Book Talk with Rebecca Rivera

Let's talk about Everything Under by Daisy Johnson! Have you ever read a book that did not make sense? The writing was just so ethereal that you couldn't put two and two together about who was who or what was happening? That was my experience with Everything Under . I recently watched a video by Books and Things on YouTube, which I will link here , where Katie talked about two books she had read that were written, in my opinion, in a similar fashion to Everything Under . She was nice enough to say it was pleasant reading them, but it cracked me up how she "struggled to find a focus" and couldn't find it! The two books she mentioned were Spring Garden by Tomoka Shibasaki and  Warlight by Michael Ondaatje, in case you're interested 😊. If you'd like to hear her reviews of these two books, begin at timestamp 12:00. I find her explanations so succinct. That she admits to "not getting" these two books is refreshing to me and gives me a big tic...

WARNING: Please remember that these Book Talks contain spoilers. I do not aim to review a book but to encourage a conversation about it. That means I'll talk about my favorite parts and  unfavorite  parts, INCLUDING SPOILERS. I actually created this photo for Instagram, but I worked so hard on it I had to use it twice. Lol. Horror and psychological thrillers are not usually on my to-read list. But movie trailers and Bird Box , the book, sitting on my library's "new" shelf put it into my life in a way I couldn't ignore. I did a quick check of average ratings, and here's what I found. Again, Goodreads has a lower rating for the book than Amazon or B&N. Must be all those picky readers out there. Lol. Ratings 4.03 star rating on Goodreads (for the first time I noticed Goodreads rates to the 1/100th place) 4.4 star on BarnesandNoble.com 4.4 star on Amazon Before I tell you my personal rating, I'm going to bend your ear with what I thought of ...

What if Jane had not died at 41? WARNING: Please remember that these Book Talks contain spoilers. I do not aim to review a book but to encourage a conversation about it. That means I'll talk about my favorite parts and unfavorite parts, INCLUDING SPOILERS. This month I read The Jane Austen Project by Kathleen A. Flynn. Time travel, history and writing are high on my list of favorite topics in a book. The Jane Austen Project satisfied my reading tooth in a way no book has since I created my list of top three favorites in my late teens. Apparently not everyone thinks it's as good as I, according to the Goodreads rating. Ratings 3.7 star rating on Goodreads (I assume it's because of the readerly, i.e. pickier opinions of readers) 4.2 star on BarnesandNoble.com 4.5 star on Amazon I'm considering adding it to my new list of favorites. It is definitely a model for a dream book to write. Likes: I love the way Flynn sounds like she really knows what she's t...

Hello and welcome back to another Book Talk. I hope you had a great new year and holiday season. Today I'm talking about something I've been working on for the past two and a half months or so. It's finally ready to share, so here it is: It's a blank book talk. ツ ツ I've loved notebooks and, particularly, making notebooks since I was about twelve. Recently I began hand making notebooks with typing paper, felt and bits of twine. Working with my hands again in a medium I love (paper!) re-ignited my love of making notebooks. But when I added a simple drawing to the front of each notebook, I discovered a love of drawing and design I hadn't entertained since my teenage days. The process and result was so much fun I wanted to share it with others somehow. I researched a site called Redbubble.com and felt it would be the perfect avenue to share my love of notebooks and papery things. While I still make notebooks for myself, it wasn't practical for ...

Have you ever come home from the library with a stack of books ten high, only to return all of them unread, then repeat the same process on your next visit? I have been doing this for years. Last month I decided I needed to get a handle on this action. So I started asking myself why I took home so many books and why so many of them were returned unread. Taking home so many is simple. They all look so interesting. Ooo, a flashy cover. I'll take that one. Hmm, intriguing title. I'll take that one too. Interesting premise on the back cover copy of this one. I'm sure I'll read this one. I'd better take it too. I'm sure your excuses are as water tight as mine. But why return so many unread? Now that question was a little harder to answer. After some soul searching and much wailing and confessing of sins...wait, that's church, not library books. Ahem...let's start over. After pondering on this question and forcing myself to be as honest as I could, I c...

What is Smashwords? Smashwords.com is a place where you can browse ebooks and find great new authors and some authors you may already know. There are almost 490,000 books published to date; over 77,000 of them are free. So if you are looking for freebies, Smashwords is a great place to check out. Creating a profile is absolutely free. You can also browse the site without a profile to get the lay of the land with zero commitment. What if you're a writer or publisher? What can Smashwords do for you? Well, Smashwords offers ebook publishing completely free. If you are comfortable on a computer and can follow directions, you can format your own novel according to their free format guide (available for download on their website) and upload your book and its cover from your computer. There is also a team available with individuals for hire if the work of formatting is not for you and you have some extra money you're willing to spend on your novel. After you publish your novel, ...