Stephany Writes

Categories: Books

What I’m Reading (3.18.19)

Happy Monday! I had a really lovely weekend that was the perfect mix of social time and downtime to suit my introverted soul. I had a great therapy appointment on Friday afternoon followed by an evening of planning my Ireland itinerary. Saturday, I got to see a friend’s new house and float around in her pool for hours, as well as celebrate Chip’s first birthday and enjoy game night with the fam. And then, on Sunday, I spent the whole day in my pajamas! Divine!

This week, I finished two books, including one that is probably going to make my favorites list for the year. Let’s get into it.

The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes by Diane Chamberlain (★★★★★)

I listened to this story on audio, and it was such a fantastic listening experience. Since the print book is around 500 pages, it’s not a short listen (it’s nearly 14 hours), but it was so worth every minute. When this novel begins, the remains of a pregnant woman who disappeared in 1977, Genevieve Russell, are found. A man named Timothy is charged with her murder but her unborn baby is nowhere to be found. But CeeCee Wilkes knows that Timothy isn’t responsible for Genevieve’s death, and she also knows what happened to the unborn baby because she has raised the baby as her own. Crazy plot, right? It’s so twisty-turny in the best possible way and I was just in awe of the author’s writing ability. It all felt so believable and heartbreaking, while also being sweet and human and raw because the novel takes you back to how CeeCee happened to raise this baby and also what the ensuing two decades were like for CeeCee, the baby, and their family. A must-read, in my opinion!

The Brutal Telling by Louise Penny (★★★☆☆)

The Brutal Telling is the fifth book in the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series, and it starts with a dead body being found in the bistro in Three Pines. The murdered man is unknown to everyone in the tiny village but suspicions abound surrounding the bistro’s owner, Olivier, especially as Gamache and his team dig into Olivier’s past and find some troubling answers. I found this mystery to be very slow-paced for me (it took me nearly two weeks to finish it as I just never felt like picking it up) and had an unsatisfying ending, so meh. Not my favorite in this series.

I’m currently reading…

> Dating-Ish by Penny Reid. This is a fun contemporary romance that I started over the weekend. I’m over halfway through it and it’s great so far. I never want to put it down!

> From the Corner of the Oval by Beck Dorey-Stein, on audio. Originally, I wasn’t planning on reading to this memoir by an Obama White House stenographer, but it has gotten rave reviews from many trusted sources so I’m giving it a try. It’s a much more light-hearted read than other memoirs from Obama staffers and I’m really enjoying it so far!

> My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite. I’m starting this quick fiction book today, which I suggested to my book club for our March read. So far, one friend loved it and another was “meh” about it, so we’ll see which camp I fall into!

What are you reading?

Categories: Books

How I Find Books to Read

I’ve been thinking lately about TBR lists and finding books to read. I believe with my whole heart that everyone can be a reader, but you just have to find the right books for you. It may be paranormal romance, or high fantasy, or literary fiction, or chick lit. And, of course, you have to devote time to it. (I can’t roll my eyes hard enough when someone tells me they don’t have “time” to read yet wants to talk to me about every Netflix show they’ve binged in the last six weeks. Mmkay.)

I also think that finding a genre you like is just one piece of the puzzle. I think you also have to know how to actually find books to read. How do you do that without stumbling across a listicle online or walking into a bookstore and picking up a book that has an appealing cover? Friends, that’s why you have me. I’m here to help you find books to read because I recently realized that I have a steady stream of book recommendations coming at me from myriad sources.

Let’s discuss:

Podcasts

I listen to an array of bookish podcasts that provide me with a wealth of new and old books to add to my TBR. Some of my favorites include What Should I Read Next, Sarah’s Book Shelves Live, and No Thanks We’re Booked. What’s great about these podcasts is that they highlight why you should read a certain book, which is a great way for me to immediately pull up my Goodreads app halfway through an episode and add the book to my want-to-read list.

Goodreads

Right after Instagram, Goodreads is my favorite social media platform. I’m on it daily, either scrolling through the feed or updating my currently reading list. I also get a daily email from Goodreads that details the latest updates from my friends list: what they’re currently reading, what they’ve recently reviewed, and what books they’ve added to their want-to-read list. I find this email so helpful. If someone adds a gushing review about the book, I’ll probably mark it as want-to-read. If the opposite happens, someone has a negative review about a book on my list, I might remove it, especially if the reviewer is someone whose reading taste aligns with mine. Sometimes I’ll find new books to add to my list, especially if the cover catches my eye, a bunch of friends have marked the book as want-to-read, or it’s from an author I like. That daily email is a lifeline to my reading life!

Along with the daily email, Goodreads also sends me a monthly newsletter to tell me about new books from authors I’ve previously read. I love this email because it reminds me to request certain books from my library (and, more often than not for my romances, recommend the library buy the e-book version) and also keeps me in the loop with publishing dates.

IRL friends

I met my core group of friends through a book club, and we’re still going strong many years later! We are still essentially a book club – we always read a book each month and meet up to discuss it over dinner or brunch or a fun activity – but our book club meetings are probably 90% chatting about life. Even so, there’s still a lot of bookish talk in the midst of the chit-chat, especially about the books we’re reading and loving. Most of them are also very active on Goodreads, too, so I can see what they’re recommending there. I get a lot of my best recommendations from my friends because we’re so similar in our reading tastes!

Book Riot

Trying to describe Book Riot is… not easy. I would consider it to be a bookish media company. They publish articles, have numerous podcasts, have a membership program, and a lot more. On their blog, they publish around 10 or so articles daily with book listicles, essays about the bookish life, and more news-y articles, and through their articles, I have found so many great books to read. As far as their podcasts go, I only listen to two and the one I listen to for book recommendations is All the Books. Every week, the hosts discuss some of the top new releases and I find myself needing to keep my Goodreads app open when I’m listening to add new books to my want-to-read list.

Book of the Month

Book of the Month has introduced me to so many great books. I don’t think it’s necessary to subscribe to reap the benefits of using BOTM as a book recommendation source, either. Simply check out the site on the first of every month to check out the titles or, my personal favorite, check out Sarah’s Book Shelves as she does a monthly roundup post of the BOTM selections, where she gives a very detailed overview of each book. Even when I don’t select a book, I’ll add it to my Goodreads want-to-read list because while I don’t want to spend $14.99 on a hardcover of the book, I may want to check it out from the library later.

#bookstagram

Finally, I have found many great recommendations from #bookstagram, which is a bookish community on Instagram. Bookstagrammers are known for showing their book hauls, talking about what they’re reading, and discussing the books that are getting a lot of buzz in the publishing world. Oftentimes, the bookstagrammers talk about books I’ve already heard of, but it’s due to their gushing reviews that I finally add it to my Goodreads want-to-read list. Also, it’s just fun to follow bookstagrammers because it makes my feed so pretty and positive.

I know this is a lot of information and if you’re someone struggling to find books to read, this may feel overwhelming. But, believe me, you do not need to have all of these streams going to find book recommendations. My advice is to follow one or two bookish podcasts (I’d recommend What Should I Read Next for new readers), as well as either subscribe to Book of the Month or keep track of what they’re offering each month. I know people who read just from BOTM books! It’s not a bad system at all, and you’ll definitely get to enjoy a great mix of authors and genres.

Now, go forth and read. If you’ve finished a Netflix series in the last month, you definitely have time to read a book. (Or two. Or three. Or ten.)

How do you find books to read?

Categories: Books

What I’m Reading (3.11.19)

I’ve been in a bit of a reading slump. It’s a weird feeling because I don’t really get into reading slumps and yet, here I am. I thought about throwing my TBR list to the wind and just picking up a book that piques my interest, but I think the best course of action is to lean into it. Let my mind be occupied by other things. Binge watch a TV show, scroll through Instagram, play copious amounts of games on my phone. This reading slump doesn’t have to mean anything and I don’t need to try to push through the feeling. I’m still reading… but at a much slower pace. (For example, I start The Brutal Telling by Louise Penny on Monday and I’m only 100 pages in.) I pick it up when I want and don’t force myself to read if I don’t want to. This too shall pass, right? At least I hope so.

I’m wondering, though, if the reading slump is due to The Grapes of Wrath, which I started reading last weekend and ended up abandoning this week. The first 85 pages were painfully boring and the dialect was hard to read. It made reading feel like a chore, so I dropped it and didn’t feel one iota of guilt about it. I *may* try to listen to the audiobook version buuuut it’s a 21-hour audiobook and I don’t know if I have it in me to devote that much time to this story.

With that said, I still finished two books this week. (*emoji of a monkey with his hands over his eyes*) They were both contemporary romances, though, and this genre is my kryptonite and also the best thing for me to read if I’m in a funk or a reading slump.

Josh and Hazel’s Guide to Not Dating by Christina Lauren (★★★★★)

Oh my heavens above, I loved this sweet contemporary romance novel so, so much. I actually stayed up late last Sunday night to finish it because I just couldn’t go to sleep without knowing what was going to happen with Hazel and Josh. Hazel is a free-spirited, quirky elementary school teacher who desperately wants to find love but she’s yet to find someone who wants her to be her full self. Most guys like the quirkiness of her personality at first, but then want her to calm down and be more “normal” as time goes on, and she isn’t about that. Josh, on the other hand, is her polar opposite, a calm and serious man who just found out his girlfriend of two years has been cheating on him for quite a long time. Hazel wants to cheer him up, so she proposes that they set each other up on blind double dates. Of course, throughout the course of their dates (most of which go horribly awry!), they start to fall for each other. My heart broke for both these characters as they came to terms with their feelings and the vulnerability of falling for their best friend. It was a fun, easy read with a lot of heart, and I am just so glad Christina Lauren’s books exist in this world.

The Sweetest Thing by Jill Shalvis (★★★★☆)

I picked up this contemporary romance over the weekend, and I am so glad I did because I really think it helped me get over my reading slump. It’s the second book in the Lucky Harbor series, following two characters who were introduced in the first one. Tara and Ford met 17 years ago during the summer and had a whirlwind fling – a fling that resulted in a pregnancy. While Ford wanted her to keep the baby and marry him, Tara made the decision to leave Lucky Harbor and give the baby up for adoption. Now they’re two adults in their mid-thirties who want to believe they’ve moved on, but when Tara appears in Lucky Harbor again, sparks fly and it’s time for them to decide if they have what it takes to make a relationship work. This book fulfilled everything I wanted in a romance: witty dialogue, a realistic plot, and steamy bedroom scenes, and reaffirms my love for Jill Shalvis.

I’m currently reading…

> The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes by Diane Chamberlain, on audio. I only have two hours left in this audiobook, and it’s been such a great story to listen to. (The narrator is fantastic!) I am very nervous to see how everything turns out, though!

> The Brutal Telling by Louise Penny. As I mentioned above, I’m not very far into this novel and it’s really unlike me to slog through a Louise Penny mystery, so I’m hoping that the reason for the slog was due to trying to read The Grapes of Wrath simultaneously. TGOW was totally bringing me down!

What are you reading?

Categories: Books

What I’m Reading (3.4.19)

Happy Monday, friends! I am feeling good after a really relaxing weekend. There were plenty of naps, as well as family game night with my brother, nephew, and mom. We played a three-and-a-half hour game of Monopoly where we had these bouts of laughing so hard our sides hurt. I’m still thinking about some of the stuff that happened and giggling to myself! Those are the best kinds of nights. <3

This week, I finished reading one book, abandoned another book, and am currently in the middle of reading three books. The book I abandoned, Tell Me More by Kelly Corrigan, was a surprising one to me. I think it might be a case of reading a book at the wrong time, so I may try to pick it up at another time, but I wasn’t connecting with it. The book also dealt with the death of the author’s father and best friend, and I’m still heavily grieving my grandfather’s unexpected and traumatic death so that part of the book was too much for me to handle right now. I think I may try to come back to it in a year or so when my grief isn’t so raw.

The Light We Lost by Jill Santopolo (★★☆☆☆)

Dozens of my friends have read this book and loved it. So many five-star ratings and exclamations of how sweet this book is. So, I picked it up thinking I was going to read a really sweet love story… and was sorely disappointed in it. It follows Lucy and Gabe, two people who meet in college (on 9/11, no less) and have an immediate connection with each other. But life has other plans and they don’t meet again until a year later, and this time, their love feels fated. Unfortunately, when Gabe is offered a job as a photojournalist in the Middle East, they make the tough decision to break up because Lucy’s life and her career in TV are in New York, and she’s not willing to give it all up for him. What follows after that is thirteen years of pining, of desire, of love. Annnd… of really selfish decisions made on the part of both Lucy and Gabe. I found Lucy to be a difficult person to relate to and wanted to shake her due to the choices she made. Apparently, though, I was told that because I don’t have a past love like the one Lucy and Gabe had, I couldn’t understand why they felt this pull to one another. I call bullshit on that. I agree that there are just some loves we have where there’s an intensity and a connection that cannot be explained or replicated with anyone else. But I don’t agree that that means that love supersedes everything else. I don’t believe that it gives someone permission to hurt people in their lives and to make selfish decisions that can have massive ramifications.

I’m currently reading…

> Josh and Hazel’s Guide to Not Dating by Christina Lauren. Oh boy, do I love a good friends-to-lovers romance, and this one is delivering. I’m nearly finished with it (less than 100 pages to go), and it’s been such a fun read.

> The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes by Diane Chamberlain, on audio. I’ve had this book on my Goodreads want-to-read list for years (originally added it to my list in 2013!), and I chose it because it was one of the few audiobooks available on Overdrive that didn’t have a wait. I’m a few hours in, and it’s so intriguing!

> The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. I was never assigned to read this book in high school, so I’m reading it to fulfill my yearly goal of reading four “classics.” It’s a pretty hefty book (nearly 500 pages), so I imagine I’ll be sitting with this one for a little while.

What are you reading?

Categories: Books

What I’m Reading (2.25.19)

Happy Monday! I have three book reviews for you today so I’m definitely back on track with my crazy reading pace after a slow start to February reading. I’ll probably end up rounding out the month with three more books to bring my total to 10 books read in February. Yay!

Here are my reviews:

The Last King by Katee Robert (★★★★☆)

After Beckett’s father dies, he is shocked to find out that his father willed his childhood home to his aunt, a woman both Beckett and his father detested. Beckett is determined to learn how this happened, so he begins to flirt with his aunt’s assistant, the beautiful Samara, in order to find out. Samara has her own motives for getting close to Beckett, though, as she’s been tasked by his aunt to get some dirt about Beckett so she can force him to sell his father’s company to her (a long time ago, Beckett’s aunt was passed over for CEO for the company Beckett now runs, and she’s held a grudge against the company and Beckett ever since). But, as with every romance novel, this is not a story of revenge and backstabbing. It’s a story of Beckett and Samara, who cannot deny the chemistry between them even though they try to. This romance is steamy but I loved it so much. Beckett and Samara were so perfect for each other, and their chemistry jumped off the pages. Samara was such a badass heroine, and I was so glad to see her get a happy ending.

Landwhale: On Turning Insults Into Nicknames, Why Body Image Is Hard, and How Diets Can Kiss My Ass by Jes Baker (★★★☆☆)

Jes Baker’s memoir of living as a fat person in a fatphobic society is a difficult one. She takes readers deep into her life, starting with her childhood and the troublesome relationship she had with her father, and moving into adulthood and what it’s like to date and travel and live as a fat person. I found portions of this book to be illuminating for me, especially her thoughts on dating, but most of her essays didn’t fully meet my expectations. I can’t even put my finger on why I didn’t fully love this book; maybe it’s just that I’ve read my fair share of body-positive memoirs and this one just fell short in terms of writing and the depth explored in the essays.

There, There by Tommy Orange (★★★☆☆)

There, There is a novel that seeks to explore the experiences of urban Natives, those who never grew up on a reservation and may not even feel much of a connection to their Native culture but still feel the pull to understand this part of themselves. Each chapter introduces a new character, and it was hard to keep them all straight, so at one point, I just stopped. I looked at each chapter as a short story, a new exploration of all the ways racism and poverty and addiction affect the Native population in different ways. Each chapter mentions a powwow, which is the culmination of all the stories and how they all begin to converge into one. It’s an ambitious novel, but it didn’t fully pull me in like I wanted it to. There were just too many characters and it was hard to build empathy for any of them.

I’m currently reading…

> The Light We Lost by Jill Santopolo. I’ll finish this quick novel today, as it has been moving fast for me. It’s a novel that so many of my friends have loved but there’s something about it that’s rubbing me the wrong way. I’m interested to see how it ends, though, and how I’ll feel about it.

Next up on my reading list is…

> Tell Me More: Stories about the 12 Hardest Things I’m Learning to Say by Kelly Corrigan. So excited to dive into this nonfiction book this week! I’ve had this on my TBR list for a while, and it’s a pretty slim book (under 250 pages) so it should be a quick read for me.

> Josh and Hazel’s Guide to Not Dating by Christina Lauren. Ooh, am I excited for this contemporary romance! I added it to my Amazon cart on a whim a few weeks ago, and I can’t wait to start reading it this week.