Review--Letter to My Daughter by Maya Angelou

Letter to My Daughter by Maya Angelou
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Maya Angelou has long been one of my favorite authors.  I have even performed her poetry during my high school day in regional speech & debate tournaments.  I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings was her first book that I read as an adolescent.  Her words are always inspiring and listening to her read Letter to My Daughter was incredible.  Reading her books always leave me feeling refreshed and alive, but hearing the emotion in her voice while she was reading her words, gives the book even more enjoyable.  Hearing her voice crack as she talks about being beaten and raped almost brought me to tears. It made me feel a deeper connection to Ms. Angelou.

It's ironic that this book is called Letter to My Daughter when Maya Angelou doesn't have a daughter. She claims women such as Oprah Winfrey, Rosa Johnson Butler, Valerie Simpson, Brenda Crisp, and Frances Berry allowed her to be a mother to them.  This book goes through different aspects of Maya Angelou's life from childhood living with her grandmother, to becoming an undeveloped woman who thought sex would bring in her breasts. And it did, but they were filled with milk.

We as women go through many struggles in life.  A lot of the time, we put ourselves on the back burner in order to take care of those around us.  In this book, Maya Angelou proves to us that no matter the struggle, if we work hard and put ourselves first, we can accomplish anything.  She had it just as hard, actually harder than any of us and look at all she had done in this world.

I recommend this book to all the women I know.  It will leave you feeling empowered, strong and on top of the world.


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What Books Affect You Emotionally

I was watching a movie the other night and I started crying like a little baby. I have seen this movie a few times and I new what the outcome was going to be, but still I was deeply affected.  There are a few books that do the same thing. The Color Purple by Alice Walker always affects me emotionally no matter how many times I read it. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett does the same.  I have read both of these books on several occasions, but each time they bring me to tears. 

Are there any books that you have read or could read over and over? Let's hear about them.

Review--Chat Love by Justine Faeth

Chat Love by Justine Faeth
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

2.5 stars.

**I was given a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.**

Let me start by saying that this was a cute little love story, that I read quickly.  I give it such a low rating mainly because it was pretty predictable and I figured out what was going to happen 1/3 of the way into the book.

Lucia is from an Italian family.  Being 28 and single means she is practically an old maid.  She has a couple of serious boyfriends, but she has never found THE ONE.  One of her co-workers has recently found the man of her dreams on an online dating site called Chat Love.  When her married younger sister announces that she is pregnant, the pressure is really on then.  After pressure from her friends, Lucia decides to join Chat Love and try something new.  Her dates are very interesting, to say the least.  But you never know where you will find love.

As I stated before, this was a quick and fun read.  The story is cute, but very predictable.  The dates that she goes on are always dinner dates, there is no variety to them.  The main character Lucia is an Italian bombshell from the way she is described by her dates and her peers.  She is loved by all, but can't seem to find love.  She goes on several dates in the book that range from good to just plain weird.  She even had a stalker for a brief moment.  In the end, she ends up with the guy she would have least expected, but the reader knew from the start.  There is a part in the book, where I wanted to jump through the pages and smack Lucia for not knowing she was talking to the man she wanted online the whole time.

I will try another title by Justine Faeth.


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Review--The Demeter Code by Russell Brooks

The Demeter Code by Russell Brooks
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

3.5 stars

**I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for my honest review.**

Ridley Fox and Dr. Nita Parris are two of the CIAs best operatives.  They travel the world eliminating the bad guys.  When they are given an assignment that doesn't turn out as planned, their whole world is turned inside out and upside down.  Then the mission gets changed and Fox and Parris are sent in different directions.  This book has enough twists and turns to give you whiplash.

After reading the description of this book, I was very excited to read it.  I love a good thriller and this one did not disappoint.  The Demeter Code captured me from page one.  The first scene is set in Washington DC and when books are set close to home, I always am intrigued.  The book had a really great start and lots of action to keep my attention.  A little over half way through it started to slow down a bit for me.  It got more technical and I found myself reading the words without actually absorbing what it was I was reading.  That happened a couple of times which made me drop my rating from 4 to 3.5 stars.  This is the third book in the series, the first two being Pandora's Succession and Unsavory Delicacies.  I will be going back to read these books as well as his standalone Chill Run and I look forward to whatever he has coming in the future.


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Review--Attachments by Rainbow Rowell

Attachments by Rainbow Rowell
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Attachments was a really cute story.  It's one of the weirdest love stories that you will ever root for!

Lincoln works in the IT department of The Courier, the local newspaper.  But Lincoln doesn't have a typical IT job.  It's his job to flag any email messages that contain personal messages or any kind of threat against the paper.  For the most part, the job is a mindless night of not having much to do.  But nearly every night he's got something in his folder that has been flagged.  Mostly, it's the emails between the movie reviewer, Beth and her best friend, copy editor, Jennifer.  There isn't anything harmful in the emails, but they are all deeply personal.  When Lincoln finds himself falling in love with one of these women just through their email correspondence, he's not sure how he's going to be able to face her without telling her how he knows her.

Through a series of strange encounters and near misses, the opportunity never arises for them to formally meet, and to top it all off, she already has a boyfriend.  Will Lincoln ever find a way to tell this girl how he feels?  Will she ever feel the same way knowing what he had done?  Would they ever find a love that would "leave the lights on all the time"?


The thing I liked best about the book, is that there aren't any overly handsome or beautiful people in it.  The characters could be your friends or your neighbors, or the person you are sitting next to at work.  It's a story we can all get behind.  This is the first book I have read by Rainbow Rowell, but not the first one that I had put on my TBR list.  I am for sure going to read more!


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