Jolissa

I think a good word to describe this book is “unusual” – in a good way!

There were a couple things that made this book unusual:

The writing style. Valente chose not to use quotation marks at all, making the book have a certain flow to it that's fast – like Rhiannon's racing career.

The main characters. Both of the sisters are not your run-of-the-mill female characters. Billie has half of her head shaved and has just come from prison, and Rhiannon is a lesbian racecar driver (one of the only ones in history). Their mother, the famous paleontologist, was also one of the only females in a male-dominated field.

How many other times have you read about cross-country geocaching road trips?

For the full review, visit http://www.literaryquicksand.com/2019/05/review-the-desert-sky-before-us/

This book started out pretty much just as I was hoping. It had all the references to Minnesota things, it was witty, and I wanted to know what was going to happen. I was hooked.

I really enjoyed how Landvik makes Haze Evans the book's main character, even though she's in a coma. Through flashbacks of Haze's and her newspaper columns, you really get to know and love this woman who has spent most of her life writing for the local paper.

What I didn't love was how the book jumps between characters, without giving the reader much of any warning. You might be reading a chapter in Haze's voice, then suddenly you're in someone else's head, and you're not exactly sure whose for a few sentences or so. It was a bit confusing and pulled me out of the story several times.

Also, I wasn't in love with the last 1/3 or so of the story. While I'm all for a warm feel-good read, this was soooo syrupy sweet.

Full review: http://www.literaryquicksand.com/2019/09/review-chronicles-of-a-radical-hag/

This book is so sweet. I LOVE the illustration style! It's similar to what I was reading as a child, and even what my own mom was reading. It's nostalgia for me, plus cute rhymes and a focus on the alphabet, plus fun for my 3-year-old. She loves looking at the critters :)

Note: I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review. Here's my full review: https://literaryquicksand.com/2021/10/review-cedar-creek-critters-from-a-to-z/

Books that are serious enough but have some great comedic moments are totally up my alley, and I ended up finding just that in Fishing! by Sarah Stonich.

The protagonist, RayAnne, is pretty badass, but also unsure of herself in a few key areas of her life. She doesn't feel confident in her role as the host of her show, is rather lackadaisical about her love life, and is working on her relationships with both of her parents.

I enjoyed RayAnne and a few favorites supporting characters, including RayAnne's mom Bernadette (who leads pilgrimages to spiritual destinations for menopausal women) and Cassi, RayAnne's assistant on her show, who dresses like some sort of steampunk teenager.

While I expected the book to be mostly about RayAnne's show, it really wasn't, which threw me at first. The show really plays a supporting role, and the novel is really more about her life in general. Her difficulty with romantic relationships, her somewhat strained relationships with her parents, other family matters (don't want to give away spoilers!), her sense of where “home” is, and her confidence in herself and her accomplishments are really at the center of the book.

Full review: http://www.literaryquicksand.com/2020/06/review-fishing/

Check out my full review at https://literaryquicksand.com/2021/05/review-twice-a-daughter-by-julie-ryan-mcgue/

Twice a Daughter by Julie Ryan McGue was an engaging memoir! It was hard to stop reading when Julie was on the cusp of finding out some information about her birth parents.

It was hard to stop reading this book when Julie was about to discover something about her birth family. It was really interesting to read an account of trying to find birth parents, too, as I've never read an account like this. I know people go searching for their adoptive parents, but I've never read a memoir about it.

I actually felt anticipatory nerves as she was about to discover something. For that reason, I enjoyed it! I also liked her insights into being adopted and wanting to discover her lineage.

The book did get a little slow for me in between those breakthrough parts, and the writing was pretty simple. Overall I thought that worked pretty well, but it also added to the slowness for me at times.

Check out my full review at https://literaryquicksand.com/2021/02/review-the-project-by-stacey-potter/

When I first laid eyes on this book, I was right away pulled in by the pile of letters on the cover. Snail mail is so...romantic? Anyway, the contents of the book lived up to the intriguing cover for me!

The Project is set in Minnesota, which is my state, so that was part of the fun of reading it. It's way up north, but I've been briefly to Detroit Lakes, which is mentioned a lot in the book.

At first, I really didn't like Sabella. She's incredibly ageist, although the author does explain where that comes from (several negative experiences with older folks). Still, she just seemed a bit rude, naive, and spoiled.

In some ways, the plot line was predictable, but I didn't find that detrimental to the overall story. It has kind of a typical “girl with long-term boyfriend meets someone fresh and gets confused” storyline. Plus, you know that she's going to end up getting attached to the “old person” she's made to spend time with.

Yet, there were enough things that happened that I didn't quite expect or thought would go a bit differently, including what happens with the letters. I'm not going to spoil the story here...you'll have to read it if you want to know! It was just a cool surprise at the end that I enjoyed.

Another thing I liked about the book is that I warmed up to Sabella as the story went on. She kind of gets what's coming to her in some ways and has some realizations that I was rooting for. Also, she's rather funny! There were a few one-liners that made me chuckle as I read.

My full review is published at https://literaryquicksand.com/2022/11/review-lost-souls-of-leningrad-by-suzanne-parry/

Alright, so first of all, this book is beautiful, and very, very bleak much of the time. However, try not to let that scare you off, because the beautifulness and moments of emotional clarity were so good!

There's no sugarcoating the fact that this book is hard to read at times. It's set in Russia in a time when Russia was at war and Leningrad became completely cut off by the Germans, and was unable to receive supplies. There was no electricity, so no heat and no food for an entire winter in frigid Russia, and thousands upon thousands starved in Leningrad. If you can go into reading this one knowing that that's what you're going to encounter, I think you might be better prepared than I was.

I do also have to give a content warning for this one about children and death/trauma. There was a part that snuck up on me that made me have to take a pause.

HOWEVER, through all of that bleakness and the worst possible circumstances, there are these lasting relationships and bits of love and redeeming moments that just turn this book into something you want to read, and they're why this book is getting great ratings.

Read my full review here: https://literaryquicksand.com/2021/08/book-review-all-are-welcome-by-liz-parker/

I had some mixed feelings about this book, but overall rated it pretty highly in the end!

Alright, where do I start with this book? Haha there was a lot going on!

Let's start with Tiny and Caroline's relationship. There are seeds of doubt sown pretty much immediately for the reader to wonder why they're getting married, because there are clearly some issues. This was one of the parts of the story I wasn't sure if I liked. It was so immediate that we see that this whole wedding thing probably isn't going to end well.

Tiny and Caroline's families are both flawed in many ways. There's a lot of emotional distance, heavy drinking, and uncertainty about Tiny's choice to marry another woman. It was honestly a little hard to read at times, because of the hemophobia from Tiny's brother and weird, closeted feelings from her father. I really don't doubt though that those tough situations exist in real life, so it made sense to me to include it in the book.

Every character in this book was very flawed in some way, which ended up making it...well, enjoyable. It was a massive train wreck that you could see coming, although there were a few surprises for me that I didn't predict. It's one of those stories where everything gets worse and worse, until finally there's some sort of moment of reckoning.

Although I typically enjoy character-driven novels, this one felt slow at times. The writing was lovely and was clearly really well researched, but I have to admit I was bored at times. There's also some foreshadowing that happens at several points that I found unnecessary...it felt a little like the editor said “hm, this is a little boring, anything you can do to keep people reading?”

Definitely entertaining - read this in a day and a morning! Although, after reading Big Little Lies, I have to admit I liked that one better. What Alice Forgot pulled at all the right heartstrings for me - it really hits the theme of relationships changing with time head on. I wish Goodreads allowed half stars, because this one was more like a 3.5. I just couldn't help but compare it to Big Little Lies, which I found even more entertaining and so fraught with complex relationships. That's why I have to give this one 3.5. If you liked What Alice Forgot, definitely add Big Little Lies to your TBR!

My full review is published here: https://literaryquicksand.com/2023/03/review-the-covenant-of-water-by-abraham-verghese/

As I sit here watching my blinking curser, I'm wondering where to start with this book. Man, it was a lot. Good a lot, mostly!

The first thing I noticed was the time investment I'd need to put into it. I didn't look at how long it was before requesting it on NetGalley, but when I finished the first chapter and my Kindle was telling me it would take 18 more hours to read the whole thing, I just about had a fit

With some authors, you just know what to expect. Right? A Fredrick Backman novel is going to be, well, like a Backman novel. Having read two of Steven Rowley's previous books (Lily and the Octopus and The Guncle), I thought I knew what to expect. But really, I found The Celebrants to be a departure from those two!

For the first quarter of this book, I was getting into it, thinking okay, this is going to be really good. However, at that point it seemed to just keep going without much really happening. This is really a character-driven story...there's not a ton of storyline. At first, that really threw me off and I was pretty unsure about the whole thing. Where was this thing going??

In reality, it's just a succession of the friends' “funerals” that are had during personal crises. If you're looking for a really riveting story, you're not going to find it here.

HOWEVER. starting at about 55%, the whole thing started to affect me more deeply, and I started really loving a couple of the characters. It just took a while for me to get there! I almost felt like giving up on it, but man, the payoff in the second half is so worth getting a little bored in the first half.

My full review is here: https://literaryquicksand.com/2023/06/review-the-celebrants-by-steven-rowley/

This review is published in full here: https://literaryquicksand.com/2022/12/review-hello-beautiful-by-ann-napolitano/

Favorite author alert! Ann Napolitano's Dear Edward is a gorgeous book that I love, so I was really excited to read Hello Beautiful. With these two books, Napolitano has cemented herself among my favorite authors!

I couldn't believe my luck when I was approved on NetGalley to read Hello Beautiful before it comes out in March. I loved Dear Edward so much (read my review), so I was very much looking forward to reading it!

First of all, the relationships in this book are so complicated and messy, but so real and beautiful. The four sisters at the heart of the story all have different relationships with each other, and Napolitano somehow captures each of those unique relationships and how they all fit together.

There's one moment in this book that was just magical to me, when William and Sylvie are sitting together on a bench. In this ordinary moment, they see each other...like really see each other. It's honestly one of the most subtly beautiful moments I've ever read in a book, and I think it'll stand out to me forever. It was just so perfect!

Hello Beautiful is named for the girls' father and how he'd greet them when they entered a room, who ends up not being in the story much, yet is this huge part of his daughters' lives. I really felt that – how a parent can be not present, yet SO present.

The book takes place over decades. Sometimes, books that make such big time jumps are hard for me, because I feel like I need to know what happened in all those years in between that were skipped, but I didn't really feel that way with this one. It was just sort of “normal life” continues, and you pick up where you need to.

Overall, I found this book to be pretty amazing. It was like a cozy family novel that I could pick up and fall into for a while (much like Little Women, which is referenced many times in Hello Beautiful), It's largely character driven, but definitely has some events that happen to move things along. It's about legacy, family, true love, grief, mental health, and more. I highly recommend Hello Beautiful and I think it would make a fantastic book club read. 5 full stars!

My full review is published at https://literaryquicksand.com/2022/08/review-war-and-me-by-faleeha-hassan/

This story had me just rapt the whole time. I wasn't prepared for just how harrowing Faleeha's tale would be!

We start in Faleeha's childhood, and experience the onset of war with her. It's just devastating, the toll it took very suddenly on life in her family, her school, and her community. And then? The war goes on, and on, and on, until she's sure it just won't ever end. So much happens to her family and her city in that time, and while they find a way to live in a way that's fulfilling, it's hard.

Then, when the war is over, the embargo Iraq was put under by the US really made life hard. They didn't have enough food, there was no money, and life was just hard...again.

I won't go through the author's whole life here in this review – you'll have to pick it up to find out what happens to her! I do have to take a moment to reflect on how beautiful her writing is. Even through translation, she writes with such passion and courage, and it's so beautiful. It did take a little bit of time to get used to the translation, but then it just started to flow for me. She's also a poet, which makes sense – you get some of that in the way she writes prose, too.

I think I (and most of my fellow Americans probably) have no idea how the war impacted the people of Iraq. This was such an eye-opening book, and I was just astounded by the author's bravery both in the way she lives her life and for writing this book with such an intimate look at that life. War and Me will go on my shelf of favorite books I've read so far this year.

This review is published in full here: https://literaryquicksand.com/2023/01/book-review-the-london-seance-society-by-sarah-penner/

The London Séance Society started out in such an interesting way: with a séance! It really pulls you in and gets you excited for everything that's about to follow.

There are some real positives about this book. When you read through reviews, you'll see a lot of comments about the dark, gothic vibes, which I'll agree was really the star of the book. It really pulls you right into the whole séance scene and makes you feel like you could be sitting around the table with them. Very cool stuff.

Things got pretty intense at the end with a very dark, very high-stakes séance. The whole book really is leading up to this one big thing (it's talked about through a lot of the story), and the big thing didn't disappoint for me. It actually gave the book back half a star!

Now, the parts I didn't love so much...the pacing. Somehow I was bored at times, and just wanted to get to the juicy stuff. It seems like that's what the author was trying for, as there's some sort of “dun dun dunnnn” reveal/revelation at the end of just about every chapter for a good stretch. That kind of pacing made it a little cliché for me.

There's also one point near the end of the story where you find yourself yelling at a main character, “What the heck are you doing?? Don't you think maybe you should get the heck out of there?!?”

This review is published in full here: https://literaryquicksand.com/2022/12/audiobook-review-locust-lane-by-stephen-amidon/

Audiobooks are still a relatively new thing for me, but I'm loving slotting some in between my other reads. I think mystery/thrillers are especially good picks to listen to, and so far I haven't been let down.

Locust Lane is being compared to Little Fires Everywhere, and I can definitely see that. I also thought it had a Beartown vibe to it, because nothing sinister can ever happen in a quiet town, right? It has this overall feeling like something big is looming – some town-shaking discovery that you're waiting for. Of course, the murder happens right away in Locust Lane, but it does feel like there's something coming.

This book effectively had me going back and forth between who I thought was the killer, and I was wrong up until the reveal. I'm not exactly a thriller reader aficionado, but it was fun for me. I enjoyed the rich suburb problems storyline as well, about how far some rich folks will go to keep their reputations in tact.

What I liked most about the audiobook version was the way the narrator was able to make her voice sound so “hoity toity” for the rich mom. That really helped me feel immersed in the story and added something to the narration. She's also really good at sounding like a shifty teenage boy with something to hide

Find my full review on Literary Quicksand: https://literaryquicksand.com/2022/07/review-the-boys-by-katie-hafner/

This book surprised me and stole my heart.

The Boys is one of those books that's going to stick in my head for a long time. It's also a book that I'm going to be recommending to my friends and family! In fact, my mother-in-law already read it, couldn't put it down, and loved it.

First of all, I loved Ethan and Barb's budding relationship in the beginning. The story of how they meet and date is so sweet, and I fell in love with them while they fell in love with each other.

The story moves on to a struggle with infertility, and eventually the introduction of “the boys” – the book's namesake. Everything changes in the couple's lives when the boys join the family, and it's a bit heartbreaking to watch them fall apart. Barb drifts apart while Ethan gets a bit obsessive. And then, everything changes.

I can't tell you anything about what changes, because that would spoil the story and you absolutely can't know what that surprise is until you read it for yourself. That makes the rest of the book a little hard to review, but I'll do my best

My full review is posted at https://literaryquicksand.com/2022/10/review-in-the-shadow-of-a-queen/

Have you ever picked up a book and thought ‘Hm, this will probably be okay” and then it ends up surprising the heck out of you and being a really great read?

As you may have guessed, that's exactly what happened to me with In the Shadow of a Queen by Heather B. Moore. I went into this read thinking I'd like it well enough, and then the dang thing just quietly came in and made me love it.

Before I get into my review, thank you to Laurel at Austenprose PR for setting up this book tour, and giving me the opportunity to read a book I wouldn't have picked up on my own. And of course, thanks to the author and Shadow Mountain Publishing for the copy of the book.

Now, on to the review.

First of all, royal life has never really been that exciting for me to read about. Maybe I just hadn't found the right book before, or maybe I just didn't read enough of it to give it a chance. Whatever the reason, I went into this book thinking it would be an okay read. It did start a bit slow, but it does start when Louise is a child, and coming-of-age stories are my jam.

Like I said before, I was just quietly taken over by this story as the book went on. I wasn't expecting it at all, but suddenly I found myself so invested in Louise and her search for a husband once she's “out” in society. There honestly isn't a whole lot that really happens in this book, as far as plot. Sure, there are some things that happen, but overall it's pretty quiet and very character driven.

And you know what? I loved it. I was smiling like a total dork while I read many parts of this, and chuckling at some of the little snarky quips that just made it special.

For my full review, visit https://literaryquicksand.com/2022/07/review-now-is-not-the-time-to-panic-by-kevin-wilson/

First of all, what a unique story. There are stories out there about teens who feel like they don't quite fit in, but how many stories are there about what happens when those teens create something that goes so viral and out of control, that life goes nuts?

Yeah, probably not too many.

It was amazing the detail that Wilson is able to go to to show what's going through these kids' minds as they create and obsess about their creation. I felt so much love for Frankie and wanted to hug her, but also had a hard time identifying with her intense obsession with the art that she creates with Zeke. Even though I had a hard time identifying with her, I was still just so captivated by her thoughts.

Also, I grew up in a small town where I could totally see something like this happening...that quick spread and takeover of the town. Small town teenager books just speak to me, since I was one of those.

Meeting Frankie as a “normal” adult with a family was so interesting and added an element to the story that I really liked. She's able to look back on everything she did as a teenager with kind of that hazy clarity that we all have about what happened during our teenage years.

At any rate, this was a book that I couldn't put down.

My full review is posted at https://literaryquicksand.com/2022/10/review-we-are-the-light-by-matthew-quick/

This book made me remember being in college in my English classes, talking about unreliable narrators. Lucas Goodgame really came off as an unreliable narrator, and he has a really good excuse: trauma.

The community of Majestic has experienced a tragedy, and the whole town is affected – especially the people with loved ones who perished in the tragedy.

In short, there's been a shooting in a movie theater, and Lucas's wife was shot and killed. The whole book is told in letters after the tragedy that Lucas writes to his therapist, who doesn't answer any of the letters. So, it's a narrative from a man in a deep depression who's seeing his wife appearing to him as an angel.

The best part of this book is Lucas's relationship with Eli. They're two people who clearly need camaraderie and somewhere to put their weird grief energy (which really is a real grief thing).

The grief and mental health stuff in this book was really well done, which I definitely expected from the author of The Silver Linings Playbook. Quick has a way of getting so deeply into the minds of his characters, and somehow conveying the complexity of their emotion to the reader.

My full review is here: https://literaryquicksand.com/2022/06/review-the-candid-life-of-meena-dave-by-namrata-patel/

I don't typically pick up cute, romance-y books like this, but the summary of this one pulled me in and I decided to give it a try. I do like lighter reads sometimes, and this one looked like it had some real substance to it.

There were several aspects of this story that I really enjoyed, like the little notes Meera finds all over the apartment after she moves in, the boy next door who's kinda cute, and the aunties that start giving Meera a glimpse into her heritage. That was the best part of this book for me – Meera feeling like she might really belong somewhere, after she hasn't really felt at home since her home was violently destroyed in an explosion. She feels like she needs to keep going and moving after that, to stay busy and never have a real home base. With her history and trauma, I'm not surprised she feels like she can't really settle somewhere. I can't imagine feeling like you have no real home to go to!

The other part that I enjoyed the most was the aunties. I loved the food they make, the way they sort of take Meera under their wing, and how supportive they are of the “boy next door”, Sam. They bring so much culture into the story and it was fun to read.

My full review: https://literaryquicksand.com/2022/05/review-upgrade-by-blake-crouch/

Have you read Dark Matter and/or Recursion? Both of those just had me frantically turning pages to find out what happened. Even though I never read sci fi (and probably still won't unless pushed by book club), I just loved the craziness of both of those books. The worlds were so inventive, the science so cool.

So, I started Upgrade expecting to go for a ride. I did, but...

This book didn't do for me what the previous two did, I'm sad to report! I just couldn't get lost in this one like I did the other two.

My main issue with Upgrade was the way Logan continuously describes his new abilities. I know we need the details to fully understand what's happening with his body and mind, but it got to be too much for me, like he was just hitting the reader over the head with “look what I can do now!” kind of stuff.

Now, I'm definitely not saying that this book was awful because of that. It was still a fun and entertaining read! I enjoyed the rivalry in the book, which I won't go into because it's a spoiler. It was pretty epic, though.

I loved this book so much! I won it in a Goodreads giveaway and my only regret is letting it sit on my shelf for months before I got to it. What a treasure!

I laughed out loud at some bits, and my heart broke a little at other bits. The character development is fantastic - I wanted so badly to jump into this book and hug and Cara many times. She just jumps off the page and is so....human.

Cara's story is incredible, the way she manages to pull so much out of life when it seems like she doesn't have anything left. I highly recommend this book - so much so that I included it as an honorable mention in my favorite books of 2022 list here: https://literaryquicksand.com/2023/01/best-books-of-2022-looking-back-at-our-favorite-reads/

I loved this quick read! My daughter is too young to be in school, so all of the perspectives from teachers, parents and students were enlightening. There are a lot of feelings in this book, somehow contained in six little words. I also really enjoyed the longer essays, as they were really well written and just well said. If you're looking for something concerning the pandemic that's quick and funny at times but serious at others, I definitely recommend this one.

Read my full review at https://literaryquicksand.com/2022/04/review-ways-the-world-could-end-by-kim-hooper/

Ways the World Could End is a story with so much heart. Dave and Cleo's relationship after losing Jana is just this tender thing that changes as the story goes on. I loved being inside Dave's head as he thinks about his daughter, and about his relationship with the world in general. He ends up being a bit of a doomsday prepper, and that's where the title of the book comes from. Each time Dave narrates a part of the story, he comes in with a way the world could end.

Kim Hooper gets grief and the aftermath it creates, and that comes across so clearly in her writing. It's those day-to-day details after something so huge and life-changing happens that I can imagine are hard to capture in a story, but she does it so well. Having been through a couple big grief events myself, I appreciate this so much. Those little details are where life happens, and she gets those spot-on.

Cleo is just trying to figure out who she is, both on her own and as a daughter/friend/girlfriend. Such a tender age to lose her mom. I loved watching her grow throughout the novel, and also how she interacts with her dad, knowing he's neurodivergent. The relationship building in this book was just awesome. It gave me all the feels.