Book Review: Golden Dreams Nashville Years

Golden Dreams Nashville Years by Kaye Golden Wright ~ 145 pages ~ self published on April 22, 2024

Amazon Synopsis:

Kaye Golden Wright, known professionally as Kaye Golden, was born at the right time and in the right place, Nashville. Music was in the air, and she grew up singing and playing from the age of three in a very musical family. Kaye’s a straight shooter and pulls no punches in telling her story. Her music career included background singing on sessions, recording her own singles, the Grand Ole Opry, a rock and roll tour with Jerry Lee Lewis, singing with big bands, live radio and television shows and entertaining in numerous venues and clubs in the Nashville area. She performed alongside and was friends with a who’s who of performers: Jerry Lee Lewis, Roger Miller, Patsy Cline, Kris Kristofferson, Joan Baez, Brenda Lee, Chet Atkins, Dolly Parton, Boots Randolph, Floyd Cramer, Doc Severinsen, Loretta Lynn, the Bee Gees, Dinah Shore, Larry Gatlin, Jim Reeves, Conway Twitty, Jimmy Dean, Dottie West, Tommy Overstreet, Minnie Pearl, Grandpa Jones, the Anita Kerr Singers, the Jordanaires, Jerry Byrd and others. After performing for 30 years, she changed course and used her musical talent and experience to become a well-respected and in demand vocal and performance coach in the Dallas, Texas, area. In this autobiography, Kaye traces the path she took through the early Nashville music world and her journey to Texas to continue her life in music and improve the lives of countless students.


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Book Review: Kill Her Twice

Kill Her Twice by Stacey Lee ~ 400 pages ~ published on April 23, 2024 by G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers

Goodreads Synopsis:

Los Angeles, 1932: Lulu Wong, star of the silver screen and the pride of Chinatown, has a face known to practically anyone, especially to the Chow sisters—May, Gemma, and Peony—Lulu’s former classmates and neighbors. So the girls instantly know it’s Lulu whose body they discover one morning in an out-of-the-way stable, far from the Beverly Hills mansion where she moved once her fame skyrocketed.

The sisters suspect Lulu’s death is the result of foul play, but the LAPD—known for being corrupt to the core—doesn’t seem motivated to investigate. Even worse, there are signs that point to the possibility of a police cover-up, and powerful forces in the city want to frame the killing as evidence that Chinatown is a den of iniquity and crime, even more reason it should be demolished to make room for the construction of a new railway depot, Union Station.

Worried that neither the police nor the papers will treat a Chinese girl fairly—no matter how famous and wealthy—the sisters set out to solve their friend’s murder themselves, and maybe save their neighborhood in the bargain. But with Lulu’s killer still on the loose, the girls’ investigation just might put them square in the crosshairs of a coldblooded murderer.


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Monthly Wrap-Up: April 2023

This month I read a total of 7 books! I am at 40 books read so far, so I am still on track to hit my goal of 100 books for the year. I am, once again, doing a ton of different reading challenges, so I will be including those in my monthly wrap-ups as well.

Let’s get into it!


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Top Ten Tuesday: The First 10 Books My Daughter Randomly Grabbed from My Shelf

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.

This week’s prompt was to choose the first 10 books that you randomly grab from your shelf. Then they suggest that you talk about whether you have read them, and if so, what you thought of them. I thought it would be fun to have my daughter (who is 6) pick 10 random books from my shelf while my back was turned. After some ominous crashing sounds ( 😂 😳) here were the 10 books she brought me!


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Top Ten Tuesday: Books For People Who Liked Daisy Jones & the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.

This week’s topic is Books for People Who Liked Author X. I adjusted it slightly to be Books for People Who Liked Daisy Jones & the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid.


Daisy Jones & the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Goodreads Synopsis:

For a while, Daisy Jones & The Six were everywhere. Their albums were on every turntable, they sold out arenas from coast to coast, their sound defined an era. And then, on 12 July 1979, they split.

Nobody ever knew why. Until now.

They were lovers and friends and brothers and rivals. They couldn’t believe their luck, until it ran out. This is their story of the early days and the wild nights, but everyone remembers the truth differently.

The only thing they all know for sure is that from the moment Daisy Jones walked barefoot onstage at the Whisky, their lives were irrevocably changed.

Making music is never just about the music. And sometimes it can be hard to tell where the sound stops and the feelings begin.


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Yearly Wrap-Up: 2022

2022 was a pretty good, and eventful, year for me! I had a hysterectomy for medical reasons. I started a new job that I love. My daughter started kindergarten. My best friend had a baby. I got to go on an amazing trip to New York that my husband surprised me with. And I read, a lot. 🙂


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