Lori Reviews MY SUNSHINE AWAY by M. O. Walsh

Title:  My Sunshine Away
Author:  M.O. Walsh
Publication Information:  February 2015 by Amy Einhorn Books
How I Got This Book:  I bought a copy on my Kindle app.

Goodreads Synopsis:  My Sunshine Away unfolds in a Baton Rouge neighborhood best known for cookouts on sweltering summer afternoons, cauldrons of spicy crawfish, and passionate football fandom. But in the summer of 1989, when fifteen-year-old Lindy Simpson—free spirit, track star, and belle of the block—experiences a horrible crime late one evening near her home, it becomes apparent that this idyllic stretch of Southern suburbia has a dark side, too.

In My Sunshine Away, M.O. Walsh brilliantly juxtaposes the enchantment of a charmed childhood with the gripping story of a violent crime, unraveling families, and consuming adolescent love. Acutely wise and deeply honest, it is an astonishing and page-turning debut about the meaning of family, the power of memory, and our ability to forgive.

My Thoughts:  Wow.  A Twitter friend mentioned this book and I bought it immediately because I trust her taste.  Only partway through, I began brow-beating another friend into reading this one, encouraging her to abandon her current read and start immediately.  Finally she relented and she thanked me for it.  I think.  I'll just say she did because I know she liked the book, so on some level she did thank me.

This has the elements of a thriller--in the opening pages a teenage girl is raped right down the street from her home and the narrator tries to figure out who did it--but it also is a wonderful, beautiful bildungsroman about growing up and life changing and becoming more complicated that we can all relate to.  The real story is the narrator's personal development from a boy firmly ensconced in his little suburban home to a man who has faced some real challenges and changes and comes out the other side.

My heart broke a number of times throughout this novel, at big and small moments.  The end left me feeling weird and utterly destroyed, yet somehow hopeful and wistful.  For me, it was the same feeling I get at the end of To Kill a Mockingbird.  I felt completely alive, but also somehow detached from my real world.  Somehow I was able to drive to Chipotle and back in a fantastic haze.

This is a book I still think about and carry with me.

I cannot wait to see what else Walsh produces.

An utterly amazing read.

A new favorite for me.

Go buy it.  Now!

With Our Last 20 Dollars - May Edition

With Our Last $20 is a feature here at The Broke & The Bookish wherein we answer the prompt of which book we'd purchase with the last $20 left in our pocket for each month -- be it new releases or older books..basically which ever book we'd be so excited to read that we'd be willing to spend the last $20 in our pockets on. I mean, we are The Broke and the Bookish after all. We'd no doubt live up to our name and forgo other things for a new book!



Julia's Pick  - Once Upon a Tower  by Eloisa James (Out May 28th)

Eloisa James is one of my favorite authors, so she it totally an auto-buy for me. Plus I am really into Fairy Tale retellings right now (I am looking at you Scarlet and Cinder), and thus I am curious to see how she weaves in elements from Rapunzel into a historical romance. Also is it bad that I want the hero to be blind somehow? Seriously. The Grimm's Rapunzel is a rough tale...


Jana's Pick - Adorkable by Sarra Manning

I mean, COME ON. 

"This novel is about an unlikely relationship, but it's also about roller derby, dogs on skateboards, dogs on surfboards, dogs doing any form of extreme sport, old skool hip hop, riding your bike downhill really fast, riot grrrl, those boys you want to kiss but punch in the face at the same time, dyeing your hair ridiculous colors just because you can, stitch 'n' bitch, the songs that make you dance, the songs that make you cry, being a bad ass, cake, love, death, and everything in between."

It sounds perfect!

Daisy's Pick - And The Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini (out May 21st)

With A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini managed to break my heart into a million pieces, all of those pieces very much in love with this amazing book and even though I know I suck big time for not having read The Kite Runner yet, I'd give my last $20 to have And The Mountains Echoed in my hands. I have no doubt that it will be just as amazing as A Thousand Splendid Suns. And I really love the cover :)

Jen's Pick - The Last Time I Saw Paris by Lynn Sheene

First, the title has "Paris" in it. I would automatically pick this book up in the bookstore. The main character is forced to become a spy and the book takes place during World War II. For whatever reason I really seem to like books that take place during WWII.






Jamie's Pick - The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey

With the hype that has been surrounding this book and the rave reviews I would definitely spend my last $20 on this one to find out what it is about! I've actually just read it this past weekend but I still wanted to put it as my pick because I had been just WAITING for May to come before it surprised me in my mailbox! ALIENS! END OF THE WORLD STUFF! I really, really enjoyed it!