My Favorite Read of June 2023: The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams

“Please try to remember that books aren’t always an escape; sometimes books teach us things. They show us the world, they don’t hide it.”
― Sara Nisha Adams, The Reading List

Goodreads Synopsis:

Widower Mukesh lives a quiet life in the London Borough of Ealing after losing his beloved wife. He shops every Wednesday, goes to Temple, and worries about his granddaughter, Priya, who hides in her room reading while he spends his evenings watching nature documentaries.

Aleisha is a bright but anxious teenager working at the local library for the summer when she discovers a crumpled-up piece of paper in the back of To Kill a Mockingbird. It’s a list of novels that she’s never heard of before. Intrigued, and a little bored with her slow job at the checkout desk, she impulsively decides to read every book on the list, one after the other. As each story gives up its magic, the books transport Aleisha from the painful realities she’s facing at home.

When Mukesh arrives at the library, desperate to forge a connection with his bookworm granddaughter, Aleisha passes along the reading list… hoping that it will be a lifeline for him too. Slowly, the shared books create a connection between two lonely souls, as fiction helps them escape their grief and everyday troubles and find joy again.

Reasons I loved this book:

It celebrates that a great book can mean different things to different people.

I love a intergenerational friendship story.

I learned more about Indian culture.

I love creating my own book lists.

July 1, 2023

My Favorite Read of May 2023: A Stitch in Time by Kelley Armstrong

“Everyone needs things that serve no greater purpose than to make them happy.”
― Kelley Armstrong, A Stitch in Time

Goodreads Synopsis:

Thorne Manor has always been haunted… and it has always haunted Bronwyn Dale. As a young girl, Bronwyn could pass through a time slip in her great-aunt’s house, where she visited William Thorne, a boy her own age, born two centuries earlier. After a family tragedy, the house was shuttered and Bronwyn was convinced that William existed only in her imagination.

Now, twenty years later Bronwyn inherits Thorne Manor. And when she returns, William is waiting.

William Thorne is no longer the boy she remembers. He’s a difficult and tempestuous man, his own life marred by tragedy and a scandal that had him retreating to self-imposed exile in his beloved moors. He’s also none too pleased with Bronwyn for abandoning him all those years ago.

As their friendship rekindles and sparks into something more, Bronwyn must also deal with ghosts in the present version of the house. Soon she realizes they are linked to William and the secret scandal that drove him back to Thorne Manor. To build a future, Bronwyn must confront the past.

My Thoughts

This book was a taste of all my favorite genres: romance, fantasy, historical fiction and mystery. It has the feel of a classic with a modern twist. I enjoyed the way Armstrong weaves in just enough small details to build suspense throughtout the story so that you’re guessing until the end.

Reasons I liked A Stitch in Time:

Bronwyn loves William, but doesn’t just give up her life for him
The fun way Bronwyn exchanges information about the future with William through food and financial advice
Enigma the kitten is a great “character” who adds a touch of humor

June 1, 2023

My Favorite Read of March 2023:Thin Ice by Paige Shelton

“I knew I was keeping it together by only the thinnest of threads, but that was better than not keeping it together at all.”
Paige Shelton, Thin Ice

Goodreads Synopsis:

Beth Rivers is on the run – she’s doing the only thing she could think of to keep herself safe. Known to the world as thriller author Elizabeth Fairchild, she had become the subject of a fanatic’s obsession. After being held in a van for three days by her kidnapper, Levi Brooks, Beth managed to escape, and until he is captured, she’s got to get away. Cold and remote, Alaska seems tailor-made for her to hideout.

Beth’s new home in Alaska is sparsely populated with people who all seem to be running or hiding from something, and though she accidentally booked a room at a halfway house, she feels safer than she’s felt since Levi took her. That is, until she’s told about a local death that’s a suspected murder. Could the death of Linda Rafferty have anything to do with her horror at the hands of Levi Brooks?

As Beth navigates her way through the wilds of her new home, her memories of her time in the van are coming back, replaying the terror and the fear–and threatening to keep her from healing, from reclaiming her old life again. Can she get back to norma, will she ever truly feel safe, and can she help solve the local mystery, if only so she doesn’t have to think about her own?

My Thoughts:

This book was a great kick off for a mystery series. The Alaskan setting is perfect for a murder mystery. The isolation and harsh weather conditions add an element of danger. Normally, I find it improbable when series are set in small communities that have murders take place every couple of months. It works here for a couple of reasons. First, it’s a place people in trouble go to as an escape. Second, there’s a halfway house bringing in a criminal element. So, the danger makes sense. I also like that there are two mysteries: the main mystery which is solved within the book, and the bigger mystery of Paige’s stalker which I assume will progress in each book.

Reasons I liked Thin Ice:

Alaskan setting
Cast of interesting characters
Interesting subplots
Main character is a writer

March 31, 2023

My Favorite Read of February 2023: The Happily Ever After Playlist by Abby Jimenez

“This was just a season, and there’s beauty in all seasons. Even if you are looking forward to the next one.”

Abby Jimenez, The Happy Ever After Playlist

Goodreads Synopsis:

Two years after losing her fiancé, Sloan Monroe still can’t seem to get her life back on track. But one trouble-making pup with a “take me home” look in his eyes is about to change everything. With her new pet by her side, Sloan finally starts to feel more like herself. Then, after weeks of unanswered texts, Tucker’s owner reaches out. He’s a musician on tour in Australia. And bottom line: He wants Tucker back.

Well, Sloan’s not about to give up her dog without a fight. As their flirty texts turn into long calls, Sloan can’t deny a connection. There’s no telling what could happen when they meet in person. The question is: With his music career on the rise, how long will Jason really stick around? And is it possible for Sloan to survive another heartbreak?

My Thoughts:

I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about this book. I really liked Sloan and Brandon’s relationship in The Friend Zone and his death felt unnecessaary to the plot (I later learned that Jimenez wrote this book first and went back and wrote The Friend Zone). While the relationship between Sloan and Jason moved quickly, it still respected Sloan’s history. Even thought Jason was all-in from the beginning, he understood that Sloan would need some time. At times I found the drama frustrating, but I think it was realistic to what it would be like to be in a relationship with someone in the public eye.

What I liked about this book:

Even though Jason helped pull Sloan out of her grief, it was clear that Sloan had found her own strength
Tucker: the dog knows what he wants and how to get it
Jason is the perfect combination for a modern romantic hero: Hot Rock Star and Sweet dog-lover
Balance of humor and serious scenes

March 1, 2023

My Favorite Read of January 2023: Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

“Imagine if all men took women seriously. Education would change. The workforce would revolutionize..”
— Bonnie Garmus, Lessons in Chemistry

Goodreads Synopsis:

Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. In fact, Elizabeth Zott would be the first to point out that there is no such thing as an average woman. But it’s the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute takes a very unscientific view of equality. Except for one: Calvin Evans; the lonely, brilliant, Nobel–prize nominated grudge-holder who falls in love with—of all things—her mind. True chemistry results.

But like science, life is unpredictable. Which is why a few years later Elizabeth Zott finds herself not only a single mother, but the reluctant star of America’s most beloved cooking show Supper at Six. Elizabeth’s unusual approach to cooking (“combine one tablespoon acetic acid with a pinch of sodium chloride”) proves revolutionary. But as her following grows, not everyone is happy. Because as it turns out, Elizabeth Zott isn’t just teaching women to cook. She’s daring them to change the status quo.

My Thoughts

Based on the cover, I was expecting more of a light read. This book does have a lot of humor, but it also has depth. It touches on many difficult issues: sexual assault, suicide, homophobia, grief and sexism. Yet, the story is so well written that it does not come off as depressing.

What I liked about this book:

It’s nice balance of humor and drama
the dog, six-thirty, is a great character
It connected cooking and science in an interesting way
Elizabeth refuses to compromise her values

February 1, 2023

My Favorite Read of December 2022: The Last Year of the War by Susan Meissner

“Sometimes what you want is given to you in a way that is so very different from how you had pictured getting it.”
— Susan Meissner, The Last Year of the War

Goodreads Synopsis

Elise Sontag is a typical Iowa fourteen-year-old in 1943–aware of the war but distanced from its reach. Then her father, a legal U.S. resident for nearly two decades, is suddenly arrested on suspicion of being a Nazi sympathizer. The family is sent to an internment camp in Texas, where, behind the armed guards and barbed wire, Elise feels stripped of everything beloved and familiar, including her own identity.

The only thing that makes the camp bearable is meeting fellow internee Mariko Inoue, a Japanese-American teen from Los Angeles, whose friendship empowers Elise to believe the life she knew before the war will again be hers. Together in the desert wilderness, Elise and Mariko hold tight the dream of being young American women with a future beyond the fences.

My Thoughts

I should be tired of WWII dual-timeline stories by now. But, I love Susan Meissner’s writing, so I couldn’t resist this one. I think the reason these stories keep drawing me in is that there are so many different perspectives to view the war. I had never read anything about German Americans being put in internment camps or sent back to Germany. This really brought home how average families were affected by war.

What I liked about this book

The friendship between Elisa and Mariko and how the bond remained even after decades of separation.

I learned more about American Internment camps

The bulk of the story took place after the war, and focuses on healing

January 1, 2023

Favorite Read of November 2022: How the Penguins Saved Veronica by Hazel Prior

Life can be generous. It can heal the heart and whisper that it’s always possible to start again, never too late to make a difference. It asserts that there are many, many things worth living for. And one of those things—one of the most unexpectedly joyful things of all—is penguins.
-Hazel Prior, How the Penguins Saved Veronica

Goodreads Synopsis:

Eighty-five-year-old Veronica McCreedy is estranged from her family and wants to find a worthwhile cause to leave her fortune to. When she sees a documentary about penguins being studied in Antarctica, she tells the scientists she’s coming to visit—and won’t take no for an answer. Shortly after arriving, she convinces the reluctant team to rescue an orphaned baby penguin. He becomes part of life at the base, and Veronica’s closed heart starts to open.

Her grandson, Patrick, comes to Antarctica to make one last attempt to get to know his grandmother. Together, Veronica, Patrick, and even the scientists learn what family, love, and connection are all about.

My Thoughts:

It’s not secret I love penguins, and I kept hearing wonderful things about this book. So, my expectations were really high going into the book. It lived up to all of them.

What I liked about this book:

It’s filled with penguin facts
Veronica is a spunky 85-year-old protagonist
It shows that it’s never too late to change your life
Patrick, the adopted penguin, is a great character
Did I mention there are penguins?

December 1, 2022

Favorite Read of October 2022: Words in Deep Blue by Cath Crowley

Words matter, in fact. They’re not pointless, as you’ve suggested. If they were pointless, then they couldn’t start revolutions and they wouldn’t change history. If they were just words, we wouldn’t write songs or listen to them. We wouldn’t beg to be read to as kids. If they were just words, then stories wouldn’t have been around since before we could write. We wouldn’t have learned to write. If they were just words, people wouldn’t fall in love because of them, feel bad because of them, ache because of them, and stop aching because of them.
Cath Crowley, Words in Deep Blue

Goodreads Synopsis:

Years ago, Rachel had a crush on Henry Jones. The day before she moved away, she tucked a love letter into his favorite book in his family’s bookshop. She waited. But Henry never came.

Now Rachel has returned to the city—and to the bookshop—to work alongside the boy she’d rather not see, if at all possible, for the rest of her life. But Rachel needs the distraction, and the escape. Her brother drowned months ago, and she can’t feel anything anymore. She can’t see her future.

Henry’s future isn’t looking too promising, either. His girlfriend dumped him. The bookstore is slipping away. And his family is breaking apart.

As Henry and Rachel work side by side—surrounded by books, watching love stories unfold, exchanging letters between the pages—they find hope in each other. Because life may be uncontrollable, even unbearable sometimes. But it’s possible that words, and love, and second chances are enough.

My Thoughts:

I am always drawn to books that are centered around bibliophiles. Usually the protagonists in these books are well into adulthood. I liked that this was a new adult book, showing a young man who loves books and poetry. There is drama and misunderstandings, but I felt like they rang true for that age.

What I liked about this book:

Their bookstore has a library where customers exchange notes in the books. I loved this concept, and the excerpts were an innovative technique for adding depth to the story.
There is a deep appreciation for the power of words in this book, balancing Henry’s love of poetry and Rachel’s love of science.
Rachel is dealing with her brother’s death and how to move on without feeling guilty. She and Henry have a lot of deep discussions about life and death.
George and Martin are fantastic side characters. Even though the central romance is between Henry and Rachel, I was more drawn to their story. George is Henry’s cynical sister, but Martin wiggles his way into her heart by refusing to take her insults personally.

November 1, 2022

Honorable Mentions for September 2022

My favorite book of the month post was about Book Lovers. But the choice was so tough that I had to add a second post with honorable mentions.

Daughter of the Moon Goddess is a wonderful fantasy novel based on Chinese folklore.

Even though Spain is on my travel bucket list, I haven’t read many books set in Spain. Fountains of Silence was a great historical novel set primarily in the years directly following Spain’s Civil War.

You Deserve Each Other was a fun, unique love story. It would make a great movie.

I started my Christmas reading early to pass this on to a friend. The Christmas Wedding Guest has all the warm, fuzzy feelings you want from a holiday read.

Favorite Read of September 2022

The ones that speak to me are those whose final pages admit there is no going back. That every good thing must end. That every bad thing does too, that everything does.

That is what I’m looking for every time I flip to the back of a book, compulsively checking for proof that in a life where so many things have gone wrong, there can be beauty too. That there is always hope, no matter what.
Emily Henry, Book Lovers

Goodreads Synopsis:

Nora Stephens’ life is books—she’s read them all—and she is not that type of heroine. Not the plucky one, not the laidback dream girl, and especially not the sweetheart. In fact, the only people Nora is a heroine for are her clients, for whom she lands enormous deals as a cutthroat literary agent, and her beloved little sister Libby.

Which is why she agrees to go to Sunshine Falls, North Carolina for the month of August when Libby begs her for a sisters’ trip away—with visions of a small-town transformation for Nora, who she’s convinced needs to become the heroine in her own story. But instead of picnics in meadows, or run-ins with a handsome country doctor or bulging-forearmed bartender, Nora keeps bumping into Charlie Lastra, a bookish brooding editor from back in the city. It would be a meet-cute if not for the fact that they’ve met many times and it’s never been cute.

If Nora knows she’s not an ideal heroine, Charlie knows he’s nobody’s hero, but as they are thrown together again and again—in a series of coincidences no editor worth their salt would allow—what they discover might just unravel the carefully crafted stories they’ve written about themselves.

My Thoughts

I read a lot of great books this month. So much so that I am planning on adding and honorable mentions post. Book Lovers took the honor because I felt the deepest connection. I love Hallmark movies, but I keep thinking that I want a twist where they don’t want to stay in the small town. That’s what this is, a look at the other side. The person who usually gets dumped in the movies because they love their jobs and city life. Even though I’m more of a small-town girl, I loved the way Nora and Charlie were so dedicated to helping their family. As someone dipping her toes into the writing world, I also really liked the behind-the-scenes view of the publishing industry.

What I liked about this book

Nora and Charlie are both great characters
The book is a good mix of humor and sentiment
Even though Charlie and Nora had bad first impressions of each other, they didn’t drag it out too long once they finally realized they had a lot in common
The relationship between Nora and her sister Libby