What I’m Reading (1.25.21)

Happy Monday, friends! My bookish moment of the week was spending 30ish minutes on Saturday morning sitting on my patio, sipping an iced coffee and reading the first 50 pages of Kindred. I really want to make time every weekend (and possibly some weeknight evenings) to sit on my patio and read. I didn’t take my phone with me (which means y’all missed out on some truly adorable photos of Eloise, as she was on the patio with me the whole time!) so I could have some distraction-free reading time. In a way, it reminded me of those early mornings on a cruise ship when I would sit on the balcony with my book and read. It was truly delightful!

This week, I finished four books: a short audiobook, a book I’ve been reading for a few weeks, and two wonderful novels:

Amal Unbound by Aisha Saeed (★★★★★)

Amal is a young Pakistani girl who loves her family and reading. More than anything, she wants to get an education and become a teacher. But that future is taken away from her when she becomes an indentured servant for a powerful, corrupt family. It’s a middle-grade novel so the novel is not quite as heavy as the premise may seem, but it still deals with a lot of difficult topics. I found the story fascinating and heartbreaking, and I just fell completely in love with Amal. I wasn’t sure if the story would resolve in a satisfying way, but I was really happy with the ending. It’s a quick read, but an impactful one.

Fallen Star by Susannah Nix (★★★★☆)

I really enjoyed this contemporary romance novel about a movie star and script supervisor falling in love on a movie set. Scott is trying to get his career on track after rehab while Grace is just trying to get through this movie while praying that Scott doesn’t make it a total disaster. When they find out they are living next to each other during this shoot, they find it harder and harder to deny their attraction to one another. This book included a lot of scenes on the movie set, which were all super interesting (especially the time they had to film a sex scene, as I had just finished Bridgerton and it made me wonder how awkward some of those scenes must have been to film!) I also learned a lot about the work of a script supervisor, which is the director’s right-hand person and who has to make sure everything looks the same during each take for continuity. For example, if an actress uses her right hand to take a sip of water, she always needs to use her right hand for any extra takes in that scene. It was a cute story overall, and the dark moment felt really honest (and super heartbreaking!)

We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy by Ta-Nehisi Coates (★★★★☆)

This is a collection of essays that Coates published in The Atlantic during the Obama presidency. Before each essay, Coates talks about where he was and what he was doing before and while writing the essay. The collection includes “The Case for Reparations” and “My President Was Black,” two essays I had heard about but have never read in their entirety. It’s the kind of book you want to take slowly as Coates packs his essays with statistics, real-life stories, and cultural commentary. (I started with reading one essay a day but even that felt like too quick a pace, so I shifted to 25 pages per day.) I bought my copy of this book sometime in 2017 or 2018 and I couldn’t bring myself to read it during the Trump presidency. I’m glad I read it when I did because I don’t know if I could have stomached Coates’ epilogue about the Trump presidency and what it says about Americans and our future while Trump was still in the White House. I have hope for the first time in four years, and it was the perfect time to read this collection of essays.

Thirteen by Steve Cavanagh (★★★★★)

I first heard about this novel on the Currently Reading podcast and the premise enticed me: The serial killer is not on trial. He’s on the jury. I’m always looking for a good, fast-paced thriller, and this one did not disappoint at all! It’s the fourth book in the Eddie Flynn series, but this is the first one I’ve read and it doesn’t seem like the books need to be read in order. I loved the character of Eddie Flynn, who is con artist-turned-defense attorney, and a real ballbuster in court. (The courtroom scenes were exceptional!) The book switches viewpoints between Eddie and Kane, the serial killer. It was really fascinating (and disturbing!) to be in Kane’s head. I was super curious how the author was going to resolve the story, as it seemed like Kane was always three steps ahead of Eddie. And the last 50 pages were filled with so many perfect twists and turns that I couldn’t help giving this book 5 stars and my stamp of approval. (I want to note that there are some really graphic scenes in the novel; I’m a sensitive reader so I skimmed right over them whenever they happened.)

What I’m Reading This Week

• I Flipping Love You by Helena Hunting (e-book) – My romance for the week! I recently realized that I have a whole backlist of Helena Hunting romances to get through and I haven’t read one of her books since May! I’m glad I remedied that because this contemporary romance is giving me all of the happy feels.
• Kindred by Octavia E. Butler (print) – So many people rave about this book that I finally added it to my “immediate TBR list” (i.e., the books I prioritize over other books I want to read). I’m halfway through and loving it.

What are you reading?