Author: Heather

Title: A Life Turned Upside Down: My Dad’s an Alcoholic
Author: Mariko Kikuchi
Publisher: Seven Seas
Release Date: November 9th, 2021
Page Length: 144
Genre: Manga | Nonfiction | Autobiography
Age Range: Adult
Rating: 3.5⭐

Goodreads – Amazon – Chapters|Indigo – Book Depository – IndieBound

Goodreads Synopsis:

A moving autobiographical manga about her father’s alcoholism that inspired a critically acclaimed live-action film.

Mariko Kikuchi tells the painful story of her father’s alcoholism and her own journey through guilt to understanding her father’s illness. She rejects the common belief that family members can and should be forgiven for anything they do, no matter how much harm they cause. This powerful, self-contained autobiographical manga began as a web series that went viral, and inspired a critically acclaimed 2019 film in Japan.

Goodbye 2021! Hello 2022!

I accidentally took a large majority of December off, so you’re getting the first TBR of 2022 now. Later you’ll see a post with my goals and year long TBR, but for now, what am I hoping to read this month.

Title: Secret Santa
Author: Andrew Shaffer
Publisher: Quirk Books
Release Date: November 10th, 2020
Page Length: 220
Genre: Horror | Holiday
Age Range: Adult
Rating: 3.5⭐

Goodreads – Amazon – Chapters|Indigo – Book Depository – IndieBound

Goodreads Synopsis:

The Office meets Stephen King, dressed up in holiday tinsel, in this fun, festive, and frightening horror-comedy set during the horror publishing boom of the ’80s, by New York Times best-selling satirist Andrew Shaffer.

Out of work for months, Lussi Meyer is desperate to work anywhere in publishing. Prestigious Blackwood-Patterson isn’t the perfect fit, but a bizarre set of circumstances leads to her hire and a firm mandate: Lussi must find the next horror superstar to compete with Stephen King, Anne Rice, and Peter Straub. It’s the ’80s, after all, and horror is the hottest genre.

But as soon as she arrives, Lussi finds herself the target of her co-workers’ mean-spirited pranks. The hazing reaches its peak during the company’s annual Secret Santa gift exchange, when Lussi receives a demonic-looking object that she recognizes but doesn’t understand. Suddenly, her coworkers begin falling victim to a series of horrific accidents akin to a George Romero movie, and Lussi suspects that her gift is involved. With the help of her former author, the flamboyant Fabien Nightingale, Lussi must track down her anonymous Secret Santa and figure out the true meaning of the cursed object in her possession before it destroys the company—and her soul.

Title: The Matzah Ball
Author: Jean Meltzer
Publisher: Mira Books
Release Date: September 28th, 2021
Page Length: 416
Genre: Holiday | Romance
Age Range: Adult
Rating: 4⭐

Goodreads – Amazon – Chapters|Indigo – Book Depository – IndieBound

Goodreads Synopsis:

Oy! to the world

Rachel Rubenstein-Goldblatt is a nice Jewish girl with a shameful secret: she loves Christmas. For a decade she’s hidden her career as a Christmas romance novelist from her family. Her talent has made her a bestseller even as her chronic illness has always kept the kind of love she writes about out of reach.

But when her diversity-conscious publisher insists she write a Hanukkah romance, her well of inspiration suddenly runs dry. Hanukkah’s not magical. It’s not merry. It’s not Christmas. Desperate not to lose her contract, Rachel’s determined to find her muse at the Matzah Ball, a Jewish music celebration on the last night of Hanukkah, even if it means working with her summer camp archenemy—Jacob Greenberg.

Though Rachel and Jacob haven’t seen each other since they were kids, their grudge still glows brighter than a menorah. But as they spend more time together, Rachel finds herself drawn to Hanukkah—and Jacob—in a way she never expected. Maybe this holiday of lights will be the spark she needed to set her heart ablaze.