A Special Report for Book Lovers
Greetings to new and returning subscribers! I post slice-of-life blogs on the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of each month. If there is a 5th Tuesday, I post a Special Report for Book Lovers. This is it!
Beyond sharing the five books I’ve enjoyed most in the last several months, I will mention a sixth book – my new book, Chai on Life! Chai is a mystical word in Hebrew. It is pronounced “high”, making this book High on Life – with a Jewish twist.
My book was due out in April and finally debuted in September! It was crazy. And I felt crazy. But all is well that ends well and the book is here at last, and I am very proud of it. I need all of you to help me with its promotion, please. More on that below.
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Before I start this report, this is a reminder that I am now an Affiliate Marketer on Amazon. This means my book reviews will include a link to the book on Amazon. If you purchase the book using my link, I will earn a small commission. This is at no additional cost to you.
But here is a crazy (and wonderful) fact – if you use my book link to get to Amazon and then buy anything, I still earn a small commission even if you don’t buy the book. More details here. Thank you for supporting my Book Blog and writing life in this manner
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Here are my five favorite books this quarter:
- Expiration Dates by Rebecca Serle
- I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman
- Paul Auster’s The New York Trilogy the Graphic Adaptation by Karasik, Mattotti and Mazzucchelli
- Don’t Let Him In by Lisa Jewell
- Yellowface by R. F. Kuang
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NOTE: Click the “Book Title” to get my review.
Click “Amazon” to get other readers’ reviews.
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Book Title: Expiration Dates by Rebecca Serle
Brief synopsis: Each new relationship for Daphne comes with a slip of paper magically telling her how long her relationship with the new person will last.
One more thing to say: I had never heard of this author and then I read three books by her all in the space of a couple of months. She writes what is called magical realism. I found all three books to be delightful.
Learn more about Expiration Dates on Amazon.
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Book Title: I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman
Brief synopsis: Forty women survive for years as prisoners in an underground bunker. See what happens upon their escape – and for the decades that follow.
One more thing to say: This book was written in 1995 and is famous now thanks to BookTok. Indeed, the book has 21,000 ratings on Amazon and 359,000 on Goodreads. On both platforms, the average rating is 4.1 stars out of five. I read another book with equal success thanks to BookTok and wrote about it in the last Newsletter: A Short Stay in Hell.
Learn more about I Who Have Never Known Men on Amazon.
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Book Title: Paul Auster’s The New York Trilogy the Graphic Adaptation by Karasik, Mattotti, and Mazzucchelli
Brief synopsis: The New York Trilogy is perhaps Paul Auster’s most famous book. Its first part was adapted to graphic format in 1994 and the rest completed in 2025.
One more thing to say: I think all of Auster’s work would be difficult and tricky to pare down into graphic form since it is widely believed that no word is in an Auster book frivolously. If it’s in the book, Auster wanted it there. So how exactly does one turn it into a graphic novel?
Learn more about Paul Auster’s The New York Trilogy the Graphic Adaptation on Amazon.
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Book Title: Don’t Let Him In by Lisa Jewell
Brief synopsis: This is the story of a new widow named Nina Swann who meets a very handsome and charismatic man, Nick Radcliffe, who proves to be a con man.
One more thing to say: I am always interested in how smart women get sucked into terrible relationships thus I really enjoyed this book. Nina wasn’t the only one being played by Nick Radcliffe. Of course, in his dealings with other women he used other names.
Learn more about Don’t Let Him In on Amazon.
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Book Title: Yellowface by R. F. Kuang
Brief synopsis: The story of a not-very-successful author stealing a wildly successful but deceased writer’s novel. Cultural appropriation is involved too because the deceased woman was Asian-American and the one who stole her work – about the Chinese Labor Corps in WWI – was not.
One more thing to say: Cultural appropriate takes place in a second way with this book. The author, R.F. Kuang, is Asian and the book is written as a first-person narrative from the Caucasian woman’s point of view.
Learn more about Yellowface on Amazon.
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And now, the book I am most excited to talk about – my new book!
Book Title: Chai on Life
Brief synopsis: My M.O. as a writer is to tell the stories of my life hoping others will glean life lessons from them. Chai on Life contains thirty-six such stories.
One more thing to say: The topics for my stories range far and wide – from Belly Fat to Billy Joel.
And just one more thing: I hope readers will use my stories as springboards to explore their own thoughts on the topic. Toward this end, readers are invited to visit my website where new writing prompts will be posted weekly, one set of prompts to go with each chapter in the book.
And finally: Each story has a full color illustration at the end that give the one-line takeaway from the vignette. Here is a sample now:
Learn more about Chai on Life on Amazon.
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From my heart to yours: I am hoping that Chai on Life will be a HUGE success and ask your help in making it so. Please:
- Tell others about the book.
- Buy copies for your friends.
- Write a review for the book on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Goodreads, or wherever you talk about books.
- Mention Chai on Life on your favorite social media platform.
- Suggest the book to your book club AND invite me to join the group via ZOOM.
- And if you know a BookTok influencer…
Please know I thank you sincerely for helping me in these ways.
Lorie
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