ARC Review of Tomorrow Will Be Better by Betty Smith

 I've mentioned before that my all-time favorite book is A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith. I was interested in reading more from her, but her books are out of print. However, I recently found that they are getting reprinted so I requested an audio ARC of Tomorrow Will Be Better.

The book focuses on Margy Shannon, a poor Irish girl growing up in 1920s Brooklyn. This is a family saga that looks at the impact of poverty on family dynamics and the idea of the American Dream that if you work hard, you can be successful. Hope towards a brighter tomorrow is a constant theme running through the book.

Something that I thought was incredibly progressive for a book originally published in 1948 is the inclusion of a character is who not really interested in sex with his wife. It is unclear if this character is asexual or a homosexual but either way, that was likely a radical idea to include in this story.

This book is quite sad in parts, dealing with abuse, poverty, and infant loss but the book ends on a hopeful note that things can turn around. My only issue with the book was the pacing. Occasionally she skipped over significant events or rushed through them. While this did not replace A Tree Grows in Brooklyn as my favorite, I really enjoyed this book and highly recommend the audiobook. I gave the book 4 stars.

Thanks to Netgalley for the audio ARC and this book will be published on November 24, 2020.

November Wrap Up #1

 In the first half of November, I've DNF'd 1 book and finished 4.

The book I had to give up on was The Hilarious World of Depression by John Moe. I read 119 pages but found that the book wasn't funny at all, more wry insight to his depression. The book was part memoir and part self-help book which was just not what I thought it'd be. Super underwhelming. I told my husband I'd have named it The Slightly Amusing Book of Depression and he said that's why I'm not in marketing.

The first book I finished was Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth. I read this around Halloween and it was a great creepy read. It focused on two timelines; a past timeline where two lesbians were living together running a boarding school and a current timeline where a movie was being made about the supposedly haunted boarding school. While this book is billed as "horror" I found it to be spooky/creepy but not overtly scary. There is lots of sapphic representation is this book which I liked but some of the characters felt undeveloped, especially in terms of motivations. I gave the book 4 stars.

Next, I picked up Haben: The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard by Haben Girma. This is the memoir of the first Deafblind woman to finish Harvard Law School and she is now a disability rights lawyer. She talks about her early childhood visiting Eritrea and Ethiopia (where her parents are from), going on a mission trip to build homes in Africa, parts of high school and college. Her story was fascinating but I felt like devoting only one chapter to Harvard Law School was misleading based on the title of the book. I wanted more information about her day-to-day obstacles in school. I found it well-written and easy to read and gave the book 4 stars.

Then I listened to Born a Crime by Trevor Noah. This was a hysterical memoir of his life growing up mixed race in apartheid South Africa. I learned a lot about this era and was shocked by the ending of the book . He is a natural storyteller and I breezed through this book in a mere two days. I gave the book 5 stars.

Lastly, I finished my last nonfiction book which was called Lies my Teacher Told Me by James W. Loewen. This was a book that focused on the gross misrepresentation in history books, ethnocentric views, and careful censorship that textbooks go through which purposefully leaves anything "controversial" out of the books. They also present information as if it is the one true fact and that there aren't other possible causes or reasons. I found the book highly informative, although not always enjoyable. I'd highly recommend it to people interested in history or censorship. I gave the book 4 stars.

November TBR

 For the past two or three years, I participated in Nonfiction November. I am doing so again this year. I will likely not get to all of these nonfiction choices but here's what I planning to choose from:

Haben by Haben Girma

Born a Crime by Trevor Noah

Lies my Teacher Told Me by James W. Loewen

Columbine by Dave Cullen

A Square Meal by Jane Ziegelman

The Hilarious World of Depression by John Moe

The Five by Hallie Rubenhold

Fictional choices for November include:

Ring Shout by P. Djeli Clark

Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler

The Library of the Unwritten by A.J. Hackwith

Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth

October Final Wrap Up

 In the latter half of October, I read 4 books.

After loving Stuart Turton's debut book a couple years ago, I was excited to pick up The Devil in the Dark Water. A mystery happens on a boat with possible paranormal occurrences. The famous detective who could figure this out has been arrested and thrown into the brig so his bodyguard teams up with a noble lady to try to figure it out. This book read too long and dragged some in the middle. I also guessed a few of the twists but overall it was still enjoyable. I gave it 3.5 stars.

Then I read a book completely outside my wheelhouse for the Read Harder Challenge. I read It Takes Two to Tumble by Cat Sebastian. This was a queer historical romance between a vicar and a sea captain. The writing was decent and sometimes steamy and the conflict felt real. I gave it 3 stars.

After that, I finished The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab. This is my third Schwab book and maybe she just isn't the writer for me. I knew this was going to be long and slow but because my library hold lists was for months, I made myself read it now. The character Addie makes a deal with the devil for immortality. However, in choosing it, she isn't ever remembered. Then when she's about 300, someone finally remembers her. How and why? I figured it out so there wasn't even a solid mystery pulling me through. Additionally, Schwab constantly repeats things in threes. This became quite annoying. I gave it 2.5 stars and I'm likely not to read her again.

Lastly, I picked up my pre-order of Hollowpox: The Hunt for Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend. This is the third in the series and is about a magical disease that targets specific groups of people in Nevermoor. The writing is so compelling and the themes so pure and wholesome. I loved reading this book and look forward to the next one. 5 stars!

Mid October Wrap Up

 In the first half of October, I've finished/DNF'd 8 books.

I'll start first with the DNF. After 117 pages of Fifty Words for Rain by Asha Lemme, I put the book down. The writing was nice but the story was incredibly slow and I just wasn't in the right mood. I may pick it up again in the future but felt forcing myself to continue might put me in a slump so I decided not to finish it.

I read The Vela and wrote its own review in a previous post.

I re-read Nevermoor and Wundersmith by Jessica Townsend in preparation for the release of the third book in the series which comes out later this month. These re-reads were both 5 stars. I loved re-visiting the worlds and picked up more this second time around.

Eagerly I picked up A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik. This is a fantasy set at a magical school. However, there are no adults and the school is constantly being infiltrated with harmful magical creatures/demons. Our protagonist is incredibly powerful but not well liked and she works hard to find alliances who will watch her back. I loved almost everything about this story, except the shoe-horned romance and occasional YA whininess. I gave it 4.5 stars and am excited for the sequel.

Another new library hold came in so I read The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. The story focuses on a woman who is unhappy with her life so she attempts suicide. While in limbo between life and death, she visits a library which allows her to pick books that contain parallel lives she could've had by making different choices. I was wishing for a bit more sci-fi elements that it actually contained. This read like contemporary and was reasonably entertaining, but didn't leave much of an impression on me. The ending is sweet and the book definitely was uplifting and contained some good messages. I gave it 3 stars.

I finally picked up the poetry collection Perseverance by Raymond Antrobus. He is a mixed race Deaf poet who writes about his experiences feeling like he's on the outside. A few of the poems really impacted me and I will likely pick up future collections. His style reminded me of Danez Smith but with less grim themes. I gave it 4 stars.

Lastly, I read Allie Brosh's new graphic novel Solutions and Other Problems. This was for the most part, hilarious. There were chapters where I was literally gasping for breath. Some chapters are more serious too as she includes some of the difficult things that have happened in the 6-7 years since her last book. My only complaint is that it was a tad too long. Some chapters were just not necessary. I gave the book 4 stars.

ARC Review of The Vela by Yoon Ha Lee, Becky Chambers, Rivers Solomon, and S.L. Huang

 This was a very unusual ARC for me to receive. Instead of being a traditionally published book that I could buy as a physical or ebook source, this book is available via the website and app called Serial Box. I received an ebook copy to read. The book is published as a season and chapters are called "episodes." 

The story is a political science fiction focusing on a sniper called Asala who is called upon to look for a missing refugee ship. She is accompanied by the leader's adult nonbinary offspring named Niko. The solar system is in decline with many planets fighting over limited resources. As they look for this missing ship, they realize there is much more going on than they initially realized. While this is a great story on the surface, there are also important messages about refugee crises, climate change, sexual and gender identity, and racial discrimination layered in the book as well. 

It is odd for a book to be authored by four different people but for the most part it worked. Each chapter was written by one author, each of them taking turns. I could somewhat tell the differences within their writing styles but it wasn't distracting enough to take me out of the story. I gave the book 4 stars and have found out that season 2 is in the works now. I will likely read the sequel.

Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with a copy.

October TBR

 Again, this month I am going to keep my list short. I am still reading a book from September's list as well so I'm only going to add 5 more books to my list.

1. Nevermoor: the trials of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend

2. Wundersmith by Jessica Townsend. I am re-reading these in preparation for book 3 which will be released at the end of the month.

3. A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik. I love magical schools so this sounds great!

4. Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth. This is a great month for a horror/mystery.

5. Fifty Words for Rain by Asha Lemmie

I have a few library holds so I may read more but I'm not committing to more than this.