What I’m Reading (8.1.22)

Good morning, friends! I had a lovely weekend that included finally celebrating my mom’s birthday, snuggling Eleni, and taking myself to Starbucks to read my book. It was exactly the weekend I needed. There is a lot happening this week, and I’m feeling ready to tackle it all.

I have three wonderful books to share with you today, and all three got a solid 4 stars from me. Let’s review:

How to Not Die Alone by Logan Ury (★★★★☆)

I talked about this book in Friday’s Currently post, so suffice it to say that I loved it. I wasn’t expecting much from it, mainly because I’ve been very apathetic about dating for a long, long time. Some people look at dating as a way to meet new people, but that’s not how I’ve approached dating. For me, I’m either so excited about the person I’m seeing that I can’t eat or sleep or think about anything else… or I’m going on boring dates and making up excuses for why I can’t extend the date. This book really made me excited about the prospect of dating, though, and how to treat it like a fun way to meet people or, at the very least, learn more about myself and what I want out of my future partner. I’m planning on writing a follow-up post about the lessons I learned and how I want to implement them in my own dating life, so stay tuned for that. I do want to mention, though, that this book was very heteronormative (which, to be fair to the author, she addresses in the beginning of the book, stating that most dating research focuses on straight couples) and doesn’t really discuss what it’s like to date as a person of color or as a fat person. As a fat person, my experiences with dating are so, so different from other people (no, I’m not getting hundreds of matches every day; I’m lucky if I get 1 or 2), and I wish that could have been explored but, as the author is a traditionally beautiful, thin person, I know that’s not something she has experience with. Maybe I’ll just have to write that book about how to date as a fat person, who knows?!

Yours to Keep by Lauren Layne (★★★★☆)

Yours to Keep was a sweet contemporary romance. At just over 200 pages, it was a fast read; sometimes shorter romances feel like they’re missing something (backstory or relationship development, things like that), but this one felt perfectly paced. I’m glad that the author kept it short and sweet because it delivered the perfect impact this way! In this romance, Carter Ramsey has returned to his hometown for his 10-year high school reunion. He’s a pro baseball player who is dealing with an injury that has the potential to ruin his career so he’s going through a lot right now and could consider consulting with a personal injury lawyer. Contact professionals from sites like https://ravidandassociates.com/.  Since he plans to be in town for a couple months, he rents a house next door to Olive, who is none other than his former lab partner from high school science. Olive and Carter strike up a friendship that turns into a whole lot more as they spend most of their time together (Olive’s working on the plans for the high school reunion and recruits Carter to help her). I just adored Olive and want to be friends with her. She was so much fun to read about, mostly because she’s so very different from me (tall, loud, friendly, open-hearted) and I feel like she would be such a wonderful friend to have in my corner. I loved the love story between Carter and Olive, and the grand gestures from both parties at the end of the novel felt true and right, not over the top. A solid romance!

Close Enough to Touch by Colleen Oakley (★★★★☆)

This novel was so lovely! I was a little bit bored in the beginning and contemplated abandoning it, but decided to give it a few more chapters and I’m so glad I did because it was an excellent read. This novel follows Jubilee who has an incredibly rare allergy: she can’t touch or be touched by people. This allergy has caused her to retreat from the world and become a recluse, but when she has to get a job to survive, she finds one at a library. It’s there that she meets Eric, a man who is trying to keep everything together between working a stressful job and parenting his adopted son who is still reeling from the sudden, unexpected loss of his parents (Eric’s best friends). A chance meeting leads Jubilee and Eric, two people whose lives look nothing like they wanted them to, to open their hearts and explore what could happen if they trusted themselves. It was a super sweet novel and I really loved Jubilee’s character arc. She was someone who was so easy to love and root for, and I enjoyed every minute I spent with her. I thought the ending wrapped up a little too neatly, but other than that, it was a fantastic read.

What I’m Reading This Week

• The Hellion’s Waltz by Olivia Waite (e-book) – This is another short romance (under 200 pages!), so I’m likely going to finish it today or tomorrow. So far, I’m enjoying it!
• The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo (print) – I’m looking forward to diving into this novel that gets rave reviews. I’ll start it once I finish The Hellion’s Waltz.
• Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town by Jon Krakauer (audio) – Second time’s the charm? The last time I planned to read this book, I was going through a mental health crisis and many of you recommended that I set it down for the time being. It was good advice! I’m going to start it this week, and if I’m still not feeling up to reading about such a hard subject matter, to my “abandoned” list it will go.

What are you reading?