Book Review: A Place For Us

This sweeping novel really took me away and made me feel like a part of Rafiq and Layla's family.

It starts off at a wedding of Rafiq and Layla's daughter, Hadia where her brother Amar is clearly uncertain about his place in the family and has been gone for a long time. The story about why this family is clearly so displaced unfolds as the book progresses, moving from different characters and different periods of their life as a family. I loved the different narrators and the unique way they told their side of the story, gradually revealing different aspects without retelling the story.

It was beautiful, especially the Part 4 where Baba took over and told his side of the story. However, I had a hard time truly getting into the story because it jumped back and forth between years so much. I wish the author would at least started a new chapter or put a date between paragraphs so that you would have know there was a change in time.

I really enjoyed learning so much about Indian-American Muslim cultural and this book did an amazing job of describing their rituals and beliefs. I learned a lot.

I chose to read this because it was Sarah Jessica Parker's first book published by her imprint with Hogarth books and I have been seeing rave reviews for it all over bookstagram. I am happy I checked it out!

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Book Review: Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

"When two young men from town become intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new life–until the unthinkable happens."

My review of Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens.

This book will definitely be on my best of 2018 reading list!

This slow and steady escape in to the marshlands of the North Carolina coast in the 1960s is indulgent and memorizing. Owens takes you on two adventures: one is trying to solve the murder of a young man whose body was found at the bottom of a fire tower with no clues on how he died.

The other is the life of Kya Clark, a young girl left behind by her family and raising herself completely alone. Her skill, bravery and acute attention to the natural world that surrounds her kept my attention. Her marsh home is the only thing that she trusts and when one young man shows her compassion by visiting her and teaching her how to read, she begins to see a side of life and love that she never knew existed. As she grows up, Kya becomes one with the …

Book Review: The Perfect Couple by Elin Hilderbrand

The best book of the summer!

Why I loved it: The setting of Nantucket is impeccably described. I could smell the salty sea air, I could taste the lobster rolls and I could hear the wave tides coming in. I loved the cast of characters. They are a motley crew of loveable and hateable characters, people I could picture being friends with and others I wanted to shove. They were introduced quickly but the fact that you get to read various points of views make the story line easy to follow. I could picture them so clearly in my mind.
It's a roller coaster of a novel- first you think a young couple is in love and on the verge of happily ever after. They are rich, talented and envied. Hundreds of people are coming to their lavish wedding and they are the envy of everyone around them. And then there is a tragedy: the bride finds her maid of honor dead on the beach, the morning of her wedding.
Everything starts to unravel after that point. Secrets that you WILL NOT see coming reveal the…

The Start of My 2019 Reading List

It's going to be hard to beat 2018's reading list but here is a great start! Here are just a few of the books that will be on my reading list at the beginning of this year!

Elsey Come Home by Susan Conley, Out January 15, AA Knopf

From the widely praised author of Paris Was the Place–a shattering new novel that bravely delves into the darkest corners of addiction, marriage, and motherhood.

The Last Romantics by Tara Conklin, Out February 2, William Morrow
It begins in a big yellow house with a funeral, an iron poker, and a brief variation forever known as the Pause: a free and feral summer in a middle-class Connecticut town. Caught between the predictable life they once led and an uncertain future that stretches before them, the Skinner siblings—fierce Renee, sensitive Caroline, golden boy Joe and watchful Fiona—emerge from the Pause staunchly loyal and deeply connected. Two decades later, the siblings find themselves once again confronted with a family crisis that tests the …

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