Rainy Days With Amanda

I'm walking around the San Antonio Book Festival looking for a new book to read and lo and behold, the cover to this book caught my eye. It has and intriguing cover and an interesting title. I flip it around to the read the synopsis and immediately know it's a book that I would enjoy reading. Skip to six months later and I finally read it. Here is my little review on The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami.   A Little About the Author Laila Lalami is the author of six books, including The Moor’s Account , which won the American Book Award, the Arab-American Book Award, and the Hurston / Wright Legacy Award. It was on the longlist for the Booker Prize and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction. Her most recent novel, The Other Americans , was a national bestseller, won the Joyce Carol Oates Prize, and was a finalist for the National Book Award in Fiction. Her books have been translated into over twenty languages. Her essays have appeared in the Los Angeles Times , the...

                                                           Pillars of Creation A Quest for the Great Name in a Nietzschean World By Carlos Nicolás Flor Literary Fiction, Coming of Age Publisher: Atmosphere Press Publication Date: 22 July, 2025 Where is God amidst the mass graves, poverty, drug trafficking, and corrupt officials on the Texas-Mexico border? Yoltic Cortez, a college dropout and aspiring writer in his mid-twenties, grapples with this question while living in an impoverished colonia. His bedridden father warns him to prepare spiritually for the challenges ahead by returning to their religious traditions and confronting the "Devil in the desert." Encouraged by his mentor, the "Failed Poet," to pursue a literary career, Yoltic struggles to write his first book. His situation is further complicated when a young Mexican woman...

   Press Coffee @ The Enclave ☕  11103 West Ave Suite 302, San Antonio, TX 78213   I've been to Press Coffee off Broadway and I absolutely adore going out there, especially on a cloudy, rainy day. This was my first time at their enclave location. The parking was tight, but once you step into the cozy quarters of this cafe, you suddenly forget. you were fighting for a parking spot.  Press Coffee at The Enclave has done it's best to bring the charm of their first location into this new location and I feel that it has paid off. The space is open, with plenty of seating and charging spots. They also boast a pretty nice patio that will be perfect for when the temps are cooler. The coffee and the morning treats were both excellent and I loved the ambiance of the whole building. Sure, it's not a greenhouse like it's parent location, but it doesn't make it any less of a great place to crack open your laptop or a book and enjoy some nicely brewed coffee.  💻 https:/...