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2021 Book 5 – A Book About a Social Justice Issue

I chose this book for my next read in honor of Black History Month.

How a young college film student became an activist for the exoneration for The Groveland Four, 66 years after their miscarriage of justice.

“You still have innocent people, innocent black men, every day being rejected, being dejected and being put in prison for things they have not done. So we’ve got to find a way to correct the injustice that a group of people have been experiencing for years.” – Carol Greenlee

“It takes but one person, one moment, one conviction, to start a ripple of change.” – Donna Brazile

Blurb:
This book will take you through my incredible four year quest for justice for The Groveland Four and teach you how to pursue your own causes, whatever they may be. It is a primer for positive action, a journey through Florida’s past as well as its future. Some of the things you will learn: everything takes more time than you think, nothing ever goes according to plan, help can come from unexpected places, time is on your side, everyone is connected to everyone else, you can reach your tipping point for success and not even realize it, your goals can change along the way, and flexibility is key. Let’s get started, shall we?

***Proceeds from the sale of this book will be used to establish “The Charles Greenlee Memorial Scholarship” to benefit a child with an incarcerated parent.

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Book Review – Because Of Jenny

Because of Jenny

Because of Jenny by Brad Neaton

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Literary Fiction

CW: depression, suicide, drug use and addiction, sexual assault

I was gifted this book by the author. This is an honest review.

“People would rather continue believing that addicts, the homeless, those struggling with mental illness—the outcasts ever-present on the outskirts of society—are just complicit denizens, thereby minimizing the complexities at the root of social issues and negating any self-imposed moral pressure to empathize.”

“There’s no hyperbole here: I was being asphyxiated by a depression that pervaded every aspect of my life, and I was lost in that depression the same way someone gets lost in the woods at night—with no fixed reference point and every direction leading nowhere.”

Eric is an 18 year old with severe depression and beyond the verge of suicide. After a failed first attempt, he knows he will try again but before he does he decides to pay for some female company. He responds to an online add and meets Jenny. Jenny is a heroine addict, desperate for money, her friend convinces her to put the add online, it’s easy money.

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2021 Book 4 – The shortest book (by pages) on your TBR list

This is a book of poetry, 41 pages. Definitely my shortest book.
I chose to read this one next as I am still in the Valentines weekend mood. Carying on the LOVE theme.

Blurb:
Are you in a relationship and are struggling to make a decision? Read this now for some inspiration.

Very interesting…. I’m not struggling in my relationship but I’m intrigued as to what this poetry is all about as the description is pretty vague and reviews are all over the place.

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January Wrap Up

January Wrap Up:
3 Books
1,292 pages
Average Rating: 4.33

My Dark Vanessa 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Handle With Care 🌟🌟🌟🌟
The Upside of Falling Down 🌟🌟🌟🌟

Well I am a little behind in posting my wrap up but it’s been a little crazy here lately.

January was a pretty good month for me.  I stayed home and avoided all the madness going on around me in the country.  Having faith that somehow we as a society will work it all out. 

I read some great books!  I was hoping to complete 4 but I feel good about it taking into account how busy I was. 
We added 5 new reptiles 🐢🦎 to our collection.  Penelope (Penny) a Cherry head Red foot Tortoise, Echo a Bearded Dragon, and Ragnar, Lagertha, and Freya are our Shinisaurus Crocodilurus (Chinese Crocodile Lizards).  My husband does an amazing job on his enclosure builds.  So much goes in to getting everything set up for them that it doesn’t leave a whole lot of time for anything else.  😄

My Dark Vanessa was definitely the stand out for the month for me and probably for the year.  Devastatingly beautiful. Enthralled … how can something so horrible be written so beautifully. I was captivated from the start. You don’t want to put it down. Be aware that this contains very graphic instances of sexual abuse to a child, at times it is very difficult to read.  The story goes back and forth between Vanessa as an adult and then as the 15 year girl reliving the juncture that changed her life forever. Definitely one of the best books I have read.

Handle with care is a heart jerker of a book for sure. Written in several points of view, directed toward the six year old daughter Willow who has Osteogenesis Imperfecta, a brittle bone disease.  Her parents are suing the OB-GYN for wrongful birth.  It’s definitely a conversation starter.

The Upside of Falling Down is a cute, easy, breezy New Age romance. Clementine wakes up in a hospital in Ireland with absolutely no memory; she was in a plane crash and she is the only survivor. 

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Book Review – Upside of Falling Down

The Upside of Falling Down

The Upside of Falling Down by Rebekah Crane

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


New Age, Romance

“Clementine Haas doesn’t exist. She died in a plane crash. I woke up in her body, and until I remember who she is, what she’s made of, I can’t claim her life.”

“No matter what people want to believe, life is locked in the past. It’s all we are—a timeline of events that make up a person.”

Clementine wakes up in a hospital in Ireland with absolutely no memory; nothing about how she ended up in the hospital, what she was doing in Ireland, or even her own name. She is told that she was in a plane crash and she is the only survivor. The hospital is surrounded by media waiting for the lone survivor to wake up. When the nurse tells Clementine that her father is on his way from America, she panics unable to deal with the pressure and expectations for getting her memory back. She meets a stranger in the hospital gardens and convinces him to take her away and let her stay with him for a week or so, confident her memory will be back in that time and she will go home.

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2021 – Book 3:  A Book about a subject you are passionate about

I don’t know if passionate is the right word but it is a subject close to my heart. I hate that Depression and suicide is such a taboo topic that gets swept under the rug and people are embarrassed to discussed. Why is this disease viewed any different that diabetes or high blood pressure? Why does society look at people with depression and anxiety as weak? This is unexceptable and needs to change!

A big thank you to Brad Neaton for gifting me this copy!

Blurb:
Eric is an 18-year-old struggling with depression and teetering on the brink of suicide when he encounters a gorgeous, utterly fascinating plot twist named Jenny. They meet in an unlikely way, but soon discover they’re kindred souls. A heroin addict, Jenny is also caught between wanting to escape life and wanting to live. Despite circumstances conspiring against them, Eric takes a leap of faith and decides to try and help Jenny. The two become an endearing pair, connecting through shared struggles and a mutual desire to overcome life’s myriad challenges, and they embark upon an adventure that seems destined to fail.

Funny, irreverent, insightful, tragic, and raw, Because of Jenny explores many of life’s deepest questions while shedding light on what remains a little known epidemic. An unflinching portrayal of addiction, love, and resilience, it’s a book you’ll never forget.

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Book 30: New Jersey

Getting back to Stephanie Plum and Grandma Mazur! I love this series so much, it is so fun and entertaining. When you are in a reading slump or a book hangover, they are the perfect medicine. No matter what challenge I am participating in, I always find room to fit at least one of these in.

Blurb:
Stephanie Plum, the brassy babe in the powder blue Buick is back and she’s having a bad hair day — for the whole month of January. She’s been given the unpopular task of finding Mo Bedemier, Trenton’s most beloved citizen, arrested for carrying concealed, gone no-show for his court appearance.

And to make matters worse, she’s got Lula, a former hooker turned file clerk — now a wannabe bounty hunter — at her side, sticking like glue. Lula’s big and blonde and black and itching to get the chance to lock up a crook in the trunk of her car.

Morelli, the New Jersey vice cop with the slow-burning smile that undermines a girl’s strongest resolve is being polite. So what does this mean? Has he found a new love? Or is he manipulating Steph, using her in his police investigation, counting on her unmanageable curiosity and competitive Jersey attitude?

Once again, the entire One for the Money crew is in action, including Ranger and Grandma Mazur, searching for Mo, tripping down a trail littered with dead drug dealers, leading Stephanie to suspect Mo has traded his ice-cream scoop for a vigilante gun.

Cursed with a disastrous new hair color and an increasing sense that it’s really time to get a new job, Stephanie spirals and tumbles through Three to Get Deadly with all the wisecracks and pace her fans have come to

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2021 – Book 2: A Book about Forgetting

After my last two books, I need something a little lighter, they sure left a stone in my heart that is weighing me down. I think a little romance is just what the doctor ordered. And I love anything and everything Ireland. 💕

I think that we all loose ourselves sometimes, not necessarily amnesia but we get lost in our day to day life and forget who we are inside.
That is what I am focusing on this year. No “goals” to stress over, just doing things that make me happy.

Blurb:
For Clementine Haas, finding herself is more than a nice idea. Ever since she woke up in an Irish hospital with complete amnesia, self-discovery has become her mission.

They tell her she’s the lone survivor of a plane crash. They tell her she’s lucky to be alive. But she doesn’t feel lucky. She feels…lost.

With the relentless Irish press bearing down on her, and a father she may not even recognize on his way from America to take her home, Clementine assumes a new identity and enlists a blue-eyed Irish stranger, Kieran O’Connell, to help her escape her forgotten life…and start a new one.

Hiding out in the sleepy town of Waterville, Ireland, Clementine discovers there’s an upside to a life that’s fallen apart. But as her lies grow, so does her affection for Kieran, and the truth about her identity becomes harder and harder to reveal, forcing Clementine to decide: Can she leave her past behind for a new love she’ll never forget?

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Book Review – Handle with Care

Handle with Care

Handle with Care by Jodi Picoult

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Contemporary Realistic Fiction

“If you chose to stop a loved one’s suffering—either before it began or during the process—was that murder, or mercy?”

“I would never have wished for an able-bodied child, because that child would have been someone who wasn’t you.”

“You were Willow, pure and simple. There was nobody else like you. I knew it the moment I first held you, wrapped in foam so that you wouldn’t get hurt in my arms: your soul was stronger than your body, and in spite of what the doctors told me over and over, I always believed that was the reason for the breaks. What ordinary skeleton could contain a heart as big as the whole world?”

Six year old Willow was born with Osteogenesis Imperfecta, which is a brittle bones disease. She will have several hundred broken bones in her, most likely, short life, among an array of other disabilities that will cause pain and constant struggle. Her parents, Charlotte and Sean love her just the way she is, she is perfect. After a nightmarish trip to Disney World, they visit a lawyer who advises them they have a case for a lawsuit, just not the kind they were thinking, a wrongful birth suit.

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