Thursday, February 3, 2022

Suzie's Review and Author Guest Post: Square Up by Lisa Dailey

Square Up: 50,000 miles in search of a way home by Lisa Dailey

Publisher: Sidekick Press, (March 30, 2021)
Category: Memoir, Travel, Family Travel, Adventure Travel, Grief
Tour dates: January 17-February 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1734494556
Available in Print and ebook, 272 pages

Description Square Up by Lisa Dailey

Have you ever wished you could run away and leave your life behind? Born on the “Day of the Wanderer,” Lisa Dailey has always been filled with wanderlust. Although she and her husband had planned to take their family on a ’round-the-world adventure, she didn’t expect their plans to come together on the heels of grief, after losing seven family members in five years.

Square Up shows us that travel not only helps us understand and appreciate other cultures, but invites us to find compassion and wisdom, heal from our losses, and discover our capacity for forgiveness, as well as joy.

Suzie's Review and Author Guest Post: Finding Sisters by Rebecca Daniels

Finding Sisters: How One Adoptee Used DNA Testing and Determination to Uncover Family Secrets and Find Her Birth Family by Rebecca Daniels

Publisher: Sunbury Press (September 14, 2021)

Category: Non Fiction, Memoir, Genetic Genealogy, Adoption, Family Reunion, Extended Families

Tour dates: January-February, 2022

ISBN: 978-1620065587
Available in Print and ebook, 125 pages

Description Finding Sisters by Rebecca Daniels

Where does she come from?

Who are her genetic parents?

Who is she?

Does she even want to know?

With almost no information of her genetic heritage, adoptee Rebecca Daniels follows limited clues and uses DNA testing, genealogical research, thoughtful letter writing, and a willingness to make awkward phone calls with strangers to finally find her birth parents.

But along the way, she finds much more.

Two half-sisters.

A slew of cousins on both sides.

A family waiting to be discovered.

With the assistance of a distant cousin in Sweden and several other DNA angels on the internet, Daniels finally comes face to face with her birth mother just months before her passing. Join in on this author’s discovery of family and self in ‘Finding Sisters: How One Adoptee Used DNA Testing and Determination to Uncover Family Secrets and Find Her Birth Family.’

Amanda's Review: Little Creeping Things by Chelsea Ichaso

Little Creeping Things

by Chelsea Ichaso

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this debut by Chelsea Ichaso. It had plenty of twists and kept me guessing.

A girl goes missing and the main character, Cassidy, thinks she might know who is to blame. I thought almost every character was at fault at some point by the time we got to who was actually at fault.

The only issue I had with the book was that the main character was quite annoying at times. I understand that she has trauma and has a kind of victim personality, but it got irritating early in the book to hear her constantly whining about how horrible everything is for her, how everyone hates her, how she can't have what she wants, and her cowardly way of handling everything. I wanted to reach into the audiobook and shake her.

Altogether, I think this is a good story and would recommend it to anyone that likes a teen murder mystery with plenty of twists and turns.

Amy McFadden did a good job narrating this audiobook. She emotes well and makes the characters' emotions realistic and fitting with the story. It was easy to discern which character was speaking and what they were feeling. I enjoyed her narration and will be listening to her again when I get the opportunity.

View all my reviews

Tuesday, November 2, 2021

Mother’s Tale and Other Stories by Khanh Ha- Review

A Mother’s Tale and Other Stories by Khanh Ha Publisher: C&R Press (October 15, 2021) Category: Linked Short Stories, Literary Fiction, Historical Fiction Tour dates: October 11-November 24, 2021 ISBN: 978-1949540239 Available in Print and ebook, 150 pages

Description Mother’s Tale and Other Stories by Khanh Ha

A Mother’s Tale is a tale of salvaging one’s soul from received and inherited war-related trauma. Within the titular beautiful story of a mother’s love for her son is the cruelty and senselessness of the Vietnam War, the poignant human connection, and a haunting narrative whose set ting and atmosphere appear at times otherworldly through their land scape and inhabitants.

Captured in the vivid descriptions of Vietnam’s country and culture are a host of characters, tortured and maimed and generous and still empathetic despite many obstacles, including a culture wrecked by losses. Somewhere in this chaos readers will find a tender link between the present-day survivors and those already gone. Rich and yet buoyant with a vision-like quality, this collection shares a common theme of love and loneliness, longing and compassion, where beauty is discovered in the moments of brutality, and agony is felt in ecstasy.