals and anthologies, including Midwestern Gothic, Nebraska Poetry, Prairie Schooner, and Mystery Weekly Magazine. After the Flood, her debut novel, will be published in over a dozen languages and has been optioned for a television series.

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Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay

Meet Dexter Morgan, a polite wolf in sheep's clothing. He's handsome and charming, but something in his past has made him abide by a different set of rules. He's a serial killer whose one golden rule makes him immensely likeable: he only kills bad people. And his job as a blood splatter expert for the Miami police department puts him in the perfect position to identify his victims. But when a series of brutal murders bearing a striking similarity to his own style start turning up, Dexter is caught between being flattered and being frightened—of himself or some other fiend.

I’ve been wanting to read this series since I discovered the Showtime series and realized these books existed. I’m not sure why but I put it off for a long time; recently, I finally picked it up. While I loved the tv series, I’m not sure I will be continuing the book series. For the most part the book was true to the show (I know I’m saying that backwards but since I watched the show first, that’s my reference point). I still love Dexter as a person and felt the same way about the rest of the characters as I did their television counterparts. Otherwise though, the book was just ok. Perhaps it’s because I already knew what was going to happen. Highly suggest reading the book before watching the show. Giving this one 4 stars because I did like it, even if I found it understandably predictable.

Jeff Lindsay lives in Florida with his wife, author Hilary Hemingway, daughter of Leicester Hemingway, Ernest Hemingway's brother.

Lindsay is best known for writing the Dexter series of novels. Several of his earlier published works include his wife as a co-author.

Jeff graduated from Middlebury College, Vermont, in 1975, and Celebration Mime Theatre's Clown School the same year. He received a double MFA, in Directing and Playwriting, from Carnegie-Mellon University, and has written 25 produced plays. He has also worked as a musician, singer, comedian, actor, TV host, improv actor, and dishwasher.

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[ashleesbookishadventure]

With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo

With her daughter to care for and her abuela to help support, high school senior Emoni Santiago has to make the tough decisions, and do what must be done. The one place she can let her responsibilities go is in the kitchen, where she adds a little something magical to everything she cooks, turning her food into straight-up goodness. Still, she knows she doesn’t have enough time for her school’s new culinary arts class, doesn’t have the money for the class’s trip to Spain — and shouldn’t still be dreaming of someday working in a real kitchen. But even with all the rules she has for her life — and all the rules everyone expects her to play by — once Emoni starts cooking, her only real choice is to let her talent break free.

I’m just going to start by saying if you’re a fan of audiobooks, you MUST listen to Elizabeth Acevedo narrate her books. I would listen to her read me soup labels. Her voice with the style of her writing is magic.

Anyway, now onto the story. Emoni is a highschool senior who lives with her abuela and her daughter Emma. Emoni loves to cook so when an opportunity to take a cooking class at school opens up, she thinks about joining. Cooking is one of her loves in life but between her regular classes and her job supporting family, she doesn’t think she has time to do the class and she definitely doesn’t have money to take the class trip to cook in Spain over Spring Break. At the coaxing of her friends and family, she signs up for the class. She works her butt off to make it work and pursue her dream.

I love how this story doesn’t shy away from hard stuff. Emoni is Afro-Puerto Rican so she doesn't alway fit in with her community who think she isn’t black enough or Latinx enough. She is a teenage mother and lives with her grandmother and they struggle a little. She has to work extra hard to make a good life for her daughter and tends to give up what she wants/needs to make that happen.

I loved this book. Easily one of my favorite books of 2020.

Without hesitation...5 stars.

ELIZABETH ACEVEDO is a New York Times bestselling author of The Poet X, With the Fire on High, and Clap When You Land. Her critically-acclaimed debut novel, The Poet X, won the 2018 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature. She is also the recipient of the Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Fiction, the CILIP Carnegie Medal, and the Boston Globe-Hornbook Award. Additionally, she was honored with the 2019 Pure Belpré Author Award for celebrating, affirming, and portraying Latinx culture and experience.

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[ashleesbookishadventure]

American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins

Lydia Quixano Pérez lives in the Mexican city of Acapulco. She runs a bookstore. She has a son, Luca, the love of her life, and a wonderful husband who is a journalist. And while there are cracks beginning to show in Acapulco because of the drug cartels, her life is, by and large, fairly comfortable.

Even though she knows they’ll never sell, Lydia stocks some of her all-time favorite books in her store. And then one day a man enters the shop to browse and comes up to the register with a few books he would like to buy—two of them her favorites. Javier is erudite. He is charming. And, unbeknownst to Lydia, he is the jefe of the newest drug cartel that has gruesomely taken over the city. When Lydia’s husband’s tell-all profile of Javier is published, none of their lives will ever be the same.

Forced to flee, Lydia and eight-year-old Luca soon find themselves miles and worlds away from their comfortable middle-class existence. Instantly transformed into migrants, Lydia and Luca ride la bestia—trains that make their way north toward the United States, which is the only place Javier’s reach doesn’t extend. As they join the countless people trying to reach el norte, Lydia soon sees that everyone is running from something. But what exactly are they running to?

I listened to this on audio and the number one thing I noticed was the imagery. This author does an amazing job describing the surroundings and what the characters are seeing. I could picture the setting pretty well (which is not something I typically do). The story switches between the POV of Lydia and her son Luca. They suffer a tragedy at the hands of the local Cartel and are forced to flee for their safety.

In all honesty, I really liked this book. I am in no way going to state that I have any idea whatsoever what it’s like to have to flee for my safety or what it’s really like traveling to America in the manner these characters did. However, I felt like, in real life, this journey would have been much more difficult. I know this is a story and you want there to be a happy ending but, it seemed a little far fetched. Without giving anything away, I felt like they got off a little easy sometimes. I mean, I hope that this is similar to the way it really is but I’m not naïve enough to think it’s this “easy”. I know this book is controversial but I still liked it.

4-stars. Recommend on audio.

Jeanine Cummins is the author of four books: the bestselling memoir A Rip in Heaven, and the novels The Outside Boy, The Crooked Branch, and American Dirt. She lives in New York with her husband and two children.

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