Real Queer America: LGBT Stories from Red States by Samantha Allen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Expected Release March 5



Samantha Allen embarks on a road trip to show us how LGBTQ live in seemingly LGBTQ unfriendly areas. Along the way she visits LGBTQ hot spots and interviews the people who run them or some other noteworthy people about what drives them, why they stay, etc. I don't identify as LGBTQ (heteroromantic asexual in a hetero marriage) but it seemed like a good portrayal of LGBTQ life.

The places she travels to are : Provo Utah, Texas, Bloomington Indiana, Johnson City Tennessee, Jackson Mississippi, and Atlanta Georgia. I might be biased (I'm totally biased) but my favorite was the Provo one, which made reading the rest of the book kind of a let down, but that's a me problem.

I definitely think that anyone can get something out of this book: be they LGBTQ, cis/hetero, red state, blue state, liberal or conservative. Even those not living in America could find some value in it.

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Top 5 Disappointing Reads of 2018

1.   Herding Cats by Sarah Andersen

I loved the other 2 in the Sarah's Scribbles  collection. This one however had Sarah stray from the usual format for the last   part of the book and it fell flat for me.

2. Why Buddhism is True by Robert Wright

I try not to get high hopes for nonfiction because I never know how its going to turn out, but I  did for this book. Unfortunately it read all of the other boring, dry nonfiction books out there.

3. What Happened by Hillary Clinton

A lot of reviewers said it didn't make them sad or mad so  I gave it a shot.  Well  guess what, I did get sad and mad reading it!

4. The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

I'm starting to think Neil Gaiman's stuff just isn't my taste which makes me sad because he's such a phenomenal writer.

5.  Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari

Basically  my criticism for  Why Buddhism is True . I heard such good things about it about how eye-opening and enlightening it was, but it just didn't do it for me.

Dear Martin by Nic Stone

Dear Martin by Nic Stone
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I would recommend this to someone who doesn't want to read The Hate U Give because its too long.

One of the first scenes in the novel takes form in a screen play format which I didn't like, but then the author just drops that format and its never used again. I get that the conversation flowed better, but then why not use the format at least one more time so it doesn't feel so out of place?

The book is titled Dear Martin but there is a paucity of letters written to Martin, at least for a novel titled so. If the author fleshed out this Martin experiment more, or made it a school project or something it could have been awesome.



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The Fragile Ordinary by Samantha Young

The Fragile Ordinary by Samantha Young
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I picked this up for the social anxiety rep. Unfortunately, it failed to deliver.

Yeah sure at first I was totally seeing myself in Comet, someone who doesn't know how to stand up for herself and prefers fictional worlds to the real one.

But then it took a turn.

She meets a boy and she finds her voice and the allure of the real world.

I'm all for getting over social anxiety but because of a boy?

After the boy comes along she's much more like a normal teenager and the book gets sort of boring. There's nothing compelling about the story anymore.

My other issue with the book was the Scottish accents. Scottish accents are the one accent I hate to read. I either try for way too long to understand what it saying or I gloss over it and don't understand what they're saying. I also don't understand why Comet and her friends and her parents didn't have Scottish accents? Did only the secondary characters have Scottish accents? That makes no sense.

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Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow by Yuval Noah Harari

Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow by Yuval Noah Harari
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was expecting speculation about the future. While that did occur it was only about the last quarter of the book. The first three quarters made me think I was reading Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind again.

I'm not saying it was boring, although I was bored at times. I really enjoyed the future speculation, I just could have used less of the build up to the speculation.

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Five Feet Apart by Rachael Lippincott

Five Feet Apart by Rachael Lippincott
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I'm not crying, I'm cutting onions, while reading...

I felt like I was reading The Fault in Our Stars again.

➼Boy and girl meet at a place relating to their mutual disease, girl is immediately disgusted by boy
➼Things heat up between them
➼And so on.

It would be a great novel if the concept hadn't already been done before. Hell, even the CF romance thing was done on Grey's Anatomy. That was actually the first thing I thought of when I first heard about this book.

Great romance novel, but not ground breaking.

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Star of the North by D.B. John

Star of the North: A Novel by D.B. John
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I've read books about North Korea and watched documentaries, I thought I knew a lot. Turns out I don't. Reading this novel prompted me to do some research and I found my knowledge lacking. Oh well, you can't know everything.

D.B. John managed to write an exciting compelling novel true to what I've read about North Korea, even giving me more information along the way.

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Shannon's Choice Awards 2018

Best Book:



Best 2018 Release:




Best YA:



Best historical fiction:



Best nonfiction:



Best memoir/autobiography:



Best Comic/Graphic Novel:



Nicholas Sparks award:



Movie award:



LOL Award:



Snooze award:



Read before you die award:



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