ReadingGrrls Paper Safari

Release Date:  October 22, 2013 Publisher:  Harper Audio Format:  Audio Length:  10 hours 19 minutes Narrator:  Sophie Eastlake & Michael Rahhal Genre:  Fiction / Romance Buy:   Audible  |  Kindle  |  Paperback Synopsis:  Sometimes opposites don’t just attract – they catch fire and burn the city down Shaw Landon loved Rule Archer from the moment she laid eyes on him. Rule is everything a straight-A pre-med student like Shaw shouldn’t want – and the only person she’s never tried to please. She isn’t afraid of his scary piercings and tattoos or his wild attitude. Though she knows that Rule is wrong for her, her heart just won’t listen. To a rebel like Rule Archer, Shaw Landon is a stuck-up, perfect princess – and his dead twin brother’s girl. She lives by other people’s rules; he makes his own. He doesn’t have time for a good girl like Shaw – even if she’s the only one who can see the person he truly is. But a ...

Release Date:  February 27, 2018 Publisher:  St. Martin's Press Format:  ebook Pages:  432 pages Genre:   Fiction Buy:  Kindle  |  Hardcover Synopsis: It’s been ten years since the events that changed Johnny Merrimon’s life and rocked his hometown to the core. Since then, Johnny has fought to maintain his privacy, but books have been written of his exploits; the fascination remains. Living alone on six thousand acres of once-sacred land, Johnny’s only connection to normal life is his old friend, Jack. They’re not boys anymore, but the bonds remain. What they shared. What they lost. But Jack sees danger in the wild places Johnny calls home; he senses darkness and hunger, an intractable intent. Johnny will discuss none of it, but there are the things he knows, the things he can do. A lesser friend might accept such abilities as a gift, but Jack has felt what moves in the swamp: the cold of it, the unspeakable fear. Review:  I d...

Release Date:  September 12, 2007 Publisher:  Recorded Books Format:  Audio Length:  10 hours 58 minutes Narrator:  Kim Staunton Genre:  Fiction Buy:   Audible  |  Kindle  |  Paperback Synopsis:  Dana, a modern black woman, is celebrating her twenty-sixth birthday with her new husband when she is snatched abruptly from her home in California and transported to the antebellum South. Rufus, the white son of a plantation owner, is drowning, and Dana has been summoned to save him. Dana is drawn back repeatedly through time to the slave quarters, and each time the stay grows longer, more arduous, and more dangerous until it is uncertain whether or not Dana's life will end, long before it has a chance to begin. Review:  Octavia Butler's most famous novel, The Kindred is amazing book.  Dana, a young African American woman, married to a white man, who has just started a career as a writer in California, is suddenly...

Release Date:  February 20, 2018 Publisher:  Hanover Square Format:  ebook Pages:  416 pages Genre:   Fiction Buy:  Kindle  |  Hardcover Synopsis:  How far would you go to find The One? A simple DNA test is all it takes. Just a quick mouth swab and soon you’ll be matched with your perfect partner—the one you’re genetically made for. That’s the promise made by Match Your DNA. A decade ago, the company announced that they had found the gene that pairs each of us with our soul mate. Since then, millions of people around the world have been matched. But the discovery has its downsides: test results have led to the breakup of countless relationships and upended the traditional ideas of dating, romance and love.  Now five very different people have received the notification that they’ve been “Matched.” They’re each about to meet their one true love. But “happily ever after” isn’t guaranteed for everyone. Because even soul mates ha...

Release Date:  January 30, 2018 Publisher:  Delacorte Press Format:  ebook Pages:   304 pages Genre:  YA Fiction Buy:  Kindle  |  Hardcover  Synopsis:  One deadly weekend. At St. Aidan the Great School, or STAGS, new things--and new people--are to be avoided. The grandeur of the boarding school and the prestige of the students' bloodlines seem surreal to Greer MacDonald. A scholarship student who recently transferred to STAGS, Greer is ignored at best and mocked at worst by the school's most admired circle of friends, the Medievals. Greer is taken by surprise when the Medievals send her an invitation to an exclusive weekend retreat at the private family estate of their unofficial leader, Henry de Warlencourt. It's billed as a weekend of "huntin' shootin' fishin'." As the weekend begins to take shape, it becomes apparent that beyond the luxurious trappings, predators are lurking, and they're out for blood. Review: Gr...

Release Date:  December 5, 2017 Publisher:  Simon & Schuster Audio Format:  Audio Length:  6 hours 29 minutes Narrator:  Tiffany Haddish Genre:  Humor/ Memoir Buy:   Audible  |  Kindle  |  Paperback Synopsis:  Growing up in one of the poorest neighborhoods of South Central Los Angeles, Tiffany learned to survive by making people laugh. If she could do that, then her classmates would let her copy their homework, the other foster kids she lived with wouldn’t beat her up, and she might even get a boyfriend. Or at least she could make enough money—as the paid school mascot and in-demand Bar Mitzvah hype woman—to get her hair and nails done, so  then  she might get a boyfriend. None of that worked (and she’s still single), but it allowed Tiffany to imagine a place for herself where she could do something she loved for a living: comedy. Tiffany can’t avoid being funny—it’s just who she is, whether she’s plot...

Release Date:  January 23, 2018 Publisher:  Bloomsbury USA Format:  ebook Pages:   112 pages Genre:  Fiction Buy:  Kindle  |  Hardcover  Synopsis:  Something has happened to Peach. Staggering around the town streets in the aftermath of an assault, Peach feels a trickle of blood down her legs, a lingering smell of her anonymous attacker on her skin. It hurts to walk, but she manages to make her way to her home, where she stumbles into another oddly nightmarish reality: Her parents can't seem to comprehend that anything has happened to their daughter. The next morning, Peach tries to return to the routines of her ordinary life, going to classes, spending time with her boyfriend, Green, trying to find comfort in the thought of her upcoming departure for college. And yet, as Peach struggles through the next few days, she is stalked by the memories of her unacknowledged trauma. Sleeping is hard when she is haunted by the glimp...

Release Date:  August 9, 2016 Publisher:  Rodale Books Format:  Hardcover Pages:   256 pages Genre:  Cookbook Buy:  Kindle  |  Hardcover  | Synopsis: Packed with more than 100 recipes for every part of your day, mind-blowing nutritional wisdom, and inspiring stories from two fitness-crazed women that became fast friends more than 15 years ago,  Run Fast. Eat Slow . has all the bases covered. You'll find no shortage of delicious meals, satisfying snacks, thirst-quenching drinks, and wholesome treats--all made without refined sugar and flour. Review:  I made a deal with myself toward the end of the year to eat healthier.  I started seeking out cookbooks that are healthy and anti-inflammation.  This book has a lot of really good information on nutrition. I have made many recipes from this book and all of them have been really good and are good for you.   The portions are bigger than you imagine an...

Release Date:  November 14, 2017 Publisher:  Audible Studios Format:  Audio Length:  8 hours 59 minutes Narrator:  Rosario Dawson Genre:  Sci/fi Buy:   Audible  |  Kindle  |  Paperback Synopsis: Jazz Bashara is a criminal. Well, sort of. Life on Artemis, the first and only city on the moon, is tough if you're not a rich tourist or an eccentric billionaire. So smuggling in the occasional harmless bit of contraband barely counts, right? Not when you've got debts to pay and your job as a porter barely covers the rent. Everything changes when Jazz sees the chance to commit the perfect crime, with a reward too lucrative to turn down. But pulling off the impossible is just the start of her problems, as she learns that she's stepped square into a conspiracy for control of Artemis itself - and that now her only chance at survival lies in a gambit even riskier than the first. Review: I had mixed feelings about The Martian (I...

Release Date:  April 11, 2017 Publisher:  Thomas Nelson Format:  ebook Pages:   352 pages Genre:  Fiction Buy:  Kindle  | Paperback | Synopsis:  After her last remaining family member dies, Sara Jenkins goes home to The Hideaway, her grandmother Mags’s ramshackle B&B in Sweet Bay, Alabama. She intends to quickly tie up loose ends then return to her busy life and thriving antique shop in New Orleans. Instead, she learns Mags has willed The Hideaway to her and charged her with renovating it—no small task considering her grandmother’s best friends, a motley crew of senior citizens, still live there. Rather than hurrying back to New Orleans, Sara stays in Sweet Bay and begins the biggest house-rehabbing project of her career. Amid drywall dust, old memories, and a charming contractor, she discovers that slipping back into life at The Hideaway is easier than she expected. Then she discovers a box Mags left in the attic with cl...

You can find my 2017 journey in books here  Favorite books of 2017