“Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” – Lewis Carroll

Hello everyone,

I hope you all have had a wonderful weekend full of fun, relaxation, and of course reading. Let me start off my review of “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” by saying I had never previously read it.

Yes, I know it’s absurd I went my entire life not reading one of the most popular books of all time. My reasoning behind this is – I knew it was one of those love it or hate it books. I really wanted to love it, and let me just say I LOVED it! Why did I wait my whole life to enjoy it?

The imagination of Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) had to have been phenomenal in order to write Alice’s adventures. Alice a curious little girl finds herself tumbling down a rabbit hole. Then all the wonder of Wonderland appears.

Carroll writes in such an immersive way it feels as if you’ve fell down the rabbit hole into Wonderland with Alice.

You’ll have adventures with a rabbit, a jabberwocky, cards, chess pieces and so much more. I don’t know what more I could say other than it’s a wondrous, nonsensical adventure I highly recommend taking!

Let me know what you thought of “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” in the comments!

Exploring the world one book at a time,

– Book Reflections

“City of Lies” by Lian Tanner Review

Hello everybody,

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and a nice long relaxing weekend. Over the long weekend I listened to Lian Tanner’s “City of Lies” on overdrive.

“City of Lies” is the second book in Tanner’s “Keepers” trilogy. This is a middle-grade fantasy novel.

In this book Goldie a trained liar leaves the city of Jewel where things have changed dramatically since the first novel “A Museum of Thieves” to find her friends. She finds herself in a city of Spoke, full of liars. Everything is upside down, and backwards – even the city itself is a liar.

Changes in Jewel – The Fugalman is believed dead, and the Blessed Guardians are no longer in power. This means children are no longer chained, but some events happen in Jewel that question the children’s safety.

Goldie is asked to become the 5th keeper at the Museum of Dunt, but this would mean she would have to leave her parents. Her parents are in ill health, because of her. They were sent to the house of repentance in the last book because she ran away. She does not want to leave her parents, so she avoids the Museum of Dunt. That is until a kidnapping takes place.

This leads Goldie on a journey to the city of Spoke – where they are set to begin their festival of lies. How was Goldie going to find her friends, and the truth in a city full of lies? She may even get caught up in a big lie for a day and a night. Will she be ready when the lie is over? I’ll leave that up to you to find out!

The Festival of Lies really made up for not having The Museum of Dunt in this sequel. Both the Museum and the Festival carry their own persona throughout both books.

I quite enjoyed the second installment of the Keepers Trilogy, and I am seriously shocked the series isn’t beyond popular. To top off the suspenseful writing of Lian Tanner, Claudia Black narrates the audiobook, and she leaves her heart on the table.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this review, and that it might inspire you to read more!

Exploring the world one book at a time,

Book Reflections

“Talking as Fast as I Can: From Gilmore Girls to Gilmore Girls, and Everything in Between” By: Lauren Graham

I hope everyone is having a fantastic weekend!

Let me just start out by saying I absolutely adore Lauren Graham! I can remember watching the first episode of the Gilmore Girls, and being hooked for life! To be totally honest, I have probably binged watched the Gilmore Girls on Netflix twenty or more times.

Anyway, with the air clear on that I did enjoy Lauren Grahams’ “Talking as Fast as I Can: From Gilmore Girls to Gilmore Girls, and Everything in Between”. I wanted to read this when it came out in 2016 just a few days after the Gilmore Girls revival aired. But, time slipped away from me, and I put it off until yesterday. I actually listened to the audio book version, and let me just say it was superb.

The fact that Lauren Graham herself narrates the audio book made the book ten times better. She brought her bubbling, charming, personality right into the reading and writing of the book. If anyone else had narrated it, it definitely wouldn’t have been SO good. My rating for “Talking as Fast as I Can…” audio book will be a 4.5/5 stars!

Lauren really “tells all” in her book. From her childhood in Japan which includes belly buttons. The Virgin Islands, and the many adventures of a house boat. Then you cannot forget the eastern United States where she skipped a grade. Wow!

She shares details of going to college, and being a struggling actress, just trying to break through. Some moments literally had me laughing out loud! Her advice on fitness, health, and cell phones I can totally get on board with!

She shared what it was like the film Gilmore Girls not once, but twice. And, for all of us Gilmore Girl fans out there – IS IT REALLY OVER? It ended on a cliffhanger right? She also shared about her experiences on the set of Parenthood (another show I liked). That is where she found romance with Peter Krasue. P.S. they’re so cute, could they just get married already? It’s been like 8 years?!

The only reason I gave “Talking as Fast as I Can…” a 4.5/5 stars is… Toward the beginning of the book she briefly mentioned politics. I really cannot stand politics, and reading is usually my escape from them. I don’t understand why our society is so fixated on politics. We’re all humans just trying to survive. We should build each other up no matter what differences we all may have. Let politicians be politicians, and people be people.

Aside from that, I would recommend listening the Lauren Grahams’ “Talking as Fast as I Can: From Gilmore Girls to Gilmore Girls, and Everything in Between”. The run time is just over four hours, and you will find yourself literally laughing out loud!

Let me know what you thought of “Talking as Fast as I Can…” if you’ve read/ listened to it. If you haven’t read it yet I hope I’ve inspired you to check it out!

Exploring the world one book at a time.

Talking as fast as i can

The Adventure Begins

Thanks for joining me!

I look forward to sharing book musings with you, making new friends, and so much more through this whole process!

I hope we can share a common love of books, writing, and all things bookish. Share deals on books, and things of that nature. (P.S. I know some fantastic book stores – so stay tuned!) Gaze upon some photography, which will likely contain book quotes. Meet new people, discover new authors, and genres. Explore the world one book at a time. There is so much to discover, and I hope you’ll stick around for the ride!

Exploring the world one book at a time.

Book Reflections

S. McKinney

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