Catching up on reviews...3 recent books

I have been reading and reviewing but not posting here, time to catch you up if you haven't seen my reviews elsewhere.

The Girls Club


..."For the record, times are changing. Sooner or later people are going to wake up and being a lesbian won't be a big deal." My favorite line from this book by Sally Bellerose, local author from Northampton, MA.  If you lived in Chicopee in the 70's, you will recognize many locations in the book, as I did.

With the angst of relationships that sometimes work and sometimes don't, throw in the mix of trying to understand your own sexuality as a teen....yep, think she's got a winner here! Some parts of the story cross the timeline and can be imagined today...young people pushed together by unplanned pregnancy, struggling to make ends meet in a difficult economy. I've seen Cora Rose in so many women in my lifetime, her struggle for happiness, to be a good mother. The conflict of trying to understand her sexuality and her Catholic upbringing make this story memorable. Her relationship with her sisters makes her crazy at times and also keeps her grounded....wow, same as most of us with sisters! The characters in this story are so well written, I felt like I was in the room watching the scenes unfold. Kudos!!

Reading this fictional story gives me reason to reflect on how difficult it is to live in a world that judges so easily. Makes me very happy to be living in Massachusetts.

And lightening up things a bit....

I'm Not the Biggest Bitch....


This book by Wade Rouse is a compilation of stories about DOGS! I know, you're surprised I read a book about dogs, right? The stories in this book are written by many of my favorite authors-Beth Harbison, Allie Larkin, Sarah Pekkenan, Bruce Cameron and, of course, Wade. The intro was written by Chelsea Handler's dog Chuck. Well, it was probably written by Chelsea but it's in Chuck's perspective. It's so funny that I was reading excerpts to my co-workers...when the intro is laugh out loud funny, you know it's going to be a good book.

The stories were written about the dogs in the lives of these folks. True stories, most times with a comedic twist. Maybe that was mostly because we've lived through most of these scenarios. And it was great to read an entry that made it clear that some people are crazier than we are about their dogs!
Some of the proceeds are being donated to the Humane Society. I know there are some special dog people in my life who will be getting a copy for Christmas.

Classic chick-lit

Then Came You


Chick-lit is sometimes a guilty pleasure. Conflict is usually resolved and there's some kind of happy ending. I was not disappointed here. But it would diminish the writing to just say it's chick-lit. The story evolves to showcase 4 women of different ages and backgrounds. How they all come to be connected gets you hooked. The story takes some unexpected turns and it really ends up highlighting women and their relationships with each other.
A new twist for Weiner, including a lesbian relationship. I think she touched on some prominent issues but then dropped the opportunity to really delve into the development of that character.
This was a 3 or 4 star...nothing bad about it but nothing earth shattering either, in my opinion.

Ok, now I feel better, all caught up! And now that I can borrow Kindle books from the library? Full speed ahead!!!
Happy reading,
Pauline

Kindle Kin.....

The best news of the week....Wednesday, Kindle announced library lending was starting. Of course, I jumped right in and was disappointed that I couldn't access it. I did find a link to an online article that indicated it was being rolled out over a couple of days. Patience.....not my strong suit!

Today, I went back and tried again. It works and I'm reading a book already!

I've already learned a few things about this process and wanted to share it with you.  

I live in Chicopee and have used the Chicopee Public Library for years. I've requested the books I wanted via the CW/MARS website and then go into the library when the book is ready for me. These books come from all over western Mass. The ebook process uses the same website, but a different section.

CW/MARS Digital search

From this page, I clicked on the Kindle link

The page then opens to allow for a search. I figured I'd just scroll through the choices.....

I went through the first 10 pages and NONE of the books were available to check out...all said "add to my waiting list". This is great but there's little or no options for checking out a book NOW?

Ok, took a deep breath and looked around.

Just above the sorting options there is a search option. I put a check mark in the box to include Only show titles with copies available,

then clicked on 'search' without putting anything specific in the search field. It brought up a list for 1200+ books. You can search by release date, popularity, etc. This is helpful if you want to read a book NOW! If you're searching for a specific book, you can unclick the box and just search for the book you want. If it's not available to loan right away, you request it by adding it to your waiting list. Kind of what we already do at the library when we request DTB.

Since the Chicopee Library and CW/MARS system is relatively small in comparison to big cities like Boston, we may find that some of the books we want to read are not even available as an ebook, or that you'll be waiting quite a while to get the book.  I think it's going to take some time before libraries start spending more of their budgets on ebooks.

BUT that doesn't mean we're out of luck.

I signed up for a ecard on the Boston Public Library website.
Boston Public Library (BPL)
You need to be a Massachusetts resident and the ecard is good for 3 years. (If you're reading this outside of Mass., it should work in a similar way for a big city in your state.)

This link will take you directly to the BPL/Overdrive search.
BPL Overdrive
Because it's a larger library system, the collections are larger.
For example, when I searched for books that were "available", the search yielded over 2400 choices, and that was filtering for only fiction choices.

Unfortunately, it pulls in all fiction, including childrens but I just scrolled through those. Same thing as with the CW/MARS, you can click (or not click) on the box to include only those titles that are available. I was quite happy to see that in my quick scroll, I saw 2 books that are on my Amazon wish list.

 

 

 

Once you choose a book, on either library site, you will add the book to your "cart", then proceed to checkout, or continue browsing. When you go to checkout, you will be prompted to enter your library card number. You will then click on the button that says Get Kindle.
This takes you to the Amazon page for the book you've chosen. The rest of the process is similar to Amazon Kindle book purchases. If your Kindle wifi is on, and you're in a wifi zone, the book transfers wirelessly immediately.

Once your book loan is finished (14 days for most books but you can opt for 7 days), the book will no longer be available in your Kindle.

Questions? Confused? Let me know, we'll work it out together!

Happy reading!
Pauline

Review....do you?

I saw a post on Facebook a few days ago about book reviews and I've been thinking about this topic off and on since then.
I follow a lot of the authors whose books I enjoy reading on Facebook. By seeing their status posts, I realized how important reviews are to the success of their books. So I started posting reviews of books I've read.

Do you post reviews? If so, do you post reviews of books you didn't like?

I don't but I'm not sure my way is the right way. I have a personal policy to only post reviews that are 3 stars or better. Does that mean that I'm skewing the overview of the book?
I think it's partly because I know how important these reviews are and also because I'm not sure my opinion is the end-all of everything. I wonder sometimes when I read a book that I didn't like, did I just pick up the wrong book? Maybe I should have read a sample before committing to read the entire book. In that case, a negative review is really unfair to the author. It doesn't mean that I won't discuss it with my sisters or friends but I'm not willing to write a review that would be seen globally and influence people who don't know me.

I'm sure negative reviews can be considered constructive criticism but I never really feel like I'm the person to tell an author how to write the book better. So I'll stick with my personal policy of 3 stars or better. H'mm, I guess if you're an author and I've read your work and haven't posted a review, you should read between the lines here!!  LOL

Now let me talk about posting those reviews. Where do you post them? I get a little obsessive, figuring a good or a great review deserves a lot of exposure. I post my book reviews on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Goodreads. Sometimes you'll even find them in a blog, right here on Books and More.
Here are my reviews from the various sites.
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Goodreads

You'll see that I have many more books listed on Goodreads and many don't have reviews listed. That's because they were imported from another site and the import did not include the reviews, just the list. BUT the benefit of Goodreads is that when you post books, it also gives you recommendations of other books you might enjoy. This site is like an electronic or virtual bookshelf. Your friends can stop by and see what books you've read and what you thought of them. AND you can see their books also. Unlike Amazon and Barnes and Noble, this site doesn't sell books.

I love Goodreads....maybe a little more than Smashwords! I didn't mention Smashwords for reviews because you can only enter reviews for books you've purchased through their site. Fair but limiting.

Think about this the next time you finish a book that was good, great or awesome. The book you couldn't wait to tell your friends about. The reviews are especially important if it's a lesser known author. Share a link on your FB page! Let's help these authors succeed....my ulterior motive is that success will ensure they write MORE books!! And you may be surprised to find out that the authors sometimes stop by to read the reviews you write!

Happy reading,
Pauline