Invitation to Poetry & Alignment of Thoughts by Mihai Brinas - Reshelved Books

Hello Dewey Readers!

Mihai Brinas, author of Invitation to Poetry & Alignment of Thoughts asked us to review his books of poems.  Being a poet myself, I COULD NOT WAIT to read his work.  Mihai's work is the encapsulation of thought provoking emotions and images. A few of my favorite poems in his Invitation to Poetry collection are: the healed healer, mathematics and love, no exception, & the work. 

However, out of the two books, Alignment of Thoughts would have to be my favorite.  It just struck a cord with me that's hard to explain.  His words are beautiful. 

If you're looking for a new up and coming poet to read, check his e-book out!  The only thing that would make me love these books more more is if they were in print.  

I give them a total of 4.5 out of 5 Coffee Beans!

~Jessica 

Date Like a Woman by Kai Nicole - Reshelved Books

Hello Dewey Readers!

Author of Date Like a Woman, Kai Nicole reached out to us and asked if we would review her book.  And of course, how could we pass up the opportunity?  Our dating lives are a joke.

I enjoyed this book when I approached it as Nicole's personal dating theory.  So get ready Dewey Readers and sit down, tonight were going to have some "real talk."

I am a millennial woman.  I'm 26 years old.  I've been in two very serious LTRs.  Nicole has also been in a couple LTRs, so in this regard we're sort of similar.  

One thing that I wish Nicole mentioned more of in her book was how to online date & how to meet people in person.  When approaching the subject of dating, it's important to keep in mind that the dating world has drastically changed within the past 10 years for the millennial woman.  It's not as easy as it was for our parents, or for friends and family 10+ years our senior.  But why?  I think this is because our society is heavily screen cultured and screen oriented.  All communication is done through a smartphone.  I mean, we order food through an app, schedule doctors appointments through apps, e-mail our co-workers who are sitting upstairs, and yes, we ultimately end up dating through apps.  It sucks, it really does, but that's the world the millennial woman faces.

Because of screen culture, we don't necessarily understand how to approach or communicate with people in person.  I mean how many of us 20-30 somethings would be weirded out if a man suddenly approached us while we were minding out business at the local coffee shops?  More than a few.   So here enters the dating apps.  Everyone's on them: Bumble, Coffee Meets Bagel, Hinge, OkCupid.  That's real life.   My friends and I have pondered "Why can't we just meet men and talk to them in real life? Why can't we meet like our parents?"  or "Why do only creepy old men try to have conversations with us?  Where are the young guys!?" We think it has something to do with our new screen culture and it makes us sad.  Us late 20-somethings still had part of a childhood without smartphones, tablets, and wireless internet. So we have a smidgen of an idea as to what it's like to not be screen oriented.  The younger 20-somethings..... I don't even want to think about it.  

Nicole mentions that she personally does not like "online dating."  Does anyone really like online dating?  Swiping can be addictive, but I don't think anyone LOVES it.  But because this book is a guide for the millennial woman, I wish it was addressed a little bit more.  How do we navigate these apps to our full potential and how do we approach men in REAL LIFE?  Does that even happen anymore?  (Besides at bars, of course.)  Nicole also mentions throwing your list of the "perfect man" away.  I agree with this to a point.  With real life dating, your meeting someone in person, you see them, maybe it's okay to be flexible.  She begs us to not forget that "men chase and women chose."  We can take these two points and relate them to Dating Apps.  With Bumble for instance, men chase.  They swipe and choose which women they like.  Women also swipe but they can be picky.  They choose which man they want to talk to.  Men CAN'T message men first.  However, because you're the one choosing you have the power to be picky.  Is it bad to be picky?  No.  But if we keep Nicole's warning about the theoretical "perfect man list" in mind, it causes us to pause.  Does it matter that he's a brunette over blonde?  No.  So what if he doesn't like books?  Maybe there's something else there that's important.  For me personally, I think it's important to be picky on some things.  Decent job / goals, good heart, relatively normal.  (It wouldn't hurt if they had a sport car they'd let me drive around, but after reading this book I'll take that off my list.  I PROMISE.)  

There were things that I agreed with that Nicole mentions.  Nicole stress the importance of getting to know a man, and not judging him simply by the way that he looks.  He must be a nice, smart, and successful guy because he has a suit on and drives a BMW, right?  Maybe he stole the suit and it's his grandma's car.  We don't know him, who are we to say? Another excellent thing Nicole mentions is that just because you went on a date (or handful of dates) with a man, does not mean that you're "dating."  Hey, I'm not your girlfriend if the words aren't somehow verbalized either through a talk, introduction, something.  You can't just assume.  

This book made me think about how we date, about millennial culture, and my "list."  I'm taking a break from Dating Apps for now.  I'd like to see if I can attract a man through living life.  Plus, dating would get in the way of my valuable pool time.  I'm taking the summer off, unless something magical happens ala fate.  Maybe I'll start back up in the fall when I'm bored and pool-less (sorry, mom)  or maybe not.  The world will never know.

I give this book 3 out of 5 Coffee Beans.  If you want a dating book that will make you think about the theory of dates, pick this one up!

~Jessica        

(Coffee Bean rating changed to reflect Goodreads rating system as per Publisher / Author request.) 

Lovesick by Jacqueline Levering Sullivan - Reshelved Books

Hi all, 

Anyone who's looking for a sweet book to read, raise your hand! Today I bring you a quick review! It's beautiful here in NJ, which is a nice change from the winter like weather we were having for quite some time! (I'm happy to see that the weather got the memo of it being the end of April :P )

This book was sent to us for as a requested review.  It was sent to us for an honest review. 

Here it goes...!.

Lovesick by Jacqueline Levering Sullivan tells the story of 16 year old Jeanmarie Dowd in 1952. Jeanmarie is in the crossroads between being a good best friend to Terry and a good friend to Chuck Neary (who just so happens to be Terry's boyfriend!). 

What did I like about this book, might you ask? Well. I liked how it took place in 1952.  I liked how Sullivan was able to lend certain terminology and characteristics to bring the reader into that year. 


The book just didn't focus on Jeanmarie and Chuck though.  There was also a focus on Jeanmarie's relationship with her sister, Iris. I liked how Sullivan was able to tackle a few different topics: the relationship between Jeanmarie/Chuck, Jeanmarie/Terry and Terry/Chuck.  

I felt like the relationships between Jeanmarie, her family, her friends and Chuck were all very real and very relatable. 

By no means was this book a lighthearted read.  There were topics presented that were heavy- Chuck's illness, Iris's potential involvement with Russia during a time of uncertainty and most notably, Jeanmarie's feelings toward Chuck. A varying degree of emotions were presented in the book. 

I really did like the story, I liked how it was a shorter read but something that was able to hold my interest. It was a book that I was able to finish in one time. 

If you're able to get your hands on this book, I would definitely recommend it! 

I give this book 4.5 coffee beans out of five! 

~ Jillian

Radar Road: The Best of on Impulse by Nath Jones - Reshelved Books

Hello Dewey Readers! 

The cover is just as gorgeous as the prose inside. 

Another day, another book.  Today, I am reviewing a collection of short stories by Nath Jones called Radar Road: The Best of on Impulse.  Being a poet and writer myself, I love collections of poems and short stories, so I was absolutely ecstatic when Nath Jones send a copy of her latest book to our P.O. Box for us to review.  Her book did not disappoint.  

The short stories in Radar Road all follow the themes of family relationships.  Sometimes when I sit down to read a collection of short stories I find myself lost and easily distracted.  Is it because of the language?  The format?  Or the literary based text?  I'm not sure.  However, with Jones' collection I did not become lost.  On the contrary I was so immersed within this collection that I finished it within a day and a half.  I know, sometimes I even amaze myself with my reading skills. 

The way that Nath Jones writes is simple.  She isn't overly complex with her language, but she has a certain poetic quality to her prose that reminds me of how I like to write.  I think that a lot of the time we see writers who use overly flamboyant language to decorate their ideas, but sometimes when doing so both the ideas and the mind of the reader become lost.  The way that Jones crafts language makes her points both poetic and simply direct.  It also doesn't hurt that her stories are also relatively short.   This not only helps the reader to keep pace within the text, but also shows Jones' ability to craft language effectively and concisely.  

I run a creative writing group at my library, and one of our writers is struggling with writing relatively short and concise short-stories without becoming mundane.  She's consuming herself with worrying about showing vs. telling and struggling to find balance within a small amount of space.  I think that at our next meeting I will give her my copy of Radar Road to read.  

So Dewey Readers, if you are interested in short stories, poetry, and creative writing, definitely pick up a copy of this book!  You can also check out her website here.  I would rate this book 5 out of 5 Coffee Beans ;) 

Until the next review worthy read! 

~Jessica

The Existence of Pity by Jeannie Zokan - Reshelved Books

Hey there Dewey Readers! I just finished an absolutely AMAZING book that I COULD NOT put down!  What is this amazing book, you ask?  Jeannie Zokan's The Existence of Pity.  

The cover has coffee beans! 

The Existence of Pity was one of the first books For the Love of Dewey was sent with a request to review on the blog.  Being relatively new bloggers, I'm not going to lie, I was little apprehensive  to do a review request.  It seems like a lot of pressure.  But the premise of this book interested me, and Zokan is a library science person...so needless to say, I jumped on it. 

Now, about the book.  This novel takes place in 1976 Colombia and is told from the perspective of 16 year old Josie.  Josie and her family are missionaries who are in Colombia to spread the Baptist Gospel, but just because they're serving God does not mean that everything within their family dynamic is right and holy.  In fact, the secrets that linger within the family are anything but.  Josie's father is keeping a huge secret, as is Josie's mother, and her brother.  Josie too is keeping a secret, although not as large.  Josie, plagued with horrible nightmares, is beginning to find comfort in visiting a Colombian Catholic church and praying the rosary.  This turns out to be something that her parents find to be the most blasphemous sin of all (even though I think to most people's standards, the sin's of Josie's parents are far worse). --This actually made me think of my collection of healing crystals and how I hold them for comfort / pray with them.  My mom thinks it's weird. 

Josie's family has hired help in the form of Blanca, a native Colombian woman in her 20's who is dating a police officer named Juan Fernando.  I found Blanca's character to be my favorite part of the novel.  I loved the way that Zokan incorporated her accent into the English text, giving the reader a real sense of being immersed in Colombia.  I also liked how Zokan not only successfully portrayed her to be an employee, but also as a big sister figure, a friend, and an intelligent woman who knew what was going on with each family member before they knew themselves.  Blanca doesn't miss a beat.        

Now for those of you who aren't big Christian-fiction readers, do not be turned away from this book!  While religion plays a large part in the novel, it is not preachy.  Rather it uses religion to show how people can find comfort in different ways, which is done primarily through the Catholic / Protestant divide.  Being Protestant, I understand the differences but I also realize the similarities.  Unfortunately not everyone does, and Josie's parents are an example of this.  This novel is just as much a piece of Christian-Fiction as it is a thriller, a drama, and a coming of age young adult cross over / love story.  I wish my library consortium owned enough copies of this novel so that I could have it as a book club choice in my I Read YA book group.  I think the adults in the group would really enjoy it.  And Jeannie, if you're ever visiting northern NJ, I would love to set up an author visit with you!  So Dewey Readers, I leave you with a rating of 5 out of 5 Coffee Beans.  READ THIS BOOK! 

~Jessica