NEVER HAVE I EVER : BOOKWORM EDITION

 

1) Dropped a book on your face while reading

Yep

2) Hid a book you were reading

No

3) Lied about what you’re reading

No

4) DNF a book

MANY books.  Why waste time finishing a book you hate when you can spend your time reading books you love?

5) Dreamed of a book boyfriend

Lookin' at you Ponyboy Curtis, with Gilbert Blythe on the sly

6) Complained about a book turned movie

Do not ever ask me about the first version of The Time Travelers' Wife.  You will get an angry lecture that culminates in me just grrr-ing for about five minutes.

7) Said the movie was better

Forrest Gump.  The book was TRASH

8) Cried while reading

Of course.  If you don't loose your shit when Matthew Cuthbert dies you are completely soulless and dead inside

9) Went over your book budget

I don't have a specific budget for books.  I buy used as cheap as I can.                    Less $$$ = Books ++++

10) Made someone read your favorite book

No.  My favorite book is To Kill a Mockingbird, so most people had to read it for school

11) Fangirled over an author

Not publicly

12) Waited up for a book to hit your kindle

Nope

13) Followed your favourite author online

No.  Do not do social media

14) Pulled out your kindle at a party

Do not attend parties, but I have no shame about reading anywhere, anytime

15) Gone to a book signing

Yes.   Haven Kimmell came to a coffee shop in my town.  She was amazed to hear I grew up in a small town not too far from where she grew up in Indiana.  Her brother lives a few towns from where I used to live in Wyoming

16) Joined a book club

No.  Wine and wrong opinions don't interest me

17) Laughed out loud at a book

Yes

18) Got an ARC (Advanced Reader Copy)

I review for Netgalley, so yes

19) Read a taboo trope

No

20) Missed a meal so you could read

Eat while reading.  That's why PopTarts were invented

21) Waited in your car to read

Not my car, but yes

22) Listen to an audiobook

Nope

23) Messaged an author online

No

24) Took a selfie with an author

No

25) Traveled for a book event

Yes

26) Met a book model

Huh? Like some one who models on book covers?  

27) Watched Passionflix

What is that?

28) Swooned over a book character

Mr. Knightley, oh so aptly named

29) Wished to live in a book

Do the Marches need a 5th sister?

30) Wanted to live at a library

Only every day since I took my first trip to the public library at age 5

31) Hated a character in a book

I love who I love.  Fuck the rest

32) Threatened to go “Misery” on an author

WAY TOO EXTREME. An author does not write their books just for you

33) Hugged or kissed a book

What am I, your Grandma? Full penetration all the way.  And I don't stop till that book has been TOTALLY read.  I leave those books quivering, begging for a re-read

34) read a later book in a series – before reading the first book.

No

35) burned a book.

Yeah,  just the other day when I was hanging out with this fireman ...

36) read a book I knew I would hate.

NO! WHAT MASOCHIST DOES THIS?

37) written a fanfiction about my favorite books

does Sam-I-Am porn count?

38) loved a book when I was young, yet hated it when I got older

Yes.  A book I read when I was a teen, Princess Ashley.  Oh Chelsea, grow a spine already!

39) dressed up as one of my favorite literary characters

No

40) hated a book by an author I love

Yes

41) gone into a bookstore to buy one book and come out with many more

Honey, I have ruined at least 2 or 3 shopping bags at my local library sale...there is no such thing as buying only one book

42) read the ending of a book before reading the beginning.

No.  I have flipped after a few pages though

43) read a book without the dust cover.

Why is this an issue? All that matters is READING THE BOOK

44) skim-read nearly half the book.

Yes

45) pretended to have read a book that I haven’t.

No

46) seen the movie before reading the book

Ashamed to say, but like, all of Jane Austen 

47) read a history book or anthropology book for fun

I have an issue with this question.  Any one can see something as fun that others may not.  Again, as long as people are READING, distinctions are not necessary

48) picked up a book based on the cover alone.

I don't think just on cover alone...usually title and cover combo

 

49) bought multiple books in a series without having started it.

Yes - 2 series infact

50) kept reading a series even if I didn’t love the first book.

No

51) kept buying books even though my bookshelves are full of unread books.

Yes.  I support my local library at their quarterly sale and take home many books for which I don't have shelf space...luckily the universe invented baskets

52) bought/read a book because of a booktuber/book blogger.

No.  Again, not really concerned about the opinions of others

53) given a book as a shower, birthday, Christmas, graduation, or wedding gift.

Yes

54) thrown away or donated a book you really wanted to keep?

Yes

55) Stayed up all night to finish a book

Yes, a few times

CLEETON, CHANEL ~ CUBAN HEIRESS, THE

This review is my own opinion and NOT affiliated with any other literary entity

Chanel Cleeton's newest novel, The Cuban Heiress, is like if Rebecca had a threesome with Titanic and To Catch a Thief. Set aboard the Morro Castle, two women are tied together by one man - one woman seeks revenge, and the other respectability. Catherine, aboard the ship with her fiance and his daughter, shoots the stranger who randomly attacks her. A charismatic jewel thief comes to her aid. The other woman, Elena, seeks a gun smuggled on board in a trunk. No one aboard the ship has any clue of the real life tragedy that will take place.

In the end both women survive - in more ways than one. I feel Catherine's story was more fleshed out than Elena's, but Catherine's story does include a debonair jewel thief.  Full of intrigue from the start The Cuban Heiress illuminates a real life tragic event and uses the disaster to tell in all too real story of women in a man's world. Hell has no fury like a woman scorned, and that certainly applies to a woman on a burning boat. In the end revenge is exacted, and each woman gets just what she deserves.

WILLIAMS, BEATRIZ ~ BEACH AT SUMMERLY, THE

 

This review is my own opinion and NOT affiliated with any other literary entity

CHALLENGE COMPLETED :

READ A NOVEL ABOUT INVOLVING

A DISPARITY IN WEALTH AND PRIVILEGE

For a smart girl Emilia Winthrop is ignorant of many things on her home of Winthrop Island. The fact that someone close to her is a Soviet spy doesn't sink in even after two FBI agents engage her to gather intelligence. Emilia is a lifelong islander, a Winthrop of the family for whom the island was named, the cache and wealth long gone. Emilia's father is the caretaker to a wealthy family, the Peabody's, who summer on the island. Emilia and Nathaniel "Shep" Peabody are lifelong friends who reconcile at the end of World War II, but love and friendship are tested when Amelia aids the FBI and a member of the Peabody family is exposed as a traitor.

Beatriz Williams treads familiar territory, pun intended - (Winthrop Island being the locale of her novel The Summer Wives) and brings back a character from her last novel (Our Woman In Moscow.) I found the novel interesting, though the time shifts sometimes could be confusing. I liked the juxtaposition of the classic Haves and Have Nots story (rich versus poor), with Williams' spin (Communist zealousy versus free political thought.)  At the heart of the novel is a love story that is resolved not quite in a neat and tidy fashion, but nonetheless ends just as it should. Emilia is not always a sympathetic character, but that just makes her all the more real. Readers will see her grow, get tough, and shed her ignorance. With love, freedom, and a new sense of self Emilia is a have after all.