Sarai Henderson's Blog, page 50
April 3, 2024
Book Review: The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown
My book review of The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown. A fantastic true story of the strength to overcome.
Title: The Boys in the Boat
By: Daniel James Brown
Genre: Historical Non-Fiction
Pages: 404
Release Date: January 1st, 2013
Publisher: Viking
Rating: ★★★★☆
Summary from Goodreads:For readers of Laura Hillenbrand's Seabiscuit and Unbroken, the dramatic story of the American rowing team that stunned the world at Hitler's 1936 Berlin Olympics.
Daniel James Brown's robust book tells the story of the University of Washington's 1936 eight-oar crew and their epic quest for an Olympic gold medal, a team that transformed the sport and grabbed the attention of millions of Americans. The sons of loggers, shipyard workers, and farmers, the boys defeated elite rivals first from eastern and British universities and finally the German crew rowing for Adolf Hitler in the Olympic games in Berlin, 1936.
The emotional heart of the story lies with one rower, Joe Rantz, a teenager without family or prospects, who rows not for glory, but to regain his shattered self-regard and to find a place he can call home. The crew is assembled by an enigmatic coach and mentored by a visionary, eccentric British boat builder, but it is their trust in each other that makes them a victorious team. They remind the country of what can be done when everyone quite literally pulls together—a perfect melding of commitment, determination, and optimism.
Drawing on the boys' own diaries and journals, their photos and memories of a once-in-a-lifetime shared dream, The Boys in the Boat is an irresistible story about beating the odds and finding hope in the most desperate of times—the improbable, intimate story of nine working-class boys from the American west who, in the depths of the Great Depression, showed the world what true grit really meant. It will appeal to readers of Erik Larson, Timothy Egan, James Bradley, and David Halberstam's The Amateurs.
The boys in the boat retells an incredible true story of 9 young men who came from nothing, but made something of themselves. When the odds were stacked against them, they came together as a team, supporting each other and pulling off one of the largest comebacks in Olympic history. Even when the German's tried to cheat.
I would recommend you read this book first if you want to watch the movie. There is far more description and backstory within these pages that the movie doesn't offer you. A wonderful heartfelt story.
April 1, 2024
Weekly Menu #550 And The Book Of The Week
Hello Monday! Welcome back to my weekly menu where I share all the delicious recipes we will be making this week.I really hope you all had a wonderful Easter, if you celebrate such things. My husband smoked a huge ham and it was amazing. Love that smoked meat flavor.
This weeks read is Stars and Smoke by Marie Lu. To tell you the truth, this is the last book on last weeks TBR pile. I've been blasting through a book almost every day and its refreshing to be back in the reading groove.
Lets get to this weeks menu. Enjoy!WEEKLY MENU
Sunday
Easter Charcuterie Board
Monday
Baked Chicken Feta
Kids - Cheese Quesadillas
Tuesday
Chicken Teriyaki Pineapple Bowls
Kids - Chicken Nuggets and Rice
Wednesday
Tater Tot Nachos
Kids - Tater Tot Nachos
Thursday
Smokey Bacon and Tomato Pasta
Kids - Mac and cheese
Friday
Japanese Beef and Rice Bowls
Kids - Beef Ramen
Saturday
Turkey Pesto Sandwiches
Kids - Grilled Cheese
March 31, 2024
Sunday Confessions #243
Welcome back to my Sunday confessions where I recap what's been happing on the blog in the last week.
Sunday Confessions #242~Weekly Menu #549 And The Book Of The Week~Book Review: Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty
~Book Review: No One Can Know by Kate Alice Marshall
Weekly Menu #550 And The Book Of The Week~Book Review: The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown~March 2024 Wrap Up~Book Review: With a Little Luck by Marissa Meyer~Sunday Confessions #244
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Fully emersed in 3 Body Problem on Netflix. This is insane.
28/100 2024 Reading Challenge~65/196 in my Star Wars Legends challenge~70/341 Gilmore Girls challenge~94/100 in my 100 books before you die challenge
Another great week of books and things. Happy reading my friends.
March 29, 2024
Book Review: No One Can Know by Kate Alice Marshall
Welcome to my book review of No One Can Know by Kate Alice Marshall. This dark and disturbing murder mystery will leave you second guessing yourself.
Title: No One Can Know
By: Kate Alice Marshall
Genre: Murder Mystery/Thriller
Pages: 325
Release Date: January 23rd, 2024
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Rating: ★★★★☆
Summary from Goodreads:Emma hasn't told her husband much about her past. He knows her parents are dead and she hasn't spoken to her sisters in years. Then they lose their apartment, her husband gets laid off, and Emma discovers she's pregnant―right as the bank account slips into the red.
That's when Emma confesses that she has one more asset: her parents' house, which she owns jointly with her estranged sisters. They can't sell it, but they can live in it. But returning home means that Emma is forced to reveal her secrets to her husband: that the house is not a run-down farmhouse but a stately mansion, and that her parents died there.
Were murdered.
And that some people say Emma did it.
Emma and her sisters have never spoken about what really happened that night. Now, her return to the house may lure her sisters back, but it will also crack open family and small-town secrets lots of people don’t want revealed. As Emma struggles to reconnect with her old family and hold together her new one, she begins to realize that the things they have left unspoken all these years have put them in danger again.
Oh my goodness, I was so deeply wrapped up in this book I couldn't put it down. By the end I felt so thoroughly manipulated and dirty.
This multiple point of view story is a slow burn at first, but once the story is in full swing, there is no stopping it. These pages lure you into the messed up lives of three sisters who's lives changed after their parents were murdered when they were children.
Throughout the whole book, the author hints on who might have done it as fingers are pointed at one sister and then the next, only to land on Emma. Everyone thinks she brutally killed her parents, but she doesn't even know what happened that night. Or does she? As the truth unfolds, your mind will be twisted. Didn't even see that one coming.
You are going to love this thrilling ride. Just read it. I dare you.
March 27, 2024
Book Review: Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty
My book review of Apples Never Fall by Laine Moriarty. An intense mystery full of family drama.
Title: Apples Never Fall
By: Liane Moriarty
Genre: Fiction, Mystery
Pages: 467
Release Date: September 14th, 2021
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
Rating: ★★★★☆
Summary from Goodreads:The Delaney family love one another dearly—it’s just that sometimes they want to murder each other . . .
If your mother was missing, would you tell the police? Even if the most obvious suspect was your father?
This is the dilemma facing the four grown Delaney siblings.
The Delaneys are fixtures in their community. The parents, Stan and Joy, are the envy of all of their friends. They’re killers on the tennis court, and off it their chemistry is palpable. But after fifty years of marriage, they’ve finally sold their famed tennis academy and are ready to start what should be the golden years of their lives. So why are Stan and Joy so miserable?
The four Delaney children—Amy, Logan, Troy, and Brooke—were tennis stars in their own right, yet as their father will tell you, none of them had what it took to go all the way. But that’s okay, now that they’re all successful grown-ups and there is the wonderful possibility of grandchildren on the horizon.
One night a stranger named Savannah knocks on Stan and Joy’s door, bleeding after a fight with her boyfriend. The Delaneys are more than happy to give her the small kindness she sorely needs. If only that was all she wanted.
Later, when Joy goes missing, and Savannah is nowhere to be found, the police question the one person who remains: Stan. But for someone who claims to be innocent, he, like many spouses, seems to have a lot to hide. Two of the Delaney children think their father is innocent, two are not so sure—but as the two sides square off against each other in perhaps their biggest match ever, all of the Delaneys will start to reexamine their shared family history in a very new light.
This was a dark and drama filled mystery. One that involved the whole family. Everyone seems to have a secret and no one wants to admit it. When a stranger shows up at the Delaney's door one night, a series of strange events are put into motion that will ultimately come to the disappearance of Joy Delaney, the mother.
I loved how Liane Moriarty laid out the story. She never gave away the ending, not even a little bit. I loved that. More often than not, I'm able to figure things out before hand, but I really didn't see this one coming.
To find out what happens to Joy, read this book before you watch the show. I promise you will not be disappointed.
March 25, 2024
Weekly Menu #549 And The Book Of The Week
Hello Monday! Welcome back to my weekly menu where I share are the delicious recipes we will be making this week.Well, the weather in the PNW decided it was going to be cold and rainy again. I really wish it would have kept the warmer spring sunshine, but we are a wet climate and do need the rain. Not that I'm going to like it.
We are on spring break this week as well. Planning some fun with my kids, but also wanting to finish the Boys in the Boat and then watching the movie right after that for comparison. This book is the read of the week. Comment below what you're in the middle of reading below.
Lets get to this weeks menu. Enjoy!WEEKLY MENU
Monday
Kids - Beef Ramen
Tuesday
Kids - Cheesy Rice
Wednesday
Kids - Cheese Quesadilla
Thursday
Kids - Chicken and Carrots
Friday
Kids - Mac and Cheese
Saturday
Kids - Flatbread Pizza
Sunday
Leftovers Night
March 24, 2024
Sunday Confessions #242
Hello Sunday! I'm finding the book community on Instagram to be welcoming and extraordinary. They love books as much as I do and have wonderful ways of sharing their reads. I'm loving it. If you would like to join me, my screen name is @Sara_reads_things.
Lets recap the blog from last week.
Sunday Confessions #241~
Weekly Menu #548 And The Book Of The Week~Book Review: The Stolen Heir by Holly Black~Book Review: Heartless Hunter by Kristen Ciccarelli
Weekly Menu #549 And The Book Of The Week~Book Review: Apples Never Fall by Laine Moriarty~Book Review: No One Can Know by Kate Alice Marshall~Sunday Confessions #243
Everything I thought it was, the new album by Justin Timberlake. To tell you the truth, I only bought it for the Nsync song. It brings me back to my childhood.
Currently catching up on the latest season of Halo. I love this series and am thinking about diving into the books as well.
25/100 2024 Reading Challenge~65/196 in my Star Wars Legends challenge~70/341 Gilmore Girls challenge~93/100 in my 100 books before you die challenge
A wonderful week full of books, characters and sunshine. Happy reading my friends!
March 22, 2024
Book Review: Heartless Hunter by Kristen Ciccarelli
My book review of the Heartless Hunter by Kristen Ciccarelli. An intense story of love, betrayal and sacrifice.
Title: Heartless Hunter
By: Kristen Ciccarelli
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 416
Release Date: February 20th, 2024
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Rating: ★★★★★
Summary from Goodreads:A steamy game of cat and mouse between witch and witch-hunter, played out against a backdrop of opulence, secrets, and bloody history.
On the night Rune’s life changed forever, blood ran in the streets. Now, in the aftermath of a devastating revolution, witches have been diminished from powerful rulers to outcasts ruthlessly hunted due to their waning magic, and Rune must hide what she is.
Spending her days pretending to be nothing more than a vapid young socialite, Rune spends her nights as the Crimson Moth, a witch vigilante who rescues her kind from being purged. When a rescue goes wrong, she decides to throw the witch hunters off her scent and gain the intel she desperately needs by courting the handsome Gideon Sharpe - a notorious and unforgiving witch hunter loyal to the revolution - who she can't help but find herself falling for.
Gideon loathes the decadence and superficiality Rune represents, but when he learns the Crimson Moth has been using Rune’s merchant ships to smuggle renegade witches out of the republic, he inserts himself into her social circles by pretending to court her right back. He soon realizes that beneath her beauty and shallow façade, is someone fiercely intelligent and tender who feels like his perfect match. Except, what if she’s the very villain he’s been hunting?
Kristen Ciccarelli’s Heartless Hunter is the thrilling start to a romantic fantasy duology where the only thing more treacherous than being a witch...is falling in love.
The story of magic woven throughout the pages is wonderful. I've never heard a tale like this. Witches are forbidden, if discovered they are put to death. A fate of many women and girls. Rune has managed to slip through the fingers of the witch hunters, but at a great cost. She has found a way to hid any trace of her blood magic.
Of course, any good fantasy isn't complete without a well strategized love triangle. I really couldn't tell you how many times I wondered how this story would end. Which brother would Rune end up with, or would the whole thing fall apart. A poorly written love triangle can ruin a whole book, but this one was amazing. Don't worry, I won't spoil it for you. You will have to read it for yourself.
This book has gone on my favorites shelf. It was wonderful. I couldn't put it down and devoured it within one day. A must read for spring.
March 20, 2024
Book Review: The Stolen Heir by Holly Black
My book review of The Stolen Heir by Holly Black. A runaway queen. A reluctant prince. And a quest that may destroy them both.
Title: The Stolen Heir
By: Holly Black
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 356
Release Date: January 3rd, 2023
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Rating: ★★★★☆
Summary from Goodreads:Eight years have passed since the Battle of the Serpent. But in the icy north, Lady Nore of the Court of Teeth has reclaimed the Ice Needle Citadel. There, she is using an ancient relic to create monsters of stick and snow who will do her bidding and exact her revenge.
Suren, child queen of the Court of Teeth, and the one person with power over her mother, fled to the human world. There, she lives feral in the woods. Lonely, and still haunted by the merciless torments she endured in the Court of Teeth, she bides her time by releasing mortals from foolish bargains. She believes herself forgotten until the storm hag, Bogdana chases her through the night streets. Suren is saved by none other than Prince Oak, heir to Elfhame, to whom she was once promised in marriage and who she has resented for years.
Now seventeen, Oak is charming, beautiful, and manipulative. He’s on a mission that will lead him into the north, and he wants Suren’s help. But if she agrees, it will mean guarding her heart against the boy she once knew and a prince she cannot trust, as well as confronting all the horrors she thought she left behind.
#1 New York Times bestselling author Holly Black returns to the opulent world of Elfhame in the first book in a thrilling new duology, following Jude's brother Oak, and the changeling queen, Suren.
I found the characters to be easy to fall in love with and the story to be entertaining. This world is wonderful, but sadly unmemorable. Although I enjoyed the read, It's been hard for me to recall the details on the pages as I'm writing this review.
Maybe I should read the first books in this world and see how they make me fee.
March 18, 2024
Hello Monday! Welcome back to my weekly menu where I shar...
Hello Monday! Welcome back to my weekly menu where I share all the delicious recipes we will be making this week.This weeks read is Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe. Trying to finish my 100 books before I die this year. So far, its going pretty well. I only have 7 more books to go. Cross your fingers.
Lets get to this weeks Menu. Enjoy!
Monday
Thai Basil Beef Rolls
Kids - Cheese Quesadillas
Tuesday
Tandoori Chicken Naan Wraps
Kids - Chicken Tender wraps
Wednesday
Chorizo Mushroom Ravioli
Kids - Mac and Cheese
Thursday
Crispy Chicken Caesar Salad
Kids - Chicken Nuggets and Fruit Salad
Friday
Thai Beef Salad
Kids - Pizza French Bread
Saturday
Creamy Chicken Soup
Kids - Chicken Ramen
Sunday
Family DinnerShepherd's Pie
