Happy Monday! Oh boy, did I have a rather difficult reading week. Book hangovers are no joke, friends! (More on that below.) I also found myself struggling mightily with my new mood reading plan. After finishing The Dearly Beloved early on in the week, trying to make a decision on what to read next felt impossible—nothing sounded good to me. Not on my bookshelves, not on my Kindle, not on my Goodreads TBR shelf. I found myself missing the structure of a TBR list. And I think I finally realized why I love being so structured with my TBR—no decision-making! As an Enneagram 9, decision-making is my constant struggle and when I don’t have a structured list to guide my reading, I feel out of sorts. So I put together a five-book TBR list this weekend, and I felt my shoulders relaxing and my mood lifting once I did. I made sure to choose books that wouldn’t be too heavy or require too much from me—pandemic reading, ya know?—but I’m feeling good about getting back to my structured reading lists!
Last week, I finished two books and both were great reads!
Books Finished
The Dearly Beloved by Cara Wall (★★★★★)
One-sentence synopsis: An exploration of the lives of two young ministers and their wives.
You guysssssss. This book put me in an epic book hangover! It might be in the running for the best book I’ve read in 2020 right now. It was just that good! I loved the way faith and non-belief coexisted in this novel, in a way that did not pit them against each other or make one seem like the “better” choice. The characters were exceptionally drawn, flawed and complicated but in a way that humanized them and made them easy to root for. I loved the exploration of family and friendship and faith and motherhood, and the way all of that shifts and changes through the years. I highlighted so many passages, and I’ll end this review with one of them:
Our love of God is not as important as our faith in God. Love wanes. Faith cannot. One can have faith and anger, faith and hate. One can believe deeply and still rail against God, still blame God. In fact, if one can hate God it is a sign of deep faith, because you cannot hate and at the same time doubt God’s existence.”
Hurts to Love You by Alisha Rai (★★★★☆)
One-sentence synopsis: Eve has had a crush on Gabe for years, so what happens when they’re stuck in a big mansion together for days?
Ooh, I loved a good forced-proximity romance! This is the third and final book in Rai’s Forbidden Hearts series, and it was my favorite one of the trilogy! I could really relate to Eve, who has a hard time with emotions and trust because she was emotionally abused by her father. Her struggles were immensely relatable to me, and I loved seeing her stand up to her father and understand her own value through it all. I also really loved the sweetness of her and Gabe’s relationship, and how they both helped each other as they faced their own harsh realities. All in all, a great wrap-up to the series!
What I’m Reading Now
Oh man, The Dearly Beloved put me in such an epic book slump. I started and stopped no less than five books. I couldn’t figure out what I wanted to read next, and all of the books I tried reading just felt lame and boring. I finally settled on Lucy’s Little Village Book Club by Emma Davies, and I really had to force myself to keep reading this book after 50 pages. It’s not a particularly outstanding book and the writing is actually kinda terrible, but I just need to get a completed book under my belt. I’m almost finished with it—less than 100 pages to go—and next up for me is Lock Every Door by Riley Sager. I need something fast-paced and well-written, and Riley Sager always delivers on both fronts for me.
Alongside Lucy’s Little Village Book Club, I’m reading Hooking Up by Helena Hunting. This is a new-to-me romance author and I recently read and loved another book from her (Shacking Up), and this one is meeting my needs perfectly.
What are you reading?
I am glad the mini TBR is helping, although I am totally laughing at reading a book with horrible writing just to get it finished! Hee hee! The Dearly Beloved sounds really good! I am actually reading a book with some faith themes now (The Names They Gave Us) and I usually avoid that, but am liking this book so far 🙂
Glad you figured out that having a TBR is actually better for you than winging it! I don’t have such a struggle to pick what to read next since my options are so so so limited right now. I have a handful of library books available, so I’m working my way through them. Not sure what I will do when I am finished with them, though. Hopefully my library starts to accept returns soon so they have more books to distribute. We’ll see!
I finished “The Other’s Gold” over the weekend which is a campus novel that follows the life of 4 girls who meet at college. It was really well-written and focuses on one huge mistake that each of the girls makes.. but the final one bothered me so much that it just kind of haunted me… Which is probably a sign of a good book but man it just made me feel uncomfortable! Now I am reading “Writers and Lovers” by Lily King. It’s a buzzy new release so I was shocked when it was in the list of ebooks available immediate on libby. I don’t know HOW that happened!
I’ll have to check out The Dearly Beloved. Sounds like something I would enjoy!
Today, I finished Brttt-Marie Was Here by Fredrik Backman. I loooooved it. So much more than I expected! It took a while to read it but that was more on me for not finding time to read as much as I want to. I think the next book I’m going to read is an autobiography by a sports guy I enjoy (This Team Is Ruining My Life (But I Love Them) by Steve Dangle).