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Theresa | Books + Real Life

@biblioreviews

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You think your pain and heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. ~ James Baldwin

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Took this pic back on my birthday just so I could post a ...

ON WEDNESDAYS WE READ PINK post

Booksta This or That:

Do you...

...take book pics the day you post them or have little Booksta photo shoots and take a lot of pics at once

...edit your pics using an app, what IG offers or just go au naturel 😂

...write your captions in the post or use the Notes app (or something similar)

...like, love or hate reels

...prefer photos or posts made in Canva

#wednesday #onwednesdayswewearpink #onwednesdayswereadpink #onwednesdayswepostpink #pink #lucyscore #bookstagram #bookstagrammer by @biblioreviews

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51

3 years ago

I just a girl who loves...this trend!

This was fun to make!

Do we have anything in common? Tell me some things that you love!

#bookstagram #imjustagirlwholoves #reading #books #sundaypancakes #dogs #familymovienight #snow #stayinghome #peloton #christmas #plants #bookshelves #shelfie #hiking by @biblioreviews

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56

4 years ago

Dear Publishers,

Thank you for all of the ARCs and finished copies. I do my best to promote and read them all, but sometimes I do fall short since new books come out each week and I get excited about all of them.

I have been a reader for over 40 years and I want to extend my gratitude to whoever created the YA genre. When I was a tween/teen this didn’t exist. We went from reading Judy Blume to reading Danielle Steele. I am so glad that there is something in between. The tween/teen years are challenging and the topics often addressed in YA books make kids feel seen and understood. Thank you for not staying away from the difficult topics like sex, drugs, gangs, sexual orientation and so much more in the YA titles and thank you for not sugar coating it. Thank you for publishing books that feel real and honest and true to what teens are going through.

I would also like to thank you for publishing books where women can be sexual and enjoy sex. I was watching a YouTube video recently and they were talking about how as recently as the 1980s, in those books with the Fabio covers, the sexual experience of women was very muted. Thank you for being part of the revolution that has made it ok for women to talk about sex and enjoy sex and feel more comfortable asking for what they want and need.

I want to thank you for publishing books about women in various situations throughout the world and raising our awareness and understanding of how not everyone’s life is like ours, for helping us to have a better understanding of each other and better understanding of the global community. It allows us to be better citizens of the world.

Chick lit, strong female protagonists, thrillers and police dramas told from a female perspective; books written in conversational tones that are easy to read and understand and so many other things: Thank you.

As a reader, as a mother, as a librarian and as a book lover, thank you for changing with the times and for evolving and growing and helping readers to grow as well.

Sincerely,

Theresa by @biblioreviews

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112

5 years ago

🌟💫ALL THE STARS!!✨

Elizabeth Berg is one of my all-time favorite writers. I will drop everything when she has a new book come out and this book is a perfect example of why! If you have never read one of her books, please read this one.

92 year-old Flo is dying and she writes a letter to the young woman who used to live next door to her and was like a daughter to her. In it, she goes through various small things in her home, a box with a red ribbon around it and a rubber band inside, a teddy bear, a coffee mug…and tells her of the significance of these things, the stories behind them. Through these stories we realize it really is the little things in life that make life so very beautiful and meaningful.

Flo is a simple mid-Western woman who never had a big career or children, but who has a heart as big as the ocean and love for every day and every one. She is open-minded, accepting, loving. She talks about the truth of life and love and marriage and forgiveness and kindness and love, so much love. There is the wisdom of age and beauty of a life well-lived without money or fame or even having been on an airplane more than once.

If you need a book that will make you realize all the beauty in your own life and the world while also making you feel seen and understood, pick up this book. Or, really, almost any book by this author. Her writing is so simple but so beautiful. There is a shocker toward the end of this particular book that I loved and felt showed how deep love can be.

#genxreaders #middleagebooks #midlifereaders #elizabethberg #lifealovestory by @biblioreviews

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5 months ago

Reading this book in midlife while I feel like I am shouting into a void to demand justice for the victims of the Epstein files was a wild ride.

I’ve loved @kimberlymccreight’s books since I read Reconstructing Amelia 13 years ago. She’s a Brooklyn writer and she writes STRONG female characters.

I loved that the main characters in this book were a teenage girl and her midlife mom. I loved that the daughter got to see her mom as more than a nag who was worried about her safety and her future and her choices and decisions. I loved that the daughter came to a place of understanding about her mom which lead to a deep appreciation of how effing much her mother loved and the lengths she would go to protect her. And I loved that the early 20s daughter discovered how strong and smart she was, how she saw the truth about people and figured out who to trust even when that lesson was a bitter pill.

What are some of your favorite books with strong female characters? Midlife female protagonists? What are you looking for in books in midlife and has it changed?

#kimberlymccreight #thriller #midlifecharacters #midlifeprotagonists by @biblioreviews

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6 months ago

Review

Title: The Walking People
Author: Mary Beth Keane
☆☆☆☆☆

The Walking People is a backlist book from one of my favorite authors, @marybethkeane . It’s story about a family that spans decades. It starts on Michael’s last day of work as a sandhog in New York City reflecting on his time on the job and his life with his wife, Greta.

Most of the book is the backstory. If you have read Mary Beth Keane’s other books, you know how good her writing is. I completely lost myself in the descriptions of Greta Cahill and her sister Johanna growing up in rural Ireland in the 1950s. Michael comes from a family of tinkers, people who live in caravans and travel around, believing no one can own land and making their living my making and fixing things. Michael wants something more stable and he ends up living with the Cahills. Johanna is more forward, but it’s Greta that he loves.

There are few opportunities in Ireland at the time, so Greta, Johanna and Michael, three teenagers, move to New York City. Greta and Michael work really, really hard. They make mistakes, they act like teenagers but they have to grow up fast. Johanna ends up moving to California with a neighbor and Greta and Michael finally fall in love.

Greta and Michael are salt-of-the-earth hardworking people, there is not a lot of romance but the love is so real it is apparent from the first time they meet. They make a good life for themselves and their family, but they are guarding a secret that the reader knows and is anxious about anyone else finding out.

I absolutely LOVED this book. It’s sad at times, especially as Greta and Michael begin to age. We follow these characters from when they are young and when they start to get older and decline, it feels a lot like real life, but that is what I love about this author. She can write about real life in a way that makes you realize we all have a story to tell. by @biblioreviews

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7 months ago

#unfortunatelyilove I don’t miss writing book reviews but I do miss connecting. Do we have anything in common? Do we love any of the same things? Do you wonder if I can understand a book at 3x speed 😝The answer is yes! But it took me a couple years to get there AND I’m someone who has always been told I talk too fast so I think maybe that has something to do with it. by @biblioreviews

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23

a year ago

I’m back from 16 days in Italy with my family, celebrating my youngest graduating from college! It’s crazy! I worried about paying for college since before my kids were born and here I am and that time in my life is already over. It’s bittersweet.

I’ve been going through soooo many emotions and I needed a book that felt like a hug and I knew @courtneywalsh would deliver!

Rosie wants to be an actress and that’s not going well for her. I love a highly relatable MC and although I’ve never wanted to be an actress, I could relate to Rosie’s self doubt and insecurities.

While this is a romance, it explores Rosie’s character and her struggles and journey- all of which I NEEDED to read at this midlife point in my life! Rosie moves from NYC (where her acting career is not taking off) to Wisconsin to cast and direct a play at an assisted living facility where she meets Booker. Everyone has a crush on Booker, but the banter and flirtation between he and Rosie is top notch. Throughout the story, we know our girl will have to give up her dream of being an actress in NYC if she and Booker decide to make a go of it.

This story was EXACTLY what I needed! Thank you @courtneywalsh for my copy!!!

What books have been right book, right time for you? by @biblioreviews

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a year ago

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A few summers ago, I discovered @kristywharvey’s books, read one and then devoured them all! The writing is amazing but there is this depth to how women feel and perceive the world that I really love.

In Beach House Rules, Charlotte and her teen daughter go to live with a group of moms and kids in a beautiful beachfront property after Charlotte’s husband is accused of a white collar crime. I LOVED the dynamics between the moms - it reminded me of when my girls were younger and my friends and I all pitched in to get kids places and watch each other’s kids (we have another family we are still so close with and our kids think of each other as cousins!).

Charlotte reflects on her very sweet and loving marriage and I spent much of the book hoping he wasn’t guilty for poor Charlotte’s sake. And there is a blossoming teen romance between Charlotte’s daughter and another older boy in the house - which has me daydreaming about how fun that would have been in high school!

This is THE PERFECT beach book complete with descriptions of a gorgeous exclusive coastal town.

Thank you @uplitreads @kristywharvey @gallerybooks for my copy!

Do you read seasonal books? What are you currently reading? by @biblioreviews

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a year ago

I started this book a while back and a few pages in, I asked my husband to read it too! We both loved it. It’s a story about a marriage - the exciting, beautiful, figuring it out beginning and everything that came after - temptation, struggles, times when they were distant, issues with kids, issues with work, conflicts, laughter, heartache, love, loss, life…everything. It’s told from multiple points of view and offers a sneak peek into someone else’s marriage and shows you how freaking hard it can be and how absolutely freaking amazing and beautiful and worth it it is. It’s a heartbreaking story because Abe is recounting their life to his dying wife. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Over dinner almost every night we talked about the book and it made us remember different things about our own marriage - some things we hadn’t thought of in years and some things one of us had forgotten. I appreciated getting my husband’s perspective on things. Gosh, he saw me in ways I never saw myself and it helped us GROW so much!

My husband felt strongly that we get a pic in Central Park of each of us with the book. Central Park has been a special place for our family, just as it was for Abe and Jane. We don’t live in the city, but we’ve always managed to get in several times a year and Central Park is a magical, diverse, beautiful place. It’s a microcosm of the city with young men from Harlem doing acrobatics and jumping over people’s heads, drumming circles, artists painting, drag queens on roller skates and everything in between. Our girls grew up playing on the Alice in Wonderland statue and watching paper boats in the Model Boat Pond. It’s one of my absolute favorite places on earth and where I wanted to spend Mother’s Day, on a blanket overlooking the Bow Bridge!

Thank you @duttonbooks @jessicasoffer for my ARC and finished copy ❤️ taken in Central Park, New York City by @biblioreviews

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a year ago

High school is so far in my rear view that I probably romanticize it and there are definitely A LOT of things I have forgotten. But, I'm also in midlife and doing a lot of reflecting (which isn't the best, but REAL) and thinking about things I would change if I could go back. We are all a little homesick for a place that no longer exists.

I recently discovered @csittenfeld's writing and her voice resonates with me so much that I've been going through her backlist. I didn't go to prep school (but I had friends that did) and while I can't speak to that, Lee's experience, her feelings, her thoughts, her insecurities...are, I think, things a lot of women can relate to. I forgot what it felt like to be scared and insecure and inexperienced. Thinking she wasn't pretty enough. The power struggle. I wept for her (and for myself) and for girls everywhere who felt this way.

This book was a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️read for me. No question. I understand why it's so talked about. She nails what it FEELS like to be a girl in high school.

Thinking about how I would be in high school as a menopausal woman is easy because I have life experience that has made me confident, but, man, my heart goes out to young women. It is not easy.

Let's do a little This or That
Public school or private school
Math or language arts
Nerd, jock, princess, basket case or criminal
Go back or no way in hell by @biblioreviews

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a year ago

Thank you @randomhouse for the #gifted book.

I have been honest about my struggle with food, eating and my body. My kids growing up gave me time to focus on myself and after 40 years of trying - I got to what the Standard Weight Chart for Women said my ideal weight should be and everyone said I looked too skinny and unhealthy. I felt great, but it didn’t feel sustainable. I could never let my guard down and I felt weak.

My husband encouraged me to build muscle and after months of research, last July, I started lifting weights and made a conscious effort to get more protein to build lean muscle. It’s a complete mindset shift from shrinking to growing, from eating less to eating more, from starving to sometimes eating just because I need more calories (who IS she?).

I have spent much of the last 9 months feeling duped…if you aren’t naturally thin, you sacrifice muscle to be thin and that means less energy and less mobility. And that is especially true as we age. Resistance training has allowed me to move my body better and easier than I did in my 20s and 30s when I was pretty much starving myself to be a size 2. I am not kidding you. And the confidence? Lifting almost to failure makes you feel like a badass and feeling like a badass makes you confident.

I have been waiting for the @vegan8’s Wholesome Vegan cookbook to come out because I NEEDED more high protein vegan recipes and this book does not disappoint! So far I have made three of the dinners and the chocolate protein pancakes (which I forgot to photograph but I overheard my omnivore husband telling people how awesome they were!!). I also made the vegan mozzarella cheese which is SO EASY to make and SO GOOD!! Teriyaki Orzo Casserole was fresh and LOADED with veggies and fiber. The Curry Tofu Scramble was so flavorful and satisfying! And the Cheesy Lentil Pasta Bake…I made it last night and I am already thinking about making it again NEXT WEEK! And those pancakes…they might become a weekend staple!

What are you up to? Have you joined the protein/resistance training movement? What are you making for dinner? by @biblioreviews

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a year ago