Busy Brunette's Bookshelf

I just wanted to start off by saying that if you are reading this- thank you! I was nominated for this award because of fabulous people like you who read and enjoy my blog. 
I also wanted to thank the AMAZING bloggers who nominated me for this award!!
Teisha McRae at Girl Writes Reviews Shivani Ramamurthy at Dreamy's Adobe Morrighan Rose at Elysian Fields


In case you were wondering how this all works, the Liebster Blog Award is given to new and interesting bloggers. It's a great way to discover new and upcoming blogs, and it helps us get discovered by others :)
Here are the rules:           1) Thank the blogger who nominated you
          2) Post 11 random facts about yourself
          3) Answer the 11 questions asked by whoever nominated you
          4) Ask 11 new questions to 9 new bloggers. You cannot re-nominate the blog that nominated you
          5) Go to their blog and tell them that they have been nominated!


So... here I go!

11 Random Facts About Me I have never been to another c…

Author: Joan Didion Published: 2005 (Originally 1970) Publisher: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux Number of Pages: 213 My Rating: 3

Summary from GoodReads.com: A ruthless dissection of American life in the late 1960s, Play It as It Lays captures the mood of an entire generation, the ennui of contemporary society reflected in spare prose that blisters and haunts the reader. Set in a place beyond good and evil - literally in Hollywood, Las Vegas, and the barren wastes of the Mojave Desert, but figuratively in the landscape of an arid soul - it remains more than three decades after its original publication a profoundly disturbing novel, riveting in its exploration of a woman and a society in crisis and stunning in the still-startling intensity of its prose.




I originally discovered Play It as It Lays on a list of books that everyone should read at some point in their life. Thinking this was a pretty prestigious distinction, I quickly tried to find it in a local store or thrift shop. Turns out, this b…

Author: Dan Thompson Published: 2014 Publisher: Autumn Orchard Number of Pages: 292 My Rating: 3

Summary from GoodReads.com: Would death be less painful than life? When she is sold by her father, Abbey discovers that nightmares can occur when you’re awake. Trapped inside a wooden cage, Abbey is forced to listen to the horrors and atrocities above; time ticking down until it is her turn. But Abbey isn’t prepared to become a victim; she will escape. Although, what Abbey isn’t prepared for, is how harsh and unfair the world can be. With the sun turning its back on humanity long ago, life gives no opportunity. The only thing Abbey can do is learn to survive. To exist. And that means stealing any opportunity that comes her way. Haunted by the unpleasant memories bestowed upon her only nurtures Abbey’s paranoia, until she realises that to truly live in the world, she must confront the person who was responsible for her misfortune – her father. Here Lies Love is a New Adult tale of actuality, of fac…

Author: Theresa Caputo Published: 2013 Publisher: Atria Books Number of Pages: 240 My Rating: 5

Summary from GoodReads.com: Beloved medium Theresa Caputo, star of the hit television show Long Island Medium, opens the door to her world and invites you to experience her exceptional gift of communicating with those who’ve crossed over to the Other Side. The always funny, frank, and down-to-earth medium; whether she’s talking to her family, the local butcher, or the souls of those who’ve passed on; began communicating with Spirit at the age of four, but didn’t fully accept her gift until she was thirty-three years old. She had a good life as a busy wife and working mom, but also suffered from chronic anxiety that, as it turned out, came from ignoring her abilities. Once Theresa began channeling, she realized that she felt much better after delivering a message from Spirit and releasing that energy. Since then she’s used her extraordinary gift to help people heal from the loss of their loved one…

Author: Jeannette Walls Published: 2006 Publisher: Scribner Number of Pages: 288 My Rating: 5

Summary from GoodReads.com: The Glass Castle is a remarkable memoir of resilience and redemption, and a revelatory look into a family at once deeply dysfunctional and uniquely vibrant. When sober, Jeannette's brilliant and charismatic father captured his children's imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and how to embrace life fearlessly. But when he drank, he was dishonest and destructive. Her mother was a free spirit who abhorred the idea of domesticity and didn't want the responsibility of raising a family. The Walls children learned to take care of themselves. They fed, clothed, and protected one another, and eventually found their way to New York. Their parents followed them, choosing to be homeless even as their children prospered. The Glass Castle is truly astonishing--a memoir permeated by the intense love of a peculiar but loyal family.



This was one of those books that I had…