Showing posts with label Natalka Burian. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Natalka Burian. Show all posts

Saturday, February 4, 2023

This OR That #Giveaway № 90 ~ Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult OR The Night Shift by Natalka Burian #SmallGreatThings OR #TheNightShift

 

I have sooooo many books!

The This or That Giveaway! feature that I post every Saturday is a way for me to cull my collection and to share some of the many books I have. I get to clear off some of my shelves to make room for more books and give someone else the chance to enjoy these treasures.

Good luck and be sure to stop back next week!

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Small Great Things
by Jodi Picoult
ARC ~ Published October 2016

Ruth Jefferson is a labor and delivery nurse at a Connecticut hospital with more than twenty years' experience. During her shift, Ruth begins a routine checkup on a newborn, only to be told a few minutes later that she's been reassigned to another patient. The parents are white supremacists and don't want Ruth, who is African American, to touch their child. The hospital complies with their request, but the next day, the baby goes into cardiac distress while Ruth is alone in the nursery. Does she obey orders or does she intervene?

Ruth hesitates before performing CPR and, as a result, is charged with a serious crime. Kennedy McQuarrie, a white public defender, takes her case but gives unexpected advice: Kennedy insists that mentioning race in the courtroom is not a winning strategy. Conflicted by Kennedy's counsel, Ruth tries to keep life as normal as possible for her family—especially her teenage son—as the case becomes a media sensation. As the trial moves forward, Ruth and Kennedy must gain each other's trust, and come to see that what they've been taught their whole lives about others—and themselves—might be wrong.

With incredible empathy, intelligence, and candor, Jodi Picoult tackles race, privilege, prejudice, justice, and compassion—and doesn't offer easy answers. Small Great Things is a remarkable achievement from a writer at the top of her game.


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The Night Shift 
by Natalka Burian
ARC ~ Published July 2022

Only by traveling into the past can Jean discover a happy future…

Hidden behind back doors of bars and restaurants and theaters and shops all over New York City are shortcuts—secret passageways that allow you to jump through time and space to emerge in different parts of the city. No one knows where they came from, but there are rules—you can only travel through them one way and only at night.

When Jean’s work friend Iggy introduces her to the shortcuts, it’s to help shorten her commute between her night shifts bartending and her work at an upscale bakery. Jean is intrigued but has a hard time shaking the side effects—the shortcuts make her more talkative, more open to discussing her past and recalling memories she’s tried hard to forget.

When Iggy goes missing, Jean believes it’s related to the shortcuts and his growing obsession with them. But as she starts digging into their origins, she comes to find a strange connection between herself and the shortcuts. A shimmering, propulsive novel set in New York City during the early aughts and across time, The Night Shift shows that by confronting the past can we reshape our future.  


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Be sure to check the sidebar for my current giveaways! 

Saturday, January 7, 2023

This OR That #Giveaway № 86 ~ The Opera Sisters by Marianne Monson OR The Night Shift by Natalka Burian #TheOperaSisters #TheNightShift

 

I have sooooo many books!

The This or That Giveaway! feature that I post every Saturday is a way for me to cull my collection and to share some of the many books I have. I get to clear off some of my shelves to make room for more books and give someone else the chance to enjoy these treasures.

Good luck and be sure to stop back next week!

*****************

The Opera Sisters
by Marianne Monson
ARC ~ Published September 2022

Based on the true story of the Cook sisters, who smuggled valuables out of 1930s Nazi Germany to finance a daring, secret operation to help Jews find hope for a new life in England
 
British sisters Ida and Louise Cook enjoy their quiet, unassuming lives in south London. Ida writes romance novels, and Louise works as a secretary. In the evenings, the sisters indulge in their shared love for opera, saving their money to buy records and attend performances throughout England and Europe, becoming well-known by both performers and fellow opera lovers.

But when Hitler seizes power in 1933, he begins targeting and persecuting German Jews, passing laws that restrict their rights and their lives. The sisters continue their trips to the German opera houses, but soon, Jewish members of the opera community covertly approach the sisters, worried that they will be stripped of their wealth and forced to leave their homes and the country. Danger looms on the horizon, threatening to spill across all of Europe’s borders.

Ida and Louise vow to help, but how can two ordinary working-class women with limited means make a difference?

Together with their beloved opera community, the sisters devise a plan to personally escort Jewish refugees from Germany to England. The success of the plan hinges on Ida and Louise’s ability to smuggle contraband jewelry and furs beneath the watchful eyes of the SS soldiers guarding various checkpoints. But how many trips can they make before someone blows a whistle? Or before the final curtain falls on Germany’s borders?

The Opera Sisters is a riveting and inspiring novel of two unlikely heroines whose courage and compassion gave hope to many Jews desperate to escape Nazi persecution.


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The Night Shift 
by Natalka Burian
ARC ~ Published July 2022

Only by traveling into the past can Jean discover a happy future…

Hidden behind back doors of bars and restaurants and theaters and shops all over New York City are shortcuts—secret passageways that allow you to jump through time and space to emerge in different parts of the city. No one knows where they came from, but there are rules—you can only travel through them one way and only at night.

When Jean’s work friend Iggy introduces her to the shortcuts, it’s to help shorten her commute between her night shifts bartending and her work at an upscale bakery. Jean is intrigued but has a hard time shaking the side effects—the shortcuts make her more talkative, more open to discussing her past and recalling memories she’s tried hard to forget.

When Iggy goes missing, Jean believes it’s related to the shortcuts and his growing obsession with them. But as she starts digging into their origins, she comes to find a strange connection between herself and the shortcuts. A shimmering, propulsive novel set in New York City during the early aughts and across time, The Night Shift shows that by confronting the past can we reshape our future.  


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Be sure to check the sidebar for my current giveaways! 

Monday, July 11, 2022

New Release! The Night Shift by Natalka Burian ~ My Thoughts #TheNightShift

Congratulations Natalka
on the release of
The Night Shift!

The Night Shift by Natalka Burian
City Life Fiction, Magical Realism, 336 pages
Published July 12, 2022 by Park Row

Only by traveling into the past can Jean discover a happy future…

Hidden behind back doors of bars and restaurants and theaters and shops all over New York City are shortcuts—secret passageways that allow you to jump through time and space to emerge in different parts of the city. No one knows where they came from, but there are rules—you can only travel through them one way and only at night.

When Jean’s work friend Iggy introduces her to the shortcuts, it’s to help shorten her commute between her night shifts bartending and her work at an upscale bakery. Jean is intrigued but has a hard time shaking the side effects—the shortcuts make her more talkative, more open to discussing her past and recalling memories she’s tried hard to forget.

When Iggy goes missing, Jean believes it’s related to the shortcuts and his growing obsession with them. But as she starts digging into their origins, she comes to find a strange connection between herself and the shortcuts. A shimmering, propulsive novel set in New York City during the early aughts and across time, The Night Shift shows that by confronting the past can we reshape our future.  

  

My thoughts about The Night Shift ~~

(I love to note the first lines of the books I'm reading. First lines can really grab a reader's attention and I love seeing where the author takes the reader after their first line.)

First line—"Waking up late still felt wrong to Jean Smith. She had set her alarm for 6:30AM every weekday—and some Saturdays—since 2001."

I'm a big fan of the idea of time travel and what that might mean to the future... or the present. The Night Shift does a nice job of interweaving the past with the present as Jean and Iggy use the portals that are all around the city to get from place to place, and sometimes to another time. 

Jean is struggling and when she tries to get from one job to her other one, Iggy introduces her to the city's portals. Little does she know that these portals have a deeper connection to her and her past. As she tries to find out what happened to Iggy after he suddenly disappears, secrets start to unfold. She finds out that she is involved way more intricately than she first imagined. 

The Night Shift is full of action and intrigue, with some great characters who are just trying to live their lives. As they race to set things right, will the portals trap them.... or set them free? 

I received an ARC of The Night Shift and this is my honest opinion.

Additional Praise for The Night Shift

· “Blending women’s and speculative fiction, Burian draws readers along on Jean’s emotional path toward self-discovery and deeper understanding of the world around her. The vivid descriptions of New York bring the city to life, creating a character just as palpable as the others. Readers will be hooked.” —Publishers Weekly

· “High-spirited, propulsive, and heart-wrenching, The Night Shift is an achingly compelling look at memory, resiliency, hope, and hustle. Burian weaves a whole new New York City—magical, strange, and free from the everyday trappings of time and space—but this story is resonant and timeless, a bittersweet beauty by a fantastically talented writer.” —Kimberly King Parsons, author of Black Light

About the author


Natalka Burian is the co-owner of two bars, Elsa and Ramona, as well as the co-founder of The Freya Project, a non-profit reading series that supports community-based activism and annually awards five unrestricted grants to further the work of women and non-binary writers.

She is the author of three novels and the cocktail cookbook, A Woman’s Drink. Natalka’s bars and books have been featured in The New Yorker, Elle, Vogue, the New York Times, and elsewhere. She grew up on a farm, but now lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two daughters. ~ Goodreads 

Connect with Natalka


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Be sure to check the sidebar for my current giveaways!

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