Stephany Writes

Categories: Books

What I’m Reading (1.18.21)

Happy Monday, friends, and happy return to my weekly “What I’m Reading” posts. I have seriously missed talking about my current reads, so I’m glad to be back in the saddle. This post encompasses everything I’ve read since the start of the year (I’ve finished 5 books so far!) I’ve had middling success with my reading so far. Let’s review!

He’s So Fine by Jill Shalvis (★★★★☆)

This sweet romance novel was the best way to kick off my 2021 reading year! After Olivia mistakenly assumes Cole is drowning and jumps into the water after him, he ends up being the one who rescues her. And while neither of them believes they’re ready for a relationship—nor that they deserve love—they can’t help but be drawn to one another. It’s an open-door romance that had a whole lot of heart. I felt for both Olivia and Cole and could understand why they kept such secrets from each other. And it all came together so beautifully.

We Keep the Dead Close: A Murder at Harvard and Half a Century of Silence by Becky Cooper (★★★☆☆)

Becky Cooper spent a decade trying to solve the 1960s murder of a Harvard student and relays her journey to discovering the truth in this book. It’s a pretty long book (500 pages with tiny font!) and the book really goes off in a million directions, and I think it suffered a bit because of it. This wasn’t a book about solving a murder, but about sexism and misogyny at Harvard, about corruption in higher education, about Becky’s own experience working on this story. There was a lack of focus and I think a tighter edit could have made this book much more engaging. That’s not to say the book wasn’t well-written. It was! Becky has a very captivating voice and I was compelled to keep reading (mostly because I needed to know who the murderer was), but when I finished it, I was just so relieved to be done and that’s not how I want to feel about finishing books.

How to Catch a Queen by Alyssa Cole (★★★☆☆)

Shanti becomes the Queen of Njaza, an African nation, after wedding Sanyu, the King, in an arranged ceremony. It’s been her dream to be a queen her entire life, as she believes it’s the best way for her to affect change for her country, but she quickly discovers all is not what it seems in Njaza. Sanyu doesn’t speak to her, his advisor seems to be calling the shots and shutting down every pathway to improvement, and the only friends she’s made are part of a resistance group against the king (who doesn’t know who she is). What I loved most about this book was the world-building of this entirely different country, its policies, and its people. But the book didn’t totally land for me. It was hard to believe in the romance and I was pretty annoyed by the ending. I’m hoping this was just an aberration for Cole, as she’s usually someone I can count on for great romances!

The Nature of the Beast by Louise Penny (★★★★☆)

Another Gamache book, another excellent mystery. The previous book ended in heartbreak and while there were elements of grief in this one, it wasn’t a huge focus. Instead, because Three Pines is the unluckiest small town ever, they are dealing with another murder to solve. I loved how all of these pieces came together and I was still somehow surprised by the “whodunnit.” And man, I just love that Three Pines community. What I wouldn’t give to spend time with them!

American Royals by Katharine McGee (★★★☆☆)

I read this book for January’s Unread Shelf Project category, which is “a book with high expectations.” This one definitely fits the bill as it has gotten rave reviews from many people, but it just didn’t live up to my expectations. In this novel, McGee reimagines a world where George Washington became king rather than president. And thus, a new royal family was born. Beatrice is next in line to the throne and will be the first queen to rule, and she’s trying to live up to the high expectations placed on her… and find a husband to rule alongside her. Meanwhile, her younger siblings—twins named Jefferson and Samantha—are trying to find where they fit in this royal family. It’s a bit of a soapy drama but I just never felt a strong connection with any of the characters nor did I fully believe in the romance between some of the characters. Everyone was just… one-dimensional and rather uninspiring to read about. I’ve put off reading this book because everyone has said that it ends on a MAJOR CLIFFHANGER and you’ll want to read the next book immediately, but eh… I don’t know if I feel the same way. I have the next book on my shelves so I’ll probably pick it up soon, but I’m not sure I’d feel compelled to read it if not.

What I’m Reading This Week

  • We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy by Ta-Nehisi Coates (print) – This book collects a set of eight articles Coates wrote for The Atlantic during the time of Obama’s presidency. I read about 25 pages a day because the articles can be very dense and are packed with really insightful thoughts that I don’t want to speed through. I’ll likely finish it sometime this week.
  • Amal Unbound by Aisha Saeed (audiobook) – This is a short audiobook (4.5 hours) and a middle-grade story about a Pakistani girl who is sent to be an indentured servant for a powerful, corrupt family. I have a little over an hour left and it’s been a hard, eye-opening read.
  • Fallen Star by Susannah Nix (e-book) – Finally, something light! 🙂 I’m loving this contemporary romance about a movie star and script supervisor falling in love.
  • Thirteen by Steve Cavanagh (print) – Meredith of the Currently Reading podcast raved about this book and the tagline on the front cover immediately piqued my interest: “The serial killer isn’t on trial. He’s on the jury.” It’s a little more graphic than I like, but I’m just skimming over any violent scenes.

What are you reading?

Categories: Best Of, Books

Best of 2020 | Reading Stats

I’m continuing my “Best of 2020” posts with my favorite one to compile: my reading stats for 2020! As a reminder, I keep track of my reading using a spreadsheet. I fill in the book title, author, publication year, reading dates, rating, where I got the book from, etc. because I love keeping track of my stats and sharing them on the blog! Let’s take a look at what 2020 looked like in my reading life:

Nitty-Gritty Details

  • Number of books read: 153 (+23 from 2019)
  • Number of pages read: 51,219 (+5,871 from 2019)
  • Money spent on books I read this year: $472.41 (+39.25). This amounts to $3.09 per book.
  • Percentage of books by and about BIPOC and the LGBTQIA+ community: 45, or 29% (+11% from 2019)
  • Number of books abandoned: 11 (+1 from 2019)

Format Breakdown

E-book reading was up and audiobooks were down—seems par for the course for 2020! Print was down by 5% from 2019, e-books were up by 9% (!), and audiobooks were down by 7%.

Genre Breakdown

 

No surprise here! Romance was my most-read genre for another year in a row, although my romance reading was down by 2% from 2019. I read the exact same number of contemporary fiction and nonfiction books in 2020—crazy! My fiction reading was down by 12% from 2019 while nonfiction was up by 7%. I read more historical fiction (+3%), mystery/thrillers (+4%), and YA (+.9%) this year.

Source Breakdown

As always, the library leads the way in where most of my books came from in 2020—61%, which is identical to last year! This year, I read slightly more books from Libby (ebooks, +4%) and slightly less from the library (print books, -4%). I’m going to go out on a limb and say that discrepancy is due to the library being closed/at limited capacity for most of the year. As far as non-library reading goes, Amazon comes in first (-2% from 2019), followed by bookstores (no change from 2019) and Book of the Month (+1% from 2019). Rounding out the list are books that were gifted to me, books won in giveaways, and the Serial Reader app.

Month Breakdown

Pretty steady across the board! I never read less than 11 books in a month and my biggest month of reading was in June when I read 15 (!) books.

Ratings Breakdown

I rated 62% of my books 4 or 5 stars, which is down slightly from 2019 by 4%. My 3-star ratings stayed about the same, my 2-star ratings rose by 4% (maybe I was more comfortable rating something 2 stars this year?), and my 1-star ratings stayed about the same.

Days to Read

This was just something fun I like to track—how long it takes me to finish books! Since I’m often reading multiple books at once, it wasn’t too surprising that most books take me 3-8 days to finish. It’s rare for me to finish a book within 1-2 days, but it happens!

New Releases vs Backlist

For the first time, I started tracking how many new releases I read vs backlist titles, and this seems pretty typical for me! I do not shy away from backlist (a lot of the romances I read are backlist) and it shows in this chart.

Publishing Years

I read a ton of books published in 2019 and 2020—comprised almost half my reading! I guess I’m a sucker for the new titles everyone is talking about, heh.

Odds and Ends

  • Oldest book (by pub date): Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (1877)
  • Newest book (by pub date): Murder on Cold Street by Sherry Thomas (October 6, 2020)
  • Author I read the most: Tessa Dare (6 books)
  • Book I spent the most money on: How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi ($24.30)
  • Time spent listening to audiobooks: 72 hours, 58 minutes (but since I listen at 1.5x or 1.75x speed, my actual listening time is much less than that!)
  • Longest book: Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (864 pages)
  • Shortest book: Help, Thanks, Wow: The Three Essential Prayers by Anne Lamott (102 pages)
  • Book that took me the longest to read: Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (162 days)
Categories: Best Of, Books

Best of 2020 | My Favorite Reads

Happy Wednesday, friends! My next two “Best of 2020” posts are some of my favorites to compile because I’m talking all about reading! I finished 2020 with a staggering 153 books read, a number I didn’t even think was possible. (I remember following a Bookstagrammer who was trying to hit 150 books a few years ago and thought she was CRAZY.) This year, instead of listing out my top 10 books of the year, I thought I would do things a little differently. On the year-end podcast episode for Sarah’s Bookshelves Live, Sarah and a guest discussed some of their favorite reads by listing out their overall favorites, their favorites by category, and some fun superlatives. I couldn’t help but play along myself! I hope you have as much fun reading this as I did compiling all of my favorites. 🙂

OVERALL FAVORITES

Favorite Overall Book

The Dearly Beloved by Cara Wall

It was difficult to name my favorite book of the year because I read so many great books, but I kept coming back to The Dearly Beloved. It was a book that took me by surprise at how much I loved it. I went through a major book slump after I finished it because it was a book that perfectly met my reading needs at a time when I needed the escape (I read it early on in the pandemic). I loved the exploration of faith, and how differently each character came to think about religion. I loved the time period of the novel—the 50s through the 80s—and the writing. I will read everything Cara Wall writes!

Favorite Fiction

Inside the O’Briens by Lisa Genova

This book wrecked me. It’s about Joe, a father of four who is diagnosed with Huntington’s disease. All of his children have a 50/50 chance of having the disease themselves and they have to decide whether or not to get tested. The book mainly follows the youngest child, Katie, as she tries to deal with this new reality and considers the benefits and drawbacks of getting tested for Huntington’s. And it follows Joe as his symptoms get worse and worse and how that affects his marriage, his children, and the way he sees himself.

Favorite Nonfiction

So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo

I loved the way this book broke down common racial issues, such as micro-aggressions, the “N” word, affirmative action, and the model minority myth. Oluo has a frank, accessible writing style, and this is a book I would confidently place in the hands of anyone. I think we could all learn a lot from her.

Favorite Romance

Headliners by Lucy Parker

Lucy Parker is an auto-buy romance author for me. Her books are perfect in every way, and this book was no different. It had witty dialogue, a super sexy buildup to the relationship, and a fun mystery thrown into the mix. I also loved that there was no dark moment—every time the characters were close to a miscommunication, they simply talked to each other and cleared everything up. I really liked that!

FAVORITES BY CATEGORY

Favorite Literary Fiction

The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai

This was one of the first books I finished in 2020, and it was excellent. It provides a clear look into the AIDS crisis of the 1980s and the way its effects reverberated throughout family lines in the years since. A difficult read, but an important one.

Runner-up: Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson

Favorite Contemporary Fiction

Beyond the Point by Claire Gibson

I loved this book so very much! It follows three women who meet at West Point and how their lives diverged afterward. There’s a twist near the end that shattered me (it’s alluded to in the first chapter, so I don’t think this is spoiler-y), and I can’t stop thinking about this book and the way it made me feel, even nearly a year later!

Runner-up: Where the Forest Meets the Stars by Glendy Vanderah

Favorite Historical Fiction

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Just like everyone else in the world, I loved this novel and went through a huge reading slump after finishing it. Nothing else could compare to it! It was such a fun look at Old Hollywood and I loved the twist at the end.

Runner-up: Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate

Favorite Contemporary Romance

Applied Electromagnetism by Susannah Nix

Susannah Nix is a hit-or-miss author for me (I read two other books of hers in 2020 and gave them 3 stars), but this one was SUCH a hit! It’s an enemies-to-lovers romance that has witty banter, great chemistry, and beautiful vulnerability. I loved this one!

Runner-up: Love on Lexington Avenue by Lauren Layne

Favorite Historical Romance

Brazen and the Beast by Sarah MacLean

Sarah MacLean is always someone I can count on for a well-written, feminist historical romance. While they may not be totally realistic about time and place, they are still super fun to read. And the scenes between the two main characters in this novel just delighted me to no end.

Runner-up: The Governess Game by Tessa Dare

Favorite YA

Tell Me Three Things by Julie Buxbaum

Perhaps this is recency bias, as this was the last book I finished in 2020 and it gave me all of the happy, mushy feels, but this was such an excellent YA novel. It deals with hard themes—grief, death of loved ones, overdose—but at the heart of the novel is a sweet love story between two teenagers. I read this in less than 24 hours and adored every page!

Runner-up: The Start of Me and You by Emery Lord

Favorite Mystery/Thriller

Jane Doe by Victoria Helen Stone

We read this thriller for book club (one of the few book club meetings we had all year!), and it was excellent. I loved being in the mind of a female sociopath and the way Jane exacted her revenge. So, so good!

Runner-up: Murder on Cold Street by Sherry Thomas

Favorite Memoir/Essay Collection

The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row by Anthony Ray Hinton

What a brilliant memoir of something that never should have happened. It’s heartbreaking to recognize how unjust our justice system is for people of color. Anthony Ray Hinton’s story is no different, documenting the 30 years he spent in prison and his exoneration thanks to the work of Bryan Stevenson.

Runner-up: We’re Going to Need More Wine by Gabrielle Union

Favorite Graphic Novel

Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations by Mira Jacob

Whether or not you consider yourself a graphic novel person (I certainly do not!), this one is a must-read. Mira discusses her life growing up as a child of immigrants, the tough conversations about race she has with her young son, and the difficulty of dealing with her in-laws who voted for Trump in 2016.

Runner-up: March: Book 1 by John Lewis

SUPERLATIVES

The Most Disappointing DNF

Anxious People by Fredrick Backman. I had such high hopes for this book and even selected it as a Book of the Month pick. I abandoned it around page 100 because I was so annoyed by the characters.

The Most Disappointing Book I Read

Pride by Ibi Zoboi. I wanted to like this modern retelling of Pride and Prejudice, featuring Black characters and taking on the issue of gentrification in a Brooklyn neighborhood, so much! But it just did not work for me at all, and I found Zuri (aka, the Elizabeth Bennett of the novel) to be wildly unlikable.

The Book I Was Most Surprised to Love

Deacon King Kong by James McBride. I figured this was the kind of literary fiction that wouldn’t hold my attention, but I couldn’t have been more wrong! I loved this book so much, and still think of those characters today.

The Book I Thought I Would Love More Than I Did

Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb. This book has gotten so much buzz and rave reviews, but it just didn’t impact me the way it did for so many others. I found it hard to really learn anything from the client examples since she (understandably!) had to change many details of the stories to protect client confidentiality. Maybe it would have worked better as a novel? But perhaps not, since I am definitely in the minority in my opinion!

Most Deserving of the Hype

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett. I am a Brit Bennett superfan, after reading and loving both of her books. I was worried about a sophomore slump with this book, but Bennett delivers an incredible story about race, culture, family, and acceptance. It’s a must-read, in my opinion.

Least Deserving of the Hype

The Guest List by Lucy Foley. Ughhhh, this book. It was such a good example of when thrillers go wrong. I had high hopes for it, as several people highly recommended it to me, but it just did not work for me at all. The characters were so unlikable, the plot was over-the-top, and the reveal at the end was incredibly unrealistic. I basically hate reading this book and will side-eye anyone who recommends it.

The Book I Loved That Other People Hated

The Honey-Don’t List by Christina Lauren. This book has a 3.51 average on Goodreads, which is a very low rating for that site. I gave it 4 stars and enjoyed it! I think most people wanted more character development and/or didn’t love the HGTV angle, but it all really worked for me. (Also, I didn’t see the HGTV couple in this novel as Chip and Joanna Gaines, but rather as Rachel and Dave Hollis.) Anyway, I can understand why it’s not a favorite for most Christina Lauren fans, but it’s one I remember fondly.

The Book I Hated That Other People Loved

Get a Life, Chloe Brown! by Talia Hibbert. This book got so much love around Bookstagram, and while I did love the body diversity and exploration of chronic illness, I found the actual writing to be disjointed and, well, a bit boring. This is just a good example that what’s great for one reader does not always work for another!

The Underrated Gem of the Year

You Never Forget Your First: A Biography of George Washington by Alexis Coe – In selecting a book for this category, I looked for a book published this year with under 10,000 ratings on Goodreads. This one has just under 6,400 ratings and that was surprising to me! I felt like I was seeing this book everywhere, but perhaps it was just in my little corner of the Interwebs. I loved this biography—it was filled with infographics and charts and gave an in-depth look into George Washington’s life in under 300 pages. (Much more manageable than Chernow’s 900+ page Washington biography.) It was super accessible and I learned so much!

What was the best book you read in 2020? And let’s get snarky—what book was least deserving of the hype, in your opinion?

Categories: Books

What I’m Reading (12.21.20)

Hi, friends. I don’t have a bookish moment this week—it’s been a really hard week over here. My best friend (and writing partner), M., found out that her 13-month-old baby has a canteloupe-sized tumor in her liver and has been diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of cancer. We’re all so devastated; everything feels so surreal and unimaginably difficult. Olive will need surgery ASAP (and possibly a liver transplant) as well as chemo. She starts chemo this week to help stop/slow the spread of the tumor while they wait for the surgery to be scheduled. 2020 has been such an awful mess of a year, and it just keeps getting worse. How do babies get cancer? That’s a question I don’t know the answer to. It is just enormously unfair and my heart is breaking for M and her husband and Olive. (If you’d like to help, M has set up a Facebook fundraiser to help with Olive’s medical expenses. She also has Venmo for anyone who wants to give directly to her.)

Anyway, it feels weird to go from that to talking about my current reads but that’s what I’m going to do. I’ve definitely noticed a need for light, comforting reads right now (which is why I almost abandoned Forever, Interrupted) and I’m going to lean into that. I finished three books last week and here are my reviews.

Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations by Mira Jacob (★★★★★)

One-sentence synopsis: A graphic memoir about Jacob’s experiences as a first-generation American and the hard questions her six-year-old son is asking her, like “If white people are scared of brown people, does that mean my father [a white man] is scared of me?”

Add me to the list of people raving about this book! It is well worth your time and I highly recommend the print version since you get to see Jacob’s amazing illustrations in great detail. I loved learning about Jacob’s experiences in an immigrant family and especially enjoyed Jacob’s discussions about race with her son. There’s also a section that discusses her in-laws’ decision to vote for Trump (even though their daughter-in-law is Indian and their grandkids are mixed race…), and she is super honest about the conversations she had with her husband about this decision and the effect it had on her relationship with them. It felt like such an intimate detail to include! (I’m so curious as to how her in-laws reacted to this inclusion!) I think we all have family members who are Trump supporters and find ways to justify his behavior, and navigating those relationships is, so difficult. All in all, this is a powerful memoir and I’m so glad I have a copy for my shelves because I’m sure it’s a book I will return to (and happily lend to friends so they can learn and grow, just as I did).

Forever, Interrupted by Taylor Jenkins Reid (★★★☆☆)

One-sentence synopsis: Nine days after their wedding, Elsie’s husband is killed in an accident.

You guys, this book was so sad. I wasn’t in the right headspace to read such a sad book, and maybe that’s why I didn’t like it as much as TJR’s other books. She doesn’t hit you over the head with the sadness—it’s not trauma porn or anything like that. It feels very real and honest about the experience of grief and unexpected loss. In a grief book like this, there are certain, eye-roll-y tropes that an author can explore and I am really grateful that TJR didn’t do that to us. Instead, she takes us on a journey through Elsie’s love story with her husband as well as the new relationship she’s building with her husband’s mother. It’s worth a read, but you really need to be in the right headspace for it. Have a box of tissues nearby!

Flirting with Fire by Kate Meader (★★☆☆☆)

One-sentence synopsis: Kinsey is a PR pro whose newest assignment is to improve the image of the Chicago Fire Department after Luke, a firefighter, gets into a bar brawl with a Chicago police officer. 

Oh man, I had a loooot of issues with this novel. It just oozed toxic masculinity, both from Luke and Kinsey’s boss who is a real piece of work (and he’s the hero in the next book in this series, so I’m very curious as to how the author is going to give him a redemptive arc). I liked Kinsey’s character a lot, though, and found myself rooting for her easily. Luke, on the other hand, was a hard character to like and, in turn, connect with. His character just had so many inconsistencies and, again, he leaned heavily on his toxic masculinity and it was SO damn off-putting. My advice is to skip this romance. Bleh. (Very open-door romance.)

What I’m Reading This Week

What are you reading?

Categories: Books

What I’m Reading (12.14.20)

Hi, friends, and a very happy Monday to you. My bookish moment of the week is an easy one: putting together my list of 25 Things About Me as a Reader! It was really fun to think about my reading life and what I wanted to share. And, of course, after publishing that blog post, I’ve thought of a handful more facts that I want to share! So maybe a part II will be coming soon. 🙂

I read three books this week and enjoyed all of them!

Sadie by Courtney Summers (★★★★☆)

One-sentence synopsis: A radio personality is drawn into a story about a missing girl in a small town and starts a podcast to find her.

The audiobook of this thriller has a full cast so it’s a sensational listening experience. The book follows two timelines: the podcast in which West Craven, the radio personality, is investigating Sadie’s disappearance, and what Sadie was up to in the weeks before she was reported missing. It’s a book filled with trigger warnings, especially regarding violence, rape, and child sexual abuse, so sensitive readers should take great care. But it’s a pretty good thriller overall and I found Sadie’s journey to be a believable one, even though she’s only 17. Is this a book I’m rushing out to recommend? No. But it’s a great audiobook listen and a solid read that will keep you engaged until the end.

I Remember Nothing: and Other Reflections by Nora Ephron (★★★★☆)

One-sentence synopsis: A short essay collection about Nora’s past, present, and future.

I read this to fulfill the last challenge category for the Unread Shelf Project, which was “the shortest book on your shelf.” This essay collection clocks in at just under 140 pages! It was a super enjoyable read, most especially because it felt like a time capsule of the early aughts (it was published in 2010). Nora is vulnerable and incredibly funny in this essay collection, and made me laugh out loud and reminisce about things like Games.com and when e-mail was this new and mysterious concept.

Beach Read by Emily Henry (★★★★☆)

Short synopsis: January, a romance writer, is dealing with major writer’s block even though she’s promised to send her publisher her latest draft by the end of summer. She’s spending the summer at a beach house where she knows she must focus and write, only to find out that her nemesis, hero of the literary world, Gus Everett, is living next door.

I very much enjoyed this romance! (There is a lot of debate about whether this book is women’s fiction or romance; it read like a romance to me, as the love story was central to the plot, but YMMV.) It’s a buzzy book that everyone, even people who don’t typically read romance, are reading and loving, and I can see why it’s getting so much praise. It was excellent! I loved the characters and the romance and the witty banter. I loved January’s relationship with her father, even if it made me long to have the same one with mine. I loved Gus so, so, so much and thought he was an extraordinary hero. And I loved watching the writing process in this book, as January is trying to get a book to her agent by the end of summer—it was fun to get a glimpse into her process. All in all, a solid romance that even non-romance readers could enjoy. (Open-door romance.)

What I’m Reading This Week

What are you reading?