Happy May! Somehow, April wasn't the best reading month for me. I thought I'd get in extra reading over spring break but then we went on a short spring break trip which gave me a weekend with very little reading so I didn't really get ahead. Plus, Easter and I'm back to, occasionally, running. Just didn't get through as many books as I would have liked but I did generally like everything I read so that's something!
I'm very active on Goodreads here, somewhat active on Instagram here, and linking up with Modern Mrs. Darcy on the 15th!
Other book posts in the past month:
{12} Non War Historical Fiction
Everything else I've been reading:
Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
The conclusion of the trilogy that I reread with 2 of my sisters. I thought I would breeze through this while we were in St. Louis but, alas, not much reading time. I remembered the main plot points but had forgotten many of the details so it was "fun" (as much fun as a book with so much death can be) to revisit. Then Matt & I rewatched both the movies, I think I had only seen the final one once, in the theater. Just the whole experience of rereading them with my sisters and then rewatching with Matt was fun. I don't know when I would have picked them up again otherwise. 3.75 Stars
In a New York Minute by Kate Spencer
Romance, New York, those two alone suck me in pretty good. Franny has just had a horrible day, got laid off from her job when she was expecting a big promotion. Not only that, then her dress gets caught in the subway doors and rips. Enter Hayes, a man who comes to her rescue with his suit jacket. Someone captures some pictures and they start trending on social media, people thinking they have fallen in love when really, he was just helping her out. And Franny has a bit of a life to get put back together, no job and all. Fun, not too deep. 3 Stars
The Last Dance of the Debutante by Julia Kelly
This followed the last class of "debs" to be presented to Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip in the 1950s. Alongside being presented there was a whole "season" of being a "deb" with countless balls and cocktail parties and alliances and hoping you could find a husband by the end. What a different time. Some of the women in the story don't want to be married right away, they want a career or an education or just a little time to themselves which makes their deb seasons a little more challenging. Mostly fun and interesting 3.5 Stars
Our American Friend by Anna Pitoniak
This book is about IF Melania Trump was a secret CIA agent before marrying Donald AND if Russia had gotten the election won for Trump AND if he got a second term AND if Melania decided she wanted to burn it all to the ground by telling her secrets to a journalist. If you can get past the politics of it (just any politics can be a lot), it was interesting and I was fascinated by the story. 3 Stars
Take Back Your Time: The Guilt-Free Guide to Life Balance by Christy Wright
I had to read this on my phone because my library didn't have a physical copy. I appreciate being able to read books that way but it is never my preferred. I always appreciate a good time management book but this one also felt a little bit like "If you don't want to coach your kids soccer team then don't!" but in relation to pretty much everything. And I agree, none of us can do it all but sometimes, especially with kid activities, if you want them to happen, sometimes you have to suck them up and help them get done. Coaching soccer doesn't ignite sparks for many but if you want your kids in activities...you probably either need to pay a lot or help out with something. I get her point but you also can't just pass on everything like that, I think. I liked the rest of it but that's what stuck out to me. 3.25 Stars
Mr. Wrong Number by Lynn Painter
This was about a woman whose life if a bit falling apart (she accidentally set her Chicago condo building on fire while trying to burn love letters from her ex) and moves in for a month with her brother and his roommate while she tries to find a job and a place to live in LA (I think). She accidentally gets in a flirty text convo with a wrong number who turns out to be not as much of a stranger as she'd led to believe (it's also not her brother, to be clear). Fun, a bit open door, and some poor, lovely sheets get trashed for no good reason. At least donate those! 3 Stars
Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
I 100% could not summarize the plot of this book, even as soon as I put it down. I felt like I immediately needed to go back and reread the whole thing now that I knew how it ended. It is about time travel and living on the moon and pandemics and choices and music. It's just...a lot but told SO beautifully and interwoven in ways I'm sure I didn't fully comprehend or appreciate. Masterful writing. 4.25 Stars
I Guess I Haven't Learned That Yet: Discovering New Ways of Living When the Old Ways Stop Working by Shauna Niequist
I always appreciate Shauna Niequist's essay collections. She is a semi-recent transplant to Manhattan from the Midwest (I did appreciate the Chicago and Lake Michigan locations of her previous books!), along with her husband and grade school aged sons. She talks just about life and parenting but also the challenges of moving to Manhattan and living there through the pandemic. It was just interesting and thoughtful. 3.75 Stars
The Magnolia Place by Fiona Davis
Fiona Davis is fantastic at taking iconic New York City buildings and going into their history, how they were built or became famous. This was about the Frick Museum when it was a mansion where the Frick family lived. Two timelines, 1919 when the Frick family was in residence and following their a new servant, Lillian, who had been a well-known model of many famous statues around NYC (based on a real person). And then about 50 years later when the house is now a museum and another young model gets snowed in there with an employee, discovering some long forgotten secrets of the building. Interesting. 3.5 Stars
Sister Stardust by Jane Green
I have read all of Jane Green's novels and they really helped revitalize my reading life ~10 years ago when I started to get back into reading. I haven't enjoyed her new stuff as much and this one was just...strange. It was based on real people from the 60s when there was a lot of sex, drugs, and rock n roll. I appreciate that she was trying something different but it just didn't land. I felt like things were teased that they'd be important later and then that never panned out. It was largely set in Morocco and was definitely a look at a life I'll never live (for starters, that I wasn't alive in the 1960s) which was a bit interesting but it just never really came together. 2 Stars
The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka
This was a very slim novel that I didn't realize was so short after hearing it praised by Annie B. Jones and Anne Bogel. I came across it at the library and snatched it up, after being intrigued with it already. The first half is about the swimmers at a local pool who rarely talk to each other but each know a decent amount about the others just from the frequent overlapping visits to swim laps. Then there is a crack in their pool. Then another. And their paths will no longer cross once the pool shuts down. The second half follows one of the swimmers as her dementia worsens after the pool closes. It is sparse but so well done and moving. 4 Stars
Funny You Should Ask by Elissa Sussman
This was a delightful and fun romance that I always looked forward to picking up. A journalist does an article on a hot shot actor before he plays Bond and ends up spending a few days with him. Everyone is wondering what really happened during their time. Fast forward 10 years, in which they haven't spent any time together since and she's writing another article on him. A bit of Hollywood excess, fun, and glamour. I listened to Annie B. Jones recommend this on a Thursday, I picked it up off the library shelf on Friday, started it Monday and finished it Thursday. It was just really fun. And the THIRD piece of media I have consumed this month to mention an orgy (there was NOT one in this book but journalist was a little concerned she'd be getting roped into one, she wasn't. And one of the others was The Ten Commandments.). 4 Stars
The Unsinkable Greta James by Jennifer E. Smith
This is Jennifer E. Smith's first grown-up novel, her previous ones all being YA (I liked Windfall, here). I appreciated that both this and Funny You Should Ask had protagonists mostly* in their later 30s (36-38ish), which is about my age. (*Funny You Should Ask also flips back to 10 years ago.) Greta James is a well-enough known singer-songwriter with a decent amount of fame (I kept picturing some, older, combination of Taylor Swift and Olivia Rodrigo but I don't know how accurate that is) who has been devastated by her mother's recent, sudden, death. Greta has long has a troubled relationship with her father, who is also grieving. But her mother had been planning a 40th anniversary Alaskan cruise for them along with 2 of their good couple friends. Since the mother has since died, Greta steps in to take her place on the cruise. She's avoiding performing and it seems like a good idea to try to connect with her Dad. This made me miss cruising, feel grateful for my parents, and has one of the best Dad moments I've ever read. I flew through this. 3.75 Stars
That's what I've been reading; a pretty good reading month! What have YOU been reading lately?
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