Recursion by Blake Crouch

Recursion by Blake Crouch

Friday, June 21, 2019

9 comments

AUDIOBOOK REVIEW: Recursion by Blake Crouch

Release date: June 11th, 2019

Genre:  Sci-Fi / Thriller

Published by Penguin Random House Audio

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ My Goodreads Rating

BOOK BLURB:

Barry Sutton is driving home from another long shift as an NYPD detective when the call comes in. A woman is threatening to commit suicide, and someone’s got to try to talk her down. Only as he stands on the rooftop, mere inches away from her, does he realize that the woman is infected with False Memory Syndrome, a mysterious disease that drives its victims mad with memories of a life they never lived. When Barry is unable to save her, he’s rocked to his core–not only by her death but the fear that he’s been exposed to this devastating illness.

Helena Smith is a brilliant but frustrated neuroscientist. If she could only get the funding, she’s sure she could build the ambitious device she’s long imagined–one that would allow people to preserve their most intense memories and relive them whenever they want. So when a billionaire entrepreneur offers to bankroll her project, she jumps at the opportunity–even if there are some strange conditions attached.

As Helena’s efforts yield stunning results, Barry investigates the mystery behind the woman he failed to save. He finds himself on a journey as astonishing as it is terrifying, ultimately revealing the true danger posed by Helena’s invention–and a plot that could bring about the end of reality as we know it.

Weaving together Barry’s story and Helena’s in ways even the savviest reader will never guess, Recurson is a brilliant science fiction thriller about time, memory, and the illusion of the present, built on our inability to escape the flashbulb moments that define us.


MY THOUGHTS:

If you haven’t read Blake Crouch’s latest book yet, I have no doubt that once you do, it will be the only thing you’ll want to talk about for DAYS!!!
The book synopsis makes you believe that there’s a new disease, FMS (False Memory Syndrome), except, FMS doesn’t even scratch the surface of everything this story throws at you.  It’s mind-twisting and it left me doubting reality as I know it.  I remember feeling this way when I watched Inception, except I was never quite satisfied at the end of that movie…but Recursion was EXCEPTIONAL!!!

Sorry, I’m rambling...

  I’m a sci-fi fan and even though the whole concept of time-travel has been explored in a lot of books and movies, Crouch was able to explore a new angle, one that merged actual scientific advances into a fictitious reality that might not be too far from the near future.
His narrative is fast-paced, leaving the reader with no time to think twice when turning the pages.  To make it even more interesting, there’s also a love story ♥.

“Time is an illusion, a construct made out of human memory. 

There’s no such thing as the past, the present, or the future. 

It’s all happening now.”

  It was a bit hard to keep track of the dates and timelines from the audiobook, but once I started writing down a few important dates, it got a lot easier to follow.  There’s really nothing that I disliked in this book.

“Life with a cheat code isn't life. Our existence isn't something to be engineered or optimized for the avoidance of pain. That's what it is to be human - the beauty and the pain, each meaningless without the other.”

I’m waiting for Recursion to be adapted from book-to-movie so I can place it with the TOP 5 “time-travel” movies :
1. Dr. Who (the original Time Lord)
2. Back to the Future
3. Looper
4. Terminator
5. Inception

CONCLUSION:
If you could go back in time to change an old memory, even though the impact to the timelines might be impossible to predict, would you do it?

via GIPHY

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Meet Cute by Helena Hunting

Meet Cute by Helena Hunting

Thursday, May 23, 2019

7 comments

BOOK REVIEW: Meet Cute by Helena Hunting

Release Date: April 9th, 2019

Genre: Romance / Rom-Com

Published by Forever

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️  My Goodreads Rating

BOOK BLURB:

Talk about an embarrassing introduction. On her first day of law school, Kailyn ran - quite literally - into the actor she crushed on as a teenager, ending with him sprawled on top of her. Mortified to discover the Daxton Hughes was also a student in her class, her embarrassment over their meet-cute quickly turned into a friendship she never expected. Of course, she never saw his betrayal coming either...

Now, eight years later, Dax is in her office asking for legal advice. Despite her anger, Kailyn can't help feeling sorry for the devastated man who just became sole guardian to his thirteen-year-old sister. But when her boss gets wind of Kailyn's new celebrity client, there's even more at stake than Dax's custody issues: if she gets Dax to work at their firm, she'll be promoted to partner.

The more time Kailyn spends with Dax and his sister, the more she starts to feel like a family, and the more she realizes the chemistry they had all those years ago is as fresh as ever. But will they be able to forgive the mistakes of the past, or will one betrayal lead to another?

MY THOUGHTS:

What would you do if you stumbled into your TV crush? (Taylor Kinney, I'm talking to you)!  

I'm very clumsy and I can just picture myself saying all the wrong things and totally acting like a fool... 

#MeetCute is a SUPER Cute, romantic story, that was impossible to put down. I started reading it in the middle of Saturday afternoon and only stopped it because I needed to go to bed. I finished it first thing on Sunday morning ☕️.

Don't be fooled by the cute cover.  This book has all the feels.  It's loaded with a roller coaster of emotions from tragedy and family-drama to humor and swoon-worthy scenes (and OMG, talk about passionate)! It’s also full of charm and you can’t help but fall in love with the main characters as well. It totally surpassed my expectations and now I want to read Helena Hunting’s other books 📚

If you're looking for a great book to read this summer, pick this one up! You won't regret it. 😉

Needless to say, I'm a fan now!!!♥

“I think it’s interesting that you have a thing for the teenage version of me 

but you’re not all that fond of the real, adult version.” 

#MeetCute left me with such a happy feeling in the end, that I just had to create a playlist 🎧:

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Aurora Rising by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Aurora Rising by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Tuesday, May 14, 2019

10 comments

AUDIOBOOK REVIEW: Aurora Rising

by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff

Release date: May 7th, 2019

Genre: YA / Sci-Fi

Published by Penguin Random House Audio

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ My Goodreads Rating

BOOK BLURB:
The year is 2380, and the graduating cadets of Aurora Academy are being assigned their first missions. Star pupil Tyler Jones is ready to recruit the squad of his dreams, but his own boneheaded heroism sees him stuck with the dregs nobody else in the academy would touch . . .

A cocky diplomat with a black belt in sarcasm
A sociopath scientist with a fondness for shooting her bunkmates
A smart-ass tech whiz with the galaxy's biggest chip on his shoulder
An alien warrior with anger-management issues
A tomboy pilot who's totally not into him, in case you were wondering

And Ty's squad isn't even his biggest problem--that'd be Aurora Jie-Lin O'Malley, the girl he's just rescued from interdimensional space. Trapped in cryo-sleep for two centuries, Auri is a girl out of time and out of her depth. But she could be the catalyst that starts a war millions of years in the making, and Tyler's squad of losers, discipline cases, and misfits might just be the last hope for the entire galaxy.


MY THOUGHTS:
A squad of misfits. A girl frozen in space over 200 years.  An ordinary mission turned into an intergalactic heist, filled with action, sarcasm, and the possibility of inter-species love…

If you ever wished you could combine Star Trek with a sparkle of Guardians of the Galaxy, look no further.
Aurora Rising has it all!

“They're not the heroes we deserve. They're just the ones we could find. Nobody panic.”

Aurora Rising is told from seven POVs.  We’ve got:

Ty - the Alpha
Scarlet - the Face
Cat - the Ace
Kal - the Tank
Zila - the Brain
Fin - the Gearhead
Auri - the Mystery Girl

As the team plots their mission (heist) to break into an impenetrable space fortress , we start learning about these characters and their strengths.  They might not belong anywhere else, but they do belong together…

What impressed me the most was how Kaufman/Kristoff duo developed the characters and this futuristic world.  Honestly, the character development in this book blew my mind away.  Each character was given enough background, vivid details and unique personality traits, that I was stunned to realize the audiobook was only 14hrs long.

And while I don’t usually read sci-fi, I really enjoyed Aurora Rising.  I was rooting for Squad 312 and hoping they would all make it to the other side, mainly because I am super curious to find out what else is in store for them.
Are they going to save the galaxy?
Will a romance (or two) develop as well?
Is it a mere coincidence that they are graduates of The Aurora Academy and the girl they found frozen in space is called Aurora?

I’ll leave you with the Aurora Academy quote:

“We, The Legion

We, The Light

Burning Bright Against the Night”.

Note: The audiobook narrators did a Terrific job in this one! There are as many narrators as main characters, which makes it super easy to follow the story when the POV changes

Thank you @PRHaudio for the free #audiobook copy in exchange for an honest review.
All opinions are my own.

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Speak No Evil by Uzodinma Iweala

Speak No Evil by Uzodinma Iweala

Monday, April 29, 2019

14 comments

BOOK REVIEW: Speak No Evil by Uzodinma Iweala

Release Date: March 6, 2018

Genre: Fiction / LGBT / Contemporary

215 Pages

Published by Harper

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ My Goodreads Rating

BOOK BLURB:

In the long-anticipated novel from the author of the critically acclaimed Beasts of No Nation, a revelation shared between two privileged teenagers from very different backgrounds sets off a chain of events with devastating consequences.

On the surface, Niru leads a charmed life. Raised by two attentive parents in Washington, D.C., he’s a top student and a track star at his prestigious private high school. Bound for Harvard in the fall, his prospects are bright. But Niru has a painful secret: he is queer—an abominable sin to his conservative Nigerian parents. No one knows except Meredith, his best friend, the daughter of prominent Washington insiders—and the one person who seems not to judge him.

When his father accidentally discovers Niru is gay, the fallout is brutal and swift. Coping with troubles of her own, however, Meredith finds that she has little left emotionally to offer him. As the two friends struggle to reconcile their desires against the expectations and institutions that seek to define them, they find themselves speeding toward a future more violent and senseless than they can imagine. Neither will escape unscathed.

In the tradition of Junot Diaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah, Speak No Evil explores what it means to be different in a fundamentally conformist society and how that difference plays out in our inner and outer struggles. It is a novel about the power of words and self-identification, about who gets to speak and who has the power to speak for other people. As heart-wrenching and timely as his breakout debut, Beasts of No Nation, Uzodinma Iweala’s second novel cuts to the core of our humanity and leaves us reeling in its wake.


MY THOUGHTS:

Some book reviews are really easy to write...others, not so much.
Why is that? You might ask.
Because every now and then you encounter a book so extraordinary, with such a powerful message, that all of a sudden you lose the ability to form words.
Speak No Evil is one of these books.

When I finished reading it, I wanted to shout, or maybe go out for a walk, or get drunk, but instead, I just sobbed on the couch.  How can such a short novel (215 pages) pack such an emotional punch?
This book covers so many different issues (race, sexuality, religion, culture tradition, privilege), that I'm certain I won't be able to even give all the kudos it deserves.

“On the bad days, there is no color. I know there are colors. I can see the colors, but the world looks gray. The sounds are muffled by a crackling web of static that sits behind my eyes and buzzes in my ears.” 

Through this heartbreaking story about coming of age in a conservative immigrant family, Iweala takes us on a journey of self-discovery with Niru, who is torn between the guilt of not being the son his parents expect him to be and the freedom to accept (and love) who he truly is.  His brother OJ, advises him to not pick fights he can't win, when it comes to their parents, but Niru finds it hard to believe his brother would suffer the same judgement from their father.     

“I'm late, the kind of late that suggest I have no regard for the emotional health of my Nigerian parents who probably think I've been kidnapped by the enemies of progress.”

The story was beautifully written, with a natural flow and page-turning effect.  The characters felt realistic, specially with the recent prejudice events we watch on the news.  As we follow Niru and his friend Meredith through the differences in family values and culture, we see how easy it is for the human race to hate one another simply because of being different.

“I'm still me, I want to say to him, your son, but that would hardly help if I am currently everything wrong with the world.”

My final take is that this book should be a requirement in high school.
All teenagers should read it.
All parents should read it.
Everyone. Should. Read. This. Book.

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The Music Shop by Rachel Joyce

The Music Shop by Rachel Joyce

Thursday, April 25, 2019

15 comments

AUDIOBOOK REVIEW: The Music Shop 

by Rachel Joyce (Steven Hartley, Narrator)

Release Date: January 2nd, 2018

Genre: Fiction / Music / Romance 

8 hrs 30 mins

Published by Penguin Random House Audio

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️My Goodreads Rating 

BOOK BLURB:

1988. Frank owns a music shop. It is jam-packed with records of every speed, size and genre. Classical, jazz, punk – as long as it’s vinyl he sells it. Day after day Frank finds his customers the music they need.
Then into his life walks Ilse Brauchmann.
Ilse asks Frank to teach her about music. His instinct is to turn and run. And yet he is drawn to this strangely still, mysterious woman with her pea-green coat and her eyes as black as vinyl. But Ilse is not what she seems. And Frank has old wounds that threaten to re-open and a past he will never leave behind ...

MY THOUGHTS:

The Music Shop is a nostalgic homage not just to vinyl lovers in general, but to a time when record stores were a place where one could go and talk about their love of music…

The year is 1988 in England.  Frank owns a neighborhood record store that only sells vinyl.  He refuses to sell tapes and/or CDs, but the record Reps keep telling him companies will stop making vinyl.  Production costs are too high and CD sounds are much cleaner.  Frank’s few clients love him.  Frank is like the music-guru-therapist, who can find you the exact music you need to listen in order to ease your troubles.  Together with his only employee, Kit, and the surrounding shop keepers, Frank is part of a community that accepted and welcomed him, and life is good.

“Music is about silence… the silence at the beginning of a piece of music is always different from the silence at the end… Because if you listen, the world changes. It’s like falling in love. Only no one gets hurt.”

Everything changed the day that Ilse Brauchmann fainted in front of his store.  Much to Frank’s surprise, Ilse confesses that she doesn’t listen to music…and so their journey begins.  They meet every week from then on, so that Frank can teach Ilse about music.  He teaches her about Vivaldi, Miles Davis, Sex Pistols, Joni Mitchell.  He talks about what he hears and feels when he listens to certain songs, and he tells Ilse to just listen…

“For Frank, music was like a garden – it sowed seeds in far-flung places. People would miss out on so many wonderful things if they only stuck with what they knew.” 
 
Joyce gave us a cast of characters that is funny and peculiar in their own ways.  In between music lessons, a lot of things happen, and just like real life, people move on, little shops close and music becomes digital.  You’ll need to read this beautiful book to find out what happens…   

“Because life goes on, the music told her, even when you think it can’t. Yes, there is fear. There is real cruelty. Not knowing what the fuck. Those things are there. But listen because there is this too—this beauty. The human adventure is worth it, after all.”

The Music Shop is an irresistible love story about two very different people and the music that brings them together.  A treasure to be cherished by all music and book lovers! 

The audiobook narrator, British actor  Steven Hartley, did a fantastic job!  I will be looking for other audiobooks narrated by him ♥
And, because this book touched me so much, I just couldn't resist ordering a copy of the physical book for my own collection.


”There was once a music shop. From the outside it looked like any shop, in any backstreet. It had no name above the door. No record display in the window. There was just a homemade poster stuck to the glass. FOR THE MUSIC YOU NEED!! EVERYONE WELCOME!! WE ONLY SELL VINYL!!”

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The Bride Test by Helen Hoang

The Bride Test by Helen Hoang

Monday, April 22, 2019

13 comments

BOOK REVIEW: The Bride Test by Helen Hoang

Release Date: May 7th, 2019

Genre: Romance 

320 Pages, Paperback

Published by Berkley 

⭐️⭐️⭐️ 1/2  My Goodreads Rating 

BOOK BLURB:

Khai Diep has no feelings. Well, he feels irritation when people move his things or contentment when ledgers balance down to the penny, but not big, important emotions—like grief. And love. He thinks he’s defective. His family knows better—that his autism means he just processes emotions differently. When he steadfastly avoids relationships, his mother takes matters into her own hands and returns to Vietnam to find him the perfect bride.

As a mixed-race girl living in the slums of Ho Chi Minh City, Esme Tran has always felt out of place. When the opportunity arises to come to America and meet a potential husband, she can’t turn it down, thinking this could be the break her family needs. Seducing Khai, however, doesn’t go as planned. Esme’s lessons in love seem to be working…but only on herself. She’s hopelessly smitten with a man who’s convinced he can never return her affection.

With Esme’s time in the United States dwindling, Khai is forced to understand he’s been wrong all along. And there’s more than one way to love.

MY THOUGHTS:

The Bride Test is a cute and quick romance. It’s the perfect beach read!

Just like in The Kiss Quotient, one of the main characters, Khai is autistic and needs help understanding what is love. He's actually pretty sure that he is unable to love. 
Esme, on the other hand, feels that Khai won’t love her for who she is - she believes she's not good enough - so she tries to be someone else.

I enjoyed the story but the main characters didn’t pull me into it.  I didn't feel the chemistry between them. The romance didn’t capture me as much as the previous book did.  Even Khai’s older brother, Quan, felt like a much stronger character whenever he would show up in the story.   

Without getting into spoilers, I also felt that the ending was overdone and a bit unrealistic (I know it's fiction, but it felt too 'soap-operish' for my taste).

Of course I knew it would be hard to top the romantic, game-changer that was The Kiss Quotient, so definitely give The Bride Test a try, which by the way, you can read it as a stand-alone book.  And feel free to drop me a note once you read it.

"She got you a mail-order bride from Vietnam, Khai."

"Why do you say it so it sounds so bad? She's not a 'mail-order bride'. I met her in person."

Note: I received an Advance Reader Copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. 

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Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Thursday, April 11, 2019

6 comments

BOOK REVIEW: Never Let Me Go

Release Date: April 5th, 2005

Genre: Science Fiction, Dystopia

288 Pages, Paperback

Published by Vintage Books

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ My Goodreads Rating

BOOK BLURB:

Hailsham seems like a pleasant English boarding school, far from the influences of the city. Its students are well tended and supported, trained in art and literature, and become just the sort of people the world wants them to be. But, curiously, they are taught nothing of the outside world and are allowed little contact with it.

Within the grounds of Hailsham, Kathy grows from schoolgirl to young woman, but it’s only when she and her friends Ruth and Tommy leave the safe grounds of the school (as they always knew they would) that they realize the full truth of what Hailsham is.

Never Let Me Go breaks through the boundaries of the literary novel. It is a gripping mystery, a beautiful love story, and also a scathing critique of human arrogance and a moral examination of how we treat the vulnerable and different in our society. In exploring the themes of memory and the impact of the past, Ishiguro takes on the idea of a possible future to create his most moving and powerful book to date.


MY THOUGHTS:

“We took away your art because we thought it would reveal your souls. 

Or to put it more finely, we did it to prove you had souls at all.”

I had to wait a couple of days before writing this review, because I needed to actually evaluate how this book made me feel (all the feelings)... I enjoyed reading it and was really interested in the whole plot and mystery behind it. But then the whole mystery is revealed and I was angry, but I wasn’t angry at the author. I was angry at the human race. At how history can so easily repeat itself and become acceptable by all. Justified by the necessity to save a few lives...

The beauty of the book is how the author approaches the subject of what makes us humans? How can we define being human? Is it because we have memories? Express emotions? Feel Love? Maybe it is the ability to differentiate right from wrong, but that can get all twisted when the world you live in is unethical, by removing the ability to choose one’s own purpose.

I can’t wait for my book club to discuss this book later on this year!

“All children have to be deceived if they are to grow up without trauma.”

I know the book was made into a movie but I'm not even sure if I want to watch it, because I have a feeling it will be nearly impossible for the story to translate well into the screen...

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