Happy Monday All!
Obviously, I’ve missed a few Mondays…this new school year is kicking my ass, my friends! However, I really wanted to get this going again, even if it means I’m actually writing this post on Sunday night when I should be in bed because I have a game tomorrow and will probably forget. Also, side note: I’m teaching my 7th graders how to avoid run-on sentences, and clearly I’m not practicing what I’m preaching. Sunday night Megan does not care. Oh, and what’s this “game” I speak of? Ya girl can’t say no to anything, apparently, and I’m now a volleyball coach…despite never having played a game of volleyball in my life. What a life this is!
What I’m Reading:
Reading has gone by the wayside the past few weeks (along with most other things that bring me joy lol but also not lol), but I’m participating in the #23for23 challenge, and that has helped me get back into it. I’ll write another post on that challenge later, but this past week I read both Walter Dean Myers’s Monster: The Graphic Novel and Talia Hibbert’s Take A Hint, Dani Brown. Both were wonderful in very different ways! I’m currently trying to get through a ton of arcs and avoiding a Pride and Prejudice reread!
What I’m Watching:
Literally nothing new. It’s been a lot of Big Bang Theory, Pride and Prejudice, and my screen while I play Disney’s Dreamlight Valley. Oh! But my preorder came through this week and I watched Barbie for the third time. Here’s to many more viewings!
What I’m Listening To:
As usual, Spotify has come through for me and introduced the “Daylist.” Basically, it’s a playlist that changes throughout the day based on your listening trends at different times of the day. It’s awesome, and the titles of my “Daylist” throughout the day have been hilarious so far. For example “Scream Relationship Saturday Morning.”
Main Event: Cover Reveal Time!
I don’t usually combine posts like this, but it felt perfect! I’m so excited to share the cover for Natalie Jenner’s newest historical fiction novel: Every Time We Say Goodbye. Thanks to Austen Prose, St. Martin’s Press, and Natalie Jenner for this opportunity! This book releases May 14th, 2024. Check out my reveal video below, and keep scrolling for book details, including preorder links! 🙂
BOOK DESCRIPTION
The bestselling author of The Jane Austen Society and Bloomsbury Girls returns with a brilliant novel of love and art, of grief and memory, of confronting the past and facing the future.
In 1955, Vivien Lowry is at a crossroads in life. Her latest play, the only female-authored play on the London stage that season, has opened in the West End to rapturous applause from the audience. The reviewers, however, are not as impressed as the playgoers, and their savage notices not only shut down the play but ruin Vivien’s last chance for theatrical success. With her future in London not looking bright, at the suggestion of her friend, Peggy Guggenheim, Vivien takes a job as a script doctor on a major film shooting in Rome’s Cinecittà Studios. There she finds a vibrant moviemaking scene filled with rising stars, acclaimed directors, and famous actors in a country that is torn between its past and its potentially bright future, between the liberation of the post-war cinema and the restrictions of the Catholic Church that permeate the very soul of Italy.
As Vivien tries to forge a new future for herself, she also searches for the long-buried truth of the recent World War and the fate of her deceased fiancé lost in battle. Every Time We Say Goodbye is a bold and moving exploration of trauma and tragedy, hope and renewal, filled with dazzling characters both real and imaginary, from the incomparable author who charmed the world with her novels The Jane Austen Society and Bloomsbury Girls.
(Every Time We Say Goodbye is linked to The Jane Austen Society, & Bloomsbury Girls by characters, but is a stand-alone novel.)
PURCHASE LINKS
AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE | BOOKSHOP | ST. MARTIN’S PRESS | BOOKBUB | GOODREADS
“I’m in awe of Natalie Jenner’s new novel, which surprised me at every turn. At times it reads like the juiciest historical tell all, boasting cameos by enduring household names like Sophia Loren and Gina Lollabrigida, and featuring a party where Ava Gardner dances on the table. But most importantly, this is a story about damaged people who are still blinking into the light after the nightmare of the Second World War. This beautiful book balances and explores the most heroic aspects of humanity, and by extension the most evil. Every Time We Say Good Bye is a heartbreaking, engrossing, and thoroughly dazzling work of art that would make the filmmakers at the center of its story proud.” —Nina de Gramont, New York Times and #1 Sunday Times bestselling author of The Christie Affair
AUTHOR BIO
Natalie Jenner is the internationally bestselling author of The Jane Austen Society and Bloomsbury Girls, which have been translated into more than twenty languages worldwide. Born in England and raised in Canada, Natalie has been a corporate lawyer and career coach and once owned an independent bookstore in Oakville, Ontario, where she lives with her family and two rescue dogs.
I’m so excited to read this book! It’s been a while since I’ve dived into a historical fiction that wasn’t strictly romance, and I love anything to do with film. This upcoming release has also put Jenner’s other books, The Jane Austen Society and The Bloomsbury Girls, on my radar as well. I’m glad I have some time before ETWSG releases to read those two! 🙂
Have a good week reader friends! Hopefully, I’ll be back soon with some reviews!
The Bookish Bird 