Month: July 2020

#BookishMuses: It Came From The Sky! by Chelsea Sedoti Book Review

Posted on by The Smart Cookie

I was thrilled when I got a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

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Imagine how you would react if everyone in your small town suddenly believed there was aliens in your midst? I would be excited because a believer in all things paranormal and a resident of a similar small town I would love the possibility of knowing we aren’t alone.

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A fan of Sedoti’s charming and easy to read writing style and how she always features life-like characters that reside in small towns, and usually are aiming for greatness.

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The main characters Gideon and Ishmael are brothers who balance each other out. Ishmael is a practical joker and prank war champion, and Gideon is the scientist who understands the how and why behind extraterrestrials.

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As per usual, I couldn’t put it down just like Sedoti’s other books and eerily Sodie always slips stuff in her books that makes me think we may in fact be twins.

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Super Pods are here!

It Came From The Sky! will be released on my birthday August 4, 2020 from SourceBooks, and will be available wherever books are sold. You can connect with the YA author at her website.

#BookishMuses: Book Review: Betty by Tiffany McDaniel

Posted on by The Smart Cookie

I received this book in exchange for an honest review.

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As with most stories about families, you know you are in for some heavy blows. Despite our ethnicity or the number of members, no human family is immune to tragedy or oppressive authority, racist, neighbors and classmates, and the aftershocks of untreated or suppressed mental illness.

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From the first phrase, McDaniel takes you on a multifaceted journey of the Carpenter family. You gather that they are Native American and people who feel at one with nature but human nature is not immune no matter the family to sad and tragic occurrences.

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The reader witnesses everything through the eyes of our early feminist icon and hero Betty Carpenter which lends to the emotions of how deep family ties really go.

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Anyone who read McDaniel’s other works will fall in love once again with her poetic and lyrical writing style despite the melancholy content. And those who have yet to read a work by McDaniel will find themselves enraptured by the way she tells a story.

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Betty is timeless yet timely masterpiece and perfect for a world full of cries for injustice and plagued by an ongoing global pandemic.

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Betty Carpenter is no weak woman and her story is not for weak stomached readers. In order to fully see Betty in all her anti-heroine glory, you must seek to step into the shoes of the underdog,  the footprints of those who don’t blindly follow the crowd, and upon paths only previously seen as uncharted by those crazy enough to see them beneath the shadows of history and the bright red blood of ancestral heritage.

Shop anti-racism books on RedShelf today and a portion will go towards an important cause!

You can preorder Betty here and at your local retailer as it will be released by Random House on August 18, 2020. You can also keep up to date with the author’s events and other works by visiting her website.