My Goodreads Reviews Part 48 are a children’s book, two memoirs, literary and historical gay fiction, and suspense thriller. I hope this diversity will help you find your favorite new reads!
Stikki the Squirrel, The Armour: An Autobiography, Don’t Cry for Me, The House at the End of the World, Boys and Oil: Growing Up Gay in a Fractured Land
To make one thing clear, I usually do not read children’s literature. But I do read animal fiction, and I have read two previous (AMAZING!) YA GoldenEars books by Jane H. Wood, so volunteering to be her early reader of Stikki the Squirrel was a logical thing to do.
I had a good feeling while waiting for an ARC to drop in my mailbox and after reading Stikki, that good feeling remained. Stikki met all my expectations. Just like GoldenEars, it enchanted me with beautiful and detailed descriptions of Stikki’s world and environment. But what blew me away are thirty-five fantastic illustrations drawn by the author herself. Jane H. Wood is more than just a writer that can capture your heart with her books, but also a masterful artist with a skill to make her stories visually attractive as well.
Stikki is too adorable (the squirrel) / (the book), and if you are not a huge fan of children’s books, worry not. All honest readers, no matter their age, who have their hearts and minds open to understanding and appreciating the wonders of the natural world that surround us can easily read this story. And we better preserve it so Stikki and his friends can keep entertaining us and future generations for many years to come.
Wonderful, heart-warming, tender, loveable. What’s not to like about it?
As I already mentioned, I have received an advance review copy from the author at no cost and with no obligations toward the author.
I always enjoyed reading (auto)biographies of celebrities or, so called, “important” people. But reading (auto)biographies of unknown people can be equally gratifying and enlightening. Because each person has something to tell us, teach us, or share with us. Every one of us is someone unique. Like Klara M Busic, a painter and a poet, a girl with big dreams, who is trying to find herself and happiness as an artist in her private world torn by amalgam illness and its side effects.
This is not a long autobiography, so it would be interesting to see what happened later in the life of this artist. Who knows, maybe Klara will write a sequel one day?
Genuine, honest, emotional. Beautiful and so real portrait of a family (drama).
What I like best about this book is the slow, meticulous building of suspense with engrossing descriptions—like in most of Koontz’s books—and Michael J. What I like least is the predictability of the ending. I’ve read too many books by one of the two of my favorite authors so as not to guess how the story might end. Sometimes I would prefer not to expect the expected but to be shaken out of my boots and even angered by the ending. Sometimes I would sacrifice it to keep the story dark, mysterious, and threatening until the last page instead of a suspenseful version of a fairy tale. Not always, but gambling is once in a while necessary to keep the eyes and minds hungry for the unexpected.
Realistic and picturesque portray of a fractured land and fractured lives torn apart and divided by intolerance to differences. A memoir of a hard survival and the heaviness of coming out.
Happy reading!
BJ
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