Heart the Lover by Lily King... a Review

Lily King, you ripped my heart out. You may not have meant to... no, I'm sure you meant to... and here I am trying to put into words what I just went thru...

I can tell you what the story is about... first love, young love, family, friendship, choices ( oh, definitely about choices and how they affect you til eternity). It's a friends to lovers story. There's a love triangle. There's mention of lots of classic literature and some made up literature (which you wish you could actually read). There's sex, but it's not blatant and more talk than action. Shall I go on??

Our protagonist tells the story starting out how she met Sam and Yash in college, which changed the course of her life. The guys give her the nickname Daisy (as in Buchanan) and eventually that evolves into Jordan (as in Baker), both literary references that seem humorous at the time (and cute), but makes me wonder if they are creating the girl they want in her as apposed to the girl she is (and I wonder this after finishing the book and know what happens in the end).

Their college days are spent in literature and debates, love and friendship, and expanding their understanding of the world around them. And as in any good love story, there is pain and hurt and misunderstandings, which we learn have repercussions many years later. As they get thru college, the course of their lives change in unexpected ways until ultimately there is understanding and forgiveness.

I want to talk to someone who has read this already so badly! 

BTW, for all the bookish people out there, you will love all the references to authors such as Hemingway, Henry Miller and F. Scott Fitzgerald (and that's only a few of the 50+ references).

Heart the Lover is moving. Lily King's writing innocently draws you in and won't let you go. It makes you think, remember... I read the book in 24 hours, not being able to do much until I got to the last page. I actually borrowed this as an ebook from the library. It came in just as I was debating about my "first book of the year". I figured I would be able to read it in 14 days even though I was going to start it on January 1st (It is"only"256 pages). Not only was I able to read it in the time I had, but now I need to actually buy a copy because I'd really like to be able to dive back in to all the literary references, read it again and have a copy on the shelf.

Heart the Lover was published by Grove Press this past September.

 This Chick with Books gives it 5 Hearts ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Memoir Mondays... A Mountain of Crumbs by Elena Gorokhova

A Girl's Coming-Of-Age in post-Stalinist Soviet Union

From the Publisher... "A Mountain of Crumbs is the moving story of a young Soviet girl's discovery of the hidden truths of adulthood and her country's profound political deception. Elena, born with a desire to explore the world beyond her borders, finds her passion in the complexity of the English language -- but in the Soviet Union of the 1960s, such a passion verges on the subversive. Elena's home is no longer the majestic Russia of literature or the tsars. Instead, it is a nation humiliated by its first faltering steps after World War II, putting up appearances for the sake of its regime and fighting to retain its pride.

In this deeply affecting memoir, Elena re-creates the world that both oppressed and inspired her. She recounts stories passed down to her about the horrors of the Bolshevik Revolution and probes the daily deprivations and small joys of her family's bunkerlike existence. Through Elena's captivating voice, we learn not only the personal story of Russia in the second half of the twentieth century, but also the story of one rebellious citizen whose love of a foreign language finally transports her to a new world."

"In the 1920s, Elena Gorokhova's grandmother invented the crumb game. With Soviet Russia in the depths of a famine, she could only feed her children one piece of black bread and one sugar cube. The older children understood, but her 3-year-old screamed with hunger..."

"'Look how much you've got,'" her grandmother told the child, as she broke the bread and sugar into tiny bits. "'A whole mountain of crumbs.'" Pacified by the semblance of abundance, the little child would take an hour to pick up the meal, one crumb at a time, "plentiful and sweet."

A Mountain of Crumbs by Elena Gorokhova has gotten a lot of positive buzz in the publishing world. From reading about Elena Gorokhova's soon to be published memoir, I was taken by Elena's strength growing up within the confines of the Communist government that loomed large in her life, and her perseverance to get a good education at Leningrad University, learning English and becoming an instructor at the university. But the picture she paints of Russia should be an interesting one, as well the picture she paints of her family & friends, and I look forward to cracking the spine on this book! Published by Simon & Schuster, and being officially released Jan. 12th, you can read an excerpt of A Mountain of Crumbs from the publishers site. Plus, This Book will be Kindle Ready!