Book Review #72" "The Fact of a Body"

Hey Everyone,

     I am going to review the book "The Fact of a Body: A Murder and a Memoir," by Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich. This book is hot off the press as it was published on May 16, 2017 by Flatiron Books. For those of you who would like to purchase a copy of this book CLICK HERE. This book is about intertwining histories, that of the author who is going through the process of finding herself after being molested by her grandfather, and a young boy Jeremy Guillory who was murdered by a child molester. For Alexandria she comes to question her beliefs and who she is when she comes across a death penalty case of Ricky Langley. Alexandria has always been against the death penalty. But when she comes across the case of Ricky Langley who is a convicted sex offender and murderer she finds that she wants him to die. This sets her on a course of finding out the truth. But what she finds isn't so black and white as the truth she expects to find. 

     Overall I rated this book five stars out of five. This was an excellent book it was extremely well written. It definitely got to the heart of the matter. The author poured her heart and soul in this book as she does in her real life. In writing this book the author found what she was looking for, that what is true in life isn't so black and white. Instead it is a murky line in the gray area that you can be one thing and be another thing too at the same time. I think this book had many lessons to be learned, even though with the subject matter it was at times difficult to read. This book is a must read and should be read by everyone.

     I would like to thank Netgalley, Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich, and Flatiron Books for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Until the next page,

Jill

Book Review #71: "On Edge"

Hey Everyone,

     I am going to review the book "On Edge: A Journey Through Anxiety," by Andrea Petersen. This book is hot off the press as it was published on May 16, 2017 by Crown Publishing Group. For those of you who would like to purchase a copy of this book CLICK HERE. Andrea Petersen is a journalist who writes about health and travel for the personal journal section of "The Wall Street Journal." This is Andrea Petersen's debut novel. This book an autobiography on the author's life and struggles with anxiety.

     Overall I rated this book four stars out of five. This was an excellent book. It was extremely well researched and very informative. I loved how this book interwove Andrea Petersen's personal struggles with all the scientific research on anxiety. Reading this was very interesting because I have anxiety, so I have learned a lot about myself while reading this. I am highly satisfied reading this book, it was a great experience and I highly recommend it.

     I would like to thank Netgalley, Andrea Petersen, and Crown Publishing Group for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Until the next page,

Jill

Book Review #70: "The Awkward Thoughts of W. Kamau Bell"

Hey Everyone,

     I am going to review the book "The Awkward Thoughts of W. Kamau Bell: Tales of a 6'4" African American, Heterosexual, Cisgender, Left Leaning, Asthmatic, Black and Proud Blerd, Mama's Boy, Dad, and Stand-Up Comedian," by W. Kamau Bell. This book is hot off the press as it was published on May 2, 2017 by Penguin Group: Dutton. For those of you who would like to purchase a copy of this book CLICK HERE. W. Kamau Bell is a well known sociopolitical stand-up comedian and and is the host of CNN docu-series "United Shades of America." This book is biography about the life and thoughts of W. Kamau Bell. It focuses on what it means to be a black comedian in the United States. 

     Overall I rated this book four stars out of five. This was a very comical and truly entertaining book on serious subjects such as racism in America. I love how the author W. Kamau Bell poured his heart and soul into this book. You could see his passion radiating out on every page. He talked about very serious subjects but in a light and sarcastic manner. He brought these subjects that no one likes to discuss to the forefront of our minds. This book is highly recommended and needs to be read by everyone.

     I would like to thank Netgalley, W. Kamau Bell, and Penguin Group: Dutton for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Until the next page,

Jill

Book Review #69: "Incendiary"

Hey Everyone,

  

     I am going to review the book "Incendiary: The Psychiatrist, the Mad Bomber, and the Invention of Criminal Profiling," by Michael Cannell. This book is hot off the press as it was published on April 25, 2017 by St. Martin's Press: Minotaur Books. For those of you who would like to purchase a copy of this book CLICK HERE. Michael Cannell is the author of two other non-fiction books "The Limit: Life and Death on the 1961 Grand Prix Circuit," and "I.M. Pei: Mandarin of Modernism." This book is about the Mad Bomber in New York City during the 1950's. The mad bomber terrified New York City with dozens of home made bombs over a 16 year period of where he was unanimous. This book is about the hunt for the killer. This book was also about the beginning of criminal profiling. Criminal profiling got its roots from this hard to solve case.

     Overall I rated this book four stars out of five. This book was well written and very informative. It captured all aspects of these crimes. It did go into depth about the mad bomber case. This book had excellent character development, it went into detail describing all the main players in the story. There were times in this book that I felt the story did not flow well and got off track, but overall it was a great read.

     I would like to thank Netgalley, Michael Cannell, and St. Martin's Press: Minotaur Books for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Until the next page,

Jill

Book Review #68: "Killers of the Flower Moon"

Hey Everyone,

     I am going to review the book "Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI" by David Grann. This book is hot off the press as it was published April 18, 2017 by Doubleday Books. David Grann is a best selling author and an award winning writer at "The New Yorker" magazine. He is the previous author of "The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon" which by the way is going to be made into a movie and is on my to-read list. He also wrote the book "The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession." For those of you who would like to purchase a copy of this book CLICK HERE. This book takes place during the Trail of Tears.  Hundreds of Native Americans were murdered for wealthy white people to get Native American's inheritance from the oil on their lands. It is also about the birth of the FBI.

     Overall I gave this book four out of five stars. This is a story that needed to be told so a big thank you to the author for writing this book. This era in history has been much erased from our history books and stories like this need to be told so we can learn from our mistakes. This book captured my attention from the beginning to the end. The only thing I wish the author did different was instead of saving the author's story and passion to this story until the end, I would have liked it to be intertwined within the whole story. Because the beginning of the book I did wonder where the author's ties to this story was and what made the author write this book. I am glad the author did put it in in the end.

     I would like to thank Netgalley, David Grann, and Doubleday Books for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review. 

Until the next page,

Jill

Book Review #67: "The Road To Jonestown"

Hey Everyone,

     I am going to review the book "The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and Peoples Temple," by Jeff Guinn. This book is hot off the press as it was published on April 11, 2017 by Simon and Schuster.  For those of you who would like to purchase a copy of this book CLICK HERE. Jeff Guinn is a well established author as well as an award winning investigative journalist. He is the author of "Go Down Together: The True, Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde," "The Last Gunfight: The Real Story of the Shootout at the O.K. Corral-And How it Changed the American West," and "Manson: The Life and Times of Charles Manson.  This book is about Jim Jones and his followers. This book goes into great depth of the history and events that led to over 900 people committing suicide.

     Overall I rated this book four stars out of five. This was a very informative book. This book started off from the beginning going into great depths of Jim Jones family history starting with the life of his mother Lynetta Jones. It then goes into describing Jim Jones as a child. This book does a great job of explaining the outside influences, the culture and politics about how Jim Jones and his followers committed suicide. Although this book was well written and very informative, I think this book did drag on a little bit. I do think this book could have been shortened, as sometimes it was a bit repetitive and went into too much detail. Overall this book was a very informative and interesting read I do recommend it.

     I would like to thank Netgalley, Jeff Guinn, and Simon and Schuster for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Until the next page,

Jill

Book Review #66: "Gauntlet (Arena #2)

Hey Everyone,

     I am going to review the book "Gauntlet (Arena #2)," by Holly Jennings. This book is hot off the press as it was published on April 4, 2017 by Berkley Publishing Group. For those of you who would like to read an excerpt from this book CLICK HERE. And for those of you who would like to purchase a copy of this book CLICK HERE. This book is the second book of Holly Jennings's Arena series. If you would like to read my book review of Arena CLICK HERE.  This book continues where the first book left off. Kali has bought her first gaming team and is the first female captain ever. It is about her struggling to keep her team afloat. An opportunity of a lifetime comes up for Kali and her team and this book is about this mega world gaming tournament.

     Overall I rated this book five out of five stars. This book series keeps getting better and better. I normally find the second book of trilogy's the weakest link, but in this case it is the strongest link. For a Science Fiction/Fantasy series this book is extremely well written and has a lot of depth and character development to it. There are multiple layers to this book. Each layer brought on a different dimension and had multiple surprises. I really liked the sarcastic tone that Kali had telling this story, it definitely added humor into this book. I also loved the meaning that this book brought forward it made this book all that much more worth reading. There are not many books like this these days. We definitely need more of them. Actually we need more Kali's in this world. I also really liked the political side to this book. It fit in real well with the story and added another element to this story. And oh man the cliff hanger at the end, is killing me that I have to wait another year until I can finish this story.  I would definitely recommend reading this series so go out and read it. If you need to start on "Arena" the first book you can purchase it by CLICKING HERE. 

     I would like to thank Netgalley, Holly Jennings, and Berkley Publishing Group for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Until the next page,

Jill