Category: book reviews

quick lit – next page, please {june 2019}

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For the first time, I decided to plan my June reads and I posted a pic on Insta.  And while it didn’t go as planned, I did like having a general idea of what books that I wanted to read for the month. Plus, I thought it was a cute photo and gave me an opportunity to use my letterboard.

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FYI – Anne will always refer to Modern Mrs. Darcy’s Anne Bogel. WSIRN refers to one of her podcast, What Should I Read Next, one of my fav podcast.  Since I was guest this year, (Episode 179 – shameful plug!), we are, officially, on a first-name basis. I am linking up with her monthly Quick Lit post, as I have done for years.  Check her out!

Also, my thoughts on my pick, The Unlikely Adventures of the Shergill Sisters, from that WSIRN episode is up on the blog. Check it out here.

Read

  • Save Me the Plums: My Gourmet Memoir by Ruth Reichl. This book was AMAZING. I was not expecting to enjoy it as much as I did, even after Anne raved about it on WSIRN when Emily P. Freeman was her guest. She also included it in her 2019 Summer Reading Guide. Wow! It was a memoir that read like a page-turning novel. I couldn’t wait to see what happened next and stayed up late a couple of nights.  A memoir isn’t supposed to do that to you! I have added everything Ruth Reichl has ever written to my ever-growing TBR list. Side note: As a foodie, I don’t know why I haven’t been reading more books about food?
  • That Kind of Mother by Rumaan Alam. I read this because it was the pick of the Rocket City Mom Virtual Book Club. You can check us out on Facebook here and see my full review here.
  • Things You Save in a Fire by Katherine Center. I really enjoyed this one. It’s releasing August 13th so a huge thank you to The Snail on the Wall for the ARC. It was a page turner; pulled two late(ish) nights because I wanted to see what happened. And I didn’t jump ahead! My full review will be here on Friday, July 26.
  • Recursion by Blake Crouch. This was also one of Anne’s 2019 Summer Reading Guide picks and I must say, initially it was not on my radar until she discussed it a bit WSIRN episode. I can’t remember which one, though.    Anyway, this is a sci-fi thriller mystery-out of my usual reading comfort zone but I have to say that I did enjoy this one. I love time traveling stories (what does that say about me, I wonder?) and this was that.  Crouch is an excellent writer and I might pick up his earlier book Dark Matter, because I enjoyed this one so much.

Currently Reading

On Hold/Abandoned Reading

  • Time After Time by Lisa Grunwald. Anne helped me notice that for my fun fiction reads, I do not typically enjoy longish books (350+ pages) and with this one, I think she was right. My ARC (thanks again to The Snail on the Wall) was about 400 pages.  Time traveling was involved (are you guys noticing a theme?) but the pace was slow and I was trying to read it on the plane and it wasn’t holding my attention.  I switched to Things You Save in the Fire and didn’t get back to it this month.  I might come back to it though. Might being the operative word.

So, what have you guys been reading? Read any of these?

enjoy life…

book review: “never have i ever” by joshilyn jackson

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Pic. Never Have I Ever

I adored “The Almost Sisters”, my best book read of 2018, so I was thrilled to get an Advanced Readers’ Copy (ARC) of Joshilyn Jackson’s Never Have I Ever (NHIE), releasing July 30. This book is also a Modern Mrs. Darcy Summer Reading Guide pick which only increased my desire to get my hand on a copy. In NHIE, Jackson ups the ante, stepping fully into the psychological territory first explored in “gods in Alabama”. It read like a departure for Jackson, yet hauntingly familiar.

The Snail on the Wall Books was kind of enough to provide me with an ARC in exchange for my thoughts and so I wanted to finish it quickly. I set aside an entire day to read it. Like most psychological thrillers, NHIE began with a slow burn but by page 100, I became interested and happily kept turning the pages to find out what happened next until I reached a satisfying conclusion (and after GoT, I needed a satisfying conclusion. LOL)

I missed the humor in The Almost Sisters that balanced out all that dark and twisty.  And it is dark, ladies and gentleman.  Individuals may find some triggers within its pages, so readers beware.  And while “The Almost Sisters” held subtle but profound social commentary, NHIE is more personal.  Jackson describes what happens when the secrets that we bury deep within us are threatened to be exposed and the lengths that we are willing to go when we’re pushed to the brink. It would make a good book club pick.

If you tend to be very conservative in your reading preferences, this may not be the pick for you.  But if you are looking for a page-turner (my personal benchmark) for the late summer read in the same vein of The Last Mrs. Parrish by Liv Constantine and a darker Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty, give this one a go.

3 ½ stars

Read my reviews of Mrs. Parrish here and Lies here both for the Rocket City Mom Virtual Book Club.

What are your thoughts? Have you read this or will you be reading it? Do you agree or disagree with me? And if you are looking for as noncommital a book club as you can get, check out the RCM Virtual Book Club.

enjoy life…

 

quick lit – next page, please {march 2019}

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During these monthly posts, I like to look at what I am currently reading, have read, and have abandoned because it just wasn’t for me.

Currently Reading

  • The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid. I have stayed up half the night three nights in a row to read “just one more page”.
  • The Next Right Thing: A Simple, Soulful Practice for Making Life Decisions by Emily P. Freeman and This Messy Magnificent Life: A Field Guide by Geneen Roth. I loved The Next Right Thing and wrote a full review here. Like I said in that review, this book and Messy Magnificent Life are meant to be read again and again.  And I’m doing just that.
  • The Life-Changing Habit of Tidying Up and Spark Joy by Marie Kondo. Due to two trips out of town, my tidying has been delayed. I still hope to finish by the end of May. I’m rereading these two according to the categories I’m dealing with at the time. Komono is next.

Read

  • Where We Belong by Emily Giffin. Finished reading this one for our Rocket City Mom Virtual Book Club. My full review will be up on their site shortly. I will say this, if you’re curious about what could possibly happen when an adoptive teen finds her birth mom, you might like this one.
  • Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia McLachlan. I read this one because I am helping my sister with my nephew’s English (go figure, LOL). He had to write a report on the book and I had never read it before. Very nice. Very sweet.
  • The Confidence Code: The Science and Art of Self-Assurance – What Women Should Know by Katty Kay and Claire Shipman. This one was full of research and facts about some of the difference between men and women and how women sometimes sabotage their own confidence. It wasn’t necessarily as story-driven as Quiet (thanks for the language, Modern Mrs. Darcy) but a good informative read. I learned a lot about improving my own confidence.
  • The Confidence Code for Girls: Taking Risks, Messing Up, and Becoming Your Amazingly Imperfect, Totally Powerful Self by Katty Kay and Claire Shipman. I had to pick this up to see how different it was for the one for women. It wasn’t full of as much research and was full of scenarios for your preteen or teen to work through. I think it would be a good read for any girl with an older family member or a mentor.
  • Draft No. 4: On the Writing Process by John McPhee. I was happy to finally finish this one and fulfil my commitment to read at least one book on writing craft per quarter. I had been struggling.
  • The Next Right Thing: A Simple, Soulful Practice for Making Life Decisions by Emily P. Freeman. Read it. That’s all I’m going to say.

On Hold/Abandoned Reading

  • The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón. Felt like a slog. I had to let it go.

What have you been reading?

enjoy life…

Per usual, I am linking up with Modern Mrs. Darcy. I am amazed by that community. You should check it out.