Happy Monday, dear friends! It was quite the weekend for me and next weekend might be even crazier. Eeps! We’re in summer now… it won’t be slowing down anytime soon!
Last week, I finished four books and before you give me too much credit here, one of them was a short audiobook (4.5 hours) and the other was a novella. And I also went to a silent reading event where I got to read in silence for 90 minutes this week, which helped greatly! Here are my reviews:
Talking As Fast As I Can: From Gilmore Girls to Gilmore Girls (and Everything in Between) by Lauren Graham (★★★★☆)
Somehow, I ran out of podcasts to listen to at the beginning of last week (that’s… never happened), so I downloaded Lauren Graham’s memoir on audio. I’ve been meaning to read her book for a while but have just never gotten around to it for some reason. Listening to it was definitely the way to go because Lauren Graham has such a distinct voice and it was lovely to have her in my ears for 4.5 hours! This book encompasses her early childhood, her years as a struggling actress, and her time on Gilmore Girls, Parenthood, and Gilmore Girls again. I really loved getting a peek into what life is like on set, especially since I’m a huge fan of both the TV shows she’s been on. I wish she had been a bit more detailed about her personal life, though. I’m not asking for anything salacious, but I would have liked more insight into her day-to-day and her relationship with Peter Krause. We got some details but most of this book felt very surface level. Still, a very good memoir and one I’d recommend to Gilmore Girls fans!
An Unconditional Freedom by Alyssa Cole (★★★★☆)
This historical romance is definitely a safe pick for non-romance readers. I’m not sure I would even classify it as traditional romance because the love story didn’t feel like the focal point. Instead, it was about Daniel and Janeta, two spies for the Loyal League, and their mission. What Daniel doesn’t know, though, is that Janeta has a different mission in mind: giving the Loyal League’s secrets to the Confederate Army in exchange for her dad’s freedom. In the process of fulfilling both her missions, Janeta realizes she’s had blinders on her whole life and is on the wrong side of history right now. There were so many quotes and scenes in this novel that felt like they could have been written in a present timeline book. It was a really interesting parallel, though, to draw of how freed black people were looked upon with such suspicion – same as they are today. Back then, black people had to seem inoffensive and courteous so a white person wouldn’t have reason to be violent. And now? Times have still not changed. How depressing.
Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny (★★★☆☆)
Bury Your Dead is the sixth book in the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series. When the novel begins, something terrible has happened in Gamache’s police force. Readers don’t know much, only that Gamache is spending time in Quebec with his mentor and that he’s struggling both mentally and physically. As the novel progresses, bits and pieces of this investigation gone awry are revealed, and it’s done in such a beautiful way. I really, really like the way it was revealed. The novel’s main plot, however, was about solving a murder that happened while Gamache was in Quebec and I just really found that plotline boring and also quite dense. I had to continuously reread pages because I found my mind wandering again and again while I was reading it. Not my favorite of the series, but I’ll keep reading!
Undone by You by Kate Meader (★★★★☆)
This was a short and sweet novella that had so much heart. It follows a successful hockey player named Cade who is gay but struggling to come out because he fears it will irreparably damage his relationship with his father, not to mention being the first openly gay NHL player is another huge risk. He starts secretly seeing Dante, who just so happens to be the GM of the team he plays for, and it’s Dante who helps Cade find the courage to come out. This book was very steamy but I really, really loved it and found it to be such a heartfelt novel.
What I’m reading this week…
> Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige, on audio. I have just a few hours left in this fantasy story. It’s been fantastic and I’m so curious about how it will all end. (Will Dorothy die?!)
> Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid. Finally picked this one off my bookshelf and started reading it yesterday. I expected it to be good, and it totally is. This one may give me that dreaded book hangover!
> Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston. I won a copy of this novel in a Goodreads giveaway, and I’ve seen so many people reading it on my timeline that I just can’t wait another second to read it myself.
What are you reading?
I have never won a goodreads giveaway! I have entered so so so many but have never won a book. That’s cool that you won a book, especially one that has gotten a lot of buzz!
You are in the part of the Gamache series where the main story of the book is a little bit ‘meh’ but the throughline story is too compelling to set them aside or skip over the books. I prefer when the murder is set in Three Pines, which is the case for book 7. Book 8 is kind of meh but again, you have to read it for the main story line of what is going on at the Surete. I felt like the books got really really good from #9 on. So stay with it!
I’m reading “Listen to the Marriage” which is my July book club book. It all takes place in a marriage therapist’s office over the course of 10 months. The couple is separated and is working with a therapist to determine whether to get back together. It’s been really interesting to read as you get to be a voyeur in a relationship but some of their decisions are so dang frustrating! It’s been a really fast read. After that I am going to read a backlist of Taylor Jenkins Reid and hopefully I’ll be able to also read a non-fiction book called “what non one tells you.” It’s about the complex emotions of becoming a mom/being a mom. I had 5 books become available at the same time at the library so I am trying to get through all of them before they are due! I think I should be able to pull it off, though, as a couple were short!