Leigh Kramer

Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid {review}

Genre: Contemporary Fiction/Literary Fiction

 

My Review - 5 Stars

If you enjoy oral histories or Behind The Music, chances are good you’ll love it too. You’re basically reading a 368 page Rolling Stone interview but trust me when I say those pages will fly by. I couldn’t get enough of it and I could have easily read more.

The story swept me away. We get to see how The Six formed and how Daisy Jones got added in. And then we get to see how it all fell apart and what the band members, and various other people, think now. It’s sex, drugs, and rock and roll with all the glitz and glam of the 60s and 70s. (Take note: there is a lot of casual drug use and a serious theme of addiction so take care if that is a sensitive matter for you.)

The different recollections were fascinating! It’s so interesting how we can remember the same thing differently and what might impact our memory. The way Reid showed how the band slowly splintered made for compelling reading. It’s easy to see how the band imploded from the inside this many years later but watching the resentments and disagreements and egos build is just wow.

I’m in awe of how Reid built this story. It’s unlike any novel I’ve read before. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about how Taylor Jenkins Reid crafted the narrative. They felt like real musicians, real people. I had to keep reminding myself this wasn’t a real band and this wasn’t a real oral history. But the experience of reading it felt so authentic. Whatever Reid did in her writing process worked seamlessly for me.

There’s not quite a twist toward the end but an development which elevated the story that much more for me. And I don’t want to go into the particulars but I did not expect to have an emotional reaction to where the story went but somehow I became attached to the characters and yes, I cried. No shame. No regrets.

I loved the way the story explored creativity and creative process through both music and songwriting. I’m always fascinated by how a song comes to be and we get a lot of behind the scenes info on who the characters are as artists and what they bring to the table individually and collectively.

Speaking of which, the songs are incredible and I wish I could go listen to them. Instead, I’ll be listening to Fleetwood Mac and The Civil Wars on repeat. Plus, the book has a Spotify playlist that’s fantastic! And it’ll be very interesting to see how this plays out when it’s adapted as a 13 episode series for Amazon.

Daisy is an icon. Karen is fierce. Camila is the glue. The guys in the band are interesting in their own right but really it’s the women that held my attention and kept me turning pages. Basically, I could gush about this novel forever. This will be one of my favorite novels of 2019!

CW: alcoholism, substance abuse/addiction and casual drug use, recovery, grief, death of a loved one, abortion, references to parental neglect

 

 

Synopsis

Everyone knows Daisy Jones & The Six, but nobody knows the reason behind their split at the absolute height of their popularity . . . until now.

Daisy is a girl coming of age in L.A. in the late sixties, sneaking into clubs on the Sunset Strip, sleeping with rock stars, and dreaming of singing at the Whisky a Go Go. The sex and drugs are thrilling, but it’s the rock and roll she loves most. By the time she’s twenty, her voice is getting noticed, and she has the kind of heedless beauty that makes people do crazy things.

Also getting noticed is The Six, a band led by the brooding Billy Dunne. On the eve of their first tour, his girlfriend Camila finds out she’s pregnant, and with the pressure of impending fatherhood and fame, Billy goes a little wild on the road.

Daisy and Billy cross paths when a producer realizes that the key to supercharged success is to put the two together. What happens next will become the stuff of legend.

The making of that legend is chronicled in this riveting and unforgettable novel, written as an oral history of one of the biggest bands of the seventies. Taylor Jenkins Reid is a talented writer who takes her work to a new level with Daisy Jones & The Six, brilliantly capturing a place and time in an utterly distinctive voice.

 

Buy The Book:

Amazon | Barnes & Noble

 

Disclosure: Affiliate links included in this post.

Fallen Star (Starstruck #2) by Susannah Nix {review}

Genre: Contemporary Romance

 

My Review - 5 Stars

CW: substance abuse/addiction, recovery

I zoomed through this story! Susannah Nix’s books are always great but she's really shining with her Starstruck series. This is my favorite book of hers yet!

Scott made me swoon for him! It was fascinating to see what it's like for an actor to try to break back in to the industry after substance abuse issues trashed his reputation. I haven’t worked with people in recovery before but this seemed like an accurate portrayal. Scott has an additional layer of untreated anxiety and it was really interesting to see how this played out and affected his behavior. He doesn’t start off on the right foot with people on set, for some understandable reasons, but it was marvelous to watch him flip the switch and turn on the charm. Especially because of how much Grace wanted to resist that charm.

Grace was a fantastic heroine, well-suited for Scott, even though she wasn’t always sure about him. Her job as a script supervisor was truly fascinating and I loved watching her keep track of all the continuity details. I didn’t know anything about that job beforehand and it’s something I really appreciate about this series: all the movie set behind the scenes info.

Grace and Scott don’t discuss what his addiction means for their relationship until very near the end. It surprised me when I realized this because it’s a pretty big deal. But when I reflected on it, it made so much sense why it happened that way. Scott admits early on that he is not a very emotionally intelligent person. He’s also fighting to restore his reputation so he can have an acting career and he’s scared that talking about the reality of his addiction will scare Grace away. All he wants is a chance.

Grace, on the other hand, is trying to protect herself. She doesn’t believe Scott will want anything to do with her once they’re no longer working together every day. She sees the movie set as a bubble and while relationships may start there, they don’t often have the staying power to continue. She keeps wondering what he sees in her and she just wants to enjoy him for as long as she can. It makes sense not to have a deeper discussion about his addiction, beyond what he shares with her, because she thinks this is only temporary. And when Scott pulls away from her after filming ends and they’re no longer in New Orleans, it feeds both her insecurities and her belief that it was never going to last.

I wanted to implore Grace not to give up on him, just as much as I was yelling at Scott to reach out to her and be honest. Those two broke my heart! But out of this trying time came the opportunity for them to really lay it out for one another and to make it clear why they chose each other. Sure, they’ll have stuff to figure out but I fully believed in their happily ever after.

There was so much angst and longing and yet it was such a fun, engaging read at the same time. I couldn't get enough!

 

 

Synopsis

Grace knows better than to fall for a Hollywood bad boy like Scott Deacon. An arrogant movie star with a troubled past and a big honking chip on his shoulder? No, thank you. He may be sex on wheels, but beneath the charming facade he’s just another cocky jackass destined to make her job more difficult. 

Except... 

The more time they spend together, the hotter the fire between them burns. With every flirtatious smile and brush of his hand, she feels her defenses crumbling. 

She wants to hate him, but instead she’s in danger of losing all control.

 

Buy The Book:

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice 

 

Disclosure: I received an advanced copy from the author in exchange for an honest review. Affiliate links included in this post.

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik {review}

Genre: Young Adult Fantasy

 

My Review - 4 Stars

Naomi Novik builds her stories in such interesting, unexpected ways! She managed to weave in a Rumpelstiltskin retelling with a world all her own, while also exploring the history of anti-Semitism. And maybe that doesn’t sound like it should go together but it absolutely worked. The Staryk king and his people made for a great parallel and I really loved how Miryem was able to turn silver into gold through cunning and then more. She is not what the Staryk expected but she becomes exactly who they need. Her story is contrasted with Irina who is married off to the tsar and he is not as he seems. Both girls are trapped in marriages they did not want, to men who may endanger their people, and this sets up a compelling premise.

What didn’t work as well was the inclusion of six first person narrators, which quickly got confusing. It would have been helpful if there had been some way of identifying the changing narrators, whether their name at the beginning of a section or a different symbol or something. It is helpful that there are three primary narrators for the bulk of the story: Miryem, Irina, and Wanda. The other three are less frequent and one doesn't appear until almost 2/3s of the way through. I'm torn on whether those narrators were necessary or not but in one case, there would be no other way for us to get necessary information to move the plot forward. 

Spinning Silver explored female anger in such interesting ways. While this doesn’t replace Uprooted (Amazon | Barnes & Noble) as my favorite Novik novel, it’s had me turning the story over for days and I won’t soon forget it.

CW: (highlight brackets to see) [anti-Semitism, threat of sexual assault, physical abuse of children, illness, death of a loved one, grief, violence, alcoholism, reference to past rape, murder]

 

Synopsis

Miryem is the daughter and granddaughter of moneylenders... but her father isn't a very good one. Free to lend and reluctant to collect, he has loaned out most of his wife's dowry and left the family on the edge of poverty--until Miryem steps in. Hardening her heart against her fellow villagers' pleas, she sets out to collect what is owed--and finds herself more than up to the task. When her grandfather loans her a pouch of silver pennies, she brings it back full of gold.

But having the reputation of being able to change silver to gold can be more trouble than it's worth--especially when her fate becomes tangled with the cold creatures that haunt the wood, and whose king has learned of her reputation and wants to exploit it for reasons Miryem cannot understand.

 

Buy The Book:

Amazon |Barnes & Noble

 

Disclosure: Affiliate links included in this post.

American Dreamer by Adriana Herrera {review}

Genre: Contemporary Romance, MM Romance

 

My Review - 5 Stars

Do you ever finish a book and just want to hug it to your chest because you’re speechless with love for it? Well, that’s how I felt when I finished reading American Dreamer. That it’s a debut makes it all the more impressive. Herrera is such a welcome voice in the romance world.

Ernesto is a first generation immigrant from the Dominican Republic. He moves from NYC, where he’s lived for 27 years, to Ithaca where his mother and younger sister now live in order to make a real go of his Afro-Caribbean food truck business, OuNYe. He’s giving himself six months to turn his side hustle into a success.

Jude is a white youth services librarian. He lives a mostly quiet life as he’s still processing the pain of being cut off by his family for being gay. He doesn’t trust people to be there for him or for relationships to go anywhere. Instead, he’s focused on getting funding for a library bookmobile, as a way of getting services to children and teens in more rural areas. The library truck will help fill in the gaps of what those smaller town libraries can provide. This is especially important to Jude because he learned to love himself in part because of his library.

You may not want to read this on an empty stomach because it’s guaranteed to make you hungry. I was highlighting all of Nesto’s food descriptions so I can track down recipes. And I’ll for sure be trying to find some Afro-Caribbean establishments in my new town. It’s not just that the food sounds amazing. It’s what the food means to Nesto and his friends and family. How it’s a way of maintaining their cultural roots and it’s a way of nourishing their community in the US. I could not get enough of his philosophy behind the restaurant and what he served in OuNYe, as well as the meals he’d make for Jude.

Nesto and Jude were so sweet together. I loved the uncertainty despite their clear attraction to one another. Nesto doesn’t want to be distracted from the food truck and Jude doesn’t want to be hurt again. And yet they really like each other and so a slow exploration of a relationship begins. The pace was so true to who these men are and respectful of Jude’s fear of being discarded by the person he loves. When they finally do take the next step, it was magical.

The story also delves into some hard topics. Nesto and Jude are both hassled by Misty, a racist white woman. She’s the kind of person who talks about plight of marginalized groups but only so long as they “stay in their place.” She made me so angry and while I wanted her to have more of a comeuppance and it’s true to life that she might not face consequences for all of her actions. But this part of the storyline brings attention to the micro-aggressions and outright aggression Latinx people face. There are also references “stop and frisk” and “Zero Tolerance” being a part of Nesto’s NYC neighborhood experience as a black or brown person.

Jude has a moving arc as he comes back into his family’s sphere when his sister’s cancer comes back. This part of the story could be triggering for some so exercise caution as needed. I can only imagine how hard it would be to grow up in a religiously homophobic environment, knowing you could lose everything if you come out. That’s just what happened to Jude. It was good to see him have a chance at reconnecting, although it doesn’t go as he hoped. And while Nesto is there for him in tangible ways at first, Jude eventually has to face his biggest fear.

Part of the appeal of this book was it’s emphasis on the characters’ jobs. Their work isn’t an afterthought. We see Nesto doing food prep the night before and cooking or interacting with customers during the day, beyond when he and Jude first meet. They talk about the jobs he’s picking up, like serving by a B&B one night a week. Jude’s work is more stationary but he’s working hard on putting information together for the grant application and meeting with his boss and his coworker/best friend Carmen. I loved learning about their jobs and seeing how passionate they were about their work.

The secondary characters are also amazing, with the exception of the evil Misty. There’s Carmen, of course, Nesto’s family members, and the GA Crew, also known as Nesto’s friends: Juan Pablo (Puerto Rican, PT for Yankees), Camilo (Cuba and Jamaica, activist, works for local nonprofit providing services for survivors of domestic violence), and Patrice (Haitian, PhD student.) I’m looking forward to their stories as this series continues!

The author’s social service background really came through in a variety of details, such as Nesto hiring employees from a local nonprofit which helps refugees and immigrants with job placement, and that deepened my enjoyment. It was such a holistic development of the characters and world. It shines as an #ownvoices Latinx story by focusing on a variety of backgrounds through Nesto’s family and friends and highlighting the immigrant experience and what it’s like during this political climate. Herrera’s experiences made for a richer—and more realistic—world and we’re better for it.

The characters faced difficult things but they persevered and still chose each other. The grand gesture at the end was amazing. This is the kind of book that restores your faith in humanity. This is bound to be one of my favorite romance novels of 2019.

CW: (Highlight text to see) [ racism and xenophobia (this is countered), religious homophobia (including a scene where a pastor tries to make the gay character “repent”), family cutting ties due to religious homophobia,  cancer/death of a family member, grief, use of the word “spaz” (this may only have been in the ARC; the author is aware it is ableist language and it was flagged to be removed during final revisions)]

 

 

Synopsis

No one ever said big dreams come easy

For Nesto Vasquez, moving his Afro-Caribbean food truck from New York City to the wilds of Upstate New York is a huge gamble. If it works? He’ll be a big fish in a little pond. If it doesn’t? He’ll have to give up the hustle and return to the day job he hates. He’s got six months to make it happen—the last thing he needs is a distraction.

Jude Fuller is proud of the life he’s built on the banks of Cayuga Lake. He has a job he loves and good friends. It’s safe. It’s quiet. And it’s damn lonely. Until he tries Ithaca’s most-talked-about new lunch spot and works up the courage to flirt with the handsome owner. Soon he can’t get enough—of Nesto’s food orof Nesto. For the first time in his life, Jude can finally taste the kind of happiness that’s always been just out of reach.

An opportunity too good to pass up could mean a way to stay together and an incredible future for them both…if Nesto can remember happiness isn’t always measured by business success. And if Jude can overcome his past and trust his man will never let him down.

 

Buy The Book: 

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice

 

Disclosure: I received an advanced copy from Carina in exchange for an honest review. Affiliate links included in this post.

2018 Reading Year In Review

Am I posting about 2018 at the end of February? Why yes, I am.

This year is zooming by and I'm still catching up. I left the Twin Cities mid-December, made previously planned pit-stops in Louisville and then Nashville, and then moved to Knoxville, TN at the end of the month. Shall I mention I didn't know I was going to move until December 1? Yep. It was a little crazy and it's no wonder I feel exhausted.

Still.  I cannot convey the amount of relief I feel over no longer being in Minnesota. It was such a long season of unknowns and temporary housing. I'm pondering an essay about it all but this update will hopefully suffice in the meantime.

In any case, I wanted to recap my reading year because it looked different from years past, mostly because of the Unread Shelf Project started by Whitney Conard. 

 

Unread Shelf Project Recap

At the start of 2018, I counted all the books on my unread shelf. I wanted to try to read five or six of those books every month to see if I could make a dent in the stacks. Originally, I was going to set TBRs each month and that only lasted about four or five months. It was good while it lasted but I do best when I'm free to read what I want, when I want it, library book due dates aside.

In all, I read 70 books from my unread shelf in 2018! I started the year off with 90-ish books and I’m ending the year with...94. 😂 Here’s to breaking even! I didn’t write down how many books I decided were no longer for me and passed along to a Little Free Library or sold to a used bookstore instead of reading. 

For those interested in the breakdown:
January: 9
February: 6
March: 6 + 1 DNF
April: 3 + 1 DNF (I decided to stop including DNFs after this)
May: 6
June: 7
July: 4
August: 1
September: 5
October: 8
November: 8
December: 7

 

I’m definitely going to keep this habit up in 2019! The Unread Shelf Project has helped me be more mindful about what I buy and even which review copies I accept from publishers. I haven't figured out the balance in visiting bookstores but I tend to be more self-controlled in independent bookstores than when I visit my favorite used bookstores. I dare you to live near a McKay Books and not take advantage of all the deals! 

 

Yearly Total and 2019 Goals

I read 314 books in 2018. If you do the math, that means 244 books came from the library or were ARCs. When I say I'm a library user because I could never support my book habit, I'm not lying!

And because someone will inevitably ask how I can read so much, read this. (My circumstances have changed but much of it is still true.) The game-changer for my reading life has been rarely watching TV. Not going to lie: I do miss my Real Housewives. But most evenings I'm content to curl up with a good book. I'm a prolific reader and I've felt weird about sharing my number the past few years because I don't want anyone to feel bad about whatever their number is. But this is an accomplishment and I'm celebrating my book nerdery!

I have a few bookish intentions for 2019, like using a spreadsheet or tally to track more stats and finishing a bunch of the 42 series I have in progress. I'm also trying really hard to keep up with book reviews, as those fell by the wayside last year. I don't think I reviewed half of what I read and I'm sad I don't have the record beyond a star rating on Goodreads. This year my motto is going to be “shorter reviews in a timely manner.” So far, I'm keeping up and it feels good.

For the record, I think of my blog and Instagram as a highlight reel, generally only sharing my 4 of 5 star reads and the occasional 3 star if it's by a favorite author. If you want to see it all, follow me on Goodreads!

 

Favorite Books of 2018

Just in case you missed my annual favorite book lists, here they are!

Favorite Fiction of 2018

Favorite Romance Novels of 2018

Favorite YA of 2018

Favorite Nonfiction of 2018