Kobo Kono

  It's been over a year since I have posted, it makes me feel like I haven't taken this book blogging serious enough. It seems that no matter what I do I keep coming back to write about books. I find myself constantly cycling through threads, Goodreads, and StoryGraph all in the context of looking at books.     What do I use for reading?       I am currently using a Kobo Clara HD when I am on the move, and a Samsung Galaxy tab (when I remember to charge it) at home. If I am going to be honest, I have been looking at upgrading my Kobo Clara HD to a Kobo Clara Colour. The real question is do I need the same device, but with colour capabilities? no. I don't. Does that stop me from wanting  one? absolutely not. Another device that has intrigued me for a little while has been the Boox Palma. Its pricing is quite steep for what it is. Starting at $279.00 (USD) I feel like it would be too pricey for what I would use it for. I actually haven't looked at the specs, but I don'

Natural Beauty By Ling Ling Huang This is another book that attracted me based on the cover. I wrote a quick little summary previously about how excited I was for this book's publication. Now that I have a copy in my greasy paws, and I had gotten around to finishing Kunstlers in Paradise I wasn’t so sure this was the next book for me. I looked through the disgustingly growing to ‘be read’ pile and nothing seemed to jump out at me. So I found myself looking back at the first book I thought of reading. "Don't be so unimaginative. This is America. And not just America, but New York, and Helistik. I can be whoever I want to be." The book begins with learning that the protagonist is working at a restaurant as a dishwasher. A Chinese 2nd generation immigrant whose parents share their love for music to the protagonist at an early age. Through their direction, and their shared love for music the main character pretty much becomes a prodigy of music, more specifi

I picked this book up purely based on the cover. I don’t know what actually drew me to the book initially, but when I saw it was a new book set to be published midway through March 2023 I added it to my ever growing to be read pile. Then as I progressed through the last book I finished (The Dark Window by Rachel Gillig) I could not stop thinking about this book. This book had me at hello, and there was no way to get it out of my head unless I actually sat down and cracked it open. What it’s about: This book follows Salomea “Mamie” Kunstler who travelled from Europe in 1939 with her family. When they landed in the United States, they landed in New York and eventually found their way to Los Angeles, where they finally settled.  Present day: Julian Kunsteler is Mamie’s grandson, 24 years old, who has no real direction in his life. He travels from hobby to hobby obsessing about them until he loses interest and moves on to the next idea, without completing the previous hobby before moving o

Starting off with Elspeth Spindle, a resident of Burden, who as a child wandered into the mist that seems to always be around the township. While in the mist Elspeth ended up contracting "the fever". It's said that people who survive the fever end up having a magical ability afterwards.  From the beginning of the story Elspeth has what seems like someone/something else in her mind, she can hear a voice. More than her own thought process, but less than another person. The magic caused by the mist is something that is feared by commoners, and is something that is hunted and by the ‘physicians’ locked up and destroyed. As I progressed into the book there is an introduction to two different sources of magic. There is magic that comes from surviving the fever, which is not completely understood. The other sources  of noninfected/fever magic is provided by enchanted cards, each card has a different colour, and symbol associated with their ability, and detriment. &

I was looking back through my twitter account posts over the past year or so,From time to time I also enjoy posting about 4 books I have become quite excited about. Here are the 4 historical fiction books that I intended to keep an eye out for this year. I have already found a couple and finished them. This Twitter post, I posted this  in late February, and i mean I am still excited to find these books. Anyways here it is. i. Code Name Sapphire By Pam Jenoff It's a book by Pam Jenoff, and that right there means it generally is going to be top drawer. I thoroughly enjoyed The Lost Girls of Paris which is the unrelated book published by Pam Jenoff.  I have actually managed to get my trash panda paws on a copy this book. This book was unfortunately only mediocre for me, I didn't love it, but at the same time I also did not hate it either. By no means was it anything like The Lost Girls of Paris.  The book stars off with Hannah's entire world comes crashing down when she wit

Okay, so I think I have finally sat down and chosen a book that has piqued my interest. I have been humming and hawing, attempting to decide what genre would be next.  I am very much a mood reader, this creates a challenge in finding my next read. I can be excited for a book publication, but when I find that I have a moment, or a perfectly time reading gap,  I may not actually be in the mood to read that book. This all means that I have an aggressively growing to #toberead pile. I have a book from one of my favorite authors, that was published last year, I paid to have the book on publication day, and I have yet to read it. Everytime I attempt to read the book I read the first chapter, and end up putting the book down to read a completely different genre. I suppose at the same time I find myself discovering and rediscovering some old and new favorite genres. I started reading mostly police procedurals, it specifically had to be police procedurals, and nothing else. I found that the l

The main premise of the book is about a book shop owner Ashlyn Greer, a rare book seller, who has this special ability to feel the feelings left on a book from an owner through what she calls echos. One day as she is going through a box of old books that a friend came across, she ends up feeling a great despair emanating from a particular book. After reaching out to the person she recieved the book from she finds out there there are 2 devastating novels both with feelings of despair associated with the echos given off from the books. The story is 2 sets of stories intertwined with unfolding as it is actualy happening, with a more of a realtime feel, and the other is taken from the found novels leaving a whole world of historical mystery.  I found that as I was reading the book, I was more interested in Ashlyns story, rather than the stories told by the authors from the discovered novels. All in all I did not find the main story and the other two discovered from the books too far fetc

This book wasn't my typical historical fiction, World War II resistance fighters sort of story. This book was for sure considered a slow burning book. I spent so much time while reading this book, wondering when things are going to get a little more spicy. I was unfortunately a little disappointed with the results. With that being said though I still managed to get my way through the book (took a little longer than expected),but I also never experienced a moment while I was reading this book where I had to talk myself out of quitting reading this one and move on. So it was okay for me.      So after the many mixed emotions I have toward this book I gave it a standard 3/5 stars on my good reads account. Reflectively meaning it's not the worst book in the genre I have read, but I felt it wasn't anything to run to all my fellow readers and become the Opra of this book. (YOU GET A COPY. YOU GET A COPY. WE ALL GET COPIES!!!).         So the story follows Oliva Olsen a

To be absolutely honest, I didn’t even know of this books existence, but I picked this one up because it was recommended to me by a fellow mystery thriller addict. I am by no means disappointed in this book. I’m finding that I am having a hard time putting this book down. With every twist and turn, this book is leaving my voracious appetite demanding more. I am a little worried what’s going to happen when I finish the book, am I going to find myself needing more than what’s to be consumed? I suppose that’s a problem that will have to be sorted out by future me. Now that I have actually finished this book, I have found it was amazing from beginning all the way to the end. I consumed this book way too quickly for my own good, I rated this book 4/5 on my goodreads account. Some of the twists and turns I feel were a little obvious. By no means does that mean that I saw all of them coming. There were certainly times where I had to put the book down for a minute to attempt to p

  The Room on Rue Amélie by Kristin Harmel This book was fantastic! The Room on Rue Amalie. .. I discovered this book while I was travelling through the United States for a couple of days . We were stopped in a Target and I pretty much hung around with the girlfriend long enough to realize they sold books there. Naturally I made a b-line for the section as soon as I realized. I got to the section and ended up finding 2-3 other books to add to my outrageously out of control reading list. Hopefully my ‘to be read’ shelf doesn’t become a place where books go to die. Anyways, I read the book summery and it hit almost all of the points that would make it to my reading list, and perhaps to the forefront of a 450 book to be read list.   This book is recommended for readers who enjoyed Kristin Hannah’s The Nightingale , and Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly which were both books that I thoroughly enjoyed.   Both books that couldn’t p

  The Lost Girls of Paris by Pam Jenoff Set to release January 29, 2019 I have been waiting for months for this book . I have been scouring Netgalley , and applying for advanced copies, and entering into contests to perhaps get my hands on one of the few circulating copies of this book. When I was finally approved to a copy via Netgalley, the formatting was unfortunately not a decent match for my Kobo. So after the long expected wait I have managed to get my greasy paws on a copy, and I have already streamlined this book to be read within the next book or two. Initially while I was doing my research into the release date of this book was saying it was set to be released on February 5 th , but as I was finishing up Broken Angels by Gemma Livewire I found out that the actual release date was January 29 th .             This book starts in 1946 Manhattan with Grace Healey coming to terms and finding some place to rebuild her life after