Social Distancing Check-In

Hello For the Love of Dewey Readers!

Today we are 1 week into social-distancing in NJ and it looks like it's not going to be getting better anytime soon.  So today we'd like to check in with everyone.  How are you doing?  What are you doing?  And how are you finding joy during this time.

So far I read 6 book! I was averaging one book a day, but then I had to let up on the reading because I sprained my left eye.  Heed this warning... Binge reading is a total sport and can be dangerous. 

I thought that I would be taking the time to write more blog posts, but instead I find myself being more active on our Instagram @ForTheLoveOfDewey.  

Here are the books that I finished so far and my For the Love of Dewey Coffee Bean Rating of each one:
Ghosts of Harvard by Francesca Seritella - 4 out of 5 Coffee Beans 

The self isolation to-read / read pile.

Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover - 4 out of 5 Coffee Beans 
My Life in Pink and Green by Lisa Greenwald -  5 out of 5 Coffee Beans 
Every Last Word by Tamara Ireland Stone - 5 out of 5 Coffee Beans 
Salem Falls by Jodi Picoult - 3.5 out of 5 Coffee Beans (It was good! But the print was small and it was long... I think this book hot my eye.)
All Along You Were Blooming by Morgan Harper Nichols - 4 out of 5 Coffee Beans (I read an ARC of this and it was hard to make out some of the words.) 

Currently Reading: 
Close Enough to Touch by Colleen Oakley.  

Close Enough to Touch is about a librarian who is allergic to touch.  If someone touches her she'll die.  This seems like a fitting read given our current situation, and it takes place in NJ! 

What are you all reading?

~Jessica 

Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover

Hello Dewey Readers!

Today I started (and finished) Colleen Hoover's novel Ugly Love.  This novel, like all of Hoover's novels, was a super quick read for me.  I became easily immersed in the characters lives and needed to know their stories... but it wasn't my favorite Hoover read. 

So a bit about the novel.  Tate is moving into her brother's apartment.  She meets a man in the elevator who looks at her and tries to flirt with her, but he's clearly hiding his wedding ring.  (Don't worry he isn't the love interest!) When Tate gets to her brother's apartment, a man is passed out drunk in front of the door.  Her brother isn't home, but when Tate calls him she tells him to let him inside.  The drunk man, named Miles, lives across the the hall, and he's filled with insurmountable grief.  We don't know why, or what happened, but we know words cannot describe his pain.  This man becomes Tate's love interest.  

The story is told in the present tense by Tate and the past tense by Miles.  I must say that I liked Miles' parts more than Tate's, and without giving too much away, wished that it was Miles' story that had a happily ever after.  Nonetheless I enjoyed it.  

I gave this book 5 stars of Goodreads, but here I'm going to give it 4.5 out of 5 Coffee Beans.  This is book 2 in my current #socialdistancing to read pile.  Comment below with how many books you have read / want to read!

~Jessica 

To-Read Pile

Hello For the Love of Dewey Readers!

We are facing some uncertain and scary times.  Schools, many libraries, and municipal buildings in New Jersey are closed (or in the process of closing) to the public to prevent the spread of Covid-19.  My library is closed now in the hopes that preventative self isolation will decrease the spread of the disease within our community, state, and country.  

For the next two weeks, I will be working from home keeping up on the library's social media presence and digital community outreach and engagement, but this also leaves me with a lot of extra time to read, blog, and post #bookstagrams!  

So prepare to be inundated with pictures, posts, and even videos!  (Have you checked out our Youtube Channel?) Follow us on Instagram @fortheloveofdewey where we will be posting photos and stories. 

How are you doing during this unsettling time?  Are you reading? Staying inside a bit more? Tell us in the comments below and share your to-read piles with us! My current to-read pile right now is as follows with what I am currently reading on top:

Be well!
~Jessica 

We're on YouTube!!!

Hello For the Love of Dewey Readers!

Jillian and I have some exciting news!  We've decided to jump into the world of YouTube! That's right! We're now bookish YouTubers. (If you can really call us that.)  Really, we had no idea what we were doing, or how to make / edit a Youtube video, but I think we did okay for our first try. 

Our first video talks about listening to audiobooks while driving.  Since my commute has increased to about a 40 minute drive over the past two years, I have been listening to more audiobooks.  Sometimes I just get sick of singing to myself in the car, and I welcome the time to add books to my GoodReads Reading Challenge goals. As for Jillian, well, she isn't a fan of audiobooks.  

So, take a look at what we have to say in the video below.  Like, comment, subscribe, and tell us what kind of videos you would like to see. (We filmed the clips to these videos independently with our iphones, and I put them all together using iMovie on my MacBook.  Since we both work, and Jillian is in grad school we tried to be as simple and time efficient as possible.

Thanks for reading / watching!

~Jessica

Sunset Beach by Mary Kay Andrews - Reshelved Books

Hello there Dewey Readers!  What are you reading this Memorial Day Weekend!?  

I just finished Mary Kay Andrews' latest novel Sunset Beach.  This novel follows the story of Drue Campbell, a 36 year old bartender who was recently fired from her job.  Not only is Drue jobless, but her mother also recently passed away.  In her mother's will, a family beach house was left to her (one that Drue thought was sold many years ago) in a town near her estranged father who now wants to be back in the picture.  In a way to make amends, he offers Drue a job at his law practice (think about the injury commercials you see on t.v.).  Toss in the fact that Drue's new stepmother was her grade school friend, numerous missing person newspaper clippings found in Drue's new attic dating back to the 1970s, and a young woman who was murdered in the hotel down the street, and you get a perfect summer mystery!

While I devoured this book, I wasn't a complete fan of the twisty turns and conclusion of the mystery itself within the last 100 pages or so.  It seemed to be a little too fast, but is also something that I have felt while reading other mysteries. So Dewey Readers, I leave you with a rating of 4.5 out of 5 Coffee Beans.  Add this novel to your summer TBR! 

Until the next read!
~Jessica   

Cover Judgment

Hello Dewey Readers!

Today I would like to ask you all a very serious question.  Do you judge books by their covers?  

While I was scrolling through the #Bookstagram (follow @fortheloveofdewey !!) I came across a #bookstagrammer who posted a photo of a book, claiming it was the first time she ever read a book because she fell in love with the cover.  This made me pause.  I nearly ALWAYS choose my books by their covers.  I know what you're all thinking.  But Jessica, you're a librarian.  How dare you!  Isn't that book blasphemy!?  It is and it isn't. 

I love my books.  I love lining them up, I love carrying them with me, I love staring at them on my book shelves, and I absolutely adore wandering the aisles of book stores and libraries.  I'm a book addict who can't go on a vacation without visiting all the local libraries.  But I also feel like just as much as I want to love what's inside the pages, I wan't to enjoy looking at, touching, and carrying my books with me.    

Do I always love the books who's covers I'm attracted to?  Not always.  Do I ever regret giving a book a try no way.  If I have a choice between two different editions of the same book, I'll always go for the one who's cover I like better.  Life is too short to not enjoy being with books you love.  But will I read books who's covers I do love based on recommendations and merit?  You bet I will, I just might not go out of my way and choose them on my own.  

So Dewey Readers please tell us, do you judge books by their covers!? 

~Jessica 

1 Year Anniversary Giveaway!

Can you believe that For the Love of Dewey is turning 1 year old?  No?? Well, neither can we!  To celebrate and say thank you, we are hosting a giveaway for a gift card to Barnes & Noble!  

Here's how you can enter to win:
1) Follow the blog (You're reading this, so that's a great start!)
2) Comment on your favorite post

It's that easy.  

For an additional entry, follow our Instagram and repost our giveaway photo #ForTheLoveOfDeweyYearOne 

Happy reading!

The Infinite Moment of Us by Lauren Myracle- Reshelved Books

**Jillian's Bonus Review**

This week's bonus review is brought to you by the letter "L"! "L" is for library and for the happiness that comes being surrounded by books all day :)

 I'm have some serious mixed feelings on this book... The Infinite Moment of Us by Lauren Myracle

I never look at review of books, but this one was necessary.
(Note: I started to quickly skim through reviews about half way through the book)

The more reviews I found, the more I saw that readers felt the writing style was a rough, the plot was cheesy. One review even said the book was sexist!
I thought that the book presented the spark that brings two people together. Yes, they met by a weird happenstance but I don't feel that their relationship was unbelievable. 

This book is story about Wren and Charlie, two seniors who on their last day of high school, feel this instant connection to one another. Two people who never had true interaction with each other- are now pulled together!  They spend so much time together! They eat, sleep and breath each other!  They're enamored with one another and they can't get enough.  Now, I don't know about you; but that sounds like young love to me!

I liked this book in the beginning- I did! I got halfway through the book and then I decided that I was going to start writing the review. Which lead to Google. Which then lead to GoodReads, which lead to a mixed bag of feelings.

I was sad to see that many readers gave it such a low rating on GoodReads :(

Yet at the same time, I understood where they were coming from.

I felt like the emotions between Charlie and Wren were real.  I thought that their feelings were the ones that everyone has at some point in their life.

I'm a believer that young love is raw- it's something that's just as emotional as it is physical.  So to hear Myracle explained the actions in the manner that she did... I don't know, it didn't seem like it was that unbelievable.

THAT being SAID...!!

Once you pass the middle of the book, AFTER Wren's first time with Charlie, then the writing style used to describe their relationship is really rather adult.  (Think the teen version of Fifty Shades of Grey....Not my personal favorite...) Hot and heavy and something that you would read about in an adult novel. 

Not a YA novel.

I did find Charlie to be an adoring character, Wren...eh... She became needy and got on my nerves. (But what else is new??)

I give this book 2.5 coffee beans out of 5.  Two and a half because I only enjoyed the beginning of the book which was the only part that was worthy of the review.

~ Jillian

The Matchmakers of Minnow Bay by Kelly Harms - Reshelved Books

Happy almost fall everyone!

How has everyone been?? I am sorry for my absence but I am back and ready to go! 

Would you believe me if I told you that this book sounds *very* familiar to me and that I have read it before...?

Well, this book sounded very familiar to me and I felt like I've read it before. 

You guys also know that I've never given a novel a crappy review before but I suppose there's a first time for everything!

The Matchmakers of Minnow Bay by Kelly Harms is going to be my first review on a book that I did not like. 

The reader meets Lily Stewart, an artist who gets evicted from her apartment after missing one rent payment.  While Lily is cleaning out her apartment, we see that Lily finds annulment paperwork from her Las Vegas marriage. Annulment papers from TEN YEARS AGO! TEN (10) count 'em, 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10, years ago!! HOW CRAZY!

After meeting with her best friend-divorce attorney, Renee, Lily decides that she's going to find Ben Hutchinson and tell him all about her delay in the paperwork and how it was all a big misunderstanding!!  (I'm still confused as to how you could even consider Renee to be a best friend when for most of the book, she's been a horrible person).

Ugh.

Then as the book continues we see the interactions between her and Ben; how the town of Minnow Bay tries to keep her and Ben together. Blah blah blah.

My issues with this book reside with Lily herself.

As a character, she is so flat! She does the same things over and over again and there is no change. (What's that saying? Doing the same things over and over again when the outcome is the same is the definition of insanity??) She's too stubborn to believe that anything new could be of benefit to her. 

I don't understand how helping Simone played any part of the development of Lily's character. Ben seemed like a big jerk and then he turned and became this tolerable person on a dime. He was mean and nasty to Lily YET everyone knew that they were perfect for each other.  (...What?)  I feel like there wasn't enough dialouge between the two of them, we didn't learn a lot about Ben. 

No one deserves to be treated like a jerk.  Even if it's a character in a book. 

The title "The Matchmakers of Minnow Bay" is confusing because there were no matchmakers.  Unless Colleen and Jenny were the matchmakers.  But I don't feel like that can be said when all they did was make a flat tire, kept Lily from getting a new tire and throwing a birthday party for Ben's mom, Carla.

I mean... Really?

The only part of the book I found to be funny was when Lily attacked Renee with the bristles on the broom because there was a robber in her apartment. 

(I probably laughed waaaaay too hard at that.)

I am sad to say that I can only give this book 1 coffee bean out of 5...

I was able to snag a copy of this book on sale for $9.00 and I think that's a fair price.  I wouldn't go out of my way to read this book....

~ Jillian

One of Us is Lying by Karen McManus- Reshelved Books

Who is ready for a new review on a new book?! 

I hope you all are eagerly waving your arms up in the air! haha.

I don't know how old the majority of our readers are but if you fall into the mid to late twenties and up, you should know about all of those classic John Hughes films from the 80s! 

Sixteen Candles! Pretty in Pink! St. Elmo's Fire! The Breakfast Club!

And this 90s baby does love Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club   :)

Let me know what you're favorite John Hughes movie is!  You can post down below OR find us on Facebook! FortheLoveofDewey is now a group and we'd love it if you joined!

But onward to the good stuff...   

One of Us is Lying is Karen McManus' debut novel.   As a YA fiction story, One of Us is Lying is a story about five teenagers, one who mysteriously ends up dead in detention.  The "who done it" and the why are what you as the reader are trying to figure out.  

This book is a mash up between the game of Clue and The Breakfast Club.

From what I could find out there on the great internet, it seems like McManus was influenced by the writings of Agatha Christie for her debut novel.  According to Book Club Babble, McManus used The Breakfast Club as her primary inspiration. 

Which is something I can totally see... Take for example Brian and Simon.  For anyone who has seen this movie, do you think that McManus loosely based Simon on Brian?? Brian had the intentions of suicide but was never success.  Simon actually *dies*...

Tabitha Lord of Book Club Babble did an *amazing* review with Karen McManus. I strongly recommend to everyone to go and check out her review!  Another good review on the book was done by The Big Thrill- you can check out that review here.

Lord brings up great questions that included awesome points.  I love how she brings up how nowadays, teenagers don't have a sense of privacy (which is true, when I was in high school, TEXT MESSAGES were just becoming a thing! and I am by no means old!).  How social media has taken over and made things that were once private, public.  (Not only that, but suicide is something that's increasing in teenagers :(  )

I very much liked the delivery of the story!  I liked how as the reader got deeper into the novel, the plot became more twisted.  The police were pitting Bronwyn, Nate, Cooper and Addie against each other- something that should have pulled them apart, made them stronger together in the end.  You slowly learn about Simon's life and 

As, I said before (because for anyone who knows me, I love to repeat myself) I liked how the book was a spin on The Breakfast Club: you had the athlete, the criminal, the brains, the outcast and the pretty girl.  While the five of them were able to walk out together at the end, One of Us is Lying loses the outcast. 

There was a twist at the end of the story that I was not expecting.  I could see how the "killer" was who they were, but I would never have imagined who was helping them.

I give this book 5 out of 5 coffee beans.  It held the right amount of suspense and it answered all of the questions that it laid out.  I didn't get tired of the characters and I didn't find them to be annoying.  The book progressed in a way that didn't leave you feeling ripped off. 

~ Jillian

The Mermaid Collector by Erika Marks - Reshelved Books

Hello dear For the Love of Dewey Readers!

After finishing  Julia's Daughters by Colleen Faulkner I thought I was going to have a terrible book hangover and have trouble getting into a new book.  It was snowing outside, so I wanted something beachy to take my mind off of the snow -- but not summery.   I had just packed up a bunch of books in preparation for my big move coming up this spring (including most of my to-read pile) and found this one that I have been meaning to read for probably 3 years now.  I'm terrible, I know.

These are all books...except for that red box...

At first I thought that Erika Marks' The Mermaid Collector was going to be too much fantasy based.  I guess I wasn't sure what exactly to expect and I was a little bit apprehensive.  But nonetheless, I started reading it and had trouble putting it down.  

The lighthouse on the cover looks just like the Portland Lighthouse
 I was lucky enough to visit this past fall.

This novel is as much of a love story as it is a historical fiction and ghost story about the origin of local myth and legend.  It follows the present day stories of Tess Patterson and Tom Grace, two people who have given up on love, lost parents to tragic deaths, and are struggling to heal themselves and learn to trust others.  Tess Patterson has grown up in Maine, living near the water with both her mother and step-father, until her mother commits suicide by drowning in the cove.  Tom Grace, comes to costal Maine when he inherits the light keeper's house after his family falls victim to a tragic hit-and-run accident.  An accident that takes the life of his parents.  What makes this book stand out from other novels that deal with love, tragedy, heartbreak, and family issues is seen from the historical flashbacks that tie the custom of the annual Mermaid Festival of the present to the novel's mermaid lore of the past.     

This novel offers reader's glimpses of  the couple that perviously lived in the Light Keeper's house back in the 1800's by telling the mermaid legend in segments that leave the reader wanting more.  Showing how  love, loss, tragedy and the past can have haunting and lasting impressions on the future.  Do ghosts exist in the physical sense?  Or a ghosts the rippling effects the past has on the present? 

So my dear For the Love of Dewey readers, I give you ANOTHER rating of 5 out of 5 coffee beans! 

I could not put this book down, and I was so sad when it was over.  I have such a terrible book hangover that now I don't even know what I want to read!

Does anyone have any suggestions? 

~Jessica     

Will You Find Us?

Not to long ago we read about a campaign via our Twitter Page (@theloveofdewey) about book fairies.  Yes, you read that right.  Magical book fairies that leave books in unexpected and mysterious places for readers to find, devour, and pass on.  I absolutely loved this idea and ordered some stickers right away.  You can read more about them on The Book Fairies' website. 

After ordering my set of stickers, I had to order business cards for a Mid-Atlantic Regional Archiving Conference (MARAC) I am presenting at this spring.  But of course, I did this at midnight and in my sleep-deprived state put the wrong professional web address on them and had to order more.  Does anyone with a MLIS really need personal business cards?  Now I have 100 non-useable and 100 useable ones.... But that's not what I really wanted to tell you...

While I was ordering my second batch of library business cards I decided to create some for For the Love of Dewey.  Wouldn't it be fun to hid them around town?  In places like the coffee shop, at the park, in the bathroom at the mall?  Wouldn't it be even better if we placed our cards inside a beloved book for people with bookish hearts to find?

So here is the For the Love of Dewey movement inspired by The Book Fairies and my business card accident.  For those of you who find a card, a book, or both, come to our blog and tell us!  Tell us that you found our card and what you think of the book.  And when you're done reading it, leave it somewhere for another book lover to find.  Let's see how far these books and the love for all things dewey can go!     

You can comment below here, on our Book Club page, or our GoodReads group.  Come and spread the bookish love! 

~Jessica 

After the Fall by Kate Hart- Reshelved Books

Hello again Dewey Family, 

This time I present you with After the Fall by Kate Hart.
This book was wonderful! I really did enjoy it.  After the Fall was another book that I could not put down! It was laced with such emotion and it made you feel for the characters (and I don't think that's an easy thing to do!)

NOW, I know what you guys are saying "But Jillian you've been reading books that fall into this category... You reviewed Thirteen Reasons Why *and* The Most Dangerous Place on Earth". Yes yes, I did...this is something that I can not deny. 

Side Note: I promise that I am going to review March's #Bookdrop next - Flight of Dreams by Ariel Lawhon. I'm in the process of reading this book 
(PSA for our IG! @fortheloveofdewey -- you'll be able to check out all of our current reads here... Or you can look up to your left... Right under all of those tabs...)

After the Fall is Kate Hart's debut novel.  Knowing that this was her debut novel and nothing else about the novel didn't satisfy me.  I was wanting to know about this book!

SO! I figured that I would start incorporating a little bit of the background information that I find about the authors (if this is a debut novel) or try to find the inspiration the novel (if it's posted within the vast internet) -- wish me luck, this may be a failed idea. haha.   

With my trusty curiosity in hand, I searched the internet high and low in hopes to find Hart's inspiration...

My searching did pay off!  I was able to find an interview with Ms. Hart from 2010 on the blog We Do Write, you can view the interview here. In her interview with Dorothy from We Do Write, Kate said that her inspiration for After the Fall came from a "local hiking accident" - that sparked her to wonder how she and her friends would have been able to handle the same situation. It wasn't until I finished the book that in the final pages that Hart mentions how her own assault and the loss of a friend influenced her book. 

(Wandering Bark Books had an interesting Q&A with Hart as well - you can find how she handled the love triangle that is in the book.  You can read that Q&A here).

On to the book...
After the Fall follows Raychel Sanders and Matt Riachardson, two best friends since forever. Matt secretly likes Raychel and Raychel is secretly dating Matt's younger brother, Andrew. 

As the reader, you can really feel for Raychel.  You feel for her when you hear how she's been assaulted by Carson (not once but *twice*).  You feel for her when she thought that maybe Carson did actually like her for her and not for anything else like the rumors that follow her. You feel for her again, when she learns who her mother is dating and when she gets into a big fight with Matt; resulting in massive disappointment.  A horrible hiking accident happens causing life as Raychel and Matt know it falls apart. Life will never be the same for either of them and neither will be their friendship. 

SPOILER ALERT!! 
If you don't want to know what happens... DON'T READ PAST THIS LINE!! 
I don't want to ruin anything for those of you who do want to read the book. 

I felt bad for Raychel. I did. No one deserves to be assaulted. No one deserves to be taken advantage of like that. To lose that sense of trust and security. To be stripped down and to be made to feel so vulnerable. That's wrong in every possible way. As I wrote before, it broke my heart to read that her character was happy that there someone out there who was interested in her for her and not because of the rumors about her. To me, that's heartbreaking. 

But (I know I shouldn't start a sentence with "but") Raychel did start to irritate me when she was (for lack of a better term) "sneaking around" with Andrew. I thought that was really crappy of her character.  This guy has been your friend for (what's mentioned in the book) the better part of a decade, and you go and start dating his brother without saying anything to him! That's really crappy! I'm sorry guys. Matt genuinely cared about Raychel (even though we could see that his character was quite overbearing) and I think that's why it bothered me so much that she didn't say anything to him until everything started to fall apart.

To me, it seemed like Raychel's relationship with Andrew seemed a little out of left field. I didn't find it to be very developed- it just kind of happened. I didn't even really get the vibe that she was crushing on him until she borrowed his shirt.  
Carson's assault on Raychel was a formative part of the book (IMO) but it seemed to have died off... Then the reader hears about Carson again, when Raychel takes her "revenge" on him (if you can even say that) and when he apologizes.  Part 2 had a whole different focus -I felt that that was a little strange. 

I was sad at the end of the book.  I guess I wanted Raychel and Matt to see past their differences and to come together once again.  I didn't want to see them end. They had been friends for so long, that it was sad to seem them continue to drift apart.  
As the saying goes: all good things must come to an end...

After the Fall gets a review of four (4) coffee beans out of five (5).

~JBG

Websites Referenced: https://wanderingbarkbooks.wordpress.com/2017/01/18/guest-post-after-the-fall-by-kate-hart-qa/
http://we-do-write.blogspot.com/2010/08/interview-with-kate-hart.html

How to Hang a Witch by Adriana Mather - Reshelved Books

Witches, ghosts, Salem, and pumpkin lattes...No, it's not October, but how could I pass up a book that takes a modern look into the Salem Witch Trials by placing Samantha Mather, a descendent of Cotton Mather, inside this spooky town?

I found How to Hang a Witch by Adriana Mather (yes, the author is a decedent of Cotton Mather as well) at Target. I walked around the store with it in my arms 3 times until I decided that yes, I needed to buy this book.  For those of you who aren't up to snuff on your witchy history, the Salem Witch Trials occurred in the 1690's in Salem, MA with the killing of 20 people who were accused of witchcraft.  Cotton Mather was a minister who, as according to Wikipedia, tried to prove that demons were alive and real in Salem (Wikipedia, 2017).  

Reviews of this book as found on it's Google Books page claim it to be a mixture of the Salem Witch Trials and Mean Girls.  I guess I can see how this is kind of true.  In this book, Samantha's father goes into a coma, resulting in Samantha and her step-mother returning to her father's hometown of Salem.  Once in Salem, Samantha learns about her heritage and how it makes her disliked by the kids in her school who are descendants of the people murdered during the witch trials.  The descendants take on the role of the "popular" crowd, targeting Samantha and making her feel uncomfortable and bullied.  Hence, Mean Girls.  

I enjoyed this book up until the point where the book began to take a dive away from the witchy history of Salem and Samantha, and shift towards a supernatural Casper-like ghost story that was too flamboyant to be believable.  This is seen where Samantha makes friends and falls in love with a ghost, as well as by how the person who her step-mother is quickly changes....almost too fast.  

For this reason, I am going to give this novel 3 out of 5 coffee beans.  I didn't like the ghost friendship or the elements at the end, but I did enjoy the novel overall.  

For readers who are looking for a historical novel with a modern twist, this probably isn't the book for you.  However, for reader's who enjoy ya paranormal reads,  even if elements may not be too believable, then give this book a try! 

~Jessica 

P.S.  According to a little stalking I did on Adriana Mather's GoodReads and Instagram accounts, not only is this novel going to become a movie BUT Mather is also coming out with a second book that takes Samantha and places her on the Titanic.  Apparently, Adirana Mather's ancestors were also on the Titanic.  How crazy is that?.... And, she's an actress? (Not the actress in the book trailer though!)  

Take a look at the book trailer. This might be one of those rare instances where the movie is slightly better than the book...What do you think? 

Jars of Glass by Brad Barkley and Heather Hepler - Reshelved Books

Hello Everyone!  

Surprise, surprise... I haven't posted this as "Currently Reading," but I did finish another book.  So here I offer you my review of the young adult novel Jars of Glass and my For the Love of Dewey Rating of 4.5 coffee beans.  

My boyfriend had noticed that I was looking for this book on a recent date night outing to our local used bookstore.  When I couldn't find it, he surprised me with an e-bay copy!  (Yes, I am a very lucky girl.) I'm pretty sure that this novel is out of print, which is a shame because it really is quite captivating.  

This novel takes place in Maine, and tells the story of a family that is barley functioning and staying together.  The two teenage daughters and their four-year-old brother (who was recently adopted from a Russian Orphanage and doesn't speak much English) live together with their dad above a funeral home.  We don't know much about what happened to their mother, but we do know that although she is still alive, the family mourns her loss as though she no longer is.  Through flashback stories of fairytales full of beach glass slowly unraveling to show glimpses of today, we learn the girls' mother suffered from untreated schizophrenia.  Barkley & Hepler keep the reader guessing what exactly happened to the girls mother, as well as if the family can ever heal and become whole again.  

I really liked how this novel tackles the topic of mental disorders, but places the disorder on the parent rather than the teenage character.  Done this way, Barkley & Hepler show a family dynamic of how everyone is effected by mental disorder and how everyone thus has to find a way to heal.  

I'm going to go back to writing my term papers now.  Please feel free to comment below with what you are reading, and if you're bored, check out our Instagram @fortheloveofdewey!  

~Jessica 

The City Baker's Guide to Country Living by Louise Miller- Reshelved Books

**Attention For the Love of Dewey Readers! 5 out of 5 coffee beans for this book!!!***

Hello everyone!

It's Jillian.

I am kicking off the first week of the new year with a solid book to recommend. 

The City Baker's Guide to Country Living by Louise Miller!

This was the first book in a long time that I actually read in one sitting (and that is big for someone who's about to have a baby any day now).  It was a fun and easy read.  Miller made sure that you weren't left with any questions, comments or concerns.  At the same time, she made sure that you felt a wide range of emotions throughout the entire story.  

Olivia (or Livvy) is a twenty-something baker, who had a slight mishap at work...one that resulted in a fire during a large anniversary event (but hey, that's something that we all can relate too, right?).

Out of embarrassment and fear, Livvy drives up to Vermont and ends up on the doorstep of her best friend, Hannah.  

After much persuasion from Hannah, Livvy goes and apply for a baker's position at the Sugar Maple Inn, a small local bed and breakfast.  After proving she's got what it takes to bake a good pie to Margaret, Livvy is hired!  She moves into a cabin on the property and starts her life with Salty (her trusy old pup; who ends up sleeping in the strangest of places) out in Vermont. 

During her time there, Livvy befriends an older gentleman named Henry, who is the husband to Margaret's best friend, Dotty.  Livvy also befriends Dotty and Henry's youngest son, Martin.  Livvy and Martin let their relationship slowly develop until tragedy strikes.

Remember how I said before that Miller makes it so that you feel many emotions throughout the book?  Well, this is the part in the book where I started to get weepy. (But it wasn't until the end of the story that I actually cried!)

I don't want to give too much of the book away, so I'll leave you with a cliffhanger at the tragedy!

Just know that I give this book FIVE coffee beans of FIVE!! (Say whaaaaa!?)

I loved it and I was sad when it was over!

Happy Reading in the New Year!

~ Jillian