Tag Archives: © 2019 Book Chatter

How Do You Decide What To Read?

As a book blogger, I put a lot of thought into what I am going to read and what I want to request. This year, I’ve only requested what I think I’ll enjoy. I used to request the hottest titles regardless of how I felt about the story but that didn’t always work out.

Plus, there are books that I just want to read for myself. Mood reading is a big thing with me this year. I want to be able to just pick up what I am in the mood for, without any obligation whatsoever, so I do that too. In-between my review books, there are mood picks and also book club picks that I must read for discussion.  I cannot forget the books I buy on a whim from the bookstore because of a slick display. I am a sucker for a good display or a fabulous cover.

I am missing the classics though. I used to always work a few in but I guess I haven’t been in the mood for them.

So, how do you pick your books these days? If you are a reviewer, do publication dates dictate your reading list? Or do you just review them when you get to them?

If you are a mood reader, what have you been in the mood for lately and do the seasons play a role in that?

I’ve got an entire bookshelf at home that holds all of my physical “to-read” copies and it’s getting a little out of hand. I will most likely do an Instagram story on it.

Right now I am in the mood for a really good foodie memoir or a novel set in a great location but centered around food. Know of one?

Review: Daisy Jones & The Six

Daisy Jones & The Six

Daisy Jones & The Six
By Taylor Jenkins Reid
Ballantine Books, 9781524798628, March 2019, 368pp.

The Short of It:

An accurate depiction of what fame can do to a person, to a band, to a family.

The Rest of It:

Daisy Jones & The Six has been everywhere. It was chosen for Reese Witherspoon’s book club Hello Sunshine and so many of my reader friends have read it…or tried to. Not everyone has loved it, which is the way it goes when a book hits the scene with so much hype.

I, however, loved it. I’ve not felt like this about a book in a long time.

The story is about the beginnings of a fictional rock band called The Six during the late 60’s, well into the 70’s. Headed up by Billy Dunne, a writer and singer with talent coming out of his pores, The Six clearly has a sound that the record industry immediately notices.

At the same time, Daisy Jones is this barefoot wisp of a thing. Young and strung-out on drugs, but possesses a voice and presence that is hard to ignore. Under the same record label as The Six, it’s only a matter of time before their manager tries to put the two of them together and their chemistry if off-the-charts. The crowd loves them.

What happens when you put two, larger-than-life people together and ask them to share the stage? What happens to the rest of the band? What happens to Billy’s relationship with his wife and kids? What happens to Daisy as she slowly sinks ever deeper into a cloud of drugs, desperately wanting what other people have?

Wow. Wow. Wow. The story started off slow but once I got into it, I could not turn the pages fast enough. Throughout the story there is this sense of doom that I could not shake. I had to know what it was.

The format did not bother me. It’s written like a script so it’s not surprising that it’s slated to be a TV series soon. Reid mentioned that Fleetwood Mac might have been the inspiration behind the book. I can totally see it. What I cannot stress enough is how the story made me feel. It contains that classic mix of love and pain and recklessness and danger. Anyone who has experienced complicated love or love that makes you question everything you know to be true will get totally caught-up in this story. You don’t even have to love rock and roll to get it.

This is a book you must experience for yourself. Read it. Feel it. That’s all I can say about it. Readers have said the audio book is fabulous so if you don’t like the script format perhaps that’s the way to go.

Source: Purchased
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.