Find Your Calm: A Workbook to Manage Anxiety by Jaime Zuckerman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book has specific and helpful exercises to work with your anxiety. It has different parts focusing on different areas like being with your body or sitting with the hard things. I have found some of the exercises to be tremendously helpful and others to be not as significant but that’s what’s so great about the book: you can use the items that are helpful to you and you do not need to read it sequentially for it to be beneficial. If you suffer from bouts of anxiety, I am confident you will find some of these exercises to be beneficial.
with gratitude to edelweiss and Wellfleet Press for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
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The Urban Sketching Handbook Spotlight on Nature: Tips and Techniques for Drawing and Painting Nature on Location by Virginia Hein
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I love the Urban Sketching books and this one is no exception. This particular one focuses on drawing nature. It has different sections focusing on incorporating nature into your sketches, teaching you how to draw specific elements of nature and then lots of inspiration and examples. It has a lot of technical examples and walkthroughs for drawing different trees, etc. As someone who really enjoys drawing nature, I’ve loved having both the inspiration and the technical instruction in this book.
with gratitude to netgalley and Quarry Books for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
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The Wilderwomen by Ruth Emmie Lang
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
“Because I hate my hair.” Like most teenage girls, she meant herself, but hair is easier to change.
I read and loved Ruth Emmie Lang’s previous novel so I was really excited to read this one and it did not disappoint. This is the story of two sisters, Zadie and Finn, who go in search of their mother, Nora, who went missing five years ago. Finn is about to go to college, and has decided that she needs to go searching for her mother before she can make a final decision around her adoption and convinces Zadie to take this unplanned trip across the country.
Finn and Zadie both have abilities that make them a bit unusual. Finn can see/feel bits of people’s discarded memories and Zadie can sense things that haven’t happened yet. The magical realism in this book was wonderful and created some lovely characters and texture and depth that I really enjoyed.
I loved the sibling relationship, especially Zadie who was so layered and real and struggling. This beautiful book is about what it means to belong, about family, sisterhood, determination, and friendship.
Lang’s writing is lyrical and beautiful. This book was a joy to read.
with gratitude to netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
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In My Dreams I Hold a Knife by Ashley Winstead
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
3,5 stars. Interesting but also a bit predictable. Ok mystery.
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Nevada by Imogen Binnie
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Loved this story of a transgender woman, Maria, who decides to take a cross-country trip after losing both her job and her relationship in one day. It’s an excellent look into some of the issues transgender folk experience, told in a clear, engrossing style. I loved it.
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Nuclear Family by Joseph Han
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
What an interesting book. This is about a dysfunctional Korean family who is running a restaurant in Hawaii. their oldest son runs into the demilitarized zone when he’s in Korea (while inhabited by his grandfather’s spirit) and it wreaks havoc with the family. So much about the history of Korea and Hawaii. This was a very interesting and engrossing read.
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The Secret Life of Albert Entwistle by Matt Cain
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
3.5 stars.
Sweet, touching story of Albert who finally decides to open up and live the life he wishes he had been brave enough to live. Wonderful, sweet story.
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Nora Goes Off Script by Annabel Monaghan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I read this in one swallow. It was super fun, lighthearted but sweet and just a really enjoyable summer read. If you want something light and fun, I highly recommend this one.
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Billie Starr’s Book of Sorries: A Novel by Deborah E. Kennedy
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Billie Starr’s mom has made a lot of mistakes in her life. She’s always saying she’s sorry. She’s trying to make better choices but keeps getting caught up in things she doesn’t mean to. There was parts of this book that I really enjoyed. I liked Billie Starr and wish there was a bit more of her in the story. I liked the best friend and the next door neighbor. But some of the story didn’t make sense to me. Why would she not have gone back for her raincoat this whole time? Even though I understood how that circled back in the end, I couldn’t understand someone who wouldn’t go back to get her things. She just seemed to be jumping from one unwise decision to another. There were a lot of characters to keep track of and many of them didn’t feel as fleshed out as they could have been. Similarly the sub-plot lines came and went and didn’t all feel relevant. I still enjoyed the time I spent with it.
with gratitude to netgalley and Flatiron Books for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
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Signal Fires by Dani Shapiro
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
“By here, he means somewhere on the western edge of the United States. It’s possible to grow up in the wrong house, on the wrong street, in the wrong town, in the wrong part of the country. It’s possible to go to the wrong school. To have the wrong dad. To be pushed to do the wrong things. But it is also possible to survive all these psychic indignities if you have one, maybe two people who recognize you for who you are. His mom saw him. By seeing him, she saved him.”
I loved this book.
Shapiro’s latest explores two families, going through tumultuous times, as she weaves back and forth in time to show us how they ended up here and the journey they took both in the past and into the future.
The book opens up with three teens in a car accident, where one of them dies. And of course, that moment changes the lives of the parents (and the kids) forever. Then it shows the neighbors next door, with their 11 year old son, who decides to run away from home. Then the story goes back in time and it goes forward in time and by the end of the book, you are in love with every single character and your heart has been broken and put back together in a million little ways.
This story is about family, resilience, being there for each other, and marriage. It’s so very beautiful. I absolutely loved it.
with gratitude to edelweiss and Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review
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The Book Woman’s Daughter by Kim Michele Richardson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
3.5 stars
I think the only reason this doesn’t get more stars from me is because I enjoyed the first book so much and this one wasn’t as interesting, to me, comparatively. If I hadn’t read the first one and read this as a standalone I am confident I would have loved it even more.
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projects for twenty twenty-four
projects for twenty twenty-three
projects for twenty twenty-two
projects for twenty twenty-one
projects for twenty nineteen
projects for twenty eighteen
projects from twenty seventeen
monthly projects from previous years
some of my previous projects
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