Weekly Wrap-Up: May

I can't believe May is already over! Well, in less than two hours it will be June, and two weeks until my freaking birthday! How cool, right? So I guess this will be my birthday present for me: revamping my book blog to make it better than it has been and hopefully have more fun doing it.

The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin

If you knew the date of your death, how would you live your life?

It's 1969 in New York City's Lower East Side, and word has spread of the arrival of a mystical woman, a traveling psychic who claims to be able to tell anyone the day they will die. The Gold children—four adolescents on the cusp of self-awareness—sneak out to hear their fortunes.

The prophecies inform their next five decades. Golden-boy Simon escapes to the West Coast, searching for love in '80s San Francisco; dreamy Klara becomes a Las Vegas magician, obsessed with blurring reality and fantasy; eldest son Daniel seeks security as an army doctor post-9/11; and bookish Varya throws herself into longevity research, where she tests the boundary between science and immortality.

A sweeping novel of remarkable ambition and depth, The Immortalists probes the line between destiny and choice, reality and illusion, this world and the next. It is a deeply moving testament to the power of story, the nature of belief, and the unrelenting pull of familial bonds.

Book Overview:

Author: Chloe Benjamin | Series: None | Format: Audiobook | Narrated By: Maggie Hoffman | Length: 11 hours and 30 minutes | Publish Date: January 9, 2018 | Genre: Contemporary & Historical Fiction | Literary Awards: Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Historical Fiction (2018) | Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★  | Recommend: Yes

Queen of the Warrior Bees by Jean Gill (ARC Review)

One misfit girl and 50,000 bees. Together they must change the world. As the Mages of the Citadel fight amongst themselves and prepare for war against the Forest, Mielitta, a despised servant, has her own battle to face. Bastien and Jannlou, the boys who terrorised her as a child, have grown into their status as Mages and she cannot escape them forever.

In desperation, she flees to the forbidden Forest and its dangerous attractions. Her scent angers thousands of bees and, although she survives their attack, she has changed. A strange bee symbol glows on her thigh and her senses are altered. She learns that her connection with bees enables her to summon their aid and gives her the power to shift shape.

This new-found bond works both ways and the bees need Mielitta's help as the rift widens between Forest and Citadel. Can one girl and a colony of bees reunite Man and Nature, or is the split irreversible?

Block Nature out and she'll force a way in.

Book Overview:

Author: Jean Gill | Series: Natural Forces | Format: eBook - ARC | Length: 273 pages | Publish Date: June 7, 2019 | Genre: YA Fantasy | Rated: ★ ★ | Recommend: Maybe

Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah

From the New York Times bestselling author of On Mystic Lakecomes a powerful novel of love, loss, and the magic of friendship. . . .

In the turbulent summer of 1974, Kate Mularkey has accepted her place at the bottom of the eighth-grade social food chain. Then, to her amazement, the “coolest girl in the world” moves in across the street and wants to be her friend. Tully Hart seems to have it all---beauty, brains, ambition. On the surface they are as opposite as two people can be: Kate, doomed to be forever uncool, with a loving family who mortifies her at every turn. Tully, steeped in glamour and mystery, but with a secret that is destroying her. They make a pact to be best friends forever; by summer’s end they’ve become TullyandKate. Inseparable.

So begins Kristin Hannah’s magnificent new novel. Spanning more than three decades and playing out across the ever-changing face of the Pacific Northwest, Firefly Lane is the poignant, powerful story of two women and the friendship that becomes the bulkhead of their lives.

From the beginning, Tully is desperate to prove her worth to the world. Abandoned by her mother at an early age, she longs to be loved unconditionally. In the glittering, big-hair era of the eighties, she looks to men to fill the void in her soul. But in the buttoned-down nineties, it is television news that captivates her. She will follow her own blind ambition to New York and around the globe, finding fame and success . . . and loneliness. 

Kate knows early on that her life will be nothing special. Throughout college, she pretends to be driven by a need for success, but all she really wants is to fall in love and have children and live an ordinary life. In her own quiet way, Kate is as driven as Tully. What she doesn’t know is how being a wife and mother will change her . . . how she’ll lose sight of who she once was, and what she once wanted. And how much she’ll envy her famous best friend. . . .

For thirty years, Tully and Kate buoy each other through life, weathering the storms of friendship---jealousy, anger, hurt, resentment. They think they’ve survived it all until a single act of betrayal tears them apart . . . and puts their courage and friendship to the ultimate test.

Firefly Lane is for anyone who ever drank Boone’s Farm apple wine while listening to Abba or Fleetwood Mac. More than a coming-of-age novel, it’s the story of a generation of women who were both blessed and cursed by choices. It’s about promises and secrets and betrayals. And ultimately, about the one person who really, truly knows you---and knows what has the power to hurt you . . . and heal you. Firefly Lane is a story you’ll never forget . . . one you’ll want to pass on to your best friend.

Book Overview:

Author: Kristin Hannah | Series: Firefly Lane | Format: Audiobook | Narrated By: Susan Ericksen | Length: 17 hours and 54 minutes | Publish Date: April 29, 2008 | Genre: Women's Fiction | Literary Awards: Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice Award (RT Award) Nominee for Women's Fiction (2008) | Rating: ★ ★ ★ | Recommend: Maybe

Next Year in Havana by Chanel Cleeton

After the death of her beloved grandmother, a Cuban-American woman travels to Havana, where she discovers the roots of her identity--and unearths a family secret hidden since the revolution...

Havana, 1958. The daughter of a sugar baron, nineteen-year-old Elisa Perez is part of Cuba's high society, where she is largely sheltered from the country's growing political unrest--until she embarks on a clandestine affair with a passionate revolutionary...

Miami, 2017. Freelance writer Marisol Ferrera grew up hearing romantic stories of Cuba from her late grandmother Elisa, who was forced to flee with her family during the revolution. Elisa's last wish was for Marisol to scatter her ashes in the country of her birth. 

Arriving in Havana, Marisol comes face-to-face with the contrast of Cuba's tropical, timeless beauty and its perilous political climate. When more family history comes to light and Marisol finds herself attracted to a man with secrets of his own, she'll need the lessons of her grandmother's past to help her understand the true meaning of courage.

Book Overview:

Author: Chanel Cleeton | Series: None (although sequel came out recently, no official name for series | Format: Audiobook | Narrated by: Kyla Garcia & Frankie Maria Corzo | Length: 11 hours and 16 minutes | Publish Date: February 6, 2018 | Genre: Historical Fiction & Romance | Literary Awards: Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Historical Fiction (2018) | Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ | Recommend: Heck Yes!

The Future Will Be BS-Free by Will McIntosh (ARC Review)

In this terrifyingly timely tale for fans of The Eye of Minds, a teen and his group of friends find themselves on the run after using a genius lie-detector contraption to expose their corrupt government.

In a Putin-esque near-future America, the gifted and talented high school has just been eliminated, and Sam and his friends have been using their unexpected free time to work on a tiny, undetectable, utterly reliable lie detector. They're all in it for the money--except Theo, their visionary. For Theo, it's about creating a better world. A BS-free world, where no one can lie, and the honest will thrive.

Just when they finish the prototype and turn down an offer to sell their brainchild to a huge corporation, Theo is found dead. Greedy companies, corrupt privatized police, and even the president herself will stop at nothing to steal the Truth App. Sam sets his sights on exposing all lies and holding everyone accountable.

But he and his friends quickly realize the costs of a BS-free world: the lives of loved ones, and political and economic stability. They now face a difficult question: Is the world capable of operating without lies, or are lies what hold it together?

Book Overview:

Author: Will McIntosh | Series: None | Format: Hardcover - ARC | Length: 352 pages | Publish Date: July 24, 2018 | Genre: YA Dystopia | Rated: ★ ★ ★| Recommend: Maybe

The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker

The ancient city of Troy has withstood a decade under siege of the powerful Greek army, which continues to wage bloody war over a stolen woman—Helen. In the Greek camp, another woman—Briseis—watches and waits for the war's outcome. She was queen of one of Troy's neighboring kingdoms, until Achilles, Greece's greatest warrior, sacked her city and murdered her husband and brothers. Briseis becomes Achilles's concubine, a prize of battle, and must adjust quickly in order to survive a radically different life, as one of the many conquered women who serve the Greek army. 

When Agamemnon, the brutal political leader of the Greek forces, demands Briseis for himself, she finds herself caught between the two most powerful of the Greeks. Achilles refuses to fight in protest, and the Greeks begin to lose ground to their Trojan opponents. Keenly observant and coolly unflinching about the daily horrors of war, Briseis finds herself in an unprecedented position, able to observe the two men driving the Greek army in what will become their final confrontation, deciding the fate not only of Briseis's people but also of the ancient world at large.

Briseis is just one among thousands of women living behind the scenes in this war—the slaves and prostitutes, the nurses, the women who lay out the dead—all of them erased by history. With breathtaking historical detail and luminous prose, Pat Barker brings the teeming world of the Greek camp to vivid life. She offers nuanced, complex portraits of characters and stories familiar from mythology, which, seen from Briseis's perspective, are rife with newfound revelations. Barker's latest builds on her decades-long study of war and its impact on individual lives—and it is nothing short of magnificent.

Book Overview:

Author: Pat Barker | Series: None | Format: Audiobook | Narrated By: Kristin Atherton | Length: 10 hours and 45 minutes | Publish Date: September 4, 2018 | Genre: Historical Fiction | Literary Awards: Costa Book Award Nominee for Novel (2018), Women's Prize for Fiction Nominee for Shortlist (2019) | Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ | Recommend: Yes

Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life... And Maybe the World by William H. McRaven

If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed.
On May 17, 2014, Admiral William H. McRaven addressed the graduating class of the University of Texas at Austin on their Commencement day. Taking inspiration from the university's slogan, "What starts here changes the world," he shared the ten principles he learned during Navy Seal training that helped him overcome challenges not only in his training and long Naval career, but also throughout his life; and he explained how anyone can use these basic lessons to change themselves-and the world-for the better.

Admiral McRaven's original speech went viral with over 10 million views. Building on the core tenets laid out in his speech, McRaven now recounts tales from his own life and from those of people he encountered during his military service who dealt with hardship and made tough decisions with determination, compassion, honor, and courage. Told with great humility and optimism, this timeless book provides simple wisdom, practical advice, and words of encouragement that will inspire readers to achieve more, even in life's darkest moments.


Book Overview:

Author: Admiral William H. McRaven (U.S. Navy Retired) | Series: None | Format: Audiobook | Narrated By: Admiral William H. McRaven | Length: 1 hour and 53 minutes | Publish Date: April 4, 2017 | Genre: Self Help/Personal Development | Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ | Recommend: Yes

The President is Missing by Bill Clinton and James Patterson

President Bill Clinton and bestselling novelist James Patterson have written a spellbinding thriller, The President is Missing.

As the novel opens, a threat looms. Enemies are planning an attack of unprecedented scale on America. Uncertainty and fear grip Washington. There are whispers of cyberterror and espionage and a traitor in the cabinet. The President himself becomes a suspect, and then goes missing...

Set in real time, over the course of three days, The President Is Missing is one of the most dramatic thrillers in decades. And it could all really happen. The President Is Missing is Bill Clinton and James Patterson's totally authentic and spellbinding thriller.

Book Overview:

Authors: Bill Clinton and James Patterson | Series: None | Format: Audiobook | Narrated By: Dennis Quaid, Jeremy Davidson, Mozhan Marno, January LaVoy, Peter Ganim | Length: 12 hours and 55 minutes | Publish Date: June 4, 2018 | Genre: Political Mysteries & Thriller | Literary Awards: Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Mystery & Thriller (2018) | Rated: ★ ★ ★ ★ | Recommend: Yes

Long Periods of Time...

I swear I always go through periods of time where I need to take a break from reading and/or writing reviews because I just can't keep up.

Definitely hate it, but I love it when I can come back and feel rejuvenated.

So here I am, back writing some reviews, especially now that I got back on the Netgalley wagon and got approved for ARCs that I had no business requesting because of my schedule, but I'm going to work on it anyway.

Let the games begin.