Bowling Book Review

  A book about the famous boxing coach Teddy Atlas. Brian and I always watch the video of him yelling to his boxer in the corner. It gets us fired up, I'll link it below. The book is really broken up into different parts and each part also has a different pace to it. The beginning is about his wild upbringing. The middle is about how he trains one specific fighter and all of the drama around that. Then the final part is kind of his ride into the sunset. It's cool to get an insight into his life and how he ended doing what he was doing. Again it all goes back to the parents, if you read you'll see. I knew of him so I was curious to learn more about his life. I also knew he was living the the famous trainer of Mike Tyson at the beginning of his career so I wanted to know how all of that got orchestrated. Decent book for what it is. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/D4oJUEj5uLw

  We are getting very close to 300! Yeah! Alright, this the third book I have read by Ruta. This one is the best so far and it is not even close (2 and 3 are almost interchangeable, 1 is much better).  So  1. Between Shades of Gray 2. A Fortune of Sand 3. Out of the Easy   This book tells the story of a family that is deported to Siberia during Russia’s occupation of Lithuania. It is very sad. It is historical fiction. My only critique is that I wish she would have written a bit more. It ended too soon and I thought there was a bit more story for her to tell.  Gramsley and Aunt Tami and Gram also read this book! Gramsley read it in one day. Apparently she is the best reader of us all.  If you like historical fiction, I would read this for sure. It is not that long. Fair warning, it is sad and hard to read at times.  They made a movie out of this book in 2018 called Ashes in the Snow. Gram tells me there is another good book by Ruta called The Fountains...

                                                   vanessa                                                                      joan For once I agree with good reads. This was historical fiction book of the year for 2025 and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's a book about astronauts/space and also a love story (this part I didn't know going into it). I felt that the authors ability to express each individuals personality/lifestyle/character was the best part. As you see above if I had to cast Vanessa and Joan I'd pick these two people. One is Catherine Keener and the other is a cycling coach on FDJ-Suez. It's random but that's who I thought of...

  This was popping up on every must read list so I figured I'd check it out. I struggled to determine how good of a book it was for reasons I'm not sure of. I found myself at times not wanting to put it down and was waiting for the big reveal to answer my questions about the mystery that goes on throughout the entirety of the book. Also at the end of the book along with the reveal you start to remember back to prior character interactions and begin to see them different from your initial reaction. It's a cool light thriller book that kind of takes a spin on the whole influencer life but you are constantly trying to figure out who's the one with their head on straight and how are each of these threads going to impact this story. Do I think this is book of the year? No but it's a decent thriller and maybe a little different from your typical read but I don't read much fiction so maybe not.

  I have a new keyboard so maybe I can type some more this time. For the last few I was using one finger.  Ok, so this is the second Ruta Sepetys book I have read. I think this one was better because it related the story to the plight of women in the 1920s which I thought was a nice touch so, so far, 1. A Fortune of Sand 2. Out of the Easy Now I will say something you do not want to hear. I think in some ways Ruta is the poor man’s (or woman’s) Kristin Hannah. Both are decent but I think Hannah’s plot construction, the way she relates her stories to history, and overall writing style are better. Probably the many readers of this blog will disagree and be outraged but I don’t care. I feel like Ruta has an awesome plot sometimes but then doesn’t finish the story well. I also feel like Ruta is trying to do too much at once sometimes. Maybe I am way wrong. I have been wrong before.  Anyways, bisabuela told me to read another one of Ruta’s books. So I think I am going to go fo...

  I'd like to state that I'm not in love or in a relationship. In terms of relationship books this is probably my favorite or at the top if my memory serves me right. What this book has that other relationships don't is explicit candor. A lot of books keep a level of professionalism when they are writing their books where as he is blunt and honest. With how real, authentic and raw marriage is it makes complete sense. Everyone experiences the same things in a relationship but don't want to be open about it. In the book he says he wonders how often couples have relations (I'm not as explicit, this is a PG blog LOL).  James is a divorce lawyer that has been practicing for 30 years. We get to hear his experience with learning about these couples in extreme depth as to why their marriage fell apart. This perspective is vastly different from any other relationship book. Also throughout the book he explains his job, why it can be difficult at at times and just really inter...