Josh Venkataraman - Eat, Tan, Read

February Wrap Up

February Recap:
4 Books
724 pages
Average Rating 4.0

Because of Jenny 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Three to Get Deadly 🌟🌟🌟🌟
To Be Young and In Love 🌟🌟🌟
Accidental Activist: Justice for the Groveland Four 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

I can’t believe that February is over already! 😲 Although I am so ready for winter to be over. We haven’t even had that bad of a winter this year, but I am just so over it. The cold, staying inside all day, the dark and gloomy sky, so depressing.
But we did have some great reads this month!! Winner for sure is Accidental Activist. I am still working on the review, so stay tuned for that. Because Of Jenny coming in a close second! Both were so good!

Accidental Activist- (Memoir) Young college student becomes committed to getting a posthumous pardon and exoneration for the Groveland Four 66 years after they were falsely accused. This is his story of the four years of dedication and hard work it took to right this aggregious wrong. So inspiring and infuriating at the same time.

Because Of Jenny – (Literary Fiction)
Eric is an 18 year old with severe depression. After a failed suicide attempt, but before he tries again he meets Jenny.
Jenny is a heroine addict, who is ready to become clean. She has friends in California, and a doctor has agreed to provide her with Suboxone, a drug that will help her fight her cravings so she can get finally get clean. Eric offers to drive her across the county to achieve this. Brutally honest book about societal views on suicide and addiction.

See full Review here – Book Review – Because Of Jenny

Don’t Get Stuck in a Genre Rut

When I was younger I used to only read Stephen King, R.L. Stein, Dean Koontz, you get my drift, pretty much thriller and horror only. When I was in High School, I stared my first job as a barista and found my co-worker’s copy of Nora Robert’s novel Lawless. That was my intro into great Romance novels. I very rarely left that comfort zone of those authors though. I had no idea the books I was missing out on.

The past several years I have made changes in the way I choose what books to read and I have been picking up ones that I normally wouldn’t. I join reading challenges that prompt me to choose books outside my comfort zone. We are two months into the year so far and my genre resume has already been so vast, Literary Women’s Fiction, Contemporary Realistic Fiction, New Adult Romance, Literary Fiction, Crime and Comedy Thriller, Poetry, and Non-fiction Memoir.

Here are a few that I have thoroughly enjoyed recently:

My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell – Literary Women’s Fiction, Dark Academia
Memorial Drive: A Daughter’s Memoir by NatashaTrethewey – Non-fiction Memoir
Because Of Jenny by Brad Neaton – Literary Fiction
Accidental Activist: Justice for the Groveland Four by Josh Venkataraman and Barbara Venkataraman – Non-fiction Memoir
Handle With Care by Jodi Picoult – Contemporary Realistic Fiction
An American Marriage by Tayari Jones – Literary Fiction
On Island Time: Kayaking the Caribbean by Scott B. Williams – Non-fiction Memoir, Travel
The Kite Runner by Khalid Hosseini – Contemporary Realistic Fiction
American Predator: The Hunt for the Most Meticulous Serial Killer of the 21st Century by Maureen Callahan – Non-fiction True Crime
The Alice Network by Kate Quinn – Historical Fiction

I hope that this will give you the push to expand your reading beyond your comfort zone as well. There is a whole world out there to explore. Don’t be afraid to check them out.