Year in review: The best books of 2016

I've been slacking a bit this year, unfortunately ... according to Goodreads, my total amount of books read for 2016 was 66 books, nine shy of my goal of 75. That being said, most of the books I remember reading were very good this year. Here's a list of my top nine favorites. ...

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Quick Pick book review: The Widow of Wall Street, by Randy Susan Meyers

Opening lines: Phoebe never hated her husband more than when she visited him in prison. The preceding nightmare of ordeals—eleven hours hauling a suitcase by bus, train, and cab, her muscles screaming from the weight—were the coming attractions of the misery she faced...

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Quick Pick book review: Love and First Sight, by Josh Sundquist

Opening lines: Vice Principal Larry Johnston extends his hand.To clarify: I don't see this. I hear the swish of his shirtsleeve. Reason I picked up the book: I'm a fan of YA novels, and this one sounded different since it focuses on a teen who has been blind since...

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Quick Pick book review: The Circle, by Dave Eggers

Opening lines: My God, Mae thought. It's heaven.The campus was vast and rambling, wild with Pacific color, and yet the smallest detail had been carefully considered, shaped by the most eloquent hands. On land that had once been a shipyard, then a drive-in movie theater,...

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Book Review and GIVEAWAY: Everything You Want Me to Be, by Mindy Mejia {ends 12/20}

Most people think that acting is make-believe. Like it's a big game where people put on costumes and feign kisses or stab wounds and they pretend to gasp and die. They think it's a show. They don't understand that acting is becoming someone else, changing your thoughts and needs...

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Quick Pick: The Real Liddy James, by Anne-Marie Casey

Opening lines: Liddy knew Mrs. Vandervost had been crying because she emerged from the corridor bathroom with her sunglasses on.  Reason I picked up the book: The synopsis sounded interesting, and it was available on NetGalley.  And what's this book about? An...

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Quick Pick: My Not So Perfect Life, by Sophie Kinsella

Opening lines: First: it could be worse. As commutes go, it could be a lot worse, and I must keep remembering this. Second: It's worth it. I want to live in London; I want to do this; and commuting is part of the deal. It's part of the London experience, like Tate...

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Book Review and GIVEAWAY: Livia Lone, by Barry Eisler {ends 11/27}

It was the end of the rice harvest when the men came to the village and took Livia and her sister Nason. Livia was thirteen. Nason was eleven. Their parents had sold them.  I have never read any of Barry Eisler's novels before, but this one was very good; based on this...

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Book Review and GIVEAWAY: Good Behavior, by Blake Crouch {ends 11/8}

She sipped her drink and stared at the napkin the barkeep had left on the table. Four handwritten four-digit numbers. Took her thirty seconds to memorize them, and a quick look around confirmed what she had hoped—the window washers and the hotel guests remained locked and absorbed...

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Book Review and GIVEAWAY: The Survivor's Guide to Family Happiness, by Maddie Dawson {ends 11/3}

Of course there were other things. He snored sometimes. He left his toothbrush on the sink. He left little balls of socks in the living room. But the main thing wrong was that he'd had so much--well, so much life before me He'd watched his wife give birth twice, and he'd had...

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Book Review: The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett, by Chelsea Sedoti

Opening lines: The first thing that happened was Lizzie Lovett disappeared, and everyone was all, "How can someone like Lizzie be missing?" and I was like, "Who cares?" A few days later, there was talk about Lizzie maybe being dead, and it was still kinda boring, but...

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Book Review and GIVEAWAY: Fractured, by Catherine McKenzie {ends 10/16}

John He wants me to tell them about that morning. I've done that before. Told the police, Detective Grey, and his sidekick, more than once. I've read over my statement enough times to memorize it, but now I have to put it away. I have to forget that this is a repeat and tell...

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Book Review and GIVEAWAY: Small Great Things, by Jodi Picoult {ends 10/14}

Ruth "I don't want her or anyone who looks like her touching my son," the father interrupts, and he folds his arms across his chest. He's pushed up his sleeves while I was out of the room. Running from wrist to elbow on one arm is the tattoo of a Confederate flag. Marie...

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Book Review and GIVEAWAY: Beautiful, by Christina Lauren {ends 10/11}

I don't know what I would have done with a man like Jensen back in my real life.  Would I have been able to let him in? Or would I have been all chatter and booze, jokes and chaos? Would he even have looked at me, with my every-colored hair, vibrant bird tattoo, and wildly...

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Book Review and GIVEAWAY: Triple Love Score, by Brandi Megan Granett {ends 10/3}

Vegetarian, Montessori School Teacher, vitamin crazy, Suburu driving, Oregon living. Hipster, she thought, a health-nut hipster. A far cry from the boy she remembered. And until the morning, she thought she really liked him. Not that she had ever stopped liking him. It was more...

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GIVEAWAY: Piper, Once & Again, by Caroline E. Zani {ends 9/18}

Piper, Once & Again was published in paperback this past July, and I have a chance for one of my lucky readers to win a copy, courtesy of the author! If you don't want to wait to win a copy, too, you can purchase your copy here. Official synopsis: Longing for something...

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GIVEAWAY: The Jungle Book (2016) on Blu-ray/DVD {ends 9/7}

The Jungle Book is out on Blu-ray and DVD today, August 30th, and I have the chance for one of my lucky readers to win a copy! I reviewed the movie on my film blog this past April, and I gave it a "Yes" review and 4 stars out of 5. About the movie: Audiences were mesmerized...

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GIVEAWAY: One of These Things First, by Steven Gaines {5 winners, ends 9/5}

One of These Things First was published on August 9th, and I have 5 (yes, FIVE!) copies of the book for some of my lucky readers to win. About the book: From New York Times–bestselling author Steven Gaines comes a wry and touching memoir of his trials as a gay teen at...

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Book Review: The Girls in the Garden, by Lisa Jewell

Her girls both nodded and smiled. Clare felt a brief moment of parental satisfaction - a compromise painlessly reached - before it was overtaken by a wave of nervous energy that went straight through her gut like a storm. Dinner. With strangers. Her daughters finding safe...

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Quick Pick: The Last One, by Alexandra Oliva

Opening lines: The first one on the production team to die will be the editor. He doesn't yet feel ill, and he's no longer out in the field. He went out only once, before filming started, to see the woods and to shake the hands of the men whose footage he'd be shaping; asymptomatic...

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Book Review and GIVEAWAY: Three Truths and a Lie, by Brent Hartinger {ends 8/9}

It's hard for me to talk about that conversation in the taxi. If I'd never suggested going away, I wouldn't have reminded Galen about Mia's parents' cabin. We never would have gone away. None of what happened that weekend would've happened.  That's what I mean about this...

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Quick Pick: Run, by Kody Keplinger

Opening lines: {Bo}I'm waiting for the sirens.I know it don't make much sense. The police ain't coming for me - not yet, anyway - but I already feel like a fugitive. Reason I picked up the book: My friend Mandy over at The Romance Bookie had a signed copy that...

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Quick Pick: The Way to Game the Walk of Shame, by Jenn P. Nguyen

Opening lines: Before I even opened my eyes, I knew something was wrong. I wasn't in my bed like I should be, surrounded by the cream duvet comforter that Mom and I had gotten from Macy's last month. The fabric under my fingertips was cool and kind of scratchy.  Reason...

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Book Review: Some Women, by Emily Liebert

She'd made peace with her reality, thanks, in large part, to Mackenzie and Piper's friendship.  ... Piper and Mackenzie had become her people. The ones she called crying in the middle of the night. The ones who materialized at her front door at a moment's notice when they...

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Book Review and GIVEAWAY: In Twenty Years, by Allison Winn Scotch {ends 7/23}

"Please don't get arrested," Catherine fretted. "Our parents are all in town! And we're graduating tomorrow!" Not everyone's parents were in town, but we were past offending one another by parsing words. Only Annie's mother was here. And my parents not at all.  But...

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Quick Pick: The Cresswell Plot, by Eliza Wass

Opening lines: I carved my first star when I was six, so by the time I was sixteen there were stars everywhere in the woods. Some of them I didn't even remember carving. Sometimes I wondered if someone else had - Hannan or Delvive or Caspar or Mortimer or Jerusalem....

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GIVEAWAY: Absalom's Daughters, by Suzanne Feldman {ends 7/6}

Absalom's Daughters, by Suzanne Feldman, will be in stores on July 5th, but two of my lucky readers can win themselves a copy! Official synopsis: A spellbinding debut about half sisters, one black and one white, on a 1950s road trip through the American South. Self-educated...

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Quick Pick: The Lovely Reckless, by Kami Garcia

Opening lines: A police officer shines a blinding light in my eyes. "Do you know why I pulled you over?"To ruin what's left of my miserable life? Reason I picked up the book: Kami Garcia is the co-author of Beautiful Creatures, a book series that I really...

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Book Review: One True Loves, by Taylor Jenkins Reid {and a giveaway!}

The voice I hear through the phone is one that I would recognize anywhere, anytime - a voice that spoke to me day in and day out for years and years. One that I thought I'd never hear again, one I'm not ready to even believe I'm hearing now.  The man I loved since I was...

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