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Best Books of the Month: September 2018

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Giveaways

Useful Phrases for Immigrants: Stories
by

May-lee Chai

Release date: Oct 23, 2018

Enter for a chance to win one of 10 Advance Reader Copies of Useful Phrases for Immigrants from Blair!

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Format: Print book

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Availability: 10 copies available, 983 people requesting

Giveaway dates: Aug 15 - Sep 14, 2018

Countries available: U.S.

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Top Reviews This Week

Emma Giordano's review of The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

" I have a bit of a complicated relationship with The Night Circus. I had been wanting to read it for 2 years now and was immensely excited to finally pick it up. I knew the prose was extremely flowery and lyrical so combined with an adult fantasy stor I have a bit of a complicated relationship with The Night Circus. I had been wanting to read it for 2 years now and was immensely excited to finally pick it up. I knew the prose was extremely flowery and lyrical so combined with an adult fantasy story, I anticipated it being a challenging read for me personally. I decided to listen to the audiobook after hearing great things, but quickly realized I was struggling to remain engaged with the story. After four hours of retaining almost nothing about the plot, I decided to restart completely. After giving it another try and putting in more effort than normal to ensure I was fully comprehending the story, I ended up falling in love with the story! After finishing and loving it, some of the faults of the novel began to sink in after the initial excitement faded and I realized it wasn’t the perfect novel I originally thought it was.

CW: child abuse, death

What I loved about The Night Circus was the atmosphere. The ambiance surrounding the circus and festivities felt tangible. I feel it would be difficult to read this novel and NOT want to attend such a mysterious and intriguing event. It was dream-like, captivating, and all around gorgeous. I love books that are extremely visual and I was not disappointed with this read.

This book is really slow-paced which I could sometimes get behind, and other times struggled with. There were moments where I really appreciated the time and care put into lengthy descriptions but other times I was begging to move forward. I also felt similarly to the time jumps – At times I felt they were intriguing. At others, they were confusing. Of course, it does all make sense in the end so I don’t consider it a massive issue.

My main gripe with the story was the execution of the competition; The synopsis details a high-intensity competition between two magicians, but that promise does not follow through. It takes until ¾ of the story to find out any significant information about this “competition” which leads to an extremely slow-moving plot. Due to that, there is zero sense of urgency. No true rivalry, no anticipation for how the competition pans out, no fear for the consequences of losing. I desperately wish there had been more to this plotline because there was so much potential, but it just fell so flat for me. On a similar note, I wasn’t swept of my feet by the romance. It felt forced and underdeveloped. I think with more interactions between the couple, it could have been enjoyable but the lack of exploration made it feel forced and mediocre. This romantic plotline has been done thousands of times in literature, and there was nothing notable about this take.

Overall, I did genuinely enjoy my time reading The Night Circus. I would probably give it a 4/5 stars entertainment wise, but a 3.5/5 for execution, but I’m keeping it at 4 stars because of how mesmerized I was by the story. This is one of those situations where I have more critiques than positive notes, but my overall feelings and memories of this novel are utter enjoyment. Despite my struggles with it, I would still high recommend. ...more "
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YA Author Interviews

Courtney Summers

What happens to girls who go missing? Courtney Summers gives her gritty take on this question and more in her latest YA mystery thriller, Sadie. “There are a lot of missing-girl stories; I wanted to remind people that at the heart of them is a girl, and the moment we deny her that humanity, we lose some of our own.”

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Good Minds Suggest

Sally Field

Actress Sally Field has spent more than five decades in front of a camera. Now it's Field's turn to tell her own story, in her own words, in the new memoir. In honor of her book, Field is recommending five more powerful memoirs that have inspired her.

1 like · 1 comment

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