Month: July 2021

Added to My TBR List

July 20, 2021

The other day, I downloaded eleven ebooks onto my Kindle. They were free, so why not? There were so many to choose from but I only picked these ones because anymore and I’d probably get too overwhelmed to read any. They are all sci-fi and fantasy genres and are all by independent authors. I’ve slowly shifted from reading mostly traditional to mostly indie because I find indie a little more refreshing and enjoyable these days. I still read traditional. I think I have about four traditional books on hold at the local library. It’s just so amazing to have access to all these books!

Book Review: Fate is a Hunter

July 15, 2021

Title: Fate is a Hunter
Author: Susan Wuthrich
Genre: Suspense Thriller
Year Published: 2020

Date finished: July 13, 2021

Fate is a Hunter is a suspense thriller by Susan Withrich. The story is about a woman named Lydia who goes on a search for her husband and children. She hires a private investigator to help her find them, but it wasn’t as easy as she’d thought.

The story is fast paced and has three point-of-views. Lydia’s story is in first point-of-view, the husband is in third limited, and then there’s third omniscient where we’re able to see the story from afar. I found these point-of-views a little confusing because at times I wasn’t sure who’s story it was about. I didn’t think it was necessary to do multiple povs in this way. I also couldn’t really understand the motivation behind what the husband did, but it sounded like he was suffering from depression. The whole story just appeared pretty sad and heartbreaking.

Overall, it was an enjoyable read. I was curious to find out what happened with Lydia and her husband and was pleasantly surprised by the ending.

Who should read this book: Anyone into fast-paced suspense thrillers such as The Widow by Fiona Barter, Behind Closed Doors by B.A. Paris, and The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins.

Unboxing Video: Travel Kit

July 9, 2021

I uploaded the Travel Kit by Ali Edwards on my Youtube a couple of days ago. I had planned to share some layouts using the kit with the video, but I just don’t have the time at the moment. I’ll probably work on the layouts in the next few weeks. Here is the unboxing video if you’re into scrapbooking kits.

Vacation Photos Continued: Hotel and Japanese Tea Garden

July 8, 2021

Above is a view of the coast when we drove down to Big Sur. We pretty much ended up in the town/camping grounds of Big Sur and didn’t get much of the rocky coast so we returned to San Fran.

We stayed at the Hyatt Regency. It was an excellent hotel. The kids loved everything about it.

View out the window of our room. We could see the Bay Bridge, which was a nice surprise.

Same view during the night.

View out the window of our floor’s hallway.

We also saw the Mozilla Firefox building as we drove to one of our destinations. I thought it was way cool because I use Firefox as my browser.

On the day we returned home, we had some time in the morning so we went to check out the Japanese Tea Garden. It was beautiful! We ate at the deli inside the garden. The Matcha cheesecake and Jasmine tea were delicious! It was the perfect ending to our trip.

Golden Gate Bridge and Beach Photos

July 7, 2021

The family weekend vacation to San Francisco was a lot of fun. We only went for the weekend, but it was enough. We ate at a pho restaurant, hot pot place, a pizza place, and In-and-Out Burger. We drove down the coast to Big Sur and spent a few minutes at Montara Beach just soaking our feet in the Pacific Ocean water. The kids (teenagers now, of course) got a little soaked when the waves came in a little further than expected. There was another beach along the way where we heard, later that evening on the news, a surfer was bitten by a baby shark. We almost considered going to that beach but it was closed when we passed it (due to the incident as we learned later) on our way to Montara. The weather during our stay was cloudy, but the sun did show up for a few hours.

Book Review: The Tattooist of Auschwitz

July 1, 2021

Title: The Tattooist of Auschwitz
Author: Heather Morris
Genre: Historical fiction, Based on a true story
Year Published: 2018

Date finished: June 29, 2021

The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris is a historical fiction story about a man named Lale Sokolov. He is a Slovakian Jew who was taken to a concentration camp to tattoo Jews being brought into the camp. His story is about survival and staying positive during this time of atrocious genocide.

Lale befriends some of the workers at the camp who were not Jews and begins to trade for food. He sees a girl that catches his eye and makes promises to himself and the girl that they would be together after the war ends, not realizing the extent of all that’s going on with Hitler’s motive.

I enjoyed this story. Even though it’s fiction, based on a Lale’s memory, I’m sure there was a lot of truth to it, even in scenes where it didn’t involve him. It makes sense that Lale didn’t see the big picture and I liked this point of view because it goes to show that when you’re inside the storm, you really can’t see how big the storm is. Lale had so much hope and positivity that you almost felt that if all fails, this story was going to be the saddest book out there. But on the other hand, I believe that his confidence helped him stay alive.

There is something special about the angle of this book. We follow Lale and get glimpses of other less fortunate Jews (and even some non-Jews) who ended up losing their lives, yet the glimpses are so powerful that without explaining all the details, you just know that the situation was beyond horrific.

Who should read this book: If you enjoy books about WWII and/or the holocaust such as The Nightingale, The Book Thief, All the Lights We Cannot See, The Whispers of War, etc., this one fits right in.