Review: The Light Pirate

 

The Light Pirate

By Lily Brooks-Dalton

Pub Date: December 5, 2022

336 pages

Purchase Book on Bookshop.org

Source: Book of the Month

Synopsis on Goodreads

My Thoughts:

Wow! What a great read. This book spans multiple genres--dystopian, literary fiction, science fiction, even a touch of magical realism.  The characters are interesting and engaging, and I got so attached to Wanda.  I loved the structure of the book, told in four parts: Power, Water, Light and Time. These four parts mirrored both the events in the book and the passage of time between the parts. Once I got sucked in (which didn't take long) I read the majority of the book in one day. The chapters are short, so it's easy to want to read "just one more chapter."  

This book gives you so much to think about, and with the realities of climate change, isn't too far off in the"fiction" part of science fiction.  The book kind of reminded me of a dystopian Where the Crawdads Sing--at least in the setting and main character vibes. You'll be thinking about the story and its characters long after you're done reading!

Review: A Quiet Life

 

A Quiet Life

By Eithan Joella

Pub Date: November 29, 2022

304 pages

Purchase Book on Bookshop.org

Source: Book of the Month

Synopsis on Goodreads

My Thoughts:

I absolutely loved Joella's 2021 novel, A Little Hope, so I knew this was a must read. I liked this one even more than A Little Hope, and that's saying a lot! I read this book at a time in my life where this could either be a huge trigger warning issue or extremely comforting. (For those that don't know, my mom passed away 12/28/2021). Fortunately--this book was the latter. I absolutely loved the three main characters (and all the supporting characters too!).  Because I'm living through grief myself, I felt like these characters were my friends. I related to each of them in different ways, but especially to Kirsten.  She lost her father in her 20's (as I did) and  Joella (a psychology professor, so this is not surprising)  perfectly portrayed the loss of a parent through Kirsten.  We also had other similarities in common along the way that made me smile.

Joella beautifully intertwined the stories of the three main characters Chuck, Ella and Kirsten. Even though there were a couple times I saw it coming, it was so wonderful I just didn't care. This book was like a big hug,  and was easily a five star read for me. Ethan Joella is definitely an auto-buy author for me, and I look forward to reading more of his work in the future.

"She can never have her dad back, but there is still love. Love everywhere."

Happy Reading!

Favorite Books of 2022

 Though we are a few days into January,  I figured I'd catch you all up on my reading life from the past year! I read a total of 80 books in 2022, and these were my favorites! The top  three are in order, and the rest are random. I went with a Top 12 this year, and 7 of my top 12 were consumed via audio--that format worked well for me this year.

Do we have any 2022 favorites in common? 

Happy Reading!

Welcome!

 Hello Friends!

Many of you used to follow my old blog, Palmer's Page Turners. Life got busy,  my entire content from my old blog somehow got deleted, and I just needed a blogging break. 

As it was before, this will be a blog to share my recent reads and recommendations, and just general book related fun! Every now and then I may throw in some non bookish content but the focus will be books and reading. My goal is to have FUN with blogging again and not put too much pressure on myself for amount of content/books read/etc. 

Looking forward to talking about books with you all!

Happy Reading,

Lori Bree