Stephany Writes

Categories: Books

What I’m Reading (7.4.22)

Happy Monday, friends! And happy Independence Day? I guess. I’m finding it very hard to be patriotic for a country that doesn’t believe in my bodily autonomy, is trying to kill the planet as fast as possible, and doesn’t care about election integrity. BUT I DIGRESS.

I read some really good books last week, one of which will likely make my favorites list at the end of the year, so let’s dig into the reviews:

Instructions for Dancing by Nicola Yoon (★★★★★)

Oh my heavens, I loved this book so very much. It’s a story about love and loss, falling in love and heartbreak, and what happens when a girl can start seeing the entirety of a relationship play out in her head after seeing a couple kiss. In this book, Evie is dealing with the divorce of her parents who she thought had the perfect love story and has decided to swear off romance and romance novels forever. As she’s dropping off a bunch of her romances into a Little Free Library, a woman comes by and hands her a book called Instructions for Dancing. She doesn’t really know what to do with this book but there’s an inscription in the book for a nearby dance school. So she decides to visit the school to drop it off. What she doesn’t know is that she is about to change her life with this visit to the dance school. It’s there she is drawn into the world of dance, where she meets X, and where she finds herself again. It’s a beautiful story that may have you in tears at the end, but it was just so lovely. I really thought it was clever the way Yoon sprinkled in romance tropes throughout the book, from the way men are usually described in romances to all of those silly meet-cutes. I also really appreciated the way Yoon explored this idea that many, many relationships have a shelf life. There’s usually a beautiful beginning followed by a breakup, but it’s what happens during the middle that counts. The middle is worth it, even if the end is coming. I have a hard time recognizing that fact (I’m always like, “Why go on a date if it’s not going to lead to forever??”) and this book was a good reminder that even if a relationship does end, it doesn’t mean that there wasn’t beauty and goodness in that relationship.

The Lost for Words Bookshop by Stephanie Butland (★★★★☆)

Loveday Cardew has a mysterious past, but it’s one she doesn’t share with anyone. And then she meets Nathan, a poet with a penchant for the absurd, and he seems to have a thing for her. But why? And why are all of these mysterious packages arriving at her bookshop, reminding her of her past? The past she desperately wants to leave behind. This book had a slow start and it was going to be a solid 3-star read for me. In the beginning, it was hard to understand the main character’s motivations and to feel much of a connection with her. But I think that was the point, and a genius decision on the part of the author. As Loveday began to open up to the people in her life, so too were the readers brought into her inner life and began to understand why Loveday acted the way she acted. There were so many times when I wanted to shake her, but the more I learned about her trauma and her motivations, the easier it was to understand why she acted the way she did. A brilliant book that was made even sweeter with the bookstore setting.

What I’m Reading This Week

  • You Can’t Be Serious by Kal Penn (audio) – I’m a few hours into this audiobook by actor and former Obama staffer Kal Penn, and I am loving it. I love reading about the ins and outs of an actor trying to make it in Hollywood (although the racism he endured as an Indian actor trying to make it in the 90s is super infuriating).
  • Twice Tempted by a Rogue by Tessa Dare (e-book) – This historical romance by one of my faves is excellent so far. I anticipate it will be an easy 4-star read for me.
  • The Nine Lives of Rose Napolitano by Donna Freitas (print) – I’m zooming through this fictional novel about the different paths a woman’s life can take when her husband suddenly decides he wants to have kids, while she is vehemently opposed to the idea. It’s really, really good so far.

What are you reading?

Categories: Books

What I’m Reading (6.28.22)

Hi, friends! Another “What I’m Reading” post dropping on a Tuesday.

Last week, I finished three books and it was a mixed bag for me. No real standouts in this batch, but still a nice week of reading.

Pony by R.J. Palacio (★★★★☆)

I ended up really, really enjoying this novel and I can see why it’s so beloved by everyone. The novel is about a young boy Silas whose father is taken in the middle of the night by men that Silas just doesn’t have a good feeling about. So, with the help of his ghost friend Mittenwool and a pony that arrived shortly after his father was taken, Silas sets out on a journey to find and rescue his dad. The story has some fantastical elements, mostly the fact that Silas can see and interact with ghosts, but there was something really charming about it. I loved the relationship between Silas and Mittenwool (who was likely only a few years older than Silas) and there were some really sweet moments that melted my heart. A heartwarming story!

The Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows by Olivia Waite (★★★☆☆)

This was quite the slow-burn romance as I don’t think the characters even kissed until more than halfway through the story! Slow-burn romances aren’t typically my favorite but then again, I know an author is doing a great job of making me believe in the characters’ chemistry when I’m yelling at my Kindle, “Just tell her how you feel already!” In this sapphic historical romance, Penelope and Agatha are two forty-something women who get to know one another when Agatha needs Penelope to deal with a bee problem at her printshop. Penelope is a celebrated beekeeper and I learned so much about beekeeping (well, beekeeping in the 1800s) from this novel. I loved the care Penelope had for her bees; an insect I find more annoying and terrifying than beautiful and majestic. There were some over-the-top elements in this book and way too many sections about the King and Queen and sedition battles, but overall, it was an enjoyable romance to read.

Outlawed by Anna North (★★★☆☆)

What a perfect book for me to read last week! This novel is about a dystopian society that takes place in the 1890s. In this America, a mysterious Flu has wiped out most of the population and now a woman’s sole role is to get married and have lots of children. Women who cannot get pregnant within a reasonable time frame (usually a year) are cast out of society or labeled as witches and killed. I know, I know. It doesn’t seem like the perfect book right now, but hold on. The novel centers around Ada, a young woman who gets married but finds out she’s barren. She’s soon cast out of her husband’s home and when there are rumblings that Ada might be a witch, her mom ships her off to a nunnery. It’s there that she learns about Hole in the Wall, a gang of outlaw women who are just like her—barren and cast out. She joins the gang and finds a group of women and nonbinary people who become her new home. There was a lot I liked about this book, mainly the cast of characters and the setting. I’ve never read a Western before! But there were some things about it that rubbed me the wrong way and I was especially unsettled by the ending. After I finished the book, I was perusing the reviews on Goodreads and this one by a Goodreads user named Renae was really eye-opening. The review begins by calling the book out for toxic white feminism and the reviewer made a really strong case for how problematic the book is. It’s the kind of book I would hesitate to put into anyone’s hands, but even still, I enjoyed the novel itself and it was what I needed to read in the days after Roe v Wade was struck down.

What I’m Reading This Week

  • Instructions for Dancing by Nicola Yoon (audio) – I’m more than halfway through this YA romance and oh, it’s just so wonderful. I’m really loving it, and I’m especially loving the way Yoon is playing with the romance genre and themes within it in this book.
  • The Lost for Words Bookshop by Stephanie Butland (e-book) – I just started this novel, which has been languishing on my Goodreads TBR since 2018. I don’t have too many thoughts about it right now, so stay tuned. 🙂

What are you reading?

Categories: Books

What I’m Reading (6.20.22)

Hi, friends! Long time, no talk, eh? I had a lovely time away on my trip to Niagara Falls with my mom and I cannot wait to recap the trip on the blog and show you guys all the amazing photos I took. The Falls are truly breathtaking! Unfortunately, two days after coming home from my trip, it finally happened: I tested positive for Covid. Womp, womp. I made it two years and three months at least?! I’ve spent the past five days laying on the couch watching TV and reading, and while my symptoms haven’t been pleasant, it could have been much worse and for that I am super grateful. I’ll be writing a post all about my experience with Covid, though, so stay tuned. 🙂

Today, I have a ton of book reviews for you! I didn’t get nearly any reading done on my vacation but a Covid quarantine meant I was able to just lay around and read as much as I wanted to! (I’m not always able to read when I’m sick, but I was able to with Covid—a silver lining if there ever was one.) Let’s dive into the reviews, shall we?

The Odds of Loving Grover Cleveland by Rebekah Crane (★★★★☆)

I enjoyed this YA story that deals with dark themes—eating disorders, suicide, grief, and depression, to name a few—and is interwoven with a sweet love story that keeps things from feeling too dark. Zander is spending her summer at Camp Padua, a camp for at-risk teens. Her parents hope that being in a different environment will be a balm for her after a tragic event. It’s there she meets people who may seem “crazy” at the outset, but wind up becoming the people she can be the most herself with. It’s a story about friendship and love and loss and how to keep moving forward when life feels unimaginably hard. I thought the ending was a little too cutesy-perfect, but it was also nice to see these teens who have been dealt a rough hand get a happy ending.

The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz (★★☆☆☆)

Oof, unpopular opinion alert! I did not like this book. I should have trusted a good friend who told me it was boring and not worth my time, but then other people raved about it, so I wanted to give it a shot. I shouldn’t have bothered, quite honestly. The Plot is about Jacob Finch Bonner who is a struggling author teaching at a third-rate MFA program. One of his students in the program brags about this incredible idea for the book he’s writing, which annoys Jacob. This student promises that the book will be a bestseller, will get a movie deal, etc. And then the student dies… and Jacob’s like, “Hey, why don’t I write this book and become a famous best-selling author instead?”

There was just so much I didn’t like about this book. Jacob, for one, was such a boring, blah, and one-dimensional character. He was just not someone I wanted to root for. I found all the long-winded soliloquies about the writing craft and how important writing is to be so very mind-numbing. I am just not here for people who are so precious about writing. (These are often the people who also find literary fiction to be the best, and maybe only, genre to read.) The foreshadowing in the book was so heavy-handed that I could see the ending coming from a mile away, and I’m not even someone who’s good at guessing the ending to thrillers. All in all, this book did not work for me at all.

Romancing Mister Bridgerton by Julia Quinn (★★★☆☆)

I’m sad that I didn’t love this book as much as I thought I would, as I had such high hopes for Penelope and Colin’s romance! I liked the story but I really did not enjoy Colin’s character. He was moody, temperamental, and cynical at times. It seemed like every time Penelope did something that Colin didn’t think was “appropriate,” he lost his temper at her and it was disappointing. He’s written as such a fun, light-hearted, sweet man in the Netflix show and I wanted more of that character from him. Penelope was a wonderful character to root for, though, and I enjoyed her character arc throughout the novel, especially as her secret comes to light (I won’t spoil it, but if you watch the show, you know what it is). And even though I didn’t love Colin in this book, there is an interesting idea in this novel of what happens when you start to truly get to know the person you’ve loved from afar and recognize that they are as human as you and have their own set of vulnerabilities and weaknesses and issues to contend with.

Little Secrets by Jennifer Hillier (★★★☆☆)

For me, this was a very uneven thriller that struggled from a lack of focus. The story starts with a kidnapping: Marin and Derek’s four-year-old son Sebastian is kidnapped a few days before Christmas at a busy shopping plaza. The story then moves forward one year; Sebastian is still missing but the trail to find him has gone cold. Marin and Derek are still married but living seemingly independent lives. Then, Marin finds out that Derek is having an affair with a younger woman and this seems to spark something in her. She may have lost her son, but she’s sure as hell not going to lose her husband, too, so she has to figure out what to do about her husband’s side piece. The story moves back and forth between Marin’s point of view and McKenzie’s, the woman Derek is having an affair with. And honestly, I was simply bored by the whole plot up until the last 50 pages. It didn’t feel like it was going anywhere, the whole kidnapping plot faded to the background, and all of the characters were kinda blah and one-dimensional. Thankfully, those last 50 pages saved the book because the twist at the end was so very good! I was really impressed with the way the author revealed the twist and the way it all came together in the end. I just wish the author had given us a bit more excitement during the first 250 pages because it was such a slog until the end.

Almost Just Friends by Jill Shalvis (★★★★☆)

I really enjoyed this contemporary romance! It was the kind of book where I felt bereft when I finished it because I didn’t want to be done with these characters. The novel follows Piper who has spent most of her life taking care of her younger brother and sister. Their parents died when Piper was a teenager and while they were in the care of their grandparents, Piper had to step up into the mother role for her siblings. Now, her siblings are off on their own and Piper is finally ready to live a life of her own: she wants to sell the house her grandparents owned and leave their small town in California to attend medical school in Colorado. And then her siblings come home, both harboring major secrets that have the potential to ruin all of Piper’s best-laid plans. Not to mention, Piper’s elderly neighbor’s son has just arrived back in town and he also has the potential to ruin her plans with his tall, dark, handsome, and steady presence. It’s a story about family and sacrifice and, yes, plans. And also love, loss, grief, and learning to live with that grief. I really, really enjoyed this novel.

What I’m Reading This Week

  • Pony by RJ Palacio (audio) – I am so close to finishing this audiobook… just about an hour left. I’m not loving it as much as everyone else seems to (sensing a theme in my reading lately?), but we’ll see how the ending plays out.
  • The Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows by Olivia Waite (e-book) – I just started reading this f/f historical romance so I don’t have many thoughts about it yet. But I’m hoping I enjoy it as much as I enjoyed the last book of hers I read!
  • Outlawed by Anna North (print) – This book has a low Goodreads rating (3.5) but maybe I’ll end up enjoying it more, since I’m in a weird reading mood these days.

What are you reading?

Categories: Books

What I’m Reading (6.6.22)

Happy Monday, friends! It’s the Monday I’ve been waiting for: I just have two days of work this week and then I’m off for a glorious 13 days. I am so excited! Mom and I leave on Wednesday afternoon for our trip to Niagara Falls. I’ll have a post up on Wednesday but after that, this blog will be quiet until Monday, June 20th. I’ll be back with some reading updates and trip recaps!

Last week, I finished two books and really liked them both:

Things That Make White People Uncomfortable by Michael Bennett (★★★★☆)

Michael Bennett is a former defensive end who played most of his career with the Seattle Seahawks. He’s now retired, but he wrote this book in 2018 when he was still an active NFL player. This book covers a wide range of topics, from Colin Kaepernick to the way the NFL doesn’t take care of its players to women’s rights to the time he was a victim of police violence and aggression. The writing is clunky at times and sometimes an essay would jump from one thought to another with little cohesion. Still, I gave this book four stars because it was incredibly impactful and I am really astonished at the way Michael Bennett was willing to be so open and honest, not just about his struggles but about how he feels about the NFL. I love watching pro football, but I can’t lie that there’s a part of me that always feels guilty that I do because the NFL has a ton of issues—the way it treats its players, the fact that it’s 2022 and there still have never been any Black owners of any team (!!!), the way Colin Kaepernick has been black-listed from the league for taking a knee during the national anthem despite being a great QB… I could go on. I support anyone’s decision to take a knee because the military does not fight for our right to stand for the anthem. They fight for the right for us to have the freedom to stand when we want or kneel if that’s what we want to do to make a statement.

Love & Other Disasters by Anita Kelly (★★★★★)

I loved, loved, loved, this sweet queer romance, which took place on the set of a cooking reality TV show. Dahlia has entered the competition on a whim, needing something different in her life after her divorce. London has entered the competition because they want to use the prize money ($100,000) to build a charity for LQBTQ+ youths. London has recently come out as nonbinary and not everyone in their life (or everyone on the reality show) is supportive. This is the first novel of any kind that I’ve read with a nonbinary main character and I just loved the representation. I loved London so much; while they were steadfast in what they believed about themselves, they had a strong vulnerability about the way others reacted to them. I also loved the dichotomies of Dahlia and London’s personalities; where Dahlia is bubbly and personable, London is grumpy and quiet. They made such a sweet pair, and their love story was one of my favorites. I also love any book set on a reality TV show, and this one truly delivered.

What I’m Reading This Week (& on Vacation)

I thought I’d take you guys through what I’m reading now and what I’m taking with me on vacation. This won’t be a vacation where I’ll get a ton of reading done (likely just on the plane), but I still like to bring a ton of options (thank god for Kindles!) so I have enough reading material at my fingertips.

  • The Odds of Loving Grover Cleveland by Rebekah Crane (print) – I’m about 200 pages into this YA story set at a summer camp for “troubled youths.” I’m pretty positive I’ll finish it before Wednesday.
  • Romancing Mister Bridgerton by Julia Quinn (e-book) – I have this romance queued up to start while I’m on vacation, which is Penelope and Colin’s story. Shonda Rhimes announced that their story is going to be the focus of season 3 of Bridgerton and I am so excited for that!
  • The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz (e-book) – In between pages of my romance, I’ll start this novel that got a lot of buzz last year. It seems to get mixed reviews from my trusted sources, so I’m going in with low expectations.
  • Almost Just Friends by Jill Shalvis (e-book) – Just in case I zoom through Romancing Mister Bridgerton, I have this romance downloaded to my Kindle to read.
  • Little Secrets by Jennifer Hillier (print) – This is my “in case of emergency” book that I’m bringing on my trip. I am 99% sure I will not get around to it, but just in case I hate The Plot, I’m packing this as a backup.

What are you reading?

Categories: Books

May Reading Wrap-Up

Books Read

  • Anatomy: A Love Story by Dana Schwartz (★★☆☆☆ – print, library) – a historical thriller about a woman in the 1800s who wants to be a doctor
  • Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson (★★★★☆ – audiobook, Libby) – a YA thriller about kids at a boarding school in Vermont who are trying to solve a decades-old mystery
  • Yours in Scandal by Lauren Layne (★★★★☆ – e-book, owned, Amazon) – a fun romance about the mayor of NYC falling in love with his opponent’s daughter
  • The Maid by Nita Prose (★★★★★ – print, owned, Book of the Month) – a truly heartwarming story that is part-thriller and part-character study
  • All the Feels by Olivia Dade (★★★★☆ – e-book, Libby) – a sweet romance about a TV star falling in love with his handler
  • The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin (★★★★☆ – print, owned, Tombolo Books) – an impactful slim book that compiles two long letters: one to Baldwin’s nephew and one to America
  • Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted by Suleika Jaouad (★★★★★ – audiobook, Libby) – a beautifully written memoir about a woman who gets an aggressive form of leukemia at 22 and the road trip she takes after finishing treatment
  • Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez (★★★☆☆ – #ownvoices, print, owned, Book of the Month) – a fictionalized retelling of a court case that involved poor women of color being sterilized against their will
  • Cream and Punishment by Susannah Nix (★★★★☆- e-book, owned, Amazon) – a contemporary romance novel involving the trope of “second chance romance” that was exactly what I needed
  • Flight of Dreams by Ariel Lawhon (★★★★☆ – print, owned, Thriftbooks) – a fictionalized retelling of the Hindenburg disaster that left 35 people dead and what may have happened to cause the explosion

Book Challenges

  • Book Club – Our May pick for book club was Anatomy: A Love Story, but we didn’t get to discuss it this month since a bunch of people were feeling under the weather on the day we were supposed to meet. The friend who recommended it gave it 5 stars but most of us gave it 3 or fewer stars, so it was going to be a spicy book club!
  • Unread Shelf Project – In May, the prompt was to read the shortest book on my shelves, so I picked up The Fire Next Time, which is just 102 pages. I’m really glad I finally picked up this book! I bought it at my favorite local indie bookstore last year because I knew I wanted to have this book on my shelves.
  • Goodreads Challenge: I only read one book off my Goodreads Challenge list (wherein I’m reading all of the books added to my Goodreads TBR before 2018), which was Flight of Dreams. It was such a good book and I can’t believe I waited so long to read it!

Book Stats

  • # of books read: 10
  • # of pages read: 3,226 pages
  • Genre breakdown: Fiction (40%), Romance (20%), Nonfiction (20%), YA (10%), and Mystery/Thriller (10%)
  • Format breakdown: print (50%), e-book (30%), and audiobook (20%)
  • Fastest read: The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin (3 days)
  • Slowest read: Truly Devious, All the Feels, and Between Two Kingdoms (9 days)
  • Star average: 3.8 (down .5 from last month, oof!)
  • % of books by or about BIPOC or the LGBT community: 30%
  • Abandoned books: 4 (Feel the Heat by Kate Meader, Dating Dr. Dil by Nisha Sharma, Read Between the Lines by Rachel Lacey, and Minor Feelings by Cathy Park Hong)
  • Goodreads goal check-in: I set a goal of 135 books this year and currently, I am 4 books behind schedule. Eeks!

Superlatives of May

  • Favorite book of May: The Maid by Nita Prose
  • Favorite romance of May: All the Feels by Olivia Dade
  • The book that will stick with me for a long, long time: Between Two Kingdoms by Suleika Jaouad
  • The book I thought I would like more than I did: Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez
  • The book that had me googling the most to learn more about the facts presented in the book: Flight of Dreams by Ariel Lawhon

What was the best book you read in May?