Monday, March 18, 2024




Three stars
This book comes out March 19, 2024
Follows Dread and Buried
ARC kindly provided by Moose Island Books and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

Sunday, March 17, 2024

A Midnight Puzzle by Gigi Pandian


stars
This book comes out March 19, 2024
ARC provided by St. Martin's Press and NetGalley
Opinions are my own



Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Playful Intelligence by Anthony T. DeBenedet

It looks like this book is being re-released as it originally came out on May 1, 2018. There are no notes on this being a new edition so, if you've read this before, I don't think anything has changed.
The author dives into the idea that people with rich imaginations, who are able to re-frame their stressors, are able to go far in life. He talks about Bill B whose job was in danger of being cut every day for ten years. We look at Sheila whose life is one catastrophe after another starting from her birth. These two are just the start of example after example of people who used some form of imagination to make it through hard times.
DeBenedet argues that empathy is a part of imagination and that exercising that muscle can help us to connect with others. That putting ourselves in their shoes can help make us better at our jobs and at life. He also argues that having imagination can help us avoid "anchoring," when our thoughts are so rooted in what we've seen in the past that we can't come up for solutions what is in front of us now. 
For a book that relies on what seem to be true stories, the writing style reminded me of nothing so much as The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. 

Three stars
This book came out May 1, 2018
ARC kindly provided by Santa Monica Press and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

Saturday, March 9, 2024

How to Walk into a Room by Emily P. Freeman

I completely missed that this book was based in Christianity but that doesn't necessarily turn me off reading a book. 
I liked the author's posit that endings don't have to be sad. That this may just be a place that we shouldn't be any more. This book is really about finding those times that it's time to leave a place and head to a new one. I have read almost all of the books that Freeman references and enjoyed the way that she wove in the lessons that she had learned from each and why those stories worked with what she was trying to build in her book. 

Four stars
This book comes out March 12, 2024
ARC kindly provided by HarperOne and NetGalley
Opinions are my own


Sunday, March 3, 2024

Saturday, March 2, 2024

This Means War! by Lincoln Peirce

Nate has a new rival. Kyle is trying to claim messiest locker at school. But Nate might just have a few things up his sleeve. Or, you know, in his locker. Lots of touchbacks to previous stories in the series. Two storylines even overlap when Klassic Komix agrees to sponsor Nate's baseball team. Of course, it doesn't go the way that Nate expects when Wayne chooses the name of an unexpected character. 

Four stars
This book comes out March 5, 2024
ARC kindly provided by Andrews McMeel Publishing and NetGalley
Opinions are my own



Thursday, February 29, 2024

February 2024 Rereads

 Opinions are always my own


The Princess Knight by G. A. Aiken
Scarred Earth Saga #2
Four stars
This book came out November 24, 2020
Followed by The Heretic Royal
Borrowed as ebook from Libby



The Heretic Royal by G. A. Aiken
Scarred Earth Saga #3
Three and a half stars
This book comes out November 24, 2022
Borrowed as ebook from Libby




In Death #58
Four stars
This book comes out January 23, 2024
Followed by Passions in Death





Promise Not to Tell by Jayne Ann Krentz
Cutler, Sutter, & Salinas #2
Three stars
Followed by Untouchable
This book came out January 2nd, 2017
Audiobook from Overdrive



Untouchable by Jayne Ann Krentz


Cutler, Sutter, & Salinas #3
Three stars
This book came out January 8, 2018
Hard copy borrowed from library






Rock Addiction by Nalini Singh
Rock Kiss #1
Three and a half stars
This book came out September 9, 2014
Followed by Rock Courtship
Borrowed as audiobook from Audible Prime





Rock Courtship by Nalini Singh
Rock Kiss #1.5
Four stars
This novella came out September 30, 2014
Followed by Rock Hard
Audible book I own





Rock Hard by Nalini Singh
Rock Kiss #2
Three and a half stars
This book came out March 10, 2015
Followed by Rock Redemption
Audible Plus audiobook




Rock Redemption by Nalini Singh
Rock Kiss #3
Four stars
This book came out October 6, 2015
Follows Rock Hard
Followed by Rock Wedding
Audible Plus audiobook






Rock Wedding by Nalini Singh
Rock Kiss #4
Three and a half stars
This book came out July 19, 2016
Audible Plus audiobook





Cherish Hard by Nalini Singh
Hard Play #1
Three stars
This book came out November 14, 2017
Connected to Rock Hard 
Followed by Rebel Hard
Borrowed as ebook from Libby



Rebel Hard by Nalini Singh
Hard Play #2
Four stars
This book came out September 18, 2018
Follows Cherish Hard
Followed by Love Hard
Borrowed as ebook from Libby




Love Hard by Nalini Singh


Love Hard by Nalini Singh
Hard Play #3
Four stars
Follows Rebel Hard
This book came out March 10, 2020
Borrowed as ebook from Libby