Quick Review: The Lucky Ones by Tiffany Reisz

Holy cannoli!! What a wild ride! Creepy and twisted and oddly addicting. Tiffany knows how to wield the pen and create fantastical stories that grab you from the very first page. From the moment I opened this book, I was sucked in and couldn’t put it down. I found myself talking out loud, and often, in order to make heads or tails about what happened. And I should pat myself on the back, because I was right!! Well, my first gut feeling was right. The more I read, the more I changed my mind, but I kept coming back to my original thought. Yay, me!

Allison goes back to house she grew up in, only to confront her past ghosts. Something happened that made her leave and she is determined to find out what really happened. She meets up with all her past family and finds out that there were more secrets than she ever imagined. But she will stop at nothing to uncover what really happened.

This book made me uncomfortable, and not because it’s made up, but because it’s probably real. While the story itself is made up, the finer points I’m sure happened. Sick and twisted, but forgiving and hopeful. That is all I will say. I want you to go in this with an open and clear mind.

The Lucky Ones is a standalone that will keep you engaged and guessing till the very end. I hope you love it as much as I did! Plus it has a character, from another book, that many may get excited about. I know I did. And it made me love this book even more.

~Melpomene

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Review: Newton’s Football by Allen St. John and Ainissa G. Ramirez, Ph.D.  

  

I was supposed to read this two years ago when I first joined NetGalley. I just never got in the mood to read about football… until a couple of weeks ago when a near-and-dear-one started playing youth football. I figured this book might help me understand a few things, plus it appealed to the “I need to know how things work” geek in me. 

Well, it’s certainly a scientific book. I mean, you don’t need to be a rocket scientist, but it would help if you can remember some basic high school physics and math. It’s also definitely a football book. The authors interviewed athletes and coaches, they use football lingo, and they refer to historical football games and their importance in the evolution of football. 

I understood it on a basic level, but I certainly had LOTS of questions.  I interrogated my go-to football expert about the no-huddle, a nickel, declaring eligibility for receiving passes, and his personal thoughts about football plays that bent the rules.  Seriously. This book showed me how much I really don’t know about the game. 

Even though I’m not well-versed in the grid-iron world, Newton’s Football was FASCINATING. I especially loved the examples of how changing one little thing in one particilar game had ripple effects in subsequent football games. And I appreciated the discussion on proper tackling and helmet safety. (There’s some progressive thinking in those chapters!)

Reading Newton’s Football was work for me, mostly because I went in pretty clueless about plays and positions. But if you’re a football fan and you want a fresh perspective on the sport — or if you’re not but you’re bold and curious like me — go for it.

-calliope
Buy NEWTON’S FOOTBALL