I listened to this book, read by the author. It is a letter to his mother telling her how he viewed his childhood with her. She is Vietnamese and brought him up in America alongside her own mother. His American father was aware but not involved in his upbringing. His mother is quite abusive to him and he also has a relationship with a boy called Trevor so it is quite a difficult book to listen to, but beautifully written.

Henry and Mudge went to visit Henry's grand-pa Bill. Grandpa Bill lived with other grandpas. Henry and Mudge brought games to play with all the grandpas. Then they went for walk and they found a pond. Then they went back to check with Henry's parents to see if they could swim in the pond. They grandpas wanted to so they all went swimming in their underwear! They stayed in the pool for an hour and had so much fun!

Crawford Hunt is a Texas Ranger. His wife has died in a car accident. He slips into a bad place, so he lets his in-laws take care of his daughter Georgia. Now he has got his act together and he wants custody of his daughter back. His in-laws are ready for a fight. While in the courtroom to hear the decision of the judge someone comes in and takes shots. The books is great. Very interesting with a few twists and turns. I really enjoyed this one.

Elena Ferrante continues with themes of background, growth, and discovery. The story takes place again in Naples and explores the two worlds of the higher and lower classes. The protagonist, Giovanna, is torn between where she fits in and what is the truth.

Second book in the Rock Harbor series. I will finish the series by the end of July. This is an easy read and flows nicely from the first book. I love the characters. I feel like I know the characters and easily find myself engrossed in their lives. This book deals with Bree and her son, whom she found in the first book, alive after a year. Someone breaks into her lighthouse and is searching for something. She and her dog Sampson need to protect her son and find out what they are looking for.

The 5th Wave was amazing. I couldn't stop reading the entire time. The characters are complex, the plot twists are totally unexpected, and the plot itself had a fast pace that gripped me. Even if you don't particularly like books about sci-fi/alien invasion/end of the world, The 5th Wave will change your mind. READ THIS BOOK!!!

Set in a world where Slasher films really did happen, Lynnette is a member of what's known as the "The Final Girls Club." The club is made up of women who meet a very specific criteria - they all were the only survivors of two massacres, and they all killed the person responsible. They meet once a month to support each other and work towards moving on with their lives - until one day one of the members doesn't show up on time. Her monster has come back to kill her. Now, Lynnette is on a race to not only keep herself alive, but to keep the members of her club alive as well. This probably would have worked pretty well as a movie, honestly, but as a book it didn't quite work for me. First, Lynnette as a narrator was awful. She's unreliable from the start, so I found myself utterly distracted the entire book because I was always trying to figure out if I should believe what was happening. I know a lot of books use the unreliable narrator trope now, but it was a difficult sell in this book. I would have much preferred if a different narrator (Heather?) was responsible for telling us what was going on. Or if Lynette's character was tweaked a little. Second, the plot twists were not really plot twists. It was really easy to figure out who was going to be responsible for the killings happening, so that was disappointing. The twists didn't leave me going "oh wow!" so much as "ugh, finally, we got there." My third issue is that it seems like Grad Hendrix either didn't keep track of everything, didn't want to explain everything, or thought that no one would pay attention. For example, at one point a character is mentioned to have a cell phone that they are going to use to keep track of Amber Alerts and to check in with every five hours. Three sentences later, they say that they're going to keep the phone turned off and only have it on for the check in times. How...how are you checking for Amber Alerts? Why did you make a big deal about checking for Amber Alerts, only to then say you're turning the phone off and not getting them anyway? In another scene, Lynnette is dictating a message for someone to send. She claims that it was a difficult process, and that she had to spell out a lot of the words. The example given is using "p as in Paul which is fascinating, because the only words with "p" in her message are purchased, photos, people, and peace. Am I really supposed to believe that someone couldn't spell one of those words without help? Really? I could go on and on, but honestly? I had high hopes for this book. The summary sounded great, and I was really excited to read it. I'm glad I didn't spend money on it. The writing is just not good.

I could not put this book down. I loved how this book went back and forth from 1700's to our time period today. I saw how the author was trying to connect the past and present. I wish I could re-read this book again, a must read for historical fiction fans!

Fixie loves her life, but her mom needs a break. So her brother and sister help her take of her dad's prized possession his store. Fixie realizes that her siblings do not see the store the way she does. Which causes some friction. A chance meeting in a coffee shop. Fixie saves Sebastian's laptop, he gives her an IOU. Will she ever use it and how. Will this chance meeting help her life. Great Quick read by Sophia Kinsella.

I actually listened to this book and am glad I did as, Lin-Manuel Miranda actually hums, sings and raps through quite a lot of his sections. The story is about how his play In The Heights was first a small off Broadway production, then how it progressed to Broadway and finally to a film which is currently out (but delayed due to Covid 19). Each chapter is narrated by one of three people involved in this process and it is very interesting.