That Crazy Perfect Someday by Michael Mazza

That Crazy Perfect Someday
by Michael Mazza

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Just released: June 20, 2017
Publisher: Turtle Point Press
Genre: New Adult, Sports - surfing, California, Australia
Paperback: 318
Rating: 4

First sentence(s):
My Charger clocks eighty-three miles an hour up North Harbor Drive, past the airport, headlights blazing, tachometer redlining, the V-8 roaring as if it's heading into war.

Zombie sighting:
Weakened by the prospect, I recline the seat all the way back, close may eyes, and numb as a voodoo zombie, let the car loop around the city into the dark, decaying hours of the night.
-page 217, chapter 38 (ARC)

The year is 2024. Climate change has altered the world's wave patterns. Drones crisscross the sky, cars drive themselves, and surfing is a new Olympic sport. Mafuri Long, UCSD marine biology grad, champion surfer, and only female to dominate a record eighty-foot wave, still has something to prove. Having achieved Internet fame, along with sponsorship from Google and Nike, she's intent on winning Olympic gold. But when her father, a clinically depressed former Navy captain and widower, learns that his beloved supercarrier, the USS Hillary Rodham Clinton, is to be sunk, he draws Mafuri into a powerful undertow. Conflicts compound as Mafuri's personal life comes undone via social media, and a vicious Aussie competitor levels bogus doping charges against her. Mafuri forms an unlikely friendship with an awkward teen, a Ferrari-driving professional gamer who will prove to be her support and ballast. Authentic, brutal, and at times funny, Mafuri lays it all out in a sprightly, hot-wired voice. From San Diego to Sydney, Key West, and Manila, That Crazy Perfect Someday goes beyond the sports/surf cliché to explore the depths of sorrow and hope, yearning and family bonds, and the bootstrap power of a bold young woman climbing back into the light.

My two-bits:

I found this to be a fun way to get into the surf world with a female perspective.

This story also gets into tackling the hardships in life that come with sports, fame, relationships (family and friends).

Admired the protagonist's courage and perseverance.

Had me watching some YouTube GoPro footage by surfers on Australian waves.

~*~
* review copy courtesy of publisher

The Last Cowboys of San Geronimo by Ian Stansel

The Last Cowboys of San Geronimo
by Ian Stansel
narrated by Jordan Killam

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Just released: July 4, 2017
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Genre: Contemporary, Western, California
Hardback: 208
Rating: 5

First sentence(s):
What are you doing, brother?

These words clung to the gnarled oak of Silas's consciousness, climbing, nesting, making themselves at home.

A contemporary Western debut about two brothers locked in a deadly feud, a woman on horseback trailing her husband’s killer, and the inescapable ties of home and family

When Silas Van Loy flees home on horseback to avoid capture for his brother’s murder, he is soon followed by both the police and his brother’s wife, Lena, who is intent on exacting revenge. She reluctantly lets her trusted stable assistant join her in a journey across the wilds of Northern California in the hopes of catching Silas for one final showdown. Stansel follows the chase and shares the story of the brothers’ rise from hardscrabble childhood to their reign as the region’s preeminent horse trainers, tracking the tense sibling rivalry that ultimately leads to the elder’s death.

A fully realized tale that challenges notions of the modern West, The Last Cowboys of San Geronimo will satisfy fans of Kent Haruf, Larry McMurtry, Molly Gloss, and Smith Henderson, and establish Stansel as a new voice in this grand tradition.

My two-bits:

Surely captures the western genre in a modern day setting. The location is set in my backyard (Marin county), so it was a treat to hear references to places I am familiar with.

The drama includes a cowboy on-the-run, a horse named Disco, a vengeful woman and a journey to an eventual showdown.

~*~
* Listened to audiobook version.

Jane of Austin by Hillary Manton Lodge

Jane of Austin:
A Novel of Sweet Tea and Sensibility
by Hillary Manton Lodge
narrated by Kate Handford

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Just released: June 13, 2017
Publisher: WaterBrook
Genre: Romance, Jane Austen theme, Retelling, Recipes, California, Texas
Paperback: 320
Rating: 5

First sentence(s):
San Francisco, CA 2009
"Well, girls," our father began, "it's been a good run. And I'm not saying it won't be again, but we're going to have to… economize."

“Know your own happiness. You want nothing but patience - or give it a more fascinating name, call it hope.”
― Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility

Just a few years after their father’s business scandal shatters their lives, Jane and Celia Woodward find themselves forced out of their San Francisco tea shop. The last thing Jane wants is to leave their beloved shop on Valencia Street, but when Celia insists on a move to Austin, Texas, the sisters pack up their kid sister Margot and Jane’s tea plants, determined to start over yet again.

But life in Austin isn’t all sweet tea and breakfast tacos. Their unusual living situation is challenging and unspoken words begin to fester between Jane and Celia. When Jane meets and falls for up-and-coming musician Sean Willis, the chasm grows deeper.

While Sean seems to charm everyone in his path, one person is immune – retired Marine Captain Callum Beckett. Callum never meant to leave the military, but the twin losses of his father and his left leg have returned him to the place he least expected—Texas.

In this modern spin on the Austen classic, Sense and Sensibility, the Woodward sisters must contend with new ingredients in unfamiliar kitchens, a dash of heartbreak, and the fragile hope that maybe home isn't so far away.

My two-bits:

This definitely captures S&S in a modern setting with lovely characters and gentle romance dramas.

The story starts off in San Francisco (one of my favorite places in the world) and incorporates lots of tea (another favorite). Delicious sweet and savory recipes are interspersed within the story which makes me want to get the print copy to experience the yummy-ness.

Loved learning about Austin, Texas and it's culture including the SXSW scene.

~*~
* check out Hillary's Jane Austen week celebration, July 16-21, 2017 (here)

* part of Foodies Read Challenge (here)

* Listened to audiobook version.