Discussion: Authors I Plan to Read in 2019 That Wouldn’t Even Be on my Radar If Not for Book Bloggers
A couple of weeks ago, Grace at Rebel Mommy Book Blog wrote a post where she shared some authors she’s planning to read for the first time this year. Her post really got me thinking about all of the authors I really want to try this year. I’ve had some authors sitting on my to-read list for a couple of years now and still haven’t gotten around to them. Others are fairly new additions, but I’ve just heard such great things about them so I’m anxious to give them a try. As always, there are also authors from a variety of different genres represented.
The one thing all of these authors have in common though is you guys. As I scrolled down my to-read list, it really impressed me just how many books I’ve added to that list since I started blogging and reading other book blogs. I literally add numerous titles based on your recommendations and reviews every single week, and although I hadn’t really given it a tremendous amount of thought before, it really adds up! It’s no wonder my TBR is so enormous, haha!
I think back to those ‘Must Read’ or ‘Most Anticipated’ book lists from major publications where I used to get most of my recommendations before I started blogging and just cringe on how many bad books I suffered through. I finally gave up on those because the selections were almost always awful and I really started to wonder if people had bought their way onto the lists. Thinking about this just really makes me want to give a shout out to all of my fellow book bloggers. Whether you love or hate a book, I love that I can trust that you’re giving me your honest opinion. In fact, I trust your judgment so much that I rarely add books to my TBR that haven’t been recommended by a fellow blogger.
All of that said, whether you run a big blog or a small blog, don’t ever let anyone tell you that you’re not an influencer because every single author on the following list of authors I plan to try this year is an author that wouldn’t even have been on my radar if not for recommendations from you.
Authors I Plan to Read for the First Time in 2019
1. ABBI WAXMAN
2. EMMA MILLS
3. MARTHA WELLS
4. KRISTY WOODSON HARVEY
5. SABAA TAHIR
6. SUSAN MEISSNER
7. BECKY CHAMBERS
8. ILONA ANDREWS
9. ANNETTE MARIE
10. RENEE AHDIEH
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Do you plan to try any new authors this year thanks to recs from fellow bloggers?
Top Ten Tuesday – 10 Book Quotes That Resonate
Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Top Ten Tuesday has been one of my favorite memes ever since I started blogging, so huge thanks to Jana for taking over the hosting duties!
This week’s TTT topic is Inspirational/Thought-Provoking Book Quotes. It was hard to pick just ten since so many quotes from books resonate with me, but I was eventually able to narrow down to a few from some of my favorite reads that I’ve found especially thought provoking over the years.
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10 Book Quotes That Resonate
1. “If you have two friends in your lifetime, you’re lucky. If you have one good friend, you’re more than lucky.” This quote is one I remember reading when I was a kid but that I think resonates with me more now that I’m an adult. I probably have fewer close friends than I did when I first read it, but I know I treasure the close friends I have now.
2. “Don’t ignore half of me so you can fit me into a box. Don’t do that.” This quote stuck with me after reading The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo because I agreed with her so strongly about the importance of not trying to pigeon-hole people into some pre-conceived notion you have about them.
3. “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view … Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.” This is another one I read as a child. I loved both the imagery used in the quote and the message about trying to put yourself into another person’s shoes rather than passing judgment on them.
4. “It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends.” This is actually one of my favorite quotes from Harry Potter and it’s just so true. The path of least resistance is to just go along with whatever your friends are doing, even if you know it’s wrong. Standing up to them and risking losing their friendship is a hard and brave thing to do.
5. “What’s the point of having a voice if you’re gonna be silent in those moments you shouldn’t be?” This quote from The Hate U Give resonates with me on many different levels. Most recently I’ve been thinking about it in terms of certain individuals in Congress who have a voice but choose to turn a blind eye even though doing so could ultimately harm our democracy.
6. “Open your eyes and see what you can with them before they close forever.” I love this quote and its message to live life to the fullest because you never know how long you have on this Earth.
7. “But even if we don’t have the power to choose where we come from, we can still choose where we go from there.” I’ve always loved the possibilities that this quote puts on the table. Your past does not define you. No matter where you come from, you are in charge of where you ultimately go.
8. “Brave doesn’t mean you’re not scared. It means you go on even though you’re scared.” This quote resonates with me and the message is something that I’m constantly trying to teach my son. That it’s okay to be afraid. You just can’t let that fear hold you back.
9. “People generally see what they look for, and hear what they listen for.” This quote is another that has always stuck with me because it’s so true. As I look at it right now, it also makes me think of politics and how each party only sees and hears what they want to hear, even if evidence to the contrary is staring them right in the face. They hear what fits the narrative they’re trying to create and nothing anyone says can change their minds.
10. “I had absolutely no interest in being somebody else’s muse. I am not a muse. I am the somebody. End of fucking story.” I think this was the quote that made me fall in love with Daisy Jones. I just loved that attitude and that passion about following her dream. She didn’t want to inspire other people to write songs about her. She wanted to write her own damn songs and perform them.
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Do any of these book quotes resonate with you?
Review: PRIDE, PREJUDICE, AND OTHER FLAVORS by Sonali Dev
Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors by Sonali Dev 
Series: The Rajes #1
Published by William Morrow Paperbacks on May 7, 2019
Genres: Contemporary Fiction, Romance, Retelling
Pages: 496
Source: Netgalley
Amazon
Goodreads
FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. All opinions are my own.
PRIDE, PREJUDICE, AND OTHER FLAVORS Review
Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is one of my all-time favorite novels. I love everything about Pride and Prejudice but I’m especially fond of it because it’s where my love for the enemies to lovers trope began. I’m also a sucker for retellings of any kind so when I heard that Sonali Dev’s latest novel Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors is meant to be a modern-day Pride and Prejudice retelling, it sounded like the perfect read for me.
I was engaged by the story as soon as I met the main characters because I immediately realized it was going to be a P&P retelling I hadn’t encountered before. Why? Because it’s a gender-bent retelling. The arrogant, unlikeable Mr. Darcy character is actually female. I just found this such a delightful and unexpected twist!
Dr. Trisha Raje is a gifted neurosurgeon who also happens to be descended from Indian royalty. Her father is directly descended from royalty, while her mother is a former Bollywood actress, and her brother is in the beginnings of a bright career in politics and who has his eye on the governorship of California. The rules of the Raje household are very simple: be careful who you associate with and do absolutely nothing to bring shame and scandal into the family. Fifteen years ago, Trisha did exactly that and is now considered the black sheep of the family. She wants to redeem herself and help her brother win his election, but the family doesn’t trust her.
I really loved the complexity that Dev gives Trisha. Trisha begins showing her “Mr. Darcy” side at a fundraiser for her brother when she has a run-in with the chef who is catering the event. She is rude and condescending to what she deems “the hired help,” which leaves a bad taste in the chef’s mouth and in my mouth too. Trisha is completely obnoxious in the way she looks down on people like the chef, but at the same time, she possesses many good qualities too. She’s a brilliant surgeon who, after a chance encounter with blind children at an institute when she was a child, is drawn specifically to doing whatever she can to prevent or cure blindness. It’s hard to reconcile that compassion for some with her seeming disdain for others, and I had to keep reminding myself that Mr. Darcy redeemed himself in the original book and that I needed to stay open-minded.
Chef DJ Caine, on the other hand, was easy to love right from the start. We learn in the opening pages that he and his little sister, Emma, were tossed out on the street by their father’s family after their mother passed away. DJ therefore practically raised Emma on his own, and all they have in the world in terms of family is each other. When Emma is diagnosed with a life-threatening brain tumor, DJ quits his job so that he can be there for Emma. How can you not love a brother who is so completely devoted to his sister? It makes it all the more infuriating when he has his run-in with Trisha and she’s so rude to him. Then it spirals into an ongoing series of encounters with him looking down on her for looking down on him. Talk about awkward, haha!!
Things between Trisha and DJ become all the more awkward, however, when they each realize that Trisha is the only surgeon who can perform the surgery that can save Emma’s life. Can they look past their initial clashing of personalities and come together for Emma’s sake?
In Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors, there is a strong focus on the importance of family, as well as a thorough exploration of class and cultural differences and the prejudices that can arise because of them. I was equally drawn in by the DJ and Trisha dynamic and wanting to know what was going to happen to DJ’s sister, and by wanting to know what in the world Trisha had done all those years ago to end up in such a bad spot with her family.
Overall, I really enjoyed the way Dev gave the original Pride and Prejudice such a fresh and modern update in terms of the actual plot without losing track of those themes that have made the original such an enduring classic. I highly recommend Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors for Jane Austen fans, for those who enjoy a moving family story, and especially for those who enjoy a good enemies to lovers romance.
GOODREADS SYNOPSIS:
Award-winning author Sonali Dev launches a new series about the Rajes, an immigrant Indian family descended from royalty, who have built their lives in San Francisco…
It is a truth universally acknowledged that only in an overachieving Indian American family can a genius daughter be considered a black sheep.
Dr. Trisha Raje is San Francisco’s most acclaimed neurosurgeon. But that’s not enough for the Rajes, her influential immigrant family who’s achieved power by making its own non-negotiable rules:
- Never trust an outsider
- Never do anything to jeopardize your brother’s political aspirations
- And never, ever, defy your family
Trisha is guilty of breaking all three rules. But now she has a chance to redeem herself. So long as she doesn’t repeat old mistakes.
Up-and-coming chef DJ Caine has known people like Trisha before, people who judge him by his rough beginnings and place pedigree above character. He needs the lucrative job the Rajes offer, but he values his pride too much to indulge Trisha’s arrogance. And then he discovers that she’s the only surgeon who can save his sister’s life.
As the two clash, their assumptions crumble like the spun sugar on one of DJ’s stunning desserts. But before a future can be savored there’s a past to be reckoned with…
A family trying to build home in a new land.
A man who has never felt at home anywhere.
And a choice to be made between the two.
About Sonali Dev
Award winning author Sonali Dev writes Bollywood-style love stories that let her explore issues faced by women around the world while still indulging her faith in a happily ever after.
Her books have been on NPR, Washington Post, Library Journal, and Kirkus Best Books of the year lists, but Sonali is most smug about Shelf Awareness calling her “Not only one of the best but also one of the bravest romance novelists working today.”
Sonali lives in Chicagoland with her very patient and often amused husband and two teens who demand both patience and humor, and the world’s most perfect dog.
Find more at sonalidev.com.