Book Reviews Archives - Hygge Dreamer

Mini Audiobook Review: Our Voice of Fire: A Memoir of a Warrior Rising by Brandi Morin

OUR VOICE OF FIRE: A MEMOIR OF A WARRIOR RISING by Brandi Morin

Publisher: House of Anansi Press
Publication Date: August 2, 2022
Genre: Nonfiction, Memoir

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A wildfire of a debut memoir by internationally recognized French/Cree/Iroquois journalist Brandi Morin set to transform the narrative around Indigenous Peoples.

Brandi Morin is known for her clear-eyed and empathetic reporting on Indigenous oppression in North America. She is also a survivor of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls crisis and uses her experience to tell the stories of those who did not survive the rampant violence. From her time as a foster kid and runaway who fell victim to predatory men and an oppressive system to her career as an internationally acclaimed journalist, Our Voice of Fire chronicles Morin’s journey to overcome enormous adversity and find her purpose, and her power, through journalism. This compelling, honest book is full of self-compassion and the purifying fire of a pursuit for justice.

Mini Book Review: Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

PACHINKO by Min Jin Lee

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Publication Date: November 14, 2017
Genre: Historical Fiction

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In the early 1900s, teenaged Sunja, the adored daughter of a crippled fisherman, falls for a wealthy stranger at the seashore near her home in Korea. He promises her the world, but when she discovers she is pregnant–and that her lover is married–she refuses to be bought. Instead, she accepts an offer of marriage from a gentle, sickly minister passing through on his way to Japan. But her decision to abandon her home, and to reject her son’s powerful father, sets off a dramatic saga that will echo down through the generations.

Richly told and profoundly moving, Pachinko is a story of love, sacrifice, ambition, and loyalty. From bustling street markets to the halls of Japan’s finest universities to the pachinko parlors of the criminal underworld, Lee’s complex and passionate characters–strong, stubborn women, devoted sisters and sons, fathers shaken by moral crisis–survive and thrive against the indifferent arc of history.

Book Review: The Bodyguard by Katherine Center

Book review for The Bodyguard, a hilarious rom-com featuring a bodyguard and her gorgeous movie star principal. Can Hannah do her job without falling for the person she should protect?

This post may contain affiliate links. If you purchase through the provided links, this blog will receive a small commission to put towards the maintenance of this blog. All thoughts are my own.

302 pages / published July 19, 2022 / Goodreads: 4.08 (out of 5) / Amazon

She’s got his back.
Hannah Brooks looks more like a kindergarten teacher than somebody who could kill you with a wine bottle opener. Or a ballpoint pen. Or a dinner napkin. But the truth is, she’s an Executive Protection Agent (aka “bodyguard”), and she just got hired to protect superstar actor Jack Stapleton from his middle-aged, corgi-breeding stalker.

He’s got her heart.
Jack Stapleton’s a household name—captured by paparazzi on beaches the world over, famous for, among other things, rising out of the waves in all manner of clingy board shorts and glistening like a Roman deity. But a few years back, in the wake of a family tragedy, he dropped from the public eye and went off the grid.

Book Review: The Blue Castle by L. M. Montgomery

Book review for The Blue Castle, an unexpected Canadian classic about finding yourself and learning who you truly want to be and what kind of life you want to have. A hilarious and heartwarming tale that is sure to skyrocket to your favourites list.

This post may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase through the provided links, this blog will receive a small commission to put towards the maintenance of this blog. All thoughts are my own.

249 pages / published January 1, 1926 / Goodreads: 4.29 (out of 5) / Amazon

An unforgettable story of courage and romance. Will Valancy Stirling ever escape her strict family and find true love?

Valancy Stirling is 29, unmarried, and has never been in love. Living with her overbearing mother and meddlesome aunt, she finds her only consolation in the “forbidden” books of John Foster and her daydreams of the Blue Castle–a place where all her dreams come true and she can be who she truly wants to be. After getting shocking news from the doctor, she rebels against her family and discovers a surprising new world, full of love and adventures far beyond her most secret dreams.

Two Book Reviews: A Man Called Ove & Anxious People by Fredrik Backman

Book review for A Man Called Ove, a hilarious and heartwarming story of a grumpy old man, and Anxious People, a relatable story of a bank robber.

337 pages / published July 19, 2022 / Goodreads: 4.37 (out of 5) / Amazon

All you need is Ove.

At first sight, Ove is almost certainly the grumpiest man you will ever meet, a curmudgeon with staunch principles, strict routines, and a short fuse. People think him bitter, and he thinks himself surrounded by idiots.

Ove’s well-ordered, solitary world gets a shake-up one November morning with the appearance of new neighbors, a chatty young couple and their two boisterous daughters, who announce their arrival by accidentally flattening Ove’s mailbox with their U-Haul. What follows is a heartwarming tale of unkempt cats, unlikely friendships, and a community’s unexpected reassessment of the one person they thought they had all figured out.

A word-of-mouth bestseller that has caused a sensation across Europe, Fredrik Backman’s irresistible novel about the angry old man next door is an uplifting exploration of the unreliability of first impressions and a gentle reminder that life is sweeter when it is shared with other people.

Ove is all you need.