The Next Book On My List

Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry                 The best way I can describe this book is to call it an epic journey. I don’t have much practice reading Westerns but this book was pretty damn good. It was published in 1985 and won the Pulitzer in 1986. I honestly can’t say I would have come anywhere near it if it hadn’t been for this year’s theme of reading a book from each year since I’ve been alive. (I was born in 1986 so this will serve as the introduction into my journey!) While researching I found the blurb about the novel to be extremely vague and depended mostly upon the opinions of other reviewers when deciding to pick this up. I thought to myself why not give it a try if this is supposed to be one of the best Westerns ever written. This was well worth the read for the journey back to a time when cowboys still dreamed of distant lands.                 Lonesome Dove examines and focuses on the lives of Augustus McCrae and Woodrow Call, two Texas Rangers that for ye

Democracy in Black: How Race Still Enslaves the American Soul by Eddie S. Glaude Jr Let’s have an honest conversation about race. Let’s talk about those things that make us uncomfortable. Let’s talk about white privilege and Black Lives Matter. Let’s talk about Jim Crow laws, the Civil Rights movement and Barack Obama. But be honest. Be uncomfortable. Only by being honest and uncomfortable will be able to have an honest conversation about what life in America has been and continues to be. Glaude’s Democracy in Black: How Race Still Enslaves the American Soul is a step in the right direction because it is one man’s honest opinion about how his life has been and those experiences shared within the black community. He is a Princeton professor who knows through life experiences and through study the experiences of black people in America. He may not speak for everybody but his opinion speaks volumes to what life is like in the U.S. and it will resonate with a majority of people

Cinder by Marissa Meyer                 Cinder was waiting for Iko to bring her a new foot when Prince Kai arrived with his android. It was an older model but held valuable information that he needed to attain. The Prince was shocked that one of the best mechanics in New Beijing was a young woman. Cinder was convinced that he would be even more surprised if he knew she was a cyborg. It wasn’t long after the Prince left the square that the baker across from Cinder was taken away, the telltale spots of Letumosis visible on her skin. Even now, over a hundred years after the Fourth World War, Earthens had something to fear, the plague ravaging the planet and the magical Lunars. The moon was one country, one government and one ruler, Levana their Queen. She was hoping to make an alliance with the Emperor but with Letumosis slowly taking his life, she was turning her sights to the Prince. Cinder was aware of the Lunars and their mysterious powers but on that day at the square she w

The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton                 I don’t know if I can adequately explain why I loved this novel. I sat down on the couch, started reading and then finished the novel that same day. This novel was so well written, so well imagined, so amazingly different that I just found myself enjoying all of the different aspects that were presented. The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender is the story of a young girl born with wings, Ava Lavender. Ava is our narrator and she explains how the generations of women that came before her had different magical abilities that affected the lives of family that came after them. Her grandmother was a sensitive woman who could read the signs of everything and could also see her deceased siblings. Her mother had an extremely sensitive sense of smell. And Ava had wings. Her twin brother was able to see the dead like his grandmother. The lives and abilities of each generation would have a d