Stephany Writes

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?

Categories: Books

What I’m Reading (5.30.22)

Hello, friends! Happy Monday. It’s Memorial Day here in the U.S., a day for us to honor the fallen soldiers who gave the ultimate sacrifice for our country. I have complicated feelings about patriotism and it’s hard to be proud of this country—both its past and its present—but I do believe in honoring our military, paying homage to those who have lost their lives, and striving to make this country better. That’s all we can do, right?

Changing gears dramatically, it’s time for some book reviews! I have two four-star reads for you guys today, so it was a pretty good reading week for me.

Cream and Punishment by Susannah Nix (★★★★☆)

This romance was pure fun! I really enjoyed it, especially the character arcs of both Lucy and Tanner. In this novel, Lucy and Tanner are former partners; Lucy broke up with him after Tanner said the L-word way too early in their relationship (in her mind, at least). They’re both trying to move on when Tanner gets a job in the content marketing department of his family’s (incredibly successful) ice cream business. The team lead of that department? Lucy. Eeks! Throughout the novel, we find out why Lucy broke up with Tanner and the really sad home life she has. Her whole goal is to get a promotion so that she can finally move out of her mom’s house and not be the sole provider/caretaker/maid/etc for her brother and mom. I found Lucy’s incessant need to take care of everyone around her to be relatable; it can be so, so hard to establish boundaries with family members because they’re family and shouldn’t you do everything in your power for them? At times, I just wanted to shake her, though, because her mom was being so blatantly manipulative and I wanted Lucy to develop a goddamn backbone. (I also felt like Lucy’s mom lacked a bit of nuance; it was sometimes hard to understand why Lucy felt such a strong need to take care of her when her mom was just so awful to her all the time.) Eventually, though, Lucy learns to stand up to her mom and find her own happiness with Tanner. (Tanner had his own internal demons to deal with, although I found the way things turned out in the end for him to be a little too picture perfect.) A good, easy, unremarkable romance novel!

Flight of Dreams by Ariel Lawhon (★★★★☆)

I really enjoyed this historical fiction novel, which is based on the real story of the Hindenburg disaster of 1937. In this novel, the author reimagines the people and their experiences onboard the Hindenburg airship as well as what may have happened to cause the explosion that left 35 people dead. (To this day, a specific cause has never been identified, although many theories abound.) The novel brings together the stories of five specific people on the Hindenburg: the journalist who is on the airship with her husband, the stewardess who has a secret, the cabin boy who is just trying to help his family, the navigator who is in love with the stewardess, and the American who may not be exactly who he seems. While survivors of the disaster are quick to say that their time onboard was uneventful, Ariel Lawhon thinks differently. How can people spending three days in close quarters have such an uneventful flight? I thought this novel was such an easy one to sink into. I loved getting to know all of the different characters, and I particularly enjoyed the way the author structured the novel—especially how the sections started getting shorter and shorter in the hours leading up to the explosion, giving the novel a quickened pace. I spent a lot of time looking up zeppelins (which is the type of aircraft that the Hindenburg was; in today’s terms, it’s essentially a blimp) and what the interior of a Hindenburg class of aircraft looked like. (It reminded me a lot of a cruise ship… but in the air! Can you imagine?!) All in all, a really easy, interesting read that taught me a lot about this time period from an entirely different angle. (This novel takes place two years before the official start of WWII, but Nazism and propaganda are very much discussed, especially considering the Hindenburg had swastikas all over it.)

What I’m Reading This Week

  • Love & Other Disasters by Anita Kelly (print) – I’m a little more than 50 pages into this queer romance and I’m very much enjoying it. The setting for this novel is a cooking reality show and it makes me want to binge past seasons of Masterchef right now!
  • Things That Make White People Uncomfortable by Michael Bennett (e-book) – I’ve read just 50 pages of this essay collection and I’m already highlighting the hell out of it. Michael Bennett is a former NFL defensive end and I’m really looking forward to his views on the NFL and their approach to racial justice.
  • Pony by R.J. Palacio (audio) – Once I come off the holds list for this book (which should be within the next few days), I’m going to start it on audio. It gets excellent reviews, so I’m looking forward to starting it!

What are you reading?

Categories: Books

What I’m Reading (5.24.22)

Hi, friends! I had one of those reading weeks that spanned the gamut; in fact, I have three books to talk about today, all of which have different ratings—a 5-star read, a 4-star read, and a 3-star read. How fun!

Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted by Suleika Jaouad (★★★★★)

This book, you guys. It gave me a similar reading experience to Chanel Miller’s memoir, Know My Name, which recounts the time she was sexually assaulted by Brock Turner and the ensuing trial. Both memoirs are so beautifully written and so powerfully raw. Neither hold any of their emotions back and show you the messy, gritty side of trauma. In this book, Suleika recounts her experience of being diagnosed with a rare, aggressive form of leukemia at age 22, right when she was starting her life after college. She spent the next few years in cancer treatment and afterwards, she takes herself on a solo road trip to visit the people who reached out to her and helped her during her treatment. What I appreciated most about this memoir is that Suleika doesn’t hold back with her emotions. She exposes the dark side of being a sick person; how you can grow to hate someone who is giving you life-saving treatment because it’s going to make you sick, how debilitating it can be to be so dependent on other people at a time in your life when you’re supposed to be experiencing total independence, and how it can be so hard to understand the lives of your caregivers, their need for time away and time apart, when you can never get “away” or have time “apart” from your illness. She doesn’t aim to be this beautifully serene and strong cancer patient or wrap up her treatment in this pretty package; she’s honest about the times when she was hurtful to the people around her and unable to understand their needs. I found the chapters on Suleika’s road trip to be less compelling than her cancer treatment (which feels weird to say…), but I am so grateful that she was able to find the words to talk about this time in her life because I can imagine it will help others better understand the lives of cancer patients (especially young cancer patients) and be a balm to those who have gone through cancer treatment themselves.

All the Feels by Olivia Dade (★★★★☆)

I really liked this contemporary romance, especially since it featured a plus-sized main character and her weight wasn’t a central plot point. In this novel, Lauren has been tasked with “baby-sitting” a celebrity named Alex, as a favor to her cousin. Alex has gotten into a few public spats and Lauren’s cousin (who is also the showrunner for a very successful Game of Thrones-esque TV show that Alex stars in) is hoping that Lauren can keep him from getting into any more trouble until the show is over. Well, this is a romance so we know what happens from here: Lauren and Alex end up falling in love… but can their relationship survive the rigors of Hollywood? This novel definitely gave me “all the feels” (heh), most especially because this book was about more than Alex and Lauren… it was also about Lauren’s inability to take up space, her belief that she’s not worthy of attention and love and support. Watching her come to terms with these feelings and make an effort to stand up for herself was really beautiful. And the love story itself was so sweet, too, and had a supremely satisfying ending.

Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez (★★★☆☆)

This novel came highly recommended from Sarah of Sarah’s Bookshelves Live. We don’t have very similar book tastes (sometimes her five-star reads are a hit for me and sometimes they are a huge miss), but this novel sounded interesting and very prescient. The novel is a fictional retelling of a real-life case (Relf v Weinberger), which involved the involuntary sterilization of young girls at family planning clinics in the South. This novel follows a young nurse named Civil who is fresh out of nursing school and takes a job at a family planning clinic. Her first day on the job sends her to a one-room cabin where a family of four is living, and she’s tasked with giving the two girls there (ages 11 and 13) birth control shots. It’s only after she’s given the shots that she learns about the side effects of this drug, and she begins to grapple with her role as a nurse. Do these girls really need to be on birth control so young? What is in this drug the clinic is giving out to poor Black women? This grappling will take her on a journey that will lead her to a courtroom that will set a precedent that holds true to today. It’s a powerful story but I struggled to connect to these characters and feel the emotion behind what was happening to them. I felt a bit distant from the action, which made it hard for me to get really invested. I also wasn’t a huge fan of the structure of the novel. Like all historical novels these days (or so it feels like), there was a present-day storyline (2016) and a past storyline (1973), and I just don’t think the present-day storyline was necessary. A lot of times, it spoiled what was going to happen throughout the novel, which was disappointing. I think this book would have been better served written as a straight historical fiction novel with perhaps an epilogue to show us what happened to everyone involved afterward. All in all, this was a good novel that shines a light on a piece of history that needs to be told, but it’s not one I’m rushing out to recommend.

What I’m Reading This Week

  • Cream and Punishment by Susannah Nix (e-book) – I’m loving this contemporary romance by one of my faves. It’s exactly the kind of romance I love.
  • Flight of Dreams by Ariel Lawhon (print) – I just started reading this book last night so I don’t have much of an opinion about it just yet. I picked it up to fulfill my reading challenge of reading all of the books I added to my Goodreads TBR before 2018.

What are you reading?

Categories: Books

What I’m Reading (5.16.22)

Happy Monday! I had a full, happy weekend that involved a puppy playdate, pool time with my mom, a 5K walk in a favorite park, a writing date with Mikaela, and finally (FINALLY!) starting Ted Lasso. Two episodes in and I am hooked. I can’t wait to watch more episodes today!

I’ve been on an abandoning streak this month and last week, I added two more books to my stack of abandoned May reads: Read Between the Lines by Rachel Lacey, a f/f romance that just wasn’t keeping my attention. I thought about powering through but I was so bored by the plot and annoyed by the characters so I gave it up. The other book was Minor Feelings: An Asian-American Reckoning by Cathy Park Hong, which I tried listening to on audio but it was just a bit too literary for my tastes.

Thankfully, the books I did keep reading were great reads: 4 or 5 stars! I guess this is why I feel no shame about abandoning books. Why read something that makes reading feel like a chore when I could be reading something that I love?!

Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson (★★★★☆)

This was such a fun YA thriller, and I can’t wait to read the next book in the series. This novel follows Stevie who has just started at Ellingham Academy, a private boarding school in Vermont for “the brightest thinkers, inventors, and artists.” Stevie has come to the school with one plan: to solve the cold case of what happened to the wife and daughter of the founder of Ellingham Academy—they were kidnapped in the 1930s and never heard from again. Unfortunately, midway through her investigation, someone turns up dead on campus and Stevie has a new case to solve. This novel was really fun and propulsive. I liked that the author made Stevie a bit of a bumbling “detective,” which is to be expected because she’s just a kid. I didn’t know where the story was going, which is always fun for me, and I thought the ending was pretty excellent. There’s a love story interwoven in this novel and, y’all, I’m not here for it. It seems like a love triangle might be emerging (maybe? I hope so?), and I just want Stevie to see the light because this guy ain’t it.

The Maid by Nita Prose (★★★★★)

This book has been getting all of the buzz and I’m here to say: It’s 100% warranted. This book was excellent in every sense of the word. Nita Prose created a world with fully developed characters that I couldn’t help rooting for, most especially Molly Gray, the maid at the center of the story. This book is being categorized as a thriller but it’s really so much more than that. It’s about Molly, a hotel maid who has just lost her grandma—her only family—and is trying to make it through each day as best she can. She’s a little different (maybe she’s on the spectrum?) and takes her job very seriously. One day, while cleaning the room of one of their VIP guests, she encounters a dead body in a bed and soon becomes the prime suspect. Molly completely stole my heart from the very beginning of this novel and I found myself wanting to just give her a great big hug with every terrible thing that happened. She’s such a lovely character, someone who is so true to who she is because she doesn’t know there is any other way to be. And the way other hotel staff step up to help her clear her name made me so happy. This is a thriller, yes, but it’s mostly a heartwarming story about friendship, family, grief, and being yourself no matter what. I loved it so, so much.

The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin (★★★★☆)

I picked up this slim collection for The Unread Shelf Project’s May prompt: read the shortest book on your shelves. At just 108 pages, it fits the bill and I read this in spurts over a few days. It’s one you could probably easily breeze through in one sitting, but I liked taking my time with it. Written during the centennial anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, The Fire Next Time consists of two letters: one to his nephew and one to the American people to caution them about the reality of racism. So many times, I had to stop and take in a sentence because it was just so powerful and impactful.

“It is not too much to say that whoever wishes to become a truly moral human being (and let us not ask whether or not this is possible; I think we must believe that it is possible) must first divorce himself from all of the prohibitions, crimes, and hypocrisies of the Christian church. If the concept of God has any validity or any use, it can only make us larger, freer, and more loving. If God cannot do this, then it is time we got rid of Him.”

What I’m Reading This Week

  • All the Feels by Olivia Dade (e-book) – Olivia Dade’s romances never let me down, and I love that her female main characters are always plus-size. We need more body diversity in our romances! I’m about halfway through this romance and loving it.
  • Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted by Souleika Jaouad (audio) – This book is a heavy one (about a woman who gets diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer at age 22), but it’s incredibly well-written and really hard for me to put down! The audiobook is read by the author and you can really feel her emotions as she reads. This will be a 5-star read, I’m sure of it.
  • Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez (print) – I’m not sure right now is the best time to be reading this book, which takes place in the 1970s and involves a Black nurse working in a family planning clinic, but I’m going to give it a shot. I’ve heard great things about this book; I cracked it open last night, so I don’t have much to say about it just yet!

What are you reading?

Categories: Books

What I’m Reading (5.9.22)

Well, after having a great run of five-star reads, this week was a bit of a downer one. I abandoned two books—both romances. I abandoned Feel the Heat by Kate Meader at around page 80 because it just wasn’t keeping my attention and the story felt very convoluted. I also abandond Dating Dr. Dil by Nisha Sharma at around page 70 because, y’all, the plot was so bad and the writing was not much better. Why did I get this from BOTM?! Ugh. Waste of a credit for sure.

Anyway, let’s dive into my reads this week. Hopefully, next week will be a much better one for me!

Anatomy: A Love Story by Dana Schwartz (★★☆☆☆)

This novel had so much potential, but it was just so poorly executed. Hazel Sinnett has one goal in life: to become a doctor. Unfortunately, that’s not the path a woman growing up in the early 1800s can take, so she has to study and learn in secret. But what she needs most are bodies—corpses—to study. Luckily, a chance encounter with a resurrection man, someone who digs up bodies for a living, will give her exactly what she needs. But resurrection men are disappearing, the threat of Roman fever looms large, and Hazel also has this pesky little issue of an almost-fiance to worry about. A book about a woman trying to become a doctor in the 1800s is a fascinating premise, but my goodness, this book was just so boring for the first 60%. If I wasn’t reading this book for book club, I would have abandoned it but I kept trucking along because I hoped it might get better. It didn’t. In fact, it just got worse until there was a twist near the end of the book that made no sense and tanked my already “blah” impression of the book. I’m going to have some Strong Feelings at book club later this month!

Yours in Scandal by Lauren Layne (★★★☆☆)

Robert is a thirty-something mayor of New York City whose term is ending. He’s trying to figure out what’s next for him. Most people assume he will try to become governor to kick out the current guy who isn’t all that great. Then his campaign manager finds out that the current governor’s daughter, Addie, is now living under a different identity. In her early twenties, she lived a wild life of partying and drinking, behavior that’s not very becoming of a politician’s daughter. In the years since, Addie has reinvented herself, and now, all she wants is to live a life far outside of politics. When Robert hires Addie’s event planning company to throw a party at his home to celebrate the end of his term, sparks fly and secrets are revealed. It’s a sweet, uncomplicated love story that didn’t really hit me in the feels like I had hoped, but I did like the political setting and watching the love grow between Addie and Robert.

What I’m Reading This Week

  • Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson (audio) – I’m almost finished with this audiobook, just a few hours left to go. I’m really enjoying it!
  • The Maid by Nina Prose (print) – I just started this thriller but I’m fully invested already. The protagonist reminds me a lot of Eleanor Oliphant (from Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine), and I just want to befriend her immediately.
  • Read Between the Lines by Rachel Lacey (e-book) – I haven’t started this f/f romance yet, but I’m looking forward to sitting down with it soon. I hope it’s a good one!

What are you reading?