Svetlana's Reads and Views

Title of the book: Alycat and the Tournament Tuesday Author: Alysson Foti Bourque (Illustrated by Chiara Civati) Publisher: Mascot Books Publishing Date: 2020 ISBN: 978-1-64543-108-4 Summary: A “Mom’s Choice Award Winner”! Alycat’s brother, Bugsy, is playing in a golf tournament with some of his friends, and wants to use his lucky ball to win the game. But when Alycat forgets his lucky ball at home, Bugsy learns what luck is really all about. Can Bugsy win the tournament without his lucky ball? Alycat and the Tournament Tuesday is part of the Alycat Series: alycatseries.com. Buy the Book: Pre-Order Your Copy Today! Scheduled release date is March 17, 2020! Amazon.com Author Info: (From iRead Book Tours) Alysson Foti Bourque is the author of the award-winning Alycat series. Alysson earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Elementary Education from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and a Juris Doctor degree from the Southern University Law Center. After practicing...

Name of Book : A Reason for Living Author: Julian Jingles ISBN: 978-1-64367-865-8 Publisher: urlink Type of book: Jamaica, 1960s, incest, Rasta, drugs, corruption, parties, students, art, gratuitous sex, violence, Gary Stu, relationships, poor, country, activity Year it was published: 2020 Summary: It is the mid-1960s in Kingston, Jamaica, and the country is steeped in social, political, and economic inequities. Howard Baxter, the heir to a real estate empire, has no interest in seeking or managing wealth. Painting and deflowering Jamaican maidens are his passions. As he combs the streets looking for greater meaning in his pathetic life, it soon becomes apparent that Howard's journey will not be easy. Bernaldo Lloyd, a member of the Baxter clan, is a medical student who is sensitive to the hopelessness of the Jamaican masses. Inspired by his close friend and Howard's cousin, Ras Robin Pone, and their ties with the Rastafari movement that calls for social and ...

Name of Book: Darling Rose Gold Author: Stephanie Wrobel ISBN: 978-0-593-10006-6 Publisher: Berkley Type of book: suspense, Missouri? Relationships, 2012-2017, survival, Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy, USA, modern times, thriller, mother/daughter, revenge, diseases, desperation, hunger Year it was published: 2020 Summary: Sharp Objects meets My Lovely Wife in this tightly drawn debut that peels back the layers of the most complicated of mother-daughter relationships... For the first eighteen years of her life, Rose Gold Watts believed she was seriously ill. She was allergic to everything, used a wheelchair and practically lived at the hospital. Neighbors did all they could, holding fundraisers and offering shoulders to cry on, but no matter how many doctors, tests, or surgeries, no one could figure out what was wrong with Rose Gold. Turns out her mom, Patty Watts, was just a really good liar. After serving five years in prison, Patty gets out with nowhere to go a...

Name of Book: A Gentleman in Moscow Author: Amor Towles ISBN: 978-0-670-02619-7 Publisher: Viking Type of book: Moscow, Russia, 1922-1954, wealth, breeding, culture, class, Metropol, trapped, claustrophobia, reading, literature, friendship Year it was published: 2016 Summary: The mega-bestseller with more than 1.5 million readers that is soon to be a major television series He can't leave his hotel. You won't want to. From the New York Times bestselling author of Rules of Civility--a transporting novel about a man who is ordered to spend the rest of his life inside a luxury hotel. In 1922, Count Alexander Rostov is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, and is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin. Rostov, an indomitable man of erudition and wit, has never worked a day in his life, and must now live in an attic room while some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history are ...

Name of Book: Turn to Stone Author: James W Ziskin ISBN: 978-1-63388-552-3 Publisher: Seventh Street Books Part of a Series: Ellie Stone Mysteries Type of book: September 1963, mystery, Italy, Boccaccio, Decameron, quarantine, secrets, stories, trip, curiosity, women's rights, wealth, WW2, second chances Year it was published: 2020 Summary: This 1960s-era locked-room mystery takes Ellie Stone to Florence, Italy--a seemingly idyllic setting, which in this case has sinister undertones. Florence, Italy, August 1963. In Italy to accept a posthumous award for her late father's academic work, "girl reporter" Ellie Stone is invited to spend a weekend outside Florence with some of the scholars attending the symposium. A suspected rubella outbreak leaves the ten friends quarantined in the bucolic setting with little to do but tell stories to entertain themselves. Deciding to make the best of their confinement, the men and women spin tales, gorge themsel...

Name of Book: Ghost of the Bamboo Road Author: Susan Spann ISBN: 978-1-63388-550-9 Publisher: Seventh Street Books Part of a Series: Hiro Hattori Novels Type of book: Japan, samurai, mountains, fox, 1566, kitsune, entertainers, revenge, plans, mystery, yamabushi, Shinobi, crime, murder Year it was published: 2019 Summary: When a vengeful spirit terrorizes a mountain village in medieval Japan, a ninja and a Jesuit priest must reveal the truth and save the villagers from the phantom's wrath. January 1566: En route to Edo, Master ninja Hiro Hattori and Portuguese Jesuit Father Mateo spend the night in a rural mountain village whose inhabitants live in terror of a legendary vengeful ghost. When the innkeeper's wife is murdered and Father Mateo's housekeeper, Ana, is blamed for a crime she did not commit, Hiro and Father Mateo are forced to investigate and reveal the truth. But when another woman turns up murdered in the snow, the detectives must face the...

Name of Book: A Bottle of Rum Author: Steve Goble ISBN: 978-1-64506-003-1 Publisher: Seventh Street Books Part of a Series: Spider John Mysteries Type of book: 1723, pirates, insane asylum, mystery, violence, murder, cursing, Spider John, friendship, loyalty Year it was published: 2019 Summary: August, 1723 -- Spider John Rush believes he has escaped piracy forever. Enjoying rum and chess in a dark Lymington tavern, he dreams of finding passage to Nantucket to reunite with his beloved Em and to finally get to know the son he remembers only as a babe in arms, though the lad must be dreaming of going to sea himself by now. But when a lazy taverner is stabbed to death, one glance at the victim tells Spider the pirate life has followed him ashore and he cannot possibly ignore this bloody crime. The wise maneuver would be to run before authorities arrive, but Spider is denied that choice because he’s already deeply, connected to the crime—he fashioned the murder weapon ...

In February, I gave up on the bookish memes. I think mainly it was because, well, everyday was kind of too much in my opinion. I think I will do maybe 3 per week instead of 6 like previously, my apologies. Which of the three will I do? The Sunday, Monday and Thursday ones :D Tuesday, Wednesday and Fridays were a bit too much for me. Book wise, February was a good month, I believe. Got a chance to read a lot of cool books, namely Samantha Downing's HE STARTED IT which comes out in April, and I also, much to mine surprise, won on Goodreads First Reads Kelly Rimmer's new upcoming book and I even read DARLING ROSE GOLD by Stephanie Wrobel, which was good. (In my eyes, Samantha Downing, so far, is definitely the Queen of Crazy Suspense. It takes a lot to shock and surprise someone who has read over a thousand books, and she is GOOD at doing just that.) Its not likely I will get THE MOUNTAINS SING by Nguyen Phan Que Mai nor THE EIGHTH GIRL by Maxine Mei-Fung Chung, so Mother's D...

A luminous republic- Andres Barba SR: March 16th, 2020 FR: March 29th, 2020 The operator- Gretchen Berg SR: March 30th, 2020 FR: These ghosts are family- Maisy Card SR: March 3rd, 2020 FR: March 7th, 2020 The Familiar Dark-Amy Engel SR: March 7th, 2020 FR: March 15th, 2020 A Bottle of Rum- Steve Goble SR: March 1st, 2020 FR: March 6th, 2020 The lost orphan- Stacey Halls SR: March 29th, 2020 FR: At Least we could apologize-Ki-ho Lee SR: March 1st, 2020 FR: March 6th, 2020 Lost Autumn- Mary-Rose MacColl SR: March 7th, 2020 FR: March 30th, 2020 Imperial Passions by Eileen Stephenson SR: February 2nd, 2020 FR: March 1st, 2020 Darling Rose Gold- Stephanie WROBEL SR: February 24th, 2020 FR: March 1st, 2020 A Bond Undone-Jin Yong SR: March 6th, 2020 FR: March 20h, 2020 Turn to stone- James W. Ziskin SR: February 14th, 2020 FR: March 3rd, 2020 Nonfiction: Tree of Souls-Howard Schwartz SR: February 10th, 2014 FR: N/A Bury him; a memoir of the Vietnam wa...