Steriskai

"How could it be this cold and wet this late in the year? Living in this city was like  being trapped in the chilly armpit of a frost giant."
Title: Crooked Kingdom (Six of Crows #2)
Author: Leigh Bardugo
Publisher: Orion Children's Books (September 27th, 2016)

Goodreads Summary: Welcome to the world of the Grisha.

Kaz Brekker and his crew of deadly outcasts have just pulled off a heist so daring even they didn't think they'd survive. But instead of divvying up a fat reward, they're right back to fight for their lives.

Double-crossed and badly weakened, the crew is low on resources, allies, and hope. As powerful forces from around the world descend on Ketterdam to root out the secrets of the dangerous drug known as jurda parem, old rivals and new enemies emerge to challenge Kaz's cunning and test the team's fragile loyalties.

A war will be waged on the city's dark and twisting streets - a battle for revenge and redemption that will decide the fate of …

Have you ever had a deep conversation, face-to-face, with someone? Like talking about life, talking about what pissed you off, what makes you sad etc. When I say a deep conversation, I meant a really serious one where you let out everything, every pain in your heart. I don't know how to explain that but it's not like a normal talk that you have every day.
I never had one. I did but rarely. I used to bottle up my feelings or I simply let it out through writing. But when it comes to spit it out loud, to express my feelings in front of someone, to put them into words, I really really can't do it smoothly. Especially when things upset me. I will talk fast but stuttered at the same time, I forgot what I'm supposed to say, I get nervous, I can't make eye contact and I feel like I'm going to shed tears. And I can feel that my voice quivers like a jellyboy. Is it normal or is it me?
To open up to someone through verbal communication is one of the hardest things for me…

“Many boys will bring you flowers. But someday you'll meet a boy who will learn your favourite flower, your favourite song, your favourite sweet. And even if he is too  poor to give you any of them, it won't matter because he will have taken the time  to know you as no one else does. Only that boy earns your heart.”
Title: Six of Crows
Author: Leigh Bardugo
Publisher: Henry Holt and Company (September 29th, 2015)

Goodreads Summary:  Ketterdam: a bustling hub of international trade where anything can be had for the right price—and no one knows that better than criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker. Kaz is offered a chance at a deadly heist that could make him rich beyond his wildest dreams. But he can’t pull it off alone. . . .

A convict with a thirst for revenge.
A sharpshooter who can’t walk away from a wager.
A runaway with a privileged past.
A spy was known as the Wraith.
A Heartrender using her magic to survive the slums.
A thief with a gift for unlikely escapes.

Kaz’s crew is the only …

"And it had all happened because she'd had the courage to leave Michigan, come to see the making of the show she loved, and follow her dream."
Title: Beauchamp Hall
Author: Danielle Steel
Publisher: Delacorte Press (November 20th, 2018//first published 2001)

Goodreads Summary: Winona Farmington once dreamed of graduating from college, moving to New York City, and pursuing a career in publishing. Then real life got in the way when she left college and returned to her small Michigan hometown to care for her sick mother.

Years later, stuck in a dead-end job and an unsatisfying relationship, Winnie has concluded that dreams were meant for others. She consoles herself with binge-watching the British television series that she loves, Beauchamp Hall, enthralled by the sumptuous period drama set on a great Norfolk estate in the 1920s. The rich upstairs-downstairs world brilliantly brought to life by superb actors is the ultimate in escapism.

On the day Winnie is passed over for a l…

"Life wouldn't be as much fun if we knew where its treasures were hidden.  Sometimes you had to search for them. Sometimes you had to fight for them. And sometimes, they were at your feet. Either way, they were waiting. For you."
Title: After Anna
Author: Lisa Scottoline
Publisher: St. Martin's Press (April 10th, 2018)

Goodreads Summary: Dr Noah Alderman, a widower and single father, is finally content after marrying Maggie. And they're both thrilled when Maggie gets an unexpected chance to be a mother to Anna, the daughter she once thought she'd lost forever.

But when seventeen-year-old Anna arrives, everything changes - and the darkest turn of events will shatter their lives in ways no one could have imagined.

My Thoughts: After Anna is such a gripping and page-turner book. Even though I heard many disappointing reviews about it, I somehow love the story.

Maggie Ippoliti has remarried after her painful relationship with Florian and now live happily with Noah an…

"Narcissists constantly dump – or project – unwanted parts of themselves  onto other people. They then begin to behave as if others possess these unwanted pieces of themselves, and they may even succeed in getting others to feel as if they actually have those traits or feelings. This is an unconscious process for both the dumper and the dumpee, but what it means is that you end up being treated like the dirt they’ve brushed off their own psyches, or feeling the humiliation, the anger, the vulnerability,  and worthlessness that they cannot tolerate themselves.”
Title: Why Is It Always About You? : The Seven Deadly Sins of Narcissism
Author: Sandy Hotchkiss
Publisher: Free Press (August 7th, 2003)

Goodreads Summary:  In this groundbreaking book -- the first popular book on narcissism in more than a decade -- clinical social worker and psychotherapist Sandy Hotchkiss shows you how to cope with controlling, egotistical people who are incapable of the fundamental give-and-take that sustain…

“Isn’t life funny? It could drive you crazy if you thought about it too much. Turn this way and that happens. Turn that way and this happens.”
Title: The Story Of Arthur Truluv
Author: Elizabeth Berg
Publisher: Random House (November 21st, 2017)

Goodreads Summary: A beautiful, life-affirming novel about a remarkably loving man who creates for himself and others second chances at happiness.

A moving novel about three people who find their way back from loss and loneliness to a different kind of happiness. Arthur, a widow, meets Maddy, a troubled teenage girl who is avoiding school by hiding out at the cemetery, where Arthur goes every day for lunch to have imaginary conversations with his late wife, and think about the lives of others. The two strike up a friendship that draws them out of isolation. Maddy gives Arthur the name Truluv, for his loving and positive responses to every outrageous thing she says or does. With Arthur’s nosy neighbour Lucille, they create a loving and unconventio…