Author: helenandhollyhitthebooks

book review blog

Yellowface

By: R.F. Kuang Goodreads description: Authors June Hayward and Athena Liu were supposed to be twin rising stars: same year at Yale, same debut year in publishing. But Athena’s a cross-genre literary darling, and June didn’t even get a paperback release. Nobody wants stories about basic white girls, June thinks. So when June witnesses Athena’s […]

June 2023 Tidbit

Happy Independence Day! We are feeling rather patriotic and want to share what we are up to this holiday. Helen says: Have you ever watched the show Nailed It on Netflix? It’s a hilarious baking show where people off the street get a set amount of time to recreate professionally made cake masterpieces. Maybe I […]

May 2023 Tidbit

We had a hard time coming up with an original tidbit this month. Over this rainy Memorial Day weekend, we had to use our imagination on things to do in the Port City that may be a little off the radar. Here are a few of our favorite things to do and see and hear […]

Fifty Words for Rain

by: Asha Lemmie Goodreads description: From debut author Asha Lemmie, a sweeping, heartrending coming-of-age novel about a young woman’s quest for acceptance in post–World War II Japan. Kyoto, Japan, 1948. “If a woman knows nothing else, she should know how to be silent. . . . Do not question. Do not fight. Do not resist.” […]

Hello Beautiful

by: Ann Napolitano Goodreads description: From the New York Times bestselling author of Dear Edward comes an emotionally layered and engrossing story of a family that asks: Can love make a broken person whole? William Waters grew up in a house silenced by tragedy, where his parents could hardly bear to look at him, much […]

West with Giraffes

by: Linda Rutledge Goodreads description: Woodrow Wilson Nickel, age 105, feels his life ebbing away. But when he learns giraffes are going extinct, he finds himself recalling the unforgettable experience he cannot take to his grave. It’s 1938. The Great Depression lingers. Hitler is threatening Europe, and world-weary Americans long for wonder. They find it […]

A Likely Story

By: Leigh McMullan Abramson Goodreads description: Growing up in the nineties in New York City as the only child of famous parents was both a blessing and a curse for Isabelle Manning. Her beautiful society hostess mother, Claire, and New York Timesbestselling author father, Ward, were the city’s intellectual It couple. Ward’s glamorous obligations often took […]

Still Life

By: Sarah Winman Goodreads description: Tuscany, 1944: As Allied troops advance and bombs fall around deserted villages, a young English soldier, Ulysses Temper, finds himself in the wine cellar of a deserted villa. There, he has a chance encounter with Evelyn Skinner, a middle-aged art historian who has come to Italy to salvage paintings from […]