Happy Monday, friends! I am starting this week on Chip duty, which means spending my evenings with him (and sleeping over at my mom’s place) and the late mornings/afternoons at my place to give the girls some attention. It feels a little hectic (and I always hate spending nights away from my cats), but I also love getting one-on-one time with Chip! He’s the best boy and I’m excited to hang out with him this week. 🙂
It was a good reading week for me—three books finished! Let’s review:
When a Scot Ties the Knot by Tessa Dare (★★☆☆☆)
Short synopsis: Shy, socially awkward Maddie discovers an easy way to make sure she never has to attend a ball: She invents a sweetheart named Captain Logan MacKenzie. She believes she properly deceived her family for years—until the real Captain MacKenzie shows up on her doorstep!
What a fun premise! I could most assuredly relate to Maddie and being socially awkward (she has what are essentially panic attacks whenever she’s in a crowd). Unfortunately, most of this novel just didn’t work for me. I didn’t find the romance to be very believable and lacked the depth I wanted from my romances. I wanted to feel something for the characters, and there was just nothing there. It was all a bit… boring? Eeks. I usually love Tessa Dare’s historical romances, but this one just very much missed the mark.
The Real Doctor Will See You Shortly: A Physician’s First Year by Matt McCarthy (★★★★★)
One-sentence synopsis: A memoir of a medical intern’s year spent in various departments in a New York hospital.
This memoir was so good! This is the second memoir written by a physician that I’ve read, and this subgenre really appeals to me. Matt is vulnerable about his mistakes, especially during his first few months as an intern, and it was really amazing to see his growth as a physician throughout the year. At times, this book could be triggering for me, only because I’ve had way too much experience with ICUs in the past few years, as both of my grandparents were ICU patients who passed away in the hospital. But Matt’s engaging writing style and hopeful tone kept it from being too much for me, thankfully. Definitely a memoir I would recommend!
All the Single Ladies: Unmarried Women and the Rise of an Independent Nation by Rebecca Traister (★★★☆☆)
One-sentence synopsis: A research-based look at why more women are choosing to stay single and unmarried at this point in history.
I have complicated feelings about this book. On the one hand, as someone who has been single for most of her adult life, I am grateful this book exists. I felt so seen while reading it. We’re at such a defining moment in history where women can be unmarried and still live big, full, exciting lives. It wasn’t always possible to do that—it was only in the 1970s that unmarried women could even open their own bank account! On the other hand, I don’t believe those who got married young have trapped themselves. If I had found my person in my early twenties, I would have gotten married! But I didn’t, and I haven’t, so I remain unmarried and happy in my singledom because I have the freedom that wasn’t afforded to my mom or my grandma or the legions of women that came before me. There were times when this book felt a little too academic, and I really despised the chapter of “Where Are They Now,” which basically just tells us if the women Traister interviewed for the book are married or not (…which seems to defeat the purpose of the book???) Anyway, I am still piecing together my thoughts on this book, so I’ll probably write a blog post about it in the future.
What I’m Reading This Week
- The Versions of Us by Laura Barnett (e-book) – This has been a really fun read so far! It’s about two characters who have a chance meeting one afternoon while they’re in college and the different paths their lives can take if they act (or don’t act) on the sudden chemistry they feel with one another.
- One to Watch by Kate Stayman-London (print) – I’ve had this book on my shelf for a while and I’m finally reading it. It follows a plus-size woman on a Bachelor-type reality TV show. At times, it’s been a little triggering for me, but I’m hanging in there for now.
What are you reading?
Aww, Chip duty! I hope your mom and her husband are off doing something fun. The girls are going to be SO happy to see you when you stop by! They’ll definitely be all over your desk while you work.
The Single Ladies book sound interesting. I look forward to your in depth post on it! It’s horrifying to think back to all the things women could not do (as a single woman), and so recently! Ugh. The “us vs them” parts of it sound icky (and gah, something we fight with EVERY SINGLE DAY, it seems). Like… why does one way always have to be better or the right way? I hate it when people have that attitude!
I feel bad One to Watch has been so triggering for you 🙁 I am sorry 🙁
I am reading Kindred, which is fabulous and horrifying.
I’ve heard really good things about “One to Watch” so I hope you end up liking it. It’s something I think I want to try to read this winter as I think I’ll need mostly lighter books during mat leave due to sleep deprivation!
I had similar feelings about “All the Single Ladies.” I read it when I was single so I did feel ‘seen’. I did not have anyone to look up to who was single into her 30s like I was, except for a blog turned IRL friend Nilsa. And then other peers I met were in their 30s and single which was really nice for me. All of my college friends married in their 20s so I was the major outlier. So I am glad that someday, my nieces will have an aunt that can relate to them if they aren’t married in their 20s!
I finished Rodham and The Vanishing Half over the weekend and both were EXCELLENT! Brit Bennett is just amazing. I think she is still under 30, too, or just around 30. She’s an author whose books I will read without knowing a single thing about them! Same goes for Sittenfeld. now I am reading Anne of GG because a friend is turning 40 and she has asked her friends to consider reading it. I was on board for that as I remember loving that book when I was a young. It’s just as delightful as I remembered!