What is Throwback Thursday?

I’ve noticed several of these meme on a few book blogs. For example, Susan Loves Books does one, which is (or was originally) hosted by Renee@It’s Book Talk. I also noticed that another fellow blogger, Lorrea @ What ‘Cha Readin’?, was doing this as a monthly meme for her blog. Then there’s Reading Maria who is doing something called “Last Year I Was Reading” where she compares what she’s reading now to what she read a year ago. Finally, recently I noticed that Susan Osborn over at A Life in Books is doing a series of posts called “Blasts from the Past“. In most instances, they use this to share one of their favorite reads or older reviews. Lorrea is doing it for books she enjoyed over the last decade. I also just noticed that Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies was doing what she calls Flashback Friday, and I hope she’s still doing them! UPDATE: another blogger, Kristin Craves Books just started what she calls #ThrowbookThursday, which I thought would be about books I’d like to throw against the wall, but is actually just back list books! There’s also Susan @ A Life In Books, with her Blast from the Past posts, which are reviews of books read and loved, from before she started blogging.

I really like all of these ideas and am essentially stealing it from ALL of them, but with my own twists.

My Twists/Instructions:

• The Chocolate Lady’s #ThrowbackThursday takes place on the Thursday before the first Saturday of every month (i.e., the Thursday before my monthly #6Degrees post).
• My posts will highlight one of my previously published book reviews, and I encourage other participants to do the same.
• If you want to participate but have a new blog that doesn’t have old reviews to highlight, you are encouraged to write a post about anything old that strikes your fancy!
• If you want to tweet or share this post, or someone else’s post, or the reviews being highlighted, please use #ThrowbackThursday!
• Please add the link to your post to the link party, below.
• Please link back to this page on your post.

So… with no further ado, I give you…

The Chocolate Lady’s Throwback Thursday Book Review #28

Finding Buoyancy.

My Book Review for “My So-Called Ruined Life” by Melanie Bishop.

NOTE: My regular readers know that I almost never read YA fiction. However, this book is much more mature, intelligent, and better written than any YA books I’ve attempted to read. Plus, it isn’t condescending, nor is it filled with any teenage angst, which sets it heads and shoulders above most YA literary books.

That’s one reason I’ve decided to highlight this book review, but also because I really want to promote this author. You see, the publisher of this first novel has moved into a niche market, and sadly, neither Melanie nor this book fit into that niche. She has a second book of the series written, but she can’t get it published. Maybe more readers and reviews will help her find her way to getting the next one published.

My review starts thusly:

“Tate McCoy is sweet 16, and her life is just beginning. Unfortunately, she’s got far too much to deal with, even for the child of divorced parents. That’s because her estranged mother – who was an alcoholic – was murdered and her father is on trial for the crime. Thankfully, Tate seems to be on the way to figuring out how to handle it all and still have fun – well, at least partially. Bishop opens her novel with the following compelling paragraph that sets the whole story up perfectly:

It’s one thing to lose your mom shortly before your sixteenth birthday. It’s another thing to know she was murdered. When they decide it’s your dad who did the murdering, nobody cares that you disagree. He is hauled off; you are farmed out. If you are wondering about how this could get any worse, try living with this fact: you and your mother had not been getting along—barely speaking—for almost two years.

Click here to read the rest of this review!

If you like this idea, and want to do your own Throwback Thursday post, please put the link in the comments below.

If you have your own Throwback Thursday or any other type of nostalgia post, you can let me know about your blog post in this link party below. (You can also just post a link to an old review you want us to look at, without making a separate post.) I’ll keep this link party open until my next #ThrowbackThursday post (scheduled for June 30, 2022).