Rainy Days With Amanda

Hey everyone! Here is another book review right on time! I’ve been pretty active recently and have been dabbling myself in different things. Some things I stick to and some things are just a fad. But writing and doing this blog has been constant for the past two years, and I’m pretty proud of that!  Anyways, this is another book I found at the Dollar Tree. Here is my review on  Dreaming for Freud by Sheila Kohler. SPOILER ALERT. A Bit of Background   Sheila Kohler is a south African author. She received her undergraduate degree in literature r the Sorbonne, then her graduate degree in psychology at the Institute Catholique. After raising her 3 children, she moved in the U.S. in 1981 and got her MFA in writing at Columbia. Sheila published her first story in the summer of 1987, "The Mountain," which came out in, The Quarterly, and won her the O'Henry prize in 1988. This story became the first chapter of her novel,  The Perfect Place . Sheila publis...

Hello everyone! It's been feeling a lot like Seattle here in Texas. The rain has been non-stop for a week now. I actually really enjoy the rain, especially on the weekends, but as soon as I saw the black slug on my front doorstep, I was over it. I'm ready for some sun! Anyways, I found Liane Moriarty  while I was waiting at a Barnes & Nobles for time to pass for work. I was going through the aisles and one of her other books, What Alice Forgot , caught my attention. I read the first chapter, was hooked, put it back on the shelf because it was time to head to work and that weekend I went to a Half Price Books and didn't find that book, but found this capturing and page-turning book, The Husband's Secret . SPOILER ALERT! A little of Background Liane Moriarty is an Australian author. Liane has written 10 books, which includes 3 children's books. She is best known for her novel, Big Little Lies , which was adapted into an HBO limited series, which went o...

Found another interesting book for .99 cents at a Goodwill! Just goes to show that you can find great books almost anywhere! Anyways, this took me a little longer to read, because school, work, winter break, family emergencies, blah, blah, blah, but I finished it! I am happy to be writing again. I find that writing can either take your mind off things, or help you cope with life changes. Either way, here is my review on The Bellwether Revivals by Benjamin Wood . WARNING: Spoiler Alert! A Little Bit of Background  Benjamin Wood is an author and a Lecturer at Kings College. He grew up in Northwest England. This was his first publication, which won him a series of awards, including Costa First Novel Award. The novel is a British book, and has different spellings and narratives, such as using (' ') when someone is talking rather than (" "). The book is set in Britain with references to different scholarly figures. This book is about a young adult named Oscar, who...

Have you ever judged a book by its cover, and then bought it? I have plenty of times! I actually found this book when I was traveling at a local Dollar Tree . Yes, Dollar Tree has books for $1! They actually have a pretty decent selection and I have actually seen the Target sticker on some of the books on the shelf. That is how I found the book I am reviewing currently. When I saw the cover, it looked like something I would read, then I saw the small Penguin Books symbol on the top right and knew it was legit. What also intrigued my interest was the "True story behind the film American Hustle ," wanted to see that  because I wanted to see that movie (which I did), and I have currently been in the whole 70's investigator movies mood. WARNING: Spoiler Alert! A Little Bit of Background First off, this book was authored by a journalist who worked at Newsday , where he headed investigative teams and won the Pulitzer Prize Gold medal twice! Abscam stood for "Arabian ...