Happy release: Going Rogue by Janet Evanovich

Going Rogue
by Janet Evanovich
Mystery, Humor | Published: November 1, 2022 | Goodreads
Monday mornings aren’t supposed to be fun, but they should be predictable. However, on this particular Monday, Stephanie Plum knows that something is amiss when she turns up for work at Vinnie’s Bail Bonds to find that longtime office manager Connie Rosolli, who is as reliable as the tides in Atlantic City, hasn’t shown up.

Stephanie’s worst fears are confirmed when she gets a call from Connie’s abductor. He says he will only release her in exchange for a mysterious coin that a recently murdered man left as collateral for his bail. Unfortunately, this coin, which should be in the office—just like Connie—is nowhere to be found.

The quest to discover the coin, learn its value, and save Connie will require the help of Stephanie’s Grandma Mazur, her best pal Lula, her boyfriend Morelli, and hunky security expert Ranger. As they get closer to unraveling the reasons behind Connie’s kidnapping, Connie’s captor grows more threatening and soon Stephanie has no choice but to throw caution to the wind, follow her instincts, and go rogue.

First sentence(s):
My name is Stephanie Plum. I'm a bail bonds enforcement agent, working for my cousin Vinnie, and I'm currently locked out of the bail bonds office.

My Calamity Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, Jodi Meadows

My Calamity Jane
by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, Jodi Meadows
narrated by Sophie Amoss

Published: 2020
Publisher: HarperTeen
Hardback: 544
Rating: 5
Historical, Western, Humor, Werewolves | Goodreads | Website
Travel destinations: Cincinnati, Ohio; Deadwood, South Dakota; Denver, Colorado

The Lady Janies series:
My Lady Jane
My Plain Jane
My Calamity Jane

First sentence(s):
Listen up, y'all. We're gonna tell you the story of Calamity Jane.

Welcome to 1876 and a rootin’-tootin’ America bursting with gunslingers, outlaws, and garou.

JANE (a genuine hero-eene)

Calamity’s her name, and garou hunting’s her game—when she’s not starring in Wild Bill’s Traveling Show, that is. She reckons that if a girl wants to be a legend, she should just go ahead and be one.

FRANK (*wolf whistle*)
Frank “the Pistol Prince” Butler is the Wild West’s #1 bachelor. He’s also the best sharpshooter on both sides of the Mississippi, but he’s about to meet his match...

ANNIE (get your gun!)
Annie Oakley (yep, that Annie) is lookin’ for a job, not a romance, but she can’t deny there’s something about Frank she likes. Really likes. Still, she’s pretty sure that anything he can do, she can do better.

A HAIRY SITUATION
After a garou hunt goes south and Jane finds a suspicious-like bite on her arm, she turns tail for Deadwood, where there’s been talk of a garou cure. But things ain’t always what they seem—meaning the gang better hightail it after her before they’re a day late and a Jane short.

My two-bits:

Rip roarin' fun adventure tellin' in this tale. Loved this kinda historical fiction mashup up with paranormal activity.

Also, liked learning about life in a wild west traveling show like this one.

~*~
* LOL - sparks joy moment in chapter 13
* Listened to audiobook version.
* part of Armchair Autumn Travel (here)
* part of Fraterfest (here)

Gmorning, Gnight! by Lin-Manuel Miranda

Gmorning, Gnight!:
Little Pep Talks for Me & You
by Lin-Manuel Miranda
illustrated by Jonny Sun

Published: 2018
Publisher: Random House
Genre: Poetry, Humor
Hardback: 224
Rating: 5
Goodreads | Website

First sentence(s):
I wanted to wish you a good morning.

Good morning. Do NOT get stuck in the comments section of life today. Make, do, create the things. Let others tussle it out. Vamos!

Before he inspired the world with Hamilton and was catapulted to international fame, Lin-Manuel Miranda was inspiring his Twitter followers with words of encouragement at the beginning and end of each day. He wrote these original sayings, aphorisms, and poetry for himself as much as for others. But as Miranda's audience grew, these messages took on a life on their own. Now Miranda has gathered the best of his daily greetings into a beautiful collection illustrated by acclaimed artist (and fellow Twitter favorite) Jonny Sun.

Full of comfort and motivation, Gmorning, Gnight! is a touchstone for anyone who needs a quick lift.

PeekAbook:

My two-bits:

Loved starting and ending my day with these dailies - motivating and cheerful.

Dear Girls by Ali Wong

Dear Girls
Intimate Tales, Untold Secrets & Advice for Living Your Best Life
by and narrated by Ali Wong
narrated by Justin Hakuta

Published: 2019
Publisher: Random House
Genre: Memoir, Humor
Hardback: 224
Rating: 5
Goodreads | Website

First sentence(s):
Dear, Girls. I have a secret that I never wanted anyone to know.

Zombie sighting:
I was acting like a survivor in post apocalyptic zombie world who stumbles on a supermarket.
-part 3, chapter 6

Ali Wong's heartfelt and hilarious letters to her daughters (the two she put to work while they were still in utero), covering everything they need to know in life, like the unpleasant details of dating, how to be a working mom in a male-dominated profession, and how she trapped their dad.

In her hit Netflix comedy special Baby Cobra, an eight-month pregnant Ali Wong resonated so heavily that she became a popular Halloween costume. Wong told the world her remarkably unfiltered thoughts on marriage, sex, Asian culture, working women, and why you never see new mom comics on stage but you sure see plenty of new dads.

The sharp insights and humor are even more personal in this completely original collection. She shares the wisdom she's learned from a life in comedy and reveals stories from her life off stage, including the brutal singles life in New York (i.e. the inevitable confrontation with erectile dysfunction), reconnecting with her roots (and drinking snake blood) in Vietnam, tales of being a wild child growing up in San Francisco, and parenting war stories. Though addressed to her daughters, Ali Wong's letters are absurdly funny, surprisingly moving, and enlightening (and disgusting) for all.

My two-bits:

So fun and funny.

With this love letter to her children, Ali is just as entertaining in print as she is onstage. Ali gives her account of motherhood and life perspectives.

I listened to the audio version for the full effect of her storytelling."

~*~
* Listened to audiobook version.

Calypso by David Sedaris

Calypso
by David Sedaris

Find out more about this book and author:
Goodreads
BookExcerpt
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Published: 2018
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Genre: Essays, Humor
Hardback: 272
Rating: 5

First sentence(s):
Though there’s an industry built on telling you otherwise, there are few real joys to middle age.

David Sedaris returns with his most deeply personal and darkly hilarious book.

If you’ve ever laughed your way through David Sedaris’s cheerfully misanthropic stories, you might think you know what you’re getting with Calypso. You’d be wrong.

When he buys a beach house on the Carolina coast, Sedaris envisions long, relaxing vacations spent playing board games and lounging in the sun with those he loves most. And life at the Sea Section, as he names the vacation home, is exactly as idyllic as he imagined, except for one tiny, vexing realization: it’s impossible to take a vacation from yourself.

With Calypso, Sedaris sets his formidable powers of observation toward middle age and mortality. Make no mistake: these stories are very, very funny–it’s a book that can make you laugh ’til you snort, the way only family can. Sedaris’s powers of observation have never been sharper, and his ability to shock readers into laughter unparalleled. But much of the comedy here is born out of that vertiginous moment when your own body betrays you and you realize that the story of your life is made up of more past than future.

This is beach reading for people who detest beaches, required reading for those who loathe small talk and love a good tumor joke. Calypso is simultaneously Sedaris’s darkest and warmest book yet–and it just might be his very best.

My two-bits:

I found that I knew most of these stories already from attending David's guest appearances while on tour. However, the stories were just as enjoyable to encounter again.

~*~
* Listened to audiobook version.

* part of Backlist Reader Challenge (here)

Scrappy Little Nobody by Anna Kendrick

Scrappy Little Nobody
by Anna Kendrick
narrated by author

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Published: 2016
Publisher: Touchstone
Genre: Humor, Memoir
Hardback: 304
Rating: 4

First sentence(s):
1. braid hair
2. arrange books by color
3. do homework on the floor
4. fang shui room
5. magazine collage
6. lie in yard with Walkman

When I was thirteen I started making lists.

Even before she made a name for herself on the silver screen starring in films like Pitch Perfect, Up in the Air, Twilight, and Into the Woods, Anna Kendrick was unusually small, weird, and “10 percent defiant.”

At the ripe age of thirteen, she had already resolved to “keep the crazy inside my head where it belonged. Forever. But here’s the thing about crazy: It. Wants. Out.” In Scrappy Little Nobody, she invites readers inside her brain, sharing extraordinary and charmingly ordinary stories with candor and winningly wry observations.

With her razor-sharp wit, Anna recounts the absurdities she’s experienced on her way to and from the heart of pop culture as only she can—from her unusual path to the performing arts (Vanilla Ice and baggy neon pants may have played a role) to her double life as a middle-school student who also starred on Broadway to her initial “dating experiments” (including only liking boys who didn’t like her back) to reviewing a binder full of butt doubles to her struggle to live like an adult woman instead of a perpetual “man-child.”

Enter Anna’s world and follow her rise from “scrappy little nobody” to somebody who dazzles on the stage, the screen, and now the page—with an electric, singular voice, at once familiar and surprising, sharp and sweet, funny and serious (well, not that serious).

PeekAbook:



My two-bits:

Entertaining account of the rise to fame process for Anna. Some funny and cute bits.

~*~
* Listened to audiobook version.

All Over the Place: Adventures in Travel, True Love, and Petty Theft by Geraldine DeRuiter

All Over the Place:
Adventures in Travel, True Love, and Petty Theft
by Geraldine DeRuiter

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BookExcerpt
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Published: 2017
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Genre: Humor, Memoir, Travel
Hardback: 288
Rating: 5

First sentence(s):
The problem with writing a book ostensibly about travel is the people automatically assume it falls into one of two categories:

1. It is somehow informative.

2. It involves a button-nosed protagonist nursing a broken heart who, rather than watching The Princess Bride while eating an entire five-gallon vat of ice cream directly out of the obtainer while weeping (like a normal person), instead decides to travel the world, inevitably falling for some chiseled stranger with bulging pectoral muscles and a disdain for wearing clothing above the waist.

Some people are meant to travel the globe, to unwrap its secrets and share them with the world. And some people have no sense of direction, are terrified of pigeons, and get motion sickness from tying their shoes. These people are meant to stay home and eat nachos.

Geraldine DeRuiter is the latter. But she won't let that stop her.

Hilarious, irreverent, and heartfelt, All Over the Place chronicles the years Geraldine spent traveling the world after getting laid off from a job she loved. Those years taught her a great number of things, though the ability to read a map was not one of them. She has only a vague idea of where Russia is, but she now understands her Russian father better than ever before. She learned that what she thought was her mother's functional insanity was actually an equally incurable condition called "being Italian." She learned what it's like to travel the world with someone you already know and love--how that person can help you make sense of things and make far-off places feel like home. She learned about unemployment and brain tumors, lost luggage and lost opportunities, and just getting lost in countless terminals and cabs and hotel lobbies across the globe. And she learned that sometimes you can find yourself exactly where you need to be--even if you aren't quite sure where you are.

Jane Austen sighting:
If Jane Austen were alive today, she'd be forced to have Mr. Darcy and Lizzie get together in the first twenty-five pages (also, Darcy would be into sadomasochism).
-chapter 2, page 29

Zombie sighting:
And sometimes I think about the zombie apocalypse.
-chapter 4, page 70

My two-bits:

I inhaled this book ;-) with its tips on life, love and dash of travel.

FYI: Discovered this book while listening to podcast that featured this author's husband. Funny how you can find book recommendations from unusual places.

Goodbye, Vitamin by Rachel Khong

Goodbye, Vitamin
by Rachel Khong

Find out more about this book and author:
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Published: 2017
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
Genre: Contemporary, Humor
Hardback: 208
Rating: 4

First sentence(s):
Tonight a man found Dad's pants in a tree lit with Christmas lights.

Her life at a crossroads, a young woman goes home again in this funny and inescapably moving debut from a wonderfully original new literary voice.

Freshly disengaged from her fiancé and feeling that life has not turned out quite the way she planned, thirty-year-old Ruth quits her job, leaves town and arrives at her parents’ home to find that situation more complicated than she'd realized. Her father, a prominent history professor, is losing his memory and is only erratically lucid. Ruth’s mother, meanwhile, is lucidly erratic. But as Ruth's father’s condition intensifies, the comedy in her situation takes hold, gently transforming her all her grief.

Told in captivating glimpses and drawn from a deep well of insight, humor, and unexpected tenderness, Goodbye, Vitamin pilots through the loss, love, and absurdity of finding one’s footing in this life.

My two-bits:

This is a humorous, yet serious perspective of a young adult in a caregiver role for a father experiencing the early stages of Alzheimer's. The gradual transition of the relationship between father and daughter is also presented by way of short observations of daily living.

~*~
* part of Tournament of Books 2018 (here)

The Disaster Artist by Greg Sestero

The Disaster Artist
My Life Inside The Room, the Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made
by Greg Sestero, Tom Bissell
narrated by author

Find out more about this book and author:
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Published: 2013
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Genre: Humor, Movies, Memoir
Hardback: 288
Rating: 5

First sentence(s):
Imagine a movie so incomprehensible that you find yourself compelled to watch it over and over again.

The hilarious and inspiring story of how a mysterious misfit got past every roadblock in the Hollywood system to achieve success on his own terms: a $6 million cinematic catastrophe called The Room.

Nineteen-year-old Greg Sestero met Tommy Wiseau at an acting school in San Francisco. Wiseau’s scenes were rivetingly wrong, yet Sestero, hypnotized by such uninhibited acting, thought, “I have to do a scene with this guy.” That impulse changed both of their lives. Wiseau seemed never to have read the rule book on interpersonal relationships (or the instruc­tions on a bottle of black hair dye), yet he generously offered to put the aspiring actor up in his LA apart­ment. Sestero’s nascent acting career first sizzled, then fizzled, resulting in Wiseau’s last-second offer to Sestero of costarring with him in The Room, a movie Wiseau wrote and planned to finance, produce, and direct—in the parking lot of a Hollywood equipment-rental shop.

Wiseau spent $6 million of his own money on his film, but despite the efforts of the disbelieving (and frequently fired) crew and embarrassed (and fre­quently fired) actors, the movie made no sense. Nevertheless Wiseau rented a Hollywood billboard featuring his alarming headshot and staged a red carpet premiere. The Room made $1800 at the box office and closed after two weeks. One reviewer said that watching The Room was like “getting stabbed in the head.”

The Disaster Artist is Greg Sestero’s laugh-out-loud funny account of how Tommy Wiseau defied every law of artistry, business, and friendship to make “the Citizen Kane of bad movies” (Entertainment Weekly), which is now an international phenomenon, with Wiseau himself beloved as an oddball celebrity. Written with award-winning journalist Tom Bissell, The Disaster Artist is an inspiring tour de force that reads like a page-turning novel, an open-hearted portrait of an enigmatic man who will improbably capture your heart.

My two-bits:

I listened to this memoir in preparation for watching the movie version. Also, watched the film, The Room before the listen. And also, before the James Franco story release about his #Timesup pin at the Golden Globes ceremony.

I really enjoyed listening to the author read his story. Being an actor he did very well with capturing the essence of Tommy throughout the reading.

It was fascinating to follow this friendship and to learn about Greg's experience with the making of The Room.

Thoughts about art, passion and success come to mind.

Off to see the movie version...

~*~
* Listened to audiobook version.

Theft by Finding: Diaries 1977-2002 by David Sedaris

Theft by Finding: Diaries 1977-2002
by David Sedaris
narrated by author

Find out more about this book and author:
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BookExcerpt
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Just released: May 30, 2017
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Genre: Memoir, Humor
Hardback: 528
Rating: 5

First sentence(s):
Not long after deciding to release a book of diary entries, I came upon a five-pound note.

For forty years, David Sedaris has kept a diary in which he records everything that captures his attention-overheard comments, salacious gossip, soap opera plot twists, secrets confided by total strangers. These observations are the source code for his finest work, and through them he has honed his cunning, surprising sentences.

Now, Sedaris shares his private writings with the world. Theft by Finding, the first of two volumes, is the story of how a drug-abusing dropout with a weakness for the International House of Pancakes and a chronic inability to hold down a real job became one of the funniest people on the planet.

Written with a sharp eye and ear for the bizarre, the beautiful, and the uncomfortable, and with a generosity of spirit that even a misanthropic sense of humor can't fully disguise, Theft By Finding proves that Sedaris is one of our great modern observers. It's a potent reminder that when you're as perceptive and curious as Sedaris, there's no such thing as a boring day.

My two-bits:

I love to listen to David telling his stories and experiences. His observations of ugly things in life are thoughtful and humorous.

This is definitely a treat for fans.

Looking forward to the next batch of diary entries!

~*~
* Listened to audiobook version.

Happy release: A Short History of the Girl Next Door by Jared Reck

A Short History of the Girl Next Door
by Jared Reck
-Humor, YA
Release date: September 26, 2017
Amazon | Goodreads
Seriously, how can you see a person nearly every day of your life and never think a thing of it, then all of a sudden, one day, it’s different? You see that goofy grin a thousand times and just laugh. But goofy grin #1,001 nearly stops your heart?

Right. That sounds like a bad movie already.

Matt Wainwright is constantly sabotaged by the overdramatic movie director in his head. He can’t tell his best friend, Tabby, how he really feels about her, he implodes on the JV basketball team, and the only place he feels normal is in Mr. Ellis’s English class, discussing the greatest fart scenes in literature and writing poems about pissed-off candy-cane lumberjacks.

If this were a movie, everything would work out perfectly. Tabby would discover that Matt’s madly in love with her, be overcome with emotion, and would fall into his arms. Maybe in the rain.

But that’s not how it works. Matt watches Tabby get swept away by senior basketball star and all-around great guy Liam Branson. Losing Tabby to Branson is bad enough, but screwing up and losing her as a friend is even worse.

After a tragic accident, Matt finds himself left on the sidelines, on the verge of spiraling out of control and losing everything that matters to him. From debut author Jared Reck comes a fiercely funny and heart-wrenching novel about love, longing, and what happens when life as you know it changes in an instant.

Excerpt:

Chapter One

The Moment I Know It’s Over

I know it’s over when Liam Branson’s black Accord pulls in front of Tabby’s house before school.

I’m shooting free throws in my driveway, like I do every morning, waiting for the bus to deliver me to another memorable day as a freshman at Franklin High. It’s late October, which means the weather is perfect for my before-school shootaround ritual. Warm enough that I don’t have to shove my fingers into my armpits, panini-style, after every few shots to prevent frostbite, and cold enough that I’m not a sweaty mess when the bus pulls up.

I’m about fifty free throws in when Branson’s car rolls into our circle, going around and stopping in front of Tabby’s house, straight across from mine. I try not to stare too much between shots. But what is a senior guy--one of the senior guys, varsity starter on our Black Bears football and basketball teams--doing picking up a freshman girl before school?

He beeps his horn, and an instant later Tabby’s front door flies open. Tabby throws her book bag over her shoulder and jogs across her front lawn, beaming, looking amazing in that not-even-trying way that Tabby has--worn jeans and a T-shirt, her red hair pulled back into a sloppy bun. It’s perfect.

(read more excerpt here)

Perfectly Oblivious by Robin Daniels

Perfectly Oblivious
by Robin Daniels

Find out more about this book and author:
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BookExcerpt
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Just released: June 30, 2017
Publisher: Bluefields Publishing
Genre: YA, Humor, Sports
Paperback: 310
Rating: 5

The Perfect Series series:
Perfectly Oblivious
Perfectly You

First sentence(s):
A New Family was moving in across the street. The house next door to the Perkins's had been vacant for over six months. The couple that lived there before had had no kids, were hardly ever home, and kept to themselves. So, when the house went up for sale, my heart wasn't exactly broken.

Cameron Bates (Cam) could have almost any girl at Franklin High School... except for the one he wants. Unfortunately Bebe seems to be immune to his flirty charm and good looks, which means one of two things: a) she’s completely oblivious to how he feels, or b) she’s just not into him. If that’s the case, declaring his love would be disastrous for their friendship.

Bianca Barnes (Bebe) has a huge problem: the universe hates her. Every time she admits feelings for a boy, he ends up falling for her sweet, popular, and beautiful sister Beth. To avoid a broken heart, Bebe has sworn herself to secrecy. Nobody can know how she feels about Cam... Ever!

Neither person wants to confess their feelings, but the universe has its own plan. Out of the blue, Bebe is courted by a secret admirer. Cam has to step up his game and Bebe has to make a choice. Play it safe and accept the affections of her mystery man or challenge fate and take a chance on the boy she loves.

Content Description: This is a stand-alone YA contemporary romance with companion novels to follow. It contains minor language, innuendo, crude humor and steamy tension but is generally very clean. No sex. Recommended for ages 14 and up.

My two-bits:

Loved the banter between the two main characters as well as the individual perspectives of each.

And, loved the romantic shenanigans involved in pairing this couple.

Some fun one-on-one basketball scenes are cause for giggles in this YA romance.

Makes me want to check out the film, Love and Basketball.

~*~
* review copy courtesy of author

Life Would Suck Without You by Jennifer Preuss

Life Would Suck Without You
by Jennifer Preuss

Find out more about this book and author:
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BookExcerpt
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Just released: May 14, 2017
Publisher: Facetious Books
Genre: Humor, Memoir
Paperback: 184
Rating: 5

First sentence(s):
"I heard you could use a friend." I was rehearsing the line over and over again in my head.

Zombie sighting:
The medication made Aidan such a zombie.
-page 125, chapter 16

When life makes no sense, and the world is going straight to hell, a girl knows she can always count on her best friends ...

There are all types of friends. Rich friends. Poor friends. Fair weather friends—and then there are Best Friends—your BFF’s. Meet Jennifer, a wannabe soap opera star, new to LA and waiting tables in Century City. She makes three new friends, and they turn out to be inseparable.

Together they go from one hilarious adventure to another; crashing concerts and movie star bars, lingerie shopping, and laughing about men’s shortcomings, all revealed through the razor-sharp, self-deprecating humor of the author. Life is good, even laugh-out-loud funny, and Jen discovers the real meaning of friendship. But when life throws them a cruel curve ball, which rocks them to their very core . . . is friendship enough?

A feel-good story that will make you laugh and cry, Jennifer Preuss’ comical and heartwarming book tells the tale of an inseparable group of four women who navigate their 20s and 30s, dealing with life, death and all the things in between.

My two-bits:

This is a quick read that gave me chuckles along the way.

Loved the friendships and stories shared in this memoir.

~*~
* review copy courtesy of author

Startup by Doree Shafrir

Startup
by Doree Shafrir

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Just released: April 25, 2017
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Genre: Contemporary, Humor, New York
Hardback: 304
Rating: 4

First sentence(s):
They came from all over the city in the predawn hours, a merry band of highly optimized minstrels in purple leggings and shiny headbands and brightly colored sneakers, walking the fifteen minutes from the L train or directing an Uber to the former spice factory in the no-man's-land between Williamsburg and Greenpoint.

Mack McAllister has a $600 million dollar idea. His mindfulness app, TakeOff, is already the hottest thing in tech and he's about to launch a new and improved version that promises to bring investors running and may turn his brainchild into a $1 billion dollar business--in startup parlance, an elusive unicorn.

Katya Pasternack is hungry for a scoop that will drive traffic. An ambitious young journalist at a gossipy tech blog, Katya knows that she needs more than another PR friendly puff piece to make her the go-to byline for industry news.

Sabrina Choe Blum just wants to stay afloat. The exhausted mother of two and failed creative writer is trying to escape from her credit card debt and an inattentive husband-who also happens to be Katya's boss-as she rejoins a work force that has gotten younger, hipper, and much more computer literate since she's been away.

Before the ink on Mack's latest round of funding is dry, an errant text message hints that he may be working a bit too closely for comfort with a young social media manager in his office. When Mack's bad behavior collides with Katya's search for a salacious post, Sabrina gets caught in the middle as TakeOff goes viral for all the wrong reasons. As the fallout from Mack's scandal engulfs the lower Manhattan office building where all three work, it's up to Katya and Sabrina to write the story the men in their lives would prefer remain untold.

An assured, observant debut from the veteran online journalist Doree Shafrir, Startup is a sharp, hugely entertaining story of youth, ambition, love, money and technology's inability to hack human nature.

My two-bits:

This was a good way to get an inkling of what goes on in modern day lives and loves set in the startup and tech worlds.

The story covers three women with different angles of being involved with social media and tech related businesses.

Happy release: Life Would Suck Without You by Jennifer Preuss

Life Would Suck Without You
A Girlfriend Memoir
by Jennifer Preuss
-Memoir, Humor
Just released: May 16, 2017
Amazon | Goodreads
When life makes no sense, and the world is going straight to hell, a girl knows she can count on her best friends

There are all types of friends. Rich friends. Poor friends. Fair weather friends—and then there are Best Friends—your BFF’s. Meet Jennifer, a wannabe soap opera star, new to LA and waiting tables in Century City. She makes three new friends, and they turn out to be inseparable.

Together they go from one hilarious adventure to another; crashing concerts and movie star bars, lingerie shopping, and laughing about men’s shortcomings, all revealed through the razor-sharp, self-deprecating humor of the author. Life is good, even laugh-out-loud funny, and Jen discovers the real meaning of friendship. But when life throws them a cruel curve ball, which rocks them to their very core . . . is friendship enough?

Life Would Suck Without You is a feel-good story that will make you laugh and cry, Jennifer Preuss’s comical and heartwarming book tells the tale of an inseparable group of four women who navigate their 20s and 30s, dealing with life, death and all the things in between.

Excerpt:

Chapter One

Perhaps I should back up a little bit. I moved to Los Angeles from Philadelphia, by way of Miami for college, to be a soap opera star. Yes, that’s right. Most people who want to act dream of being a movie star or landing on a sitcom. Not me. I wanted to be on General Hospital. The year was 1999. My first job was waiting tables at Houston’s Restaurant in the Century City Mall.

“Full hands out!” That’s what we shouted as we exited the kitchen at the Century City Houston’s Restaurant. That meant we didn’t have an empty hand to take anything out for anyone to his or her tables. There were so many rules you needed to know at this restaurant. It was unlike any other waiting tables job I had ever had. I worked at many restaurants as a hostess and server since I was sixteen. Very much a people person, I loved interacting with my customers. Only they weren’t customers at Houston’s. They were my guests. No. They were the restaurants’ guests and me, nothing but a humble servant. It was my first week without shadowing a trainer, and it was overwhelming, to say the least.

We only had a three-table section. This should be easy. In college, I had six, sometimes seven tables in my section and I prided myself on my excellent service. But Houston’s was unlike any other restaurant I had ever worked. It was run like the military. I will never forget ordering someone’s lunch on the computer and hyperventilating because I had to get drinks to table 33, a “guest request” to someone not in my section (still my responsibility, though), and ring in a long order with more modifications than ingredients. As I tried to run out of the kitchen to get the guest request to the table, the manager shoved two plates in my hand reminding me not to leave the kitchen without full hands. When I arrived at my table, they yelled at me for not having their drinks. I promised to check on them.

“This might sound silly, but I can get back here much faster if you give me your empty bread plates to carry to the kitchen,” I said. They looked at me like I was insane as I grabbed the untouched plates so I could have “full hands in” and made my way back to the kitchen. A manager stopped me and would not let me into the kitchen because I did not have FULL hands! Bread plates or “tip plates” as they were called, were small enough to grab other things. I scurried around the restaurant trying to find plates that needed clearing so I could get back to the drink area to make sure my drinks were going out to my table. I was so overwhelmed. I wasn’t sure how much more of this I could take. Maybe I wasn’t cut out to wait tables in Los Angeles? I found a few more big plates to clear and got back to the kitchen. When I put the plates down, I started crying. Like “ugly girl” crying.

Happy Release: Perfectly Oblivious by Robin Daniels

Perfectly Oblivious
by Robin Daniels
-Humor, YA
Just released: May 31, 2017
Amazon | Goodreads
Cameron Bates (Cam) could have almost any girl at Franklin High School…except for the one he wants. Unfortunately Bebe seems to be immune to his flirty charm and good looks, which means one of two things: a) she’s completely oblivious to how he feels, or b) she’s just not into him. If that’s the case, declaring his love would be disastrous for their friendship.

Bianca Barnes (Bebe) has a huge problem: the universe hates her. Every time she admits feelings for a boy, he ends up falling for her sweet, popular, and beautiful sister Beth. To avoid a broken heart, Bebe has sworn herself to secrecy. Nobody can know how she feels about Cam…Ever!

Neither person wants to confess their feelings, but the universe has its own plan. Out of the blue, Bebe is courted by a secret admirer. Cam has to step up his game and Bebe has to make a choice. Play it safe and accept the affections of her mystery man or challenge fate and take a chance on the boy she loves.

Content Description: This is a stand-alone YA contemporary romance with companion novels to follow. It contains minor language, innuendo, crude humor and steamy tension but is generally very clean. No sex. Recommended for ages 12 and up.

TEASER:

I’d hoped to catch the new kid’s attention by shooting some hoops on the driveway next to his. But after five minutes of flawless shots, his face was still hiding under his hat and his eyes hadn’t left that stupid phone. I wasn’t desperate enough to go talk to him (Ok, I almost was) so I devised a plan to get his attention in a more subtle way.

On my next shot, I intentionally hit the backboard so the ball would bounce off and roll toward him. If he’d seen that shot, I’d have been super embarrassed. I’d never want anyone to think I sucked that bad. But, as luck would have it, embarrassment was not in my cards. Mortification was a better word for what had happened. The missed shot that was supposed to bounce somewhere in his general vicinity was alarmingly accurate. It beaned him in the side of the head, knocking his cap off.

“What the hell?” he grumbled as he rubbed his head and shot a dirty glance in my direction. Oops. Not quite the first impression I was hoping to make. So much for subtle.

“Sorry.” I offered a quick apology, then ran to fetch my ball from the street. I made it back to the driveway, and he strolled over. Now that his baseball cap was off, I could see that he was pretty stinking cute. He had light-brown hair that was long enough to be messed up from wearing his hat but short enough not to stick out under the sides. His blue eyes sparkled (yes, I know how cheesy that sounds, but there is no other way to describe them), and he had a cute button nose. I must have admired him a little too long because he cleared his throat and smirked, revealing the most adorable dimples.

Crap, crap, crappity-crap. He totally realized I was checking him out. Play it cool, Bianca, play it cool…

“Hey,” was all I could manage. I gave him a head nod. Great; in my attempt not to look desperate, I managed to look like a loser instead.

“You play ball?” he asked, a cocky smirk plastered to his face.

“It would seem so. Seeing as I’m standing here, under a basketball hoop, holding a ball of the basket variety.” That’s good, Bianca; go for snarky. Maybe he’ll forget the moony eyes he caught you making at him.

The new kid snorted. His cocky smirk morphed into a cocky smile. “Well then, I propose a deal. I challenge you to a game of PIG. If you can beat me, I promise to pretend that I don’t know you purposely tanked that shot as an excuse to talk to me.”

My eyes bugged and my jaw dropped for a moment before I was able to regain my composure. So that’s how he was going to play it?

“Hmmm…” I pretended to think as I brought my finger to my lips. “Then I guess if I win, I promise to forget that you’re a conceited ass.”

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Revived by Ernesto Pavan

Revived
by Ernesto Pavan

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Published: February 23, 2017
Publisher: self
Genre: Dark Humor, Zombies
ebook
Rating: 3

First sentence(s):
It started like a bad influenza — one that game me constant, terrible headaches, made my muscles feel like wet rags, and prevented me from holding anything in my stomach.

For deadpan snark queen Violet Sharpe, death is not the end.

If you think life sucks, wait until after you're dead. After finding out she's contracted porthmeos, a nasty parasite, Violet is faced with a choice: either meet her end before her thirtieth birthday, or become one of the Revived, which is the politically correct word for... well, a zombie.

But the challenges of her new un-life are way worse than she thought. As part of a new minority, she faces discrimination and hatred, not to mention a laundry list of physical limitations and the looming ghost of depression. Can she meet these challenges with her usual strength and dark humor? Or is being Revived a fate worse than death?

My two-bits:

Some of these zombies had a choice before becoming zombified. This story takes you into the life a such a creature. The issues that arise from being a functioning zombie are tackled moreso than stereotypical "braaaaains" zombie action.

Living with a decaying body (mind still intact) and its complications made me think of people who go through cancer or a long term illness.

Makes you wonder - If the price to living is a gradual decay, is it worth it?

~*~
* review copy courtesy of author

* May - Happy zombie awareness month!

Lust & Wonder by Augusten Burroughs

Lust & Wonder
by Augusten Burroughs

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Published: 2016
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Genre: Humor, Memoir
Hardback: 304 pages
Rating: 5

First sentence(s):
Just when I broke my sobriety and started drinking again in moderate and controlled measure exactly like a normal person, I met this guy who wasn't just a guy but a writer, and not just a writer but the author of one of my favorite books.

With Augusten's unique and singular observations and his own unabashed way of detailing both the horrific and the humorous, Lust & Wonder is a hilariously frank memoir that his legions of fans have been waiting for. His story began in Running with Scissors, endured through Dry, and continues with this memoir, the capstone to the life of Augusten Burroughs.

Funny, sweet, alarming, and ultimately, moving and tender, Lust & Wonder is an experience of a book that will resonate with anyone who has loved and lost and loved again.

My two-bits:

I love Augusten's take on life. In this memoir he gets into his love relationships with people. And, his fascination and obsession with gems is also revealed.

~*~
* Listened to audiobook version - such a treat with the author reading it.

Waiting on Wednesday - 3.8.17

Waiting on Wednesday
hosted by Breaking the Spine
Spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.
~*~
I'm waiting for...

Big Mushy Happy Lump:
A Sarah's Scribbles Collection
by Sarah Andersen
-Comics, Humor
Release date: March 7, 2017
Amazon | Goodreads
Swimsuit season is coming up! Better get beach-body ready! Work on those abs! Lift those butts!

...Um, or how about never mind to all that and just be a lump. Big Mushy Happy Lump!

Sarah Andersen's hugely popular, world-famous Sarah's Scribbles comics are for those of us who boast bookstore-ready bodies and Netflix-ready hair, who are always down for all-night reading-in-bed parties and extremely exclusive after-hour one-person music festivals.

In addition to the most recent Sarah's Scribbles fan favorites and dozens of all-new comics, this volume contains illustrated personal essays on Sarah's real-life experiences with anxiety, career, relationships and other adulthood challenges that will remind readers of Allie Brosh's Hyperbole and a Half and Jenny Lawson's Let's Pretend This Never Happened. The same uniquely frank, real, yet humorous and uplifting tone that makes Sarah's Scribbles so relatable blooms beautifully in this new longer form.


LOVED Sarah's Adulthood is a Myth. Have a feeling this one will be just as entertaining with lots of chuckles.

Brake Failure by Alison Brodie

Brake Failure
by Alison Brodie

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Release date: January 9, 2017
Publisher: Clipboard Press
Genre: Romance, Humor, Chick-lit, Suspense
ebook
Rating: 5

First sentence(s):
'There's a dead man at the door,' Mrs Whitaker hissed, leaning over the desk.

Is it too late to say you love him when you're looking down the barrel of his gun?

Ruby Mortimer-Smyth is upper-class English and has been rigidly brought up to find a husband from Burke’s Peerage. She knows the etiquette for every social occasion and her soufflés NEVER collapse.

 She is in control of her life, tightly in control. Nothing can knock her off balance. 

Until …

… she ends up in Kansas. 

Ruby believes that life is like a car; common-sense keeps it on the road, passion sends it into a ditch. What she doesn't know is, she's on a collision course with Sheriff Hank Gephart. 

Sheriff Hank Gephart can judge a person. Miss Mortimer-Smyth might act like the Duchess of England, but just under the surface there's something bubbling, ready to explode. She's reckless, and she's heading for brake failure. And he's not thinking about her car.

 With the Millennium approaching, Ruby gets caught up in the Y2K hysteria and makes friends with Survivalists, who teach her to use a gun and advise her to stockpile basic essentials. So, she bulk-buys caviar, Gentleman's Relish and bottles of Perrier. She falls in with a group of Hells Angels and falls foul of the law. At every turn, she comes up hard against Sheriff Hank Gephart, whose blue eyes seem to look deep into her soul. She desperately wants him, but knows she can never have him.

She's angry, angry at the emotions he arouses in her. Pushed to her limit, she bursts from her emotional straightjacket. 

As the clock strikes midnight of the new Millennium, she's bought a one-way ticket to criminal insanity.

And there's no coming back.

My two-bits:

Hilarious coming-of-age kind of story for a contemporary woman, Ruby. Her crazy antics and upbeat personality moves this fast paced story.

There were parts of this story that made me think Ruby was down right wacko. When I was starting to dislike her things took a turn. Learning more about her and her situation made her endearing. I ended up rooting for her to the end.

Loved how the romance slowly came about.

~*~
* review copy courtesy of author