Julia's Paperback

Gentleman Bastard Series    by Scott Lynch Genre: Fantasy My rating: ★★★ ★★ Scott Lynch's Gentleman Bastard series is absolutely one of my favorite book series of all time. I absolutely love the story, the characters, and the language. The Lies of Locke Lamora was Scott Lynch's debut novel and I appreciate his creativity with the profanities in this book. The series is just absolutely hilarious meanwhile being action packed, and emotional. The Gentleman Bastard series is about a group of orphans who are taken under their masters wing and taught how to act and pull off crazy heists. The group becomes a close family and the bickering back and fourth is just hilarious. The trio of the series are Locke Lamora, Sabatha, and Jean Tannen. Locke is your main character, a smart ass little orphan who grows up to be a scrawny thief  that works closely with Jean. Jean Tannen is the big bad thief, the muscles of the two. Sabatha is the older female of the group who Locke fa

The Witch's Daughter    by Paula Brackston Genre: Fantasy/Historical Fiction My rating: ★★★ ☆ ☆ I downloaded this book on Audible this past January. I believe I was taking a break from another series at the time and decided this looked like a really good book based off of the cover and description. The audiobook is a 13 hour 26 minute listen and the narrator is alright, not the worst I've listened to. I HATED her voice for the antagonist and she succeeded in sending shivers up my spine every time I heard him say "Bessss". About the book:  Elizabeth Anne Hawksmith, a 384 year old witch, is  essentially being stalked and harassed by a warlock who expects her to pay him for saving her life. The book is a series of stories that are all based off of Anne's past lives as she is telling her life story to a teenage girl, Tegan. Anne is continuously on the run from Gideon, the warlock, and kind of reinventing herself in different locations and periods in time beca

Daughters of the Glen Series #1-3    by Melissa Mayhue Genre: Romance/Science Fiction - Time Travel/Fantasy My rating: ★★★★☆ Last year I was in a thrift store and I came across these 4 Melissa Mayhue books for super cheap. I decided to pick them up based off of the description on the back which includes things like "fae prince, faerie magic, time travel, and SCOTLAND". Yes, I was filling the Outlander size hole in my heart! The only deterrent for me was the romance aspect.. I'm all for cute tid-bits of romance but full on steamy romance... ehh not my thing. I thought about Outlander though, and there are some steamy love scenes in that series, so I gave Melissa Mayhue's books a try and discretely hid the back cover pictures while in public 😳. I've read 3 of the 4 books I own and there are actually 8 books in this series. I'll give you my review of the first 3 books and then I'll get into what books are included in the series and so on. Book 1  Thirt

Permission To Screw Up   by Kristen Hadeed Genre: Business My rating: ★★★★☆ I enjoy listening to business books on my way into work because they rejuvenate me and get me pumped to be a good leader. I highly recommend Permission to Screw Up on audio because it's a quick listen, 5.5 hours, and is narrated by the author herself. This book will have you shaking your head and cringing all while delivering to you that you're not perfect and it is ok to screw up. Own it, learn from it, and move on! A snip from the book that describes what the premise of the book is all about: " Permission to Screw Up dismisses the idea that leaders and organizations should try to be perfect. Through a brutally honest and often hilarious account of her own struggles, Kristen encourages us to embrace our failures and proves that we'll be better leaders when we do." This book is definitely one of my favorite business books I've listened to thus far and, just like It's Ok

The Last Wish (The Witcher)  by Andrzej Sapkowski Genre: Fantasy My rating: ★★★★☆ Synopsis Geralt of Rivia is a Witcher. A cunning sorcerer. A merciless assassin. And a cold-blooded killer. His sole purpose: to destroy the monsters that plague the world. But not everything monstrous-looking is evil, and not everything fair is good... and in every fairy tale there is a grain of truth. I can't believe I waited so long to read this book. It has been 3 years since the video game, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, was released and I loved it so much. If you had not played the game I highly recommend it. The story line is great and the from what I remember the graphics were great. With that being said lets get into what I thought about the book. The book starts off just the same as the opening scene in Wild Hunt. I was immediately submerged into the world that I knew well from the video game. The book wastes no time, in comparison to the video game, a

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson Genre: Non Fiction Self Help My rating: ★★ ☆☆☆ I purchased this book on Audible because I saw so many great reviews and I was curious about what was so great about the content. I enjoyed the introduction for the little rant Manson goes into about the problem we have in our daily lives. It's relatable and funny, as long as you're in a good mood and currently not giving a f*ck that is. Once I got into chapter 1 the book went down hill for me. Each chapter goes into little stories that are meant to prove Manson's point. I often didn't relate the any story nor did I find them good examples. A few examples would be Chapter 1 "Don't Try" tells a story about a drunkard who works at a Post Office but ends up quitting and being a sh*ty person to other people.. but it's ok because he didn't give a f*ck and he becomes a popular author. In Chapter 6 "You're Wrong About Everything but so am I

The Sea Garden by Deborah Lawrenson Genre: Historical Fiction My rating: ★★★★★ This book is comprised of 3 novellas that tie together in the end. I picked up this book on a whim while I was browsing in Barnes & Noble. I was drawn to the title and the part of the description reading "...restore an abandoned garden." I love gardening. I was also interested in reading a book that was historical fiction and I quite enjoyed that I would get to travel back in time for part of the story. Book I The Sea Garden takes place in 2013. Ellie Brooke travels from London to a small island off the coast of France to fulfill a garden commission but it's not what she was expecting. From the start Ellie is put in strange situations and it only gets more and more creepy the longer she stays on the Island. While reading I was wondering if Ellie was just insane. Book II The Lavender Field takes you back to 1944 France where you're introduced to Marthe who is blind and

A little over 2 years ago I applied for a Supervisory position within the company I work at. Prior to that point in my career I had absolutely no intention of being in charge of a team but my Supervisor at the time must have saw something in me and just shoved a job description in front of me and told me to apply. After I was promoted, and before I transitioned into the Supervisory position, I decided to research and read up on how to be a good Supervisor. Up to that point I only knew what I deemed as a "good" Supervisor but what I think makes a "good" Supervisor is much different than what other people expect of their Supervisor. The following 3 books I picked up at different stages in my career and I hope they can be useful to you. The First 90 Days: Proven Strategies for Getting Up to Speed Faster and Smarter  by Michael D. Watkins Genre: Business My rating: ★★★☆☆ The First 90 Days was one of the first books I purchased. I was at Barnes & Nobl

It's March 21st at nearly 11:00pm here in South Jersey. It's officially Spring but good ol' Toby, the snowstorm, didn't know that. I had no work to go into today so what better way to spend my warm and cozy day in than to start a blog. I thought this would be a good place for me to gather my thoughts about the books I read. I guess in some way this is a bit of a journal for me but I'd like to think I can also be creative and share this journey with you. Do you ever read a book and love it or hate it but then forget the details about what you loved or hated? No? Just me? For this first post let me give you a rundown of my Goodreads Reading Challenge for 2018. I have not done this challenge before so I've started with 30 books. As of today I have 9 books that I have read to date. I will post about each of those for my upcoming posts but for now here is my 9 of 30 books read in 2018. Perfect Phrases for Documenting Employee Performance Problems by Anne Bruce