GM – Donna's Reading Chair

Goodreads Monday: March 11th

Goodreads Monday comes courtesy once again of Lauren’s Page Turners. Every Monday I will randomly pick a book on my Goodreads to read shelf and pair it with the cover image and Goodreads description. This week I picked a random page and the cover that stood out the most to me!

Quick Goodreads Stats

382: To Read Shelf

67: Read Shelf

11: Read 2019 Shelf (hangs head, I didn’t finish a book this week UGGGH)

My Pick This Week

Shopping For A Billionaire’s Baby by Julia Kent

Released: April 14, 2018

Current Goodreads Rating (as of 03/10/2019): 4.56 stars (653 ratings, 184 reviews)

Goodreads Summary

You know what’s even better than marrying a billionaire? Having his baby.

We’re ready. We’ve studied and planned, read all the birth and labor books, researched parenting classes, consulted our schedules, and it’s time.

And by we I mean me.

Declan’s just ready for the “have lots of sex” part. More than ready.

But there’s just one problem: my husband and his brother have this little obsession with competition.

And by little, I mean stupid.

That’s right.

We’re not just about to try to bring a new human being into the world.

We have to do it better, Faster, Stronger.

Harder.

McCormick men don’t just have babies.

They engage in competitive billionaire Babythons.

I thought the hardest part about getting pregnant would be dealing with my grandchild-crazed mother, who will go nuts shopping for a billionaire’s baby.

Wrong.

Between conception issues, my mother’s desire to talk to the baby through a vaginacam, a childbirth class led by a drill sergeant and a father-in-law determined to sign the kid up for prep school before Declan even pulls out, my pregnancy has turned out to be one ordeal after the other.

But it’s nothing — nothing — compared to the actual birth.

My Thoughts

This just went on sale for 99 cents on the Kindle…so…how could I resist?!?!

I have mentioned this book before on my cleaning my TBR list, and it’s the first book I put on my want to read shelf on Goodreads. Since I just bought it I thought it would be appropriate to feature it today. I mean hey, a buck is a buck!! Have you scored any good deals on a book on your want to read shelf lately?!?

Goodreads Monday: March 4th

Quick Goodreads Stats

370: To Read Shelf

67: Read Shelf

11: Read 2019 Shelf

My Pick This Week

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

Released: February 2, 2015

Current Goodreads Rating (as of 03/01/2019): 4.56 stars (484,287 ratings, 49,900 reviews)

Goodreads Summary

France, 1939
In the quiet village of Carriveau, Vianne Mauriac says goodbye to her husband, Antoine, as he heads for the Front. She doesn’t believe that the Nazis will invade France…but invade they do, in droves of marching soldiers, in caravans of trucks and tanks, in planes that fill the skies and drop bombs upon the innocent. When France is overrun, Vianne is forced to take an enemy into her house, and suddenly her every move is watched; her life and her child’s life is at constant risk. Without food or money or hope, as danger escalates around her, she must make one terrible choice after another.

Vianne’s sister, Isabelle, is a rebellious eighteen-year-old girl, searching for purpose with all the reckless passion of youth. While thousands of Parisians march into the unknown terrors of war, she meets the compelling and mysterious Gäetan, a partisan who believes the French can fight the Nazis from within France, and she falls in love as only the young can…completely. When he betrays her, Isabelle races headlong into danger and joins the Resistance, never looking back or giving a thought to the real–and deadly–consequences.

My Thoughts

I snagged this book for $4.88 during an Amazon flash sale in December. It’s been sitting on my shelf ever since, staring at me, whispering, “read me.”

This book has been getting so much attention lately because it’s being turned into a movie. I plan on starting this book very shortly, it’s next to line after my physical copy of Saving Meghan and right before The Guest Book…maybe it will help me keep my butt reading instead of being too distracted to read! Have you read this book, what did you think of it?

Goodreads Monday: February 25th

Quick Goodreads Stats

369: To Read Shelf

65: Read Shelf

9: Read 2019 Shelf

My Pick This Week

Once More We Saw Stars by Jayson Greene

Expected Released: May 14, 2019

Current Goodreads Rating (as of 02/24/2019): 4.67 stars (33 ratings, 13 reviews)

Goodreads Summary

Two-year-old Greta Greene was sitting with her grandmother on a park bench on the Upper West Side of Manhattan when a brick crumbled from a windowsill overhead, striking her unconscious. She is immediately rushed to the hospital. Once More We Saw Stars begins with this event, leading the reader into the unimaginable.

But although it begins with the anguish Jayson and his wife Stacy confront in the wake of their daughter’s trauma and the hours leading up to her death, it quickly becomes a narrative that is as much about hope and healing as it is about grief and loss. Jayson recognizes, even in the very midst of his ordeal, that there will be a life for him beyond it—that if only he can continue moving forward, from one moment to the next, he will
survive what seems un-survivable. With raw honesty, deep emotion, and exquisite tenderness, he captures both the fragility of life and absoluteness of death, and most important of all, the unconquerable power of love. This is an unforgettable memoir of courage and transformation—and a book that will change the way you look at the world

My Thoughts

I have been entering a few giveaways lately, all the books I’m randomly selecting haven’t come out yet!

This sounds like a book that will tug at your heartstrings. I am usually not a big memoir fan, but, I would give this one a try and see how it goes. Have you heard about this book at all?

Goodreads Monday: February 18th

Quick Goodreads Stats

363: To Read Shelf

63: Read Shelf

7: Read 2019 Shelf

My Pick This Week

Never Have I Ever by Joshilyn Jackson

Expected Released: July 30, 2019

Current Goodreads Rating (as of 02/18/2019): 4.05 stars (41 ratings, 16 reviews)

Goodreads Summary

New York Times bestselling author Joshilyn Jackson–“an admired writer who deserves to be a household name” (Kirkus Reviews)–displays her masterful talent in this dark and deliciously addictive tale of domestic suspense.

In this game, even winning can be deadly…

Amy Whey is proud of her ordinary life and the simple pleasures that come with it–teaching diving lessons, baking cookies for new neighbors, helping her best friend, Charlotte, run their local book club. Her greatest joy is her family: her devoted professor husband, her spirited fifteen-year-old stepdaughter, her adorable infant son. And, of course, the steadfast and supportive Charlotte. But Amy’s sweet, uncomplicated life begins to unravel when the mysterious and alluring Angelica Roux arrives on her doorstep one book club night.

Sultry and magnetic, Roux beguiles the group with her feral charm. She keeps the wine flowing and lures them into a game of spilling secrets. Everyone thinks it’s naughty, harmless fun. Only Amy knows better. Something wicked has come her way–a she-devil in a pricey red sports car who seems to know the terrible truth about who she is and what she once did.

When they’re alone, Roux tells her that if she doesn’t give her what she asks for, what she deserves, she’s going to make Amy pay for her sins. One way or another.

To protect herself and her family and save the life she’s built, Amy must beat the devil at her own clever game, matching wits with Roux in an escalating war of hidden pasts and unearthed secrets. Amy knows the consequences if she can’t beat Roux. What terrifies her is everything she could lose if she wins.

A diabolically entertaining tale of betrayal, deception, temptation, and love filled with dark twists leavened by Joshilyn Jackson’s trademark humor, Never Have I Ever explores what happens when the transgressions of our past come back with a vengeance.

My Thoughts

Sooooo…how can I get an advance reader copy of this baby?!?

I am looking forward to reading this book! This sounds right up my alley, I love a good domestic suspense novel! I will be keeping this book in the forefront of my mind…is it July yet?!?

Goodreads Monday

Goodreads Monday comes courtesy once again of Lauren’s Page Turners. Every Monday I will randomly pick a book on my Goodreads to read shelf and pair it with the cover image and Goodreads description. This week I picked another favorite number of mine, 72, and went the book that was there.

Quick Goodreads Stats

354: To Read Shelf

62: Read Shelf

6: Read 2019 Shelf

My Pick This Week

Charter Storm by Mary Searcy Bixby & Tom R. Davis

Released: September 18, 2018

Current Goodreads Rating: 2.64 stars (25 ratings, 18 reviews)

Goodreads Summary

Public education in the United States faces an unprecedented crisis. The explosive growth of charter schools over the last two decades has shaken the status quo to its core. At stake are the future of public schools and how they will continue to educate our nation’s youth.
Clashes over money and ideologies have led to a struggle between the public education establishment and those at the forefront of educational reform. The conflict is being waged in the court of public opinion, as well as in courtrooms throughout the country. While the outcome is impossible to predict, both sides are preparing for a fight of David versus Goliath proportions. Collaboration is critical to the success of both.
Educational experts Dr. Tom R. Davis and Mary Searcy Bixby have spent their entire careers improving public education—Mary in charter schools and Tom in traditional public education. In Charter Storm, they use their combined knowledge and research of over 120 individual interviews over five years to teach you about—
• essential insights those new to the charter school movement need for their schools to survive and thrive
• how aggressive educational establishment pushback threatens to sweep away the most vulnerable
• key issues authorizers must know to effectively oversee their organizations
• the overwhelming challenges the educational establishment faces today and how it can effectively navigate the changing local and national educational landscape
• why active participation and support of charter school associations are essential to each charter school and the educational reform movement’s long-term success
• what every charter school parent needs to know to create and support an exceptional educational experience for his or her children

My Thoughts

I won this on Goodreads through a giveaway. The reviews have me a little skeptical on this one.

I plan on reading this book. We just put our children in a charter school this year and I am curious to see what this book as to say. I also won this book for free so, no harm, no foul. I am a public school teacher myself so I am curious to see the charter school realm explained in this book. I will let you all know what I think about this when I get around to it!

Goodreads Monday: February 4th

Goodreads Monday comes courtesy once again of Lauren’s Page Turners. Every Monday I will randomly pick a book on my Goodreads to read shelf and pair it with the cover image and Goodreads description. This week I picked another favorite number of mine, 72, and went the book that was there.

Quick Goodreads Stats

342: To Read Shelf

62: Read Shelf

5: Read 2019 Shelf

My Pick This Week

SharpObjects

Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn

Released: September 26, 2006

Current Goodreads Rating: 3.95 stars (490,896 ratings, 36,605 reviews)

Goodreads Summary

Fresh from a brief stay at a psych hospital, reporter Camille Preaker faces a troubling assignment: she must return to her tiny hometown to cover the murders of two preteen girls. For years, Camille has hardly spoken to her neurotic, hypochondriac mother or to the half-sister she barely knows: a beautiful thirteen-year-old with an eerie grip on the town. Now, installed in her old bedroom in her family’s Victorian mansion, Camille finds herself identifying with the young victims—a bit too strongly. Dogged by her own demons, she must unravel the psychological puzzle of her own past if she wants to get the story—and survive this homecoming.

My Thoughts

I have yet to read anything by Gillian Flynn and I always hear such positive things about her. This summary has me hooked after the simple statement of “fresh from a brief stay at psych hospital.” That right there has my interest peaked!

finalthoughts

It is still $9.99 on the Kindle. This may be a book I get if I see it at a thrift store. It is not offered in a hardcover and I much prefer reading hardcover over paperback and will typically just go for it on the Kindle then. If it goes on a flash sale for the Kindle, consider it part of my library from that point on! What do you think of Gillian Flynn?

Goodreads Monday: January 28th

Goodreads Monday comes courtesy once again of Lauren’s Page Turners. Every Monday I will randomly pick a book on my Goodreads to read shelf and pair it with the cover image and Goodreads description. This week I picked another favorite number of mine, 72, and went the book that was there.

Quick Goodreads Stats

328: To Read Shelf

61: Read Shelf

4: Read 2019 Shelf

My Pick This Week

The Girl Who Never Read Noam Chomsky by Jana Casale

Released: April 17, 2018

Current Goodreads Rating: 3.61 stars (523 ratings, 131 reviews)

Goodreads Summary

Leda is a girl who knows what she wants and who she is—or at least believes she does. When we meet her as a college student in Boston—confident, intelligent, independent—she’s hopeful that a flirty chat with a cute boy reading a book in a café will lead to romance. They have a fleetingly awkward conversation that dwindles into little more than mortifying embarrassment, but the encounter does leave her one positive, and ultimately transformative, thought: Leda decides she wants to read Noam Chomsky. So she promptly buys a book and never—ever—reads it.
As the days, years, and decades of the rest of her life unfold, we watch Leda confront what it is that she really wants and who it is that she is really meant to be.

My Thoughts

I am fairly positive I added this book to my want to read shelf because I entered a giveaway for it…

I am taking it off my want to read shelf. I have too many books and the short synopsis on Goodreads does nothing for me. I have too many other books on my shelf that I am dying to read to worry about this one! Oh well, on to the next one! If you have read this book and I should keep it, let me know!

Goodreads Monday

Goodreads Monday comes courtesy once again of Lauren’s Page Turners. Every Monday I will randomly pick a book on my Goodreads to read shelf and pair it with the cover image and Goodreads description. This week I picked my favorite number, 54, and went the book that was there.

Quick Goodreads Stats

318: To Read Shelf

59: Read Shelf

3: Read 2019 Shelf

My Pick This Week

Stay Up With Hugo Best by Erin Somers

Expected Release: April 2, 2019

Current Goodreads Rating: 4.04 stars (68 ratings, 28 reviews)

Goodreads Summary

An incredibly timely, terrifically witty and moving debut about a young writer’s assistant on a late night comedy show and what transpires when she accepts an invitation from its enigmatic host to spend a long weekend at his mansion in Connecticut.

June Bloom is a broke, cynical twenty-nine-year-old writer’s assistant on the late-night comedy show, Stay Up with Hugo Best. Hugo Best is in his sixties, a beloved icon of TV and humor, and a notorious womanizer. After he unexpectedly retires and a party is held for his now unemployed staff, June ends up at a dive bar for an open-mic night and prepares for the sad return to the anonymous comedian lifestyle. What she’s not prepared for is a run-in with Hugo at that dive bar. Nor for the invitation that swiftly follows: Hugo asks June to come to his mansion in Greenwich for the long Memorial Day weekend. “No funny business,” he insists.

June, in need of a job and money, confident she can handle herself, but secretly harboring the remains of a childhood crush on the charming older comedian and former role model, accepts. The exact terms of the visit are never spelled out, but June is realistic and clear-eyed enough to guess. Even so, as the weekend unfolds and the enigmatic Hugo gradually reveals himself, their dynamic proves to be much more complicated and less predictable than she expected.

At once hilarious and poignant, brilliantly incisive and terrifically propulsive, Stay Up with Hugo Best is an incredibly timely exploration of sexual politics in the #MeToo age, and the unforgettable story of one young woman’s poignant stumbling into adulthood.

My Thoughts

Well hey there! This book sounds AWESOME! I just added it to my Amazon Wish List and I am looking forward to this book being released in a few months. At first I glance at the cover and I thought, why would I have added this book to my want to read shelf…really? Then I read the description and I thought…THAT’S WHY!

I think this is semi-backfiring on me. It is supposed to get you excited for reads and all this is going is adding more books to my already long, long list! YIKES! Since last Monday my Want To Read shelf has increased by 13 books. I was hoping I would randomly pick some books and be like, nawh, taking this off my life. Maybe next week that will happen, haha. Feel free to pick a number between 1 and 318 and I’ll choose that book for next Monday! Happy reading!

Goodreads Monday

Goodreads Monday comes courtesy of Lauren’s Page Turners. I thought this was a neat idea so each Monday I will randomly pick a book on my Goodreads to read shelf. Every Monday will have a cover picture and Goodreads description. If you have read the book, let me know! I will move it up on my TBR list! Maybe this will also help me tame down my to read shelf!

Quick Goodreads Stats

305: To Read Shelf

57: Read Shelf

1: Read 2019 Shelf

My Pick This Week

The Life We Wanted by Kelsey Kingsley

Expected Release: February 1, 2019

Current Goodreads Rating: 5 stars (4 reviews)

Goodreads Summary

“You have too many rules.”
“And you don’t have enough.”

Sebastian Moore thought he had it all.

A drumming gig with one of the world’s biggest up-and-coming stars. The looks and charm to get him any woman he laid his eyes on. All the friends he could ever ask for.

But something was always missing.

That is, until he receives a letter, telling him that he’s a father to a fifteen-year-old boy.

Now, with the addition of his son, a love interest he never expected, and a whole new set of responsibilities, Sebastian finds himself happier than he’s ever been.

But old habits die hard, and when life finally gives him everything he wanted, he’ll have to find a way to keep his past from ruining the present.

My Thoughts

This week I organized my want to read shelf by picking the book with the highest rating. This book only has 4 current reviews and it is not yet released. I am actually on Kelsey Kingley’s Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) team, Team Dearie, as of January 6th and I will be receiving an advanced copy of this book shortly to read and review (so look for that SOON). I thought it was appropriate my first Goodreads Monday will be a book I *WILL* be reading very shortly! I’m super excited now! I also love the plot and that makes it all that much more exciting!

I hope you have enjoyed my first Goodreads Monday and you’ll think about doing it too! If you have done it, leave the link to your post (not your actual blog) at the link below. Put your name, @, and the name of your blog! Let’s get through those massive TBR piles together!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Next week I will have YOU decide which book I will pick. Simply pick a number between 1 and 305 and I will pick that number on my to read shelf and do that book! Let me know if you are looking forward to reading this pick too!