Truly Madly Guilty by Liane Moriarty

Truly Madly Guilty by Liane Moriarty
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I loved the narration by Caroline Lee of this first Liane Moriarty book I have ever read (listened to) and I am definitely going to listen to Caroline Lee's narration of Big Little Lies (TV show comes on in February!) I was mesmerized by the 3 couples involved in this drama about lies, guilt, and thoughts that were best left unsaid. Clementine and Sam have 2 little girls, Holly and Ruby (I loved Lee's voices for these 2 little ones!!!) and their is pretty good. Erica and Oliver are trying to have children and are products of very dysfunctional families. These 2 couples are invited over to Tiffany & Vid's house, next door neighbors to Erica and Oliver and when a horrible accident occurs, the 3 couples are thrown into a unforgiving landscape, will they be able to work themselves back? An awesome read!!!

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Tiny Stitches: The Life of Medical Pioneer Vivien Thomas by Gwendolyn Brooks

Tiny Stitches: The Life of Medical Pioneer Vivien Thomas by Gwendolyn Hooks
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This Nerdy Nonfiction award winner was a wonderful picture book I read as part of the #YearofYA STEM chat which will take place Thursday 1/26 at 8PM. The story of a black man in America during the time of The Great Depression where the all white world stopped Vivien Thomas from becoming a doctor but the study of medicine did not elude him. The reason being --white Dr. Alfred Blalock was totally impressed with Vivien and his confidence and knowledge that he gave him a job and took him with him as he became the chief of Surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital. This wondrous book details all of Vivien's wonderful surgical skills, his medical advances and his place in the world where racism thrived and his coworkers resisted his place next to Dr. Blalock. I loved Gwendolyn Brooks' narrative and Colin Bootman's perfect illustrations!

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Ada Lovelace: Poet of Science, The First Computer Programmer by Diane Stanley

Ada Lovelace: The Poet of Science by Diane Stanley
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I read this nonfiction Nerdy award winner as part of the #YearofYA monthly STEM YA chat taking place Thursday 1/26 at 8PM. Diane Stanley's words & Jessie Hartland's drawings about Ada Lovelace's life and becoming the first computer programmer was a new direction for me (one I really enjoyed) in this exciting children's picture book. Ada was an imaginative yet very helpful heroine in her world and now the world can read this book and see her important contribution in computer programming's history.

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Red Madness: How a Medical Mystery Changed What We Eat by Gail Jarrow

Red Madness: How a Medical Mystery Changed What We Eat by Gail Jarrow
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book was in @tavia_clark's resources for monthly #YearofYA chat Thursday 1/26 st 8PM on STEM & YA Lit and as a nonfiction book, it was mesmerizing as the medical mystery of the Pellagra disease was discovered in the late 1890s and sickened and killed many in the United States. Along with the narrative the photographs were so compelling and heartbreaking. There were many doctors and scientists who worked so hard to find the cause, research, and investigate possible cures and hopeful eradication of this mystery illness. I was in awe of Dr. Goldberger but also his wife, Mary whom he corresponded with as well as consulted his deepest thoughts about his work. And it was his wife, Mary as the only female to participate in the "contagion test." Dr. Goldberger, his wife, and other doctors, friends and colleagues infected themselves with pellagra in different ways. What the doctors, the medical community and then the world learned from this most awful scourge was the knowledge of the extreme importance of vitamins in the human diet as well as a nutritious diet. Loved this medical detective mystery by Gail Jarrow!

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The Truth That's In Me by Julie Berry

All the Truth That's in Me by Julie Berry
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I loved Julie Berry's The Passion of Dolssa and All the Truth That's In Me was on a best reads and this book was so so sad about Judith, a young girl who is taken from her home & held hostage for 2 years by a crazy man (who happens to be the father of a the boy she has loved her whole life) and returns to find almost everyone has turned against her and Judith can't say a thing because he cut out 1/2 her tongue (and her mom won't let her speak)! The small mindedness of this community was staggering - her mother hates her, her brother calls her Worm, the town thinks she is a whore all the while she loves Lucas and bears the derision of so many. Will Judith be able to lift the curse the village has bestowed upon her and will Lucas ever know how much Judith loves him? A searing look at truth, family and the fear of neighbors in a backward time in history.

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Tell the Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt

Tell The Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Taking place in the 80s where AIDS has hit, June is a child of fourteen, who now knows her dear godfather, Uncle Finn, is dying of AIDS. As she spends Sundays at Finn's (with her mom & Greta) while a portrait of June & her sister, Greta is painted by Finn she begins to hear some disturbing bits of information. While her questions go unanswered, her uncle dies, and life without Finn is unbearable. I could not put this tear jerker down; I loved the characterization; author Brunt floored me with the ugliness of Greta, June's mom and society in general while I relished June, Finn & Toby. There were so many what-ifs you ask yourself while reading; I was crushed each and every page for June and how she struggled with shyness, finding out she did not know everything about her Uncle, being bullied by her sister and further alienated by a mother who wanted her brother Finn to suffer for the choices he made. Well, she made everyone suffer, most especially Toby, Finn's love (who June had no idea existed before his funeral) and this just brought further guilt and anguish and questions to June. This is a searing must read on so many levels!

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The Trapped Girl (Tracy Crosswhite #4) by Robert Dugoni

The Trapped Girl by Robert Dugoni
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for the ARC, The Trapped Girl by Robert Dugoni. This was my first Robert Dugoni detective and mystery thriller and oh what a wild ride. I could not put down this 4th book in the Tracey Crosswhite series, loved the plot with all its twists & turns and the characters of Tracy and her team were authentic, hardworking, honest detectives while Dan (her sweet boyfriend) and Andrea Strickland (shy, quiet victim) were normal everyday people. But I especially enjoyed the nasty characters as well- especially Andrea’s weasel husband and suspect, Graham. Dugoni’s story was a taut, suspenseful mystery with so many angles and seemingly very complicated. A woman’s body is found in a crab net on Puget Sound and as Detective Tracy Crosswhite investigates, it becomes very apparent, the victim was not going to be easily identified. The back story about Tracy’s sister’s unsolved murder was a tense added plot element. As a result of this psychological thriller, I will definitely be reading many more Robert Dugoni novels. Highly recommended!

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