***WARNING: Contains spoilers for The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver*** In the sequel to Barbara Kingsolver’s The Bean Trees, we catch up with a slightly more mature and settled Taylor, who is living with her musician boyfriend Jax and her adopted daughter Turtle, now six. But of course, things can’t stay calm and secure for long. As READ MORE
2017 READING CHALLENGE | THE POPSUGAR READING CHALLENGE
I’m very late to this particular party, and I don’t expect to complete the challenge this year – but it’s always good to have goals in life. Not to mention inspiration. So here’s the ones I did manage to complete: Are you participating in the PopSugar 2017 reading challenge? Which ones have you checked READ MORE
2017 READING CHALLENGE | BOOK RIOT READ HARDER CHALLENGE
Book Riot’s Read Harder Challenge is one of the most diverse, eye-opening and fun annual reading challenges out there. They always manage to come up with prompts I never would have thought of, they cover a huge variety of themes and genres, and they make it so you feel like you’ve really accomplished something important READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | THE BEAN TREES – BARBARA KINGSOLVER
This isn’t the first time I’ve read this book, but it might as well have been. It was my first Kingsolver, read at the fervent recommendation of my mother. Over the years, the memory of the book’s specifics faded, but the general feeling that I had loved both the story and characters, and that READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | BEFORE WE WERE STRANGERS – RENEE CARLINO
I’ve heard Renee Carlino’s name around for a while now, but never got around to any of her books. I went in with only a vaguely fuzzy idea of what the book was about, mostly because I was bored one day, and it was there. It’s the story of first love, loss and the READ MORE
BEYOND THE BOOKS | A PREGNANT PAUSE
As you have perhaps noticed, it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything here on Rain City Reads. I’m a big believer in blogging as a fun and voluntary pursuit, and sometimes life happens. This has been one of those times for me. I guess the place to start is with some news, by READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | BORN WEIRD – ANDREW KAUFMAN
I thought this book was going to be quirky going into it, but I was still surprised. This is the story of the Weird family, five siblings whose lives have been overshadowed by unique character traits that have both protected and hamstringed them. We first meet Angie, who has been called to her grandmother’s READ MORE
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
Wishing you all a very merry Christmas day, and hoping you found many book-shaped packages under your trees!
TOP TEN TUESDAY | BOOKS I WOULDN’T MIND SANTA LEAVING UNDER MY TREE
Only four more sleeps until Christmas! I’m still hoping for a Christmas miracle snowfall, but failing that, I’ll settle for some lovely rectangular packages strewn under the tree with my name on them. Here are a few of the titles I wouldn’t mind finding beneath the wrapping paper (though, of course, there are many more!): READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | THE QUEEN OF BRIGHT AND SHINY THINGS – ANN AGUIRRE
I discovered Ann Aguirre via her Razorland Trilogy (Enclave, Outpost and Horde), which I started reading thanks to a tip from a fellow book lover on Twitter and ended up loving. So when this one came out, I just had to find out if her storytelling chops translate from fantasy to contemporary. Lucky for READ MORE
TOP TEN TUESDAY | BEST BOOKS I READ IN 2015
2015 has been a pretty darn good reading year for me. Not only that, but it’s been varied – I’ve read great books from a whole bunch of different genres and styles. I mean really, it doesn’t get better than that! There were way more than 10 that stood out for me, but here READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | SHADOW AND BONE – LEIGH BARDUGO
If you read YA books and haven’t been living under a rock, this series has been on your radar for a couple of years now. It’s been Tweeted about, quoted, squeed over and highly anticipated. As usual, I put off reading it because I’m wary of hype and worry that books won’t live up READ MORE
TOP TEN TUESDAY | NEW-TO-ME AUTHORS I READ IN 2015
I’ve had a great reading year this year, so I’ve got a lot of authors to choose from for this post. there are a few obvious picks, and then some that took me wonderfully by surprise. So let’s get down to it! Michael Christie – If I Fall, If I Die Paula READ MORE
MONTHLY WRAP-UP | NOVEMBER 2015
Well, another month has come and gone! Here in Canada that means the weather is getting chilly and Christmas is, well, pretty much everywhere. I’m a fan of Christmas, though, so no complaints here! I haven’t been reading my usual variety of books lately, but I have gotten through a fair number of cozy READ MORE
MY WEEK ON WEDNESDAY | #26
Looking back, I haven’t done a My Week On Wednesday post in about two months. Oops! That was not the plan. Here’s hoping I can get back to my regular scheduled posting going forward. Here’s what I got into over the past week: Just shelved: I’ve been very into the READ MORE
TOP TEN TUESDAY | 2016 NOVELS I’M LOOKING FORWARD TO
I have to admit that I’m not on top of 2016 releases at all. I don’t have any clue which books I should be eagerly anticipating, let alone which are debuts and which debuts are going to take the book world by storm. So I had to resort to Googling, and some of these aren’t READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | SIMON VS. THE HOMO SAPIENS AGENDA – BECKY ALBERTALLI
This book has been on my radar for months, mostly due to the hundreds of pictures featuring it along with packages of Oreos on my Twitter feed. I put off reading it half because I was scared it wouldn’t live up to the hype, and half because if it did, I wanted to save READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | EXTRAORDINARY MEANS – ROBYN SCHNEIDER
I started this book sitting in a bookstore and before I knew it I was in the third chapter. When I finally got my own copy and sat down to read it in earnest, I ended up finishing the entire thing in one sitting. Which is always a good sign. The story is an READ MORE