My bookish moment this week is having a fun conversation about self-help books with a coworker over chat! She wanted to recommend two really great titles that she just read and loved (Atomic Habits and Digital Minimalism) and I’m hoping we can read at least one of them for our work book club soon. I think Digital Minimalism, especially, would make for a great discussion! Anyway, I just love talking books with people and it was a nice interruption to my workday. 🙂
I finished two books since my last update, which was on Wednesday. I sped through a thriller and also finally finished my “slow but steady” read that I’ve been reading since August! I’m thinking about the next “slow but steady” book to pick up—probably something off the Serial Reader app.
A Yellow Raft in Blue Water by Michael Dorris (★★☆☆☆)
One-sentence synopsis: Three generations of Indigenous women tell their life stories.
I read this book because a good friend recommended it to me, and then lent me her high school copy. I chose it as my “slow and steady” read for the fall, reading about 10 pages a day until I finished it. I wanted to like this book, I really did, but it just did not work for me at all. The story is set up in three parts, starting with the granddaughter telling the story, and then the mother telling the story, and finally the grandmother. In each story, the mother figure is this terrible person with no love or compassion for her, someone who is really easy to root against. And then, the mother figure would try to explain her actions when she was telling the story. I assume the lesson to take from this is that humans are flawed and complicated, but to me, it just didn’t work. The explanations didn’t make me feel any sort of compassion toward these women when they’re treating their children and the people around them like shit. I wanted more from their lives and more from this story. Not one I would recommend, unfortunately.
The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell (★★★☆☆)
Short synopsis: Twenty-five years ago, police were called to a home where they found three adults dead in an apparent suicide and a healthy 10-month-old baby crying in a crib upstairs. That baby is now all grown up and has inherited this house, knowing nothing of its sinister past.
Oooof. I had high hopes for this book, but it just did not meet them at all. I was expecting something dark and twisted, especially with the way the premise is laid out, and at times it felt more like a feel-good fiction novel than a thriller. I appreciated all the twists and turns the novel took, as certain things were revealed slowly (and most of them, I only predicted right before they were unveiled). I also liked that most of the characters were easy to root for, which is not always a given in a thriller. But it just didn’t live up to my expectations for a thriller and ultimately, it’s kinda forgettable.
Georgia Peaches and Other Forbidden Fruit by Jaye Robin Brown – abandoned
I was listening to this book on audio and around the 51% mark, I decided to abandon it because I just wasn’t on board with the message it was trying to send. (The book was about a queer teenager who was asked by her father to pretend to be straight for her senior year after they moved to a conservative city in Georgia.)
What I’m Reading This Week
- It’s in His Kiss by Jill Shalvis – I’m nearly finished with this contemporary romance (50 pages to go!) and it’s been a fun, easy-breezy read.
- You Never Forget Your First: A Biography of George Washington by Alexis Coe – I’m halfway through this biography and it’s so very interesting!
- Driven to Distraction by Lori Foster – I’ll start this contemporary romance sometime in the next day or so, once I finish It’s in His Kiss.
- A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson – Looking forward to diving into this one later this week!
What are you reading?
I read “The Family Upstairs” earlier this year and felt the same way – very forgettable. I actually couldn’t tell you what happened in the book! I read “The 10th Muse” over the weekend which was about a female mathematician. I really enjoyed it but I think you need an interest in math to enjoy it as much as I did – the author was a math major and I was, too! Then I abandoned “The Travelers” – no idea how this ended up on my hold list at the library. I probably only read about 30 pages but just knew it wasn’t a fit. Plus it had a lot of swearing which I don’t care for – I’m not a prude about it, I just think the swearing needs to really have a purpose – it felt extraneous in this case and just rubbed me the wrong way. (Lots of use of the F word). Now I”m reading “The End of the Day” by Bill Clegg. I loved his first novel, “Did You Ever Have a Family” – this is reading somewhat similar as there are multiple characters with different stories but they are connected. Clegg is a literary agent so you know he knows a good script when he sees it and has been able to write his own. I had a hard time putting it down last night!
Digital Minimalism sounds great! I hope you read it and tell us all about it!
Wow, the yellow raft book sounds like it had great potential, but yeah, if you are a shit person, it’s going to be really hard to see your side of the story, usually. One of my fave topics to read about (in novels) is shit parents and effed up parent/child relationships, but I think I would have major eyeroll if the excuses started pouring out.
Dang, The Family Upstairs sounded really promising too!
Is A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder the ones they’ve mentioned on Currently Reading? Speaking of them, did you hear Kaytee’s review of We Ride Upon Sticks?
I am reading The Bright Side of Going Dark and it’s a fun quick read! Just what I needed!
I just finished a book I think you’d like—it’s called “If I Never Met You” by Mhairi McFarlane. It’s a romance, featuring a POC and some nice feminist views. Quick read.
Sounds like kind of a ‘meh’ week for books. Sorry. Your reading speed and dedication are so impressive. I’ve been slogging… the academic year is such a hard time to keep up with fun stuff like reading. Anyway, currently reading a JD Robb – the 50th in her Eve Dallas / Roarke series. Craziness. It’s good to read something with an old and familiar style – like putting on fuzzy socks in the evening.