Stephany Writes

Categories: Books

What I’m Reading (10.26.22)

A Mother’s Reckoning: Living in the Aftermath of Tragedy by Sue Klebold (★★★★★)

Print • Owned (Thriftbooks) • Nonfiction • 2016

Sue Klebold’s son, Dylan, was one of the killers of the Columbine massacre that occurred in April 1999. This book is her attempt to make sense of what her son did and help other parents better understand their children. It’s a difficult book, as Sue is grappling with immense amounts of grief—grief over losing her son to suicide, grief over coming to terms with what was going on in her son’s brain to lead him to commit mass murder, and grief for all of the people her son killed and their families. Whenever the identity of a mass shooter is released to the public (and how sad that these mass shootings are so common now that this is a typical process we’re used to), I always think of the family of that shooter. What must it be like to know that your child or sibling or cousin or grandchild or niece or nephew committed such a heinous act? In this book, Sue gives us an up-close look at this kind of grief and bewilderment. I don’t believe the Klebolds did anything wrong here. I believe they missed some signs of depression in Dylan, but those signs are so, so easy to miss (and even easier 25 years ago when mental health and depression weren’t common things we talked about). This was an incredibly hard read but also an enlightening one, and I am so impressed with Sue’s courage to write this book and be totally honest about what she experienced and the emotions she went through.

Sparks Like Stars by Nadia Hashimi (★★★★☆)

Audiobook • Libby • Fiction • 2021

This book begins in 1978 Kabul where 10-year-old Sitara lives a charmed life. Her father is the president’s right-hand man and she experiences all of the privileges that come along with that. Everything changes though when communists stage a coup, assassinating the president and Sitara’s family along with them. Suddenly, she’s an orphan in a place that doesn’t feel like home. Sitara is soon taken in by an American diplomat who takes her to America and changes her life completely. Thirty years later, Sitara—now Aryana—is a renowned surgical oncologist and is thrown from a loop when the very same guard who smuggled her out of the palace where she lived during the coup (and possibly, the same guard who killed her whole family) shows up in her examination room as a patient, upending the tidy world she has created for herself. There is so much to love about this book: it’s propulsive and enlightening and fascinating. There are badass female characters and beautiful scenery and an uplifting ending. I have some quibbles with the plot and the way some things were revealed while others were not. It also felt overly long in places, especially in the middle. (I think I would have grown very weary of it, had I not been listening to it on audio.) All in all, though, a really fantastic read about a part of the world I read very little about!

The Soulmate Equation by Christina Lauren (★★★★★)

Print • Owned (Amazon) • Contemporary Romance • 2022

You guys, I loved this book so much! Christina Lauren’s books just always work so well for me. I don’t know what it is about this writing duo, but their books give me all the sappy, happy feels. In this novel, there’s a new dating service in town called GeneticAlly that matches people up based on their DNA (there’s a whole scientific reasoning behind it, but I couldn’t explain it to you if I tried. Something about genes and how certain ones can help show compatibility?) All you have to do is send in a spit sample, and select what type of match you want—do you want to keep your options open and allow any percentage of matches? Or do you want to hold out for only the top matches, someone who is 80-100% genetically compatible with you? Single mom Jess opts for the top matches and is shocked when she receives a 98% score with GeneticAlly’s founder, Dr. River Peña. Never having seen a score so high, the team has a proposition: Spend three months getting to know River and attending events to promote their business, and they’ll pay her. Okay, okay. I know that sounds kinda sleazy, but I promise it does make sense in the context of the book. And, ugh, I just loved Jess and River and their connection so much! It was a slight enemies-to-lovers trope, but they weren’t enemies for very long and it was so heartwarming to watch them fall for one another. This novel has some fantastic side characters, too, including Jess’s daughter who added a special precociousness to the book. It was sappy and romantic and everything I love in my romance novels. Were there issues? Yes, absolutely. But if I’m rating based on how the novel made me feel, it’s a solid 5 stars.

What are you reading right now?

Categories: Books

What I’m Reading (10.17.22)

Happy Monday, friends! Whew… October has been a very slow reading month for me. We’re halfway through the month and I’ve only finished three books! It’s been a busier-than-usual month with lots of things going on, and it leaves a lot less time for reading than usual. But that’s life, isn’t it? And I don’t mind being busy right now. It’s feeling very good. But I do hope that the second half of October will allow for more reading time!

I have three book reviews for you guys today: a book I liked, a book I loved, and a book I didn’t care for. The full gamut! Let’s discuss.

The Hand on the Wall by Maureen Johnson (★★★★☆)

The third book in Maureen Johnson’s Truly Devious series provides a sense of closure of everything that’s happened to the students at this elite academy in Vermont, and allows them to move forward with their lives. The majority of the novel takes place during a snowstorm, with a bunch of the students (including Stevie, our main character, and her friends) snowed in and just trying to figure out how to pass the time. Except Stevie uses this time to continue her detective ways, and she really wants to figure out the reason behind all the crazy things that have been happening to students at this academy. All in all, I thought this was a really great way to wrap up the series (although a fourth book in the series released this year, so I can still follow my favorite teenage detective, yay!) I think the author could have pared it down a bit (there was a lot going on and so many different storylines and characters to keep track of!), but I still really enjoyed reading this novel and I’m looking forward to what’s next for Stevie!

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus (★★★★★)

Oh man, how I loved this book! It is going to be extremely hard to pick an overall favorite book of the year because I have read so many excellent ones, and Lessons in Chemistry definitely falls into that category. This novel is about Elizabeth Zott, a chemist. Unfortunately, Elizabeth is trying to break into the chemistry field in the 1960s, a time when women were not welcome in scientific spaces. Instead, after a series of mishaps, she finds herself hosting a cooking show for housewives—but she decides to put her own spin on it, showing her audience just how much chemistry is involved in cooking and how you can utilize chemistry’s basic building blocks to make incredible food for your family and maybe change your life as well. This book is delightful in so many different ways, between Elizabeth herself, her highly intelligent dog Six Thirty, and the friends Elizabeth makes along the way. However, you should also know that there are some harrowing things Elizabeth goes through. After all, she’s working in a male-dominated industry in the 1960s, a time when rape, sexual harassment, and misogyny claims were not taken seriously. I knew that there were going to be some really hard things in this novel, but it felt really, really important to include them and really, really true to the experiences of women like Elizabeth. It’s not easy to read about, but it’s something that should be talked about more. And the least I can do, as a woman who has benefitted greatly from all of the women who came before me, is read their stories. (Yes, this is about a fictional chemist, but the difficulties she experienced are not.)  All in all, though, I really enjoyed this novel and could not get enough of the characters or the story. A new favorite!

Count Your Lucky Stars by Alexandria Bellefleur (★★☆☆☆)

I don’t know why I keep reading Alexandria Bellefleur’s books. I am sure she is a lovely person and I am so glad she is writing queer romances, but man oh man, her books are just so bland to me. These characters do nothing for me and I don’t even get excited for the characters to kiss or have sex or profess their love. There’s just always something missing for me, where it’s hard for me to believe in the romance. In this novel, Margot is reunited with her first love Olivia when she learns that Olivia is the wedding planner for the wedding where she is going to be the “Best Man.” Cue awkwardness! Even worse, Olivia suddenly discovers she needs a place to stay after a mishap at her apartment and, of course, why not just bunk with Margot for a few weeks? Sparks fly when they become roommates and the women are forced to deal with their past to move forward into the future. This novel requires suspending your belief again and again and again… and it all just felt forced and unrealistic. Near the end, I found myself skimming the book just so I could be finished with it. A rave review, eh?

What I’m Reading This Week

What are you reading?

Categories: Books

September Reading Wrap-Up

September was an odd reading month for me. I didn’t make it to double digits in books read, which is always a secret goal of mine. But the books I did read were fantastic and many will make my favorites list at the end of the year. It was an odd month with a vacation, an unexpected evacuation, and a really busy month of work, so I’m not too bummed about it. I just know that I feel better when I’m reading a lot, so I’m trying to figure out ways to make that happen.

Books Read

1) Mary Jane by Jessica Anya Blau (★★★★★ – e-book, Amazon) – A wonderful coming-of-age story about a girl who becomes a nanny and the family she works for.

2) Hook, Line, and Sinker by Tessa Bailey (★★★★★ – e-book, Libby) – A contemporary romance that had a lot to say about the stories we tell ourselves.

3) Emily of New Moon by L.M. Montgomery (★★☆☆☆ – print, owned, indie bookstore) – A book about a young girl who goes to live with her aunt after her father dies; it did not age well.

4) A Place to Hang the Moon by Kate Albus (★★★★★ – audiobook, Libby) – A really sweet middle-grade novel about three orphaned siblings and their quest to find a new family.

5) A Dangerous Kind of Lady by Mia Vincy (★★★☆☆ – e-book, owned, Amazon) – A historical romance that just didn’t hold my attention like I hoped.

6) The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Dare (★★★☆☆ – print, owned, Book of the Month) – A powerful novel about a girl in Nigeria who aches for education and a way to share her voice with the world.

7) You Got Anything Stronger? by Gabrielle Union (★★★★★ – audiobook, Libby) – A new essay collection from actress Gabrielle Union that includes poignant essays about motherhood, aging, marriage, working in Hollywood, and more.

8) Pint of Contention by Susannah Nix (★★★★☆ – e-book, owned, Amazon) – A sweet contemporary romance novel about a man who’s hiding a secret and the woman he falls in love with.

9) Carrie Soto Is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid (★★★★★ – print, owned, Amazon) – An excellent sports novel about a woman who returns to the world of professional tennis after five years away to take her Grand Slams record back.

Book Challenges

1) Book Club: For book club, we read Mary Jane by Jessica Anya Blau, which we all pretty much loved. It was a 5-star read for nearly all of us, and it was fun talking with everyone about the different parts we loved about the novel.

2) Unread Shelf Challenge: The prompt for September was “a book that represents the reader you want to be,” which, hello, talk about an existential crisis! The reader I want to be, though, is someone who reads widely, reads about cultures different than mine, and reads diversely. So I picked up The Girl with the Louding Voice, which was such an impactful read but booooy was it heavy.

3) Goodreads Challenge: Oops, I didn’t read anything for my Goodreads Challenge this month! We’re getting to crunch time so I need to read a lot more books in October than I did in September.

Book Stats

  • # of books read: 9
  • # of pages read: 3,154 pages
  • Genre breakdown: Romance (33%), Fiction (33%), YA/Middle Grade (22%), and Nonfiction (11%)
  • Format breakdown: e-book (44%), print (33%), and audiobook (22%)
  • Fastest read: Mary Jane (4 days)
  • Slowest read: The Girl with the Louding Voice (11 days)
  • Star average: 4.1
  • % of books by or about BIPOC or the LGBT community: 22%
  • Abandoned books: 0 (hooray!)
  • Goodreads goal check-in: I set a goal of 135 books this year and currently, I am 7 books behind schedule. (I am not planning on catching up on this goal. Now I’m hoping to read at least 125 books!)

Superlatives of September

  • Favorite book of the month: Carrie Soto Is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid
  • Favorite romance of the month: Hook, Line, and Sinker by Tessa Bailey
  • Most disappointing read of the month: Emily of New Moon by L.M. Montgomery
  • The book that totally lived up to the hype for me: Mary Jane by Jessica Anya Blau
  • The book that was the hardest to get through: The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Dare
Categories: Books

What I’m Reading (10.5.22)

Happy Wednesday! After a rather lackluster reading update last week, I’m coming to you today with three excellent reads, two of which will definitely make my favorites list at the end of the year. I’m excited to talk about these books, so let’s dive in:

You Got Anything Stronger? by Gabrielle Union (★★★★★)

Another excellent essay collection from Gabrielle Union. This book starts with a long chapter about Union’s struggle to conceive a child and ultimately deciding to use a surrogate. It was deeply personal and raw, and I found myself tearing up as I listened to Union express how painful it was to not be able to carry her own child and how scared she was during the entire pregnancy. One of the most powerful and moving essays in this book was Union talking about her stepchild’s decision to come out as trans. It was so, so beautiful to witness the way Gabrielle and her husband Dwyane Wade tried so hard to get this right, to make it a coming-out story that was healthy and open and honest. I want to shove this book into everyone’s hands for that essay alone. Throughout the novel, Gabrielle talks about aging, finding that elusive work/life balance, motherhood, and working in Hollywood. She also includes some really poignant essays about racism, including the time she found herself in a Nazi bar in Croatia (in 2019!!) and basically had to run for her life to escape a bunch of white supremacists. This essay collection is truly outstanding and I hope she continues writing. She has a lot to say and I’m here for all of it.

Carrie Soto Is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid (★★★★★)

I think I might have a new favorite TJR book. Carrie Soto Is Back was such a fun read, and I loved every minute I spent with Carrie, on and off the tennis court. When this novel begins, Carrie has been retired from professional tennis for six years. Her record of winning 20 Grand Slams (the most by a female tennis player) hasn’t been touched, but then, while she sits in the stands at the U.S. Open, she watches 30-year-old Nicki Chan take her record from her. That doesn’t sit well with Carrie so, at the age of 37, she decides to re-enter the world of professional tennis and take her record back. You guys, this book was so, so good. It was fast-paced, exciting, and filled with fully formed characters who I ended up loving. The thing about Carrie, though, is that she is not a very likable character. She’s ruthless, cold-hearted at times, intense, and solely focused on being the best. It’s not about having fun or being the best she can be; she has to be the best in the world or her whole legacy is tarnished. While she could be infuriating at times, I couldn’t help falling in love with her. She was such an amazing, strong, well-rounded character, and I loved the way TJR explored the myth of the perfect female sports heroine. There’s this idea that our sports heroines need to package themselves in this gracious, accommodating way to make them palatable to us. Why do we even need that? Why is it so necessary that we can relate to our sports heroes, that we need that in order to root for them? It’s an interesting question that TJR attempts to answer during this book, and I think she did a fantastic job.

Pint of Contention by Susannah Nix (★★★★☆)

This was a really sweet contemporary romance that also dealt with heavier themes, such as ALS and grief. In this novel, Maggie has been hired as an executive consultant to figure out why King’s Creamery (an ice cream brand on par with Ben & Jerry’s) is bleeding money. She rents a house next door to Ryan, who happens to be George King’s (of King Creamery fame) stepson, and a hunky fireman to boot. When a newspaper expose reveals Maggie’s real reason for being in town, she becomes enemy No. 1, as everyone thinks she’s there to recommend huge layoffs. (And in this town, King’s Creamery is the largest employer.) So Ryan proposes a solution: he’ll pretend to date her and, in doing so, let the townspeople know she’s not to be messed with. While I ended up loving the way things turned out for Maggie and Ryan, I will say that there’s a twinge of misogyny in their relationship. There were times when I really did not like Ryan; he was holding a lot back from Maggie, but expecting her to be forthright and honest at all times. He could be a bit of an asshole, and while I’m glad Maggie saw through his asshole-y ways, I also expect better from my male romance heroes and he just wasn’t it.

What I’m Reading This Week

What are you reading?

Categories: Books

What I’m Reading (9.29.22)

Hello from Ft Lauderdale! My mom, stepdad, and all of our pets evacuated on Tuesday to escape Hurricane Ian. I live in a mandatory evacuation zone, as do my mom and stepdad, so we booked an Airbnb on Monday night, prepped our homes, packed up the pets, and took a 5-hour journey to the southeast side of the state! It’s been a wild week, one I will be posting about next week once all of this mess is behind us. (Wonder of wonders, the Tampa Bay area once again escaped a direct hit by Hurricane Ian. How do we keep getting so lucky?! A hurricane hasn’t hit our area in over 100 years!)

For now, I’m sticking to my original posting plan: book reviews! I had hoped to get this post up yesterday but it didn’t happen. Neither of these books is going to make my favorites list, but YMMV.

A Lie for a Lie by Helena Hunting (★★★☆☆)

A Lie for a Lie had the potential to be a wonderful romance but it included my least-favorite twist in these kinds of books (telling you this twist would be a spoiler, so unfortunately, I can’t) and a set of over-the-top parents who engaged in some of my least-favorite behaviors (no, we’re not asking fathers for their permission to marry their daughters anymore). This was a second-chance romance about Rook and Lainey. Rook is a popular hockey player who has been known as a bit of a ladies’ man and is off on his usual Alaskan adventure. Typically, he comes to his cabin in Alaska every summer with his brother to get away from it all, but his brother can’t come this year so it’s just him. Lainey is a marine biologist working on a PhD who comes to Alaska to study wildlife. Rook and Lainey share a very bumpy airplane ride together that bonds them, and then, when they arrive at the airport and Lainey finds out she can’t reserve a rental car, Rook offers to take her to her cabin. (A great premise for a terrible thriller.) Alas, this is a romance novel so nothing nefarious happens. Rather, the two of them spend the month falling in love. And then… Rook has to leave Alaska unexpectedly and wouldn’t you know it: Neither of them leaves any way to communicate afterward. No cell phone numbers, not even a last name. A year later, they reconnect when Rook finds out that Lainey is working at the same aquarium where he’s attending a kid’s birthday party. And, well, I’m sure you know what happens from there. This wasn’t a terrible romance, but I just wasn’t a fan of the far-fetched plot nor did I care for many of the characters. (Open-door romance.)

The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Dare (★★★☆☆)

Oh, you guys. I wanted to love this book so much more than I did. It was beautifully written, a heartbreaking yet also uplifting story about a young girl in Nigeria who simply wants to find her “louding voice.” Adunni wants what girls her age don’t get: a chance at education and a chance to use her voice for good. Instead, at age 14, she is married off by her father to a man three times her age. I showed my naivete here, as I was astonished that this wasn’t a historical fiction novel; instead, it was written in present day, which means these atrocities of girls being married off to much older men and the human trafficking that ensues is a reality for so many Nigerian girls. It’s horrifying. While this book had such a big story to tell, it was one that was very easy for me to set down. And at night, I found myself not wanting to sink into the story, knowing it was just going to break my heart. All in all, it’s a story that I definitely think people should read, and I wish I was in a better headspace to appreciate it.

What I’m Reading This Week

What are you reading?