Review: Small Fry by Lisa Brennan-Jobs, Eileen Stevens (Narrator)

Summary from Goodreads:

A frank, smart and captivating memoir by the daughter of Apple founder Steve Jobs.

Born on a farm and named in a field by her parents--artist Chrisann Brennan and Steve Jobs--Lisa Brennan-Jobs's childhood unfolded in a rapidly changing Silicon Valley. When she was young, Lisa's father was a mythical figure who was rarely present in her life. As she grew older, her father took an interest in her, ushering her into a new world of mansions, vacations, and private schools. His attention was thrilling, but he could also be cold, critical and unpredictable. When her relationship with her mother grew strained in high school, Lisa decided to move in with her father, hoping he'd become the parent she'd always wanted him to be.


Small Fry is Lisa Brennan-Jobs's poignant story of a childhood spent between two imperfect but extraordinary homes. Scrappy, wise, and funny, young Lisa is an unforgettable guide through her parents' fascinating and disparate worlds. Part portrait of a complex family, part love letter to California in the seventies and eighties, Small Fry is an enthralling book by an insightful new literary voice.

Review:

Waiting on Wednesday # 221 and Wishlist Wednesday # 221

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine, where you pick a book that is coming out soon that you want to read.

Teaser Tuesday #84 and Top Ten Most Recent Additions to My To-Read List #218

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by Purple Princess of The Purple Booker.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? #238

The Meme Comes From The Book Dare

Books I Read Last Week: 

Review: Shadow of the Fox (#1) by Julie Kagawa

Summary from Goodreads:

One thousand years ago, the great Kami Dragon was summoned to grant a single terrible wish—and the land of Iwagoto was plunged into an age of darkness and chaos.

Now, for whoever holds the Scroll of a Thousand Prayers, a new wish will be granted. A new age is about to dawn.

Raised by monks in the isolated Silent Winds temple, Yumeko has trained all her life to hide her yokai nature. Half kitsune, half human, her skill with illusion is matched only by her penchant for mischief. Until the day her home is burned to the ground, her adoptive family is brutally slain and she is forced to flee for her life with the temple’s greatest treasure—one part of the ancient scroll.

There are many who would claim the dragon’s wish for their own. Kage Tatsumi, a mysterious samurai of the Shadow Clan, is one such hunter, under orders to retrieve the scroll…at any cost. Fate brings Kage and Yumeko together. With a promise to lead him to the scroll, an uneasy alliance is formed, offering Yumeko her best hope for survival. But he seeks what she has hidden away, and her deception could ultimately tear them both apart.


With an army of demons at her heels and the unlikeliest of allies at her side, Yumeko’s secrets are more than a matter of life or death. They are the key to the fate of the world itself. 

Review:

Stacking the Shelves/Weekly Update #229

 Stacking The Shelves

Reviews:

Review: Dread Nation (#1) by Justina Ireland

Review: One of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus

Friday Meme: Things Coming Out This Month That I Want To Read/See/Play # 146

Books: Week of 2/04

Movies: Week of 2/04

Review: One of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus

 Summary from Goodreads:

The Breakfast Club meets Pretty Little Liars, One of Us Is Lying is the story of what happens when five strangers walk into detention and only four walk out alive. Everyone is a suspect, and everyone has something to hide. 
Pay close attention and you might solve this.
On Monday afternoon, five students at Bayview High walk into detention.
Bronwyn, the brain, is Yale-bound and never breaks a rule. 
Addy, the beauty, is the picture-perfect homecoming princess. 
Nate, the criminal, is already on probation for dealing.
Cooper, the athlete, is the all-star baseball pitcher.
And Simon, the outcast, is the creator of Bayview High's notorious gossip app. 
Only, Simon never makes it out of that classroom. Before the end of detention, Simon's dead. And according to investigators, his death wasn't an accident. On Monday, he died. But on Tuesday, he'd planned to post juicy reveals about all four of his high-profile classmates, which makes all four of them suspects in his murder. Or are they the perfect patsies for a killer who's still on the loose? 

Everyone has secrets, right? What really matters is how far you would go to protect them."

Review:

Waiting on Wednesday # 220 and Wishlist Wednesday # 220

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine, where you pick a book that is coming out soon that you want to read.

Teaser Tuesday #83 and Top Ten Books I Meant to Read In 2018 but Didn’t Get To #217

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by Purple Princess of The Purple Booker.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? #237

The Meme Comes From The Book Dare

Books I Read Last Week: 

Review: Dread Nation (#1) by Justina Ireland

Summary from Goodreads:

Jane McKeene was born two days before the dead began to walk the battlefields of Gettysburg and Chancellorsville—derailing the War Between the States and changing America forever. In this new nation, safety for all depends on the work of a few, and laws like the Native and Negro Reeducation Act require certain children attend combat schools to learn to put down the dead. But there are also opportunities—and Jane is studying to become an Attendant, trained in both weaponry and etiquette to protect the well-to-do. It’s a chance for a better life for Negro girls like Jane. After all, not even being the daughter of a wealthy white Southern woman could save her from society’s expectations.


But that’s not a life Jane wants. Almost finished with her education at Miss Preston’s School of Combat in Baltimore, Jane is set on returning to her Kentucky home and doesn’t pay much mind to the politics of the eastern cities, with their talk of returning America to the glory of its days before the dead rose. But when families around Baltimore County begin to go missing, Jane is caught in the middle of a conspiracy, one that finds her in a desperate fight for her life against some powerful enemies. And the restless dead, it would seem, are the least of her problems.

Review:

Stacking the Shelves/Weekly Update #228

 Stacking The Shelves

Reviews:

Review: The Kingdom of Copper (The Daevabad Trilogy #2) by S.A. Chakraborty

Review: The Dry (Aaron Falk #1) by Jane Harper

Friday Meme: Things Coming Out This Month That I Want To Read/See/Play # 145

Books: Week of 1/28


Movies: Week of 1/28

Review: The Kingdom of Copper (The Daevabad Trilogy #2) by S.A. Chakraborty

Summary from Goodreads:

S. A. Chakraborty continues the sweeping adventure begun in The City of Brass—"the best adult fantasy I’ve read since The Name of the Wind" (#1 New York Times bestselling author Sabaa Tahir)—conjuring a world where djinn summon flames with the snap of a finger and waters run deep with old magic; where blood can be dangerous as any spell, and a clever con artist from Cairo will alter the fate of a kingdom.

Nahri’s life changed forever the moment she accidentally summoned Dara, a formidable, mysterious djinn, during one of her schemes. Whisked from her home in Cairo, she was thrust into the dazzling royal court of Daevabad—and quickly discovered she would need all her grifter instincts to survive there.

Now, with Daevabad entrenched in the dark aftermath of the battle that saw Dara slain at Prince Ali’s hand, Nahri must forge a new path for herself, without the protection of the guardian who stole her heart or the counsel of the prince she considered a friend. But even as she embraces her heritage and the power it holds, she knows she’s been trapped in a gilded cage, watched by a king who rules from the throne that once belonged to her family—and one misstep will doom her tribe.

Meanwhile, Ali has been exiled for daring to defy his father. Hunted by assassins, adrift on the unforgiving copper sands of his ancestral land, he is forced to rely on the frightening abilities the marid—the unpredictable water spirits—have gifted him. But in doing so, he threatens to unearth a terrible secret his family has long kept buried.


And as a new century approaches and the djinn gather within Daevabad's towering brass walls for celebrations, a threat brews unseen in the desolate north. It’s a force that would bring a storm of fire straight to the city’s gates . . . and one that seeks the aid of a warrior trapped between worlds, torn between a violent duty he can never escape and a peace he fears he will never deserve.

Release Date: January 22nd, 2019.

Review:

Waiting on Wednesday # 219 and Wishlist Wednesday # 219

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine, where you pick a book that is coming out soon that you want to read.

Teaser Tuesday #82 and Top Ten New-to-Me Authors I Read In 2018 #216

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by Purple Princess of The Purple Booker.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? #236

The Meme Comes From The Book Dare

Books I Read Last Week: 

Review: The Dry (Aaron Falk #1) by Jane Harper

Summary from Goodreads:

A small town hides big secrets in this atmospheric, page-turning debut mystery by award-winning author Jane Harper.
In the grip of the worst drought in a century, the farming community of Kiewarra is facing life and death choices daily when three members of a local family are found brutally slain.
Federal Police investigator Aaron Falk reluctantly returns to his hometown for the funeral of his childhood friend, loath to face the townsfolk who turned their backs on him twenty years earlier. 
But as questions mount, Falk is forced to probe deeper into the deaths of the Hadler family. Because Falk and Luke Hadler shared a secret. A secret Falk thought was long buried. A secret Luke's death now threatens to bring to the surface in this small Australian town, as old wounds bleed into new ones.

Review:

Stacking the Shelves/Weekly Update #227

 Stacking The Shelves

Reviews:

Review: Dance of Thieves (#1) by Mary E. Pearson

Review: The Book of Essie by Meghan MacLean Weir

Friday Meme: Things Coming Out This Month That I Want To Read/See/Play # 144

Books: Week of 1/21

Movies: Week of 1/21

Review: Dance of Thieves (#1) by Mary E. Pearson

Summary from Goodreads:

When the patriarch of the Ballenger empire dies, his son, Jase, becomes its new leader. Even nearby kingdoms bow to the strength of this outlaw family, who have always governed by their own rules. But a new era looms on the horizon, set in motion by a young queen, which makes her the target of the dynasty's resentment and anger.

At the same time, Kazi, a legendary former street thief, is sent by the queen to investigate transgressions against the new settlements. When Kazi arrives in the forbidding land of the Ballengers, she learns that there is more to Jase than she thought. As unexpected events spiral out of their control, bringing them intimately together, they continue to play a cat and mouse game of false moves and motives in order to fulfill their own secret missions.

Review: 

Waiting on Wednesday # 218 and Wishlist Wednesday # 218

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine, where you pick a book that is coming out soon that you want to read.

Teaser Tuesday #81 and Top Ten Most Anticipated Releases for February 2019 #215

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by Purple Princess of The Purple Booker.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? #235

The Meme Comes From The Book Dare

Books I Read Last Week: 

My Favorite Giveaway Wins of 2018

I did this post last year so I though it was fitting to do it again this year! I did not win as many giveaways compared to last year but I got better at actually enjoying and reading the ARCS I won, So, here are some of my favorite ones! I'm also including some of my favorite netgalley arcs. 

Goodreads Wins: 

Review: The Book of Essie by Meghan MacLean Weir

 Summary from Goodreads:

A debut novel of family, fame, and religion that tells the emotionally stirring, wildly captivating story of the seventeen-year-old daughter of an evangelical preacher, star of the family's hit reality show, and the secret pregnancy that threatens to blow their entire world apart.

Esther Ann Hicks--Essie--is the youngest child on Six for Hicks, a reality television phenomenon. She's grown up in the spotlight, both idolized and despised for her family's fire-and-brimstone brand of faith. When Essie's mother, Celia, discovers that Essie is pregnant, she arranges an emergency meeting with the show's producers: Do they sneak Essie out of the country for an abortion? Do they pass the child off as Celia's? Or do they try to arrange a marriage--and a ratings-blockbuster wedding? Meanwhile, Essie is quietly pairing herself up with Roarke Richards, a senior at her school with a secret of his own to protect. As the newly formed couple attempt to sell their fabricated love story to the media--through exclusive interviews with an infamously conservative reporter named Liberty Bell--Essie finds she has questions of her own: What was the real reason for her older sister leaving home? Who can she trust with the truth about her family? And how much is she willing to sacrifice to win her own freedom? 

Review:

Stacking the Shelves/Weekly Update #226

 Stacking The Shelves

Reviews:

Review: The City of Brass (The Daevabad Trilogy #1) by S.A. Chakraborty

Review: Four Three Two One by Courtney C. Stevens

Friday Meme: Things Coming Out This Month That I Want To Read/See/Play # 143

Books: Week of 1/14

Movies: Week of 1/14

Review: The City of Brass (The Daevabad Trilogy #1) by S.A. Chakraborty

Summary from Goodreads:

Nahri has never believed in magic. Certainly, she has power; on the streets of 18th century Cairo, she’s a con woman of unsurpassed talent. But she knows better than anyone that the trade she uses to get by—palm readings, zars, healings—are all tricks, sleights of hand, learned skills; a means to the delightful end of swindling Ottoman nobles.

But when Nahri accidentally summons an equally sly, darkly mysterious djinn warrior to her side during one of her cons, she’s forced to accept that the magical world she thought only existed in childhood stories is real. For the warrior tells her a new tale: across hot, windswept sands teeming with creatures of fire, and rivers where the mythical marid sleep; past ruins of once-magnificent human metropolises, and mountains where the circling hawks are not what they seem, lies Daevabad, the legendary city of brass, a city to which Nahri is irrevocably bound.

In that city, behind gilded brass walls laced with enchantments, behind the six gates of the six djinn tribes, old resentments are simmering. And when Nahri decides to enter this world, she learns that true power is fierce and brutal. That magic cannot shield her from the dangerous web of court politics. That even the cleverest of schemes can have deadly consequences.

After all, there is a reason they say be careful what you wish for...

Review:

Waiting on Wednesday # 217 and Wishlist Wednesday # 217

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine, where you pick a book that is coming out soon that you want to read.

Happy New Year! Teaser Tuesday #80 and Top Ten Best Books I Read In 2018 #214

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by Purple Princess of The Purple Booker.