Stephany Writes

Categories: Books

What I’m Reading (2.10.20)

Happy Monday! I had an excellent weekend. On Saturday, my mom and I did our mud run and it was so much fun! I honestly wasn’t looking forward to it (especially when we realized it was going to be cold—it was 38 degrees when we got to the race site), but it wound up being a really fun time and I’m so glad we did it. The rest of my weekend was spent recovering because, oof, my body is not used to that kind of activity.

Let’s switch gears, though, and talk about my week in reading because, well, I ended up abandoning a book that has gotten rave reviews from trusted sources, Shoe Dog by Phil Knight. The book just wasn’t fully resonating with me and I found myself not excited to pick it up, so after giving it a good 100ish pages, I abandoned it. I can understand why people love the book, especially runners, but it just didn’t hold my attention.

Here are the reviews for the books I did finish this week.

Books Finished

Headliners by Lucy Parker (★★★★★) – Another 5-star romance from Lucy Parker. She never, ever lets me down and I’m just sad I read her newest release so fast and it’ll be months and months before I get a new book from her. This is the typical enemies-to-lovers trope that I love so much. Nick and Sabrina are forced to work together on a morning show after their own broadcasting contracts are canceled due to scandals. They have to figure out how to put aside their differences in order to save their careers and, of course, wind up falling in love in the midst of all this. I loved Nick and Sabrina’s chemistry and rapport and care for one another (after they stopped hating each other, that is). But what I really loved about this novel is that there wasn’t really a dark moment (aka, the part in a romance where the characters break up and all hope for their relationship appears lost). I was waiting for one of them to misinterpret the other’s intentions and have a big blowup (that could have been solved by them just listening to each other and being grown adults), but that never happened. There were multiple misunderstandings along the way, but each time, Nick and Sabrina acted like adults, listened to the other’s side of the story, and moved on. This novel is really making me rethink the dark moment for my own novel—while I love dramatic dark moments and I think they deserve their place in romance novels, I’m starting to come around to the idea that maybe there doesn’t need to be this dramatic scene. Maybe there’s a better way to create stakes for the relationship without having a huge breakup. Hmm. I’ve got some thinking to do!

Jane Doe by Victoria Helen Stone (★★★★★) – I read this book in less than 24 hours, something I can rarely accomplish. (I’m not a particularly fast reader—I just devote a lot of time to reading.) But this psychological thriller sucked me in from the beginning and I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough. It’s about a female sociopath named Jane who has decided to exact revenge on a man named Steven for reasons that are revealed throughout the novel. I loved Jane’s character so much! She was introspective in a way I didn’t expect and so much fun to read about. I thought the book was well-paced and the ending satisfying. All I want from a thriller!

Every Last Word by Tamara Ireland Stone (★★★★☆) – This was an easy, quick YA book about a girl in high school who has OCD, something she hides from her close-knit group of girlfriends (who belong to the “popular” crowd at school). It’s only through meeting a new friend and learning about a secret poet’s society at school that she begins to discover a new side to herself and see herself as “normal.” I thought this book did a great job of discussing the intricacies of having a chronic mental illness, although there were times when the book veered into problematic territory of “girl with OCD finds love and suddenly her OCD is healed.” Let’s not do that, authors.

What I’m Reading Now

Currently, I’m dipping in and out of Forever and a Day, a contemporary romance by fave author Jill Shalvis, as well as my February book for the Unread Shelf Project, The Bean Trees. Today, I’ll start the audiobook for A Nearly Normal Family by M.T. Edvardsson during my commute to work. It’s a psychological thriller that may be a little too intense for me, but I’m intrigued enough by the premise to give it a shot.

What are you reading?

Categories: Books

What I’m Reading (2.3.20)

Happy Monday, friends! I’m off work today (the day after the Super Bowl is a holiday, in my opinion) and planning a fun ladies’ day with my mom. We’re going to paint pottery, get massages, and get pedicures. Definitely a great way to spend a Monday, for sure. 🙂

I didn’t put up a What I’m Reading post last week, but I’m back in action this week with three books to review. I loved two of them and was rather “meh” on the third one.

Books Finished

The Hollow of Fear by Sherry Thomas (★★★★☆) – The third book in the Lady Sherlock series (a gender-bending mystery series that imagines Sherlock Holmes as a woman), this novel follows the mysterious death of Charlotte Holmes’ dear friend, Lord Ingram’s, wife. He’s obviously the one being suspected of killing her and it’s up to Charlotte to clear his name. I loved this book from start to finish and couldn’t have guessed the whodunnit for the life of me. Another great mystery!

Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert (★★☆☆☆) – This romance novel has been getting a lot of buzz so I excitedly picked it for Book of the Month a few months ago. And… it was just okay. While I enjoyed the romance between the two main characters and thought the portrayal of chronic illness to be really powerful, the story arc was a bit disjointed and there were many times I was just… bored… with the story. I think this is more of a case of “good for you, not for me” – the story just didn’t meet my expectations for a good romance, but definitely pick it up if you want to add more diverse romance into your reading life!

Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators by Ronan Farrow (★★★★☆) – What a fascinating read! Catch and Kill is the story of how Ronan Farrow was able to get his investigative journalism piece revealing Harvey Weinstein’s serial sexual abuse (which includes rape allegations and sexual harassment). At first, Farrow wanted to publish the piece on TV as a special for NBC News, but his reporting quickly got squashed by the higher-ups when they learned what he was doing. He eventually took his reporting over to The New Yorker where it was published. This book is a horrifying, insidious look into a corrupt organization and the tactics powerful men will take to keep an even more powerful man happy. It sometimes veers into silly spy novel territory (this is why I dropped my rating from 5 to 4 stars), but is still an incredible read and I am so grateful for journalists like Farrow who seek the truth no matter the stakes and for the women who spoke up, laid out their trauma, and helped bring to light Weinstein’s despicable behavior.

What I’m Reading Now

Building a StoryBrand: Clarify Your Message so Customers Will Listen by Donald Miller – I’m reading this for work and it’s about as exciting as you can imagine. 😉

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy – I’m reading this on an app called Serial Reader, which I heard about on a podcast. This app helps people read classic novels by delivering them in bite-sized, magazine-style issues. Each issue only takes about 10 minutes to read so it’s a great way to read that classic novel that’s been on your TBR forever. I’m really enjoying the experience of taking such a big book and breaking it into these tiny passages. I feel like it’s helping me sink into the novel and understand it better than if I was trying to read it all at once. My plan is to provide a monthly update on my progress, so stay tuned. 🙂

Headliners by Lucy Parker – New Lucy Parker! New Lucy Parker! I pre-ordered the e-book for her latest release the minute I knew about it and was so delighted when it downloaded to my Kindle a week ago. It’s so much fun—exactly what I expect from a Lucy Parker romance!

Every Last Word by Tamara Ireland Stone – My current audiobook, about a 16-year-old girl struggling with OCD. It’ll be a quick listen (it’s 8 hours) so I should breeze through it this week.

Up Next

Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of NIKE by Phil Knight – Lisa recently read and raved about this book so I thought I’d give it a try myself since I’m really into narrative nonfiction lately. I’ll start it sometime this week.

What are you reading?

Categories: Books

What I’m Reading (1.20.20)

Happy Monday! I’m coming to you a bit sleepy from my busier-than-average weekend. It was one filled with friend time, reading, dog snuggles, newborn cuddles, and football, so it was a pretty lovely weekend! Just give me all of the coffee today, please and thank you. 🙂

Last week I finished three books. I had to speed through my last book because it was due to the library on Saturday and I couldn’t renew it. I don’t mind paying library fines, but I also didn’t want to hold onto a book too far past its due date for the people waiting in line. I know how that is!

Books Finished

Beyond the Point by Claire Gibson (★★★★★) – Oh, boy. This book destroyed me, and I really wasn’t expecting it to touch me in such a deep, profound way. It’s a story about friendship, following three women who meet at West Point and form close bonds that last far beyond their time at the academy, even as they’re split across the world once they graduate. It’s a story above love, with all three women tackling romance in vastly different ways. And it’s a story about the realities of war. These women joined West Point right before 9/11 happened, never imagining they’d be called to war. It’s a brilliant exploration of military culture, what it’s like to be a woman in the military today, and the endurance of friendship. These women are deeply flawed and many times not the greatest friends to one another, but they’re there for one another when it counts. And isn’t that the reality of friendship? We’re not always our best selves, but when it matters, we show up. I loved this book so very much. Even days after finishing it, I’m still thinking about the characters—the sign of a truly great novel.

The Governess Game by Tessa Dare (★★★★☆) – Ah, the “duke falling for his governess” trope. This one never gets old for me! Alexandra, whose main passions include astronomy and clocks, becomes the governess for Rosamund and Daisy. Chase, a man whose only passion seems to be bedding women, is now the guardian of these two girls and doesn’t know exactly what to do with them. All he knows is that they need to be educated so they can go away to school in the fall. The story is sweet, sharply feminist, and had me laughing out loud. I loved the build-up to Alex and Chase’s romance—and all the mischief the two young girls got into.

Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed by Lori Gottlieb (★★★☆☆) – I enjoyed this book, but I found certain aspects a bit problematic. The book details Gottlieb’s work as a therapist, including several of her clients’ stories, and the therapy she’s doing after going through a breakup. As someone in therapy right now, I thought the book was a wonderful thesis on therapy and what it’s like from a therapist’s point of view. I loved getting a glimpse into the way other people approach therapy, like the man who answered calls during his sessions or the woman who removed items from her purse when she arrived. The author states up front that many details of her clients’ stories have been changed or re-attributed to protect their identities, which is completely understandable. But it really lessened the impact of these stories because they weren’t real. They were made-up situations with fictionalized dialogue. So much of the book revolved around these stories and a part of me wonders if writing a novel, rather than a memoir, would have been the better approach. As it was, I spent more time wondering what aspects of the stories were true and what were made up, and it affected how I viewed the people and the work they were doing. However, even saying all that, I would still recommend this book and I can definitely understand why people are raving about it. It just didn’t meet my expectations.

What I’m Reading Now

The Hollow of Fear by Sherry Thomas – My current audiobook read! This is the third book in the Lady Sherlock series and it’s been so lovely to dive back into Charlotte’s world again. 🙂

Up Next

I finished Maybe You Should Talk to Someone on Sunday evening and held off on starting something new. My romance for the week is going to be Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert, a book I selected from Book of the Month a few months ago. Alongside that, I’ll be reading Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators by Ronan Farrow.

What are you reading?

Categories: Books

What I’m Reading (1.13.20)

Happy Monday, friends! And welcome back to my “What I’m Reading” series, which took a break for a few weeks as I wrapped up last year with my “Best of 2019” posts. I’m so ready to talk about what I’ve been reading again. Instead of rehashing all of the books I read since I last wrote one of these posts, I’m only going to talk about the books I’ve finished so far in 2020. There are five and one of them is most likely going to make my favorites list at the end of the year.

Books Finished

1) Brazen and the Beast by Sarah MacLean (★★★★★) – MacLean’s newest historical romance might be her most feminist one to date (and that’s really saying something). It’s the Year of Hattie for Hattie Sedley who aims to take control of her father’s shipping business and secure her future. She’s going to start the Year of Hattie by losing her virginity but all of her carefully laid plans could be ruined when she finds a man tied up in her carriage. It’s a super fun, super feminist story that I couldn’t put down. I am so glad I chose to start off my 2020 year of reading with this book!

2) Glitter and Glue by Kelly Corrigan (★★☆☆☆) – I really thought this book was going to be perfect for me. It was billed to me as a treatise on the mother/daughter relationship from someone who has a moderate-to-good relationship with her mom. In the book, Kelly is in her young twenties, traveling abroad, and nannying for two children whose mother has just died from cancer. Witnessing their grief and having to shoulder the responsibility for these children causes her to reflect on her own mother and the way she was raised. It’s a good book, but it just didn’t touch me the way I expected it to. For me, it was “just ok.”

3) The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai (★★★★★) – This book completely destroyed me. The story is told in alternating timelines: in the mid-1980s and in 2005. In the 1980s storyline, Yale is a gay young man who is watching friend after friend die from AIDS, and worrying about his own mortality. The 2005 storyline is about Fiona who was 21 when her brother Nico, one of Yale’s best friends, died from AIDS. She’s now in her forties and trying to find her daughter who has disappeared into a cult. It’s a powerful, heart-wrenching story about the AIDS epidemic, what it was truly like for the people who lived it, and the lasting impact it had on those who were left behind. There aren’t many stories about this (even the author said in her Author’s Note that it was really difficult to research for this book because there just isn’t a lot of information or real-life accounts). It’s only the third book I read in 2020 and I already know it’s going to make my favorites list at the end of the year.

4) The Right Swipe by Alisha Rai (★★★☆☆) – I loved this contemporary look into the dating world, as many romances either make dating apps seem like the worst thing in the world or pretend that they don’t exist at all. Rhiannon Hunter is the owner of Crush, a Bumble-like dating app, and has a one-night stand with a man named Samson that seems like it could evolve into something more. Until Samson ghosts on her… only to show up a few months later as the face of Matchmaker, one of Crush’s rival dating apps. I loved the look into dating apps and what dating is like right now, but it only earns three stars from me because I never felt like I connected with Rhiannon and some of the scenes felt over the top and out of place in the narrative.

5) Next Year in Havana by Chanel Cleeton (★★★★☆) – This novel taught me so much about the history of Cuba and the injustices Cubans still face today. It follows a journalist named Marisol who goes to Cuba after her grandma dies to spread her ashes. During this visit, Marisol learns so much more about her grandma and her life before her family left Cuba in 1959. And, with the help of a very cute family friend, she learns about the Cuba of today. This book is a love story to Cuba and Cuban people, and I enjoyed every minute of it.

What I’m Reading Now

1) Beyond the Point by Claire Gibson – I’m listening to this on audio and I have about six hours left. It’s a great (fictional) insider’s view of the military from the perspective of three women.

2) The Governess Game by Tessa Dare – I started this historical romance on Sunday evening and I’m flying through it. I am such a fan of Dare’s writing and characters!

Up Next

1) Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed by Lori Gottlieb – I’ve only seen rave reviews of this book and I’m pretty sure I’m going to love it, too. After all, it’s about my new favorite subject: therapy!

What are you reading?

Categories: Books

What I’m Reading (12.23.19)

Happy Christmas Eve Eve! (Christmas Adam, I think we’re calling it now? Ha.) I am working today but then have the next two days off and Thursday, I’m working from home so it should be a very easy work week for me! I’m so excited about it! Also on Thursday, I’m kicking off this year’s “Best of 2019” series! I love doing these posts so very much and I can’t wait to recap my year on the blog. 🙂

I had a good reading week last week, as I finished two books and loved both of them! Here are my reviews:

Books Finished

1) Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness by Susannah Cahalan (★★★★★) – This book was fascinating and horrifying at the same time. It follows the month-long psychotic break that Susannah Cahalan had when she was in her early twenties and had no prior history of mental illness. The progression of her illness, from obsessive thoughts to paranoia and hearing voices that weren’t there, was horrifying, and I’m not sure how Susannah was able to write about it in such a vulnerable way. It had to be so hard to remember those dark days, even worse to recognize the toll it placed on her family when she was deep in the throes of psychosis. (There was a lot she didn’t remember so she had to rely on medical notes, footage from hospital cameras, and her parents’ journals.) Susannah ended up being one of the lucky ones, someone diagnosed and treated and able to live a full, healthy life afterward, and it’s frightening to think what could have happened if she didn’t have family fighting so strongly for her and one of the top neurologists in the country consulting on her case. Anyway, it’s a really compelling story that I found hard to put down and I wholly recommend it.

2) Lennon Reborn by Scarlett Cole (★★★★☆) – I really loved this romance, the last in Cole’s Preload series that followed four of the five members of a heavy metal band. This story is about Lennon, the drummer, who was probably my least favorite person before this novel redeemed him. The members of this band met in a group home so they all have very tragic backstories, but Lennon is the one who has never really dealt with the trauma and pain, instead letting it fester and make him an angry person. So I was a little apprehensive about this book, but man, was he redeemed. I loved his character arc and especially loved the way his relationship with Georgia helped to heal him, but not in a superficial way. In a way that showed him he was worthy of love and worthy of giving love. It was a special book and I’m so sad that my time with this band has come to an end!

What I’m Reading Now

1) The Beautiful Mystery by Louise Penny – I’m six hours into this audiobook and thoroughly enjoying it. (Amber was right – the Inspector Gamache books on audio are excellent!) Unlike many of the other books in the series that take place in a small Canadian town called Three Pines, this book is set at a monastery. It’s a little hard to keep all the characters straight but it’s been an easy, comforting listening experience.

2) Mrs. Everything by Jennifer Weiner – This book is a tome at almost 500 pages so it’s not one I’ll be speeding through. The book follows two sisters throughout their lives starting when they were very young. Character-driven novels aren’t normally my favorite, but this one is keeping my attention so far.

3) Well Met by Jen DeLuca – My romance for the week! It’s a nice change of pace from Mrs. Everything, even if the writing isn’t as good as I’d hoped.

Up Next

I actually haven’t decided what I’ll read when I’m finished with the above books! I have a romance queued up (Hate to Want You by Alisha Rai) but nothing beyond that. After I finish Hate to Want You, I’ll make a decision if I want to try to read something quick (like another romance or a thriller) to finish before the end of 2019, or if I want to start a longer book (I have The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai checked out from the library) that I’ll carry into 2020 with me.

What are you reading?