An Elegant Woman by Martha McPhee

[Thank you to @scribnerbooks & @netgalley for my review copy]
.
This century-spanning family saga’s summary caught my attention with a description of 3 sisters organizing their grandmother’s possessions after her death “trying to decide what to salvage and what to toss.” (After performing these tasks at my own grandfather’s home last year I felt especially drawn to this topic.) An Elegant Woman is author Martha McPhee’s family history, including all the stories that have been passed down, leaving room for multiple revisions and embellishment through 4 generations of women. The 400 page book reads like a novel, but exists in that strange spot somewhere between non-fiction and fiction…creative non-fiction. I liked reading this but would tend to drift off thinking about my own family stories. I highlighted a lot of great lines throughout that were powerful not only in relation to the story but to me personally (controlling your own narrative, the vicious repetitions of motherhood, familial expectations, etc.) Readers who want a traditional story structure (beginning, middle, major event, climax, conclusion) may not like this, but if you enjoy individual family histories and are open to a more abstract story structure you should give it a shot.

Alice Knott by Blake Butler

Thank you to Riverhead for my review copy .
✨ Book Review ✨
Alice Knott by Blake Butler
(releasing 7.7.20)


Is this cover gorgeous? Yes!
Is this an "easy" read? No. Definitely not.
As a commentary on surveillance, creativity, the value/price of art, and mental illness, Blake Butler's Alice Knott could be studied at length--just as one might with a painting. Both a piece of art itself and a reflection on the art world, this metafiction masterpiece is truly mind-blowing. Not since Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves have I been so mesmerized by what a book can do.
.
.
Publisher Summary


A troubled, reclusive heiress, Alice Knott lives alone, haunted by memories of her deceased parents and mysterious, near-identical brother. Much of her fortune has been spent on a world-class collection of artwork, which she stores in a vault in her lonely, cavernous house. One day, she awakens to find several of her most prized artworks destroyed, the act of vandalism captured in a viral video that soon triggers a rash of copycat incidents. As more videos follow, and an astonishing legacy of international art hangs in the balance, Alice finds that she has become the chief suspect in an international conspiracy—even as her psyche becomes a shadowed landscape of childhood demons and cognitive disorder.


Hallucinatory, unsettling, almost physically immersive, Alice Knott is a mind-bending rabbit hole of a narrative: a virtuoso exploration of the meaning of art, the corporatization of culture, and the lasting afterlife of trauma, as well a deeply humane portrait of a woman whose struggles feel both fantastically apocalyptic and dangerously, universally real.

Neon Girls by Jennifer Worley

Thank you to Harper Perennial for my review copy.
.
✨ Book Review ✨
Neon Girls by Jennifer Worley
(releasing 6.9.20)
.
In one of my college classes, The Commodification of Gender, we studied the unionization of San Francisco’s Lusty Lady, learning how the women fought back against their management (unfair rules, hidden cameras in the dressing room, etc) to create the world’s first ever strippers’ union. We studied their legal proceedings, magazine features, and interviews. Jennifer Worley’s first hand account of her experience in the unionization gave me an even greater insight into this topic, movement, and achievement. A must-read for anyone interested in the topics of gender, the sex industry, sex workers, feminism, capitalism, classism, and power dynamics.

The Glamourist (Vine Witch #2) by Luanne G. Smith

Thank you to 47North and @netgalleyfor my review copy 
The Glamourist (Vine Witch #2)
by Luanne G. Smith
(releasing 6.9.20)
.
.
Summary:
Abandoned as a child in turn-of-the-century Paris, Yvette Lenoir has longed to uncover the secrets of her magical heritage and tap her suppressed powers. But what brave and resourceful Yvette has done to survive the streets has made her a fugitive. With a price on her head, she clings to a memento from her past—what she believes to be a grimoire inherited from the mother she never knew. To unlock the secrets of her past, Yvette trusts in one woman to help solve the arcane riddles among its charmed pages.
.
.
✨ Book Review ✨
Elena’s vine witch registration is revoked due to her parents’ work with poisons, unless she she turns over her friend Yvette to the authorities. The women and their close circle of friends must work together to prove Yvette’s innocence and reinstate Elena as the vine witch of Château Renard. This was a fun second book to this series, set in the bustling city of Paris rather than the countryside vineyard. The extensive secondary cast of characters in this installment was so enjoyable. I liked some of them even more than Elena and Yvette! I really hope this series continues.

✧ Harlequin Blog Tour ✧ Stranger In The Lake by Kimberly Belle

✧ Harlequin Blog Tour ✧
Stranger In The Lake by Kimberly Belle
(releasing June 9 from Park Row)
🛶
🛶
Atlanta author Kimberly Belle is back with a riveting new domestic thriller that will have you thinking twice about what lies beneath the surface of your favorite lake. When Charlotte married wealthy widower Paul there was local gossip, but now a body has washed up under their dock—in the exact same spot where Paul’s first wife tragically drowned. What first seems like a horrific coincidence quickly becomes a matter of life and death when Charlotte discovers the woman in the lake is not a stranger.
🛶
🛶
Holy crap! This was so good! I am a SUPER skeptic when it comes to thrillers, especially for the last year or two (there have been some terrible releases), but I loved Stranger In The Lake. The writing kept me totally intrigued and I was so thankful that I didn't have it all figured out in the first 50 pages!
🛶
🛶
Pre-order this one ASAP!