Thank you for joining me here! I hope you enjoy this series and I’d love to hear from you about what you are reading these days.
Book #1:
She’s Up to No Good by Sara Goodman Confino (Length: 395 pages). I scored this book as a free Kindle read one month, and I’m still not sure how I feel about it. It’s a women-based novel with strong characters, which I typically love. We meet Jenna who is recently divorced and who goes on a road trip with her sassy grandmother Evelyn who is drawn back to where she grew up in the seaside town of Hereford, Massachusetts. The timeline switches back and forth between present day and Evelyn’s past, growing up Jewish in that time period, but in love with a boy who isn’t Jewish. I found myself disliking the dual timelines as I wasn’t really interested in Jenna’s story (mainly because I found her to be too whiny), so I didn’t want to grab this novel when it was time for me to read something. But I stuck with it because I was invested in Evelyn’s story and I wanted to find out what happened. This is a 3 star book for me given the issues I had with the timelines but overall it is a decent Amazon First Reads pick. Sometimes you can’t beat free! 😉
Book #2:
Joan is Okay by Weike Wang (Length: 215 pages). I randomly grabbed this short novel off the New Releases shelf at my local library because of the interesting cover. It’s about a Chinese attending physician who works in the ICU of a New York City hospital. While it’s never explicitly stated, it’s very obvious that Joan is on the spectrum and I adore books that show neurodivergent people in a positive light, which this novel does. The author writes about Joan’s life growing up as the daughter of immigrant parents, then how Joan copes with the sudden death of her father as well as navigating her complex relationships with her mother and her uber-driven and successful older brother. The writing is very strong, the characters are quirky and it’s a very quick read. I’d recommend!
Book #3:
The Gifts of Imperfection by Brene Brown (Length: 245 pages). I’ve been trying to read this book for years but it couldn’t hold my interest. After I enjoyed watching Brene in a Netflix special recently, I realized I should try an audiobook version, and that did the trick! I adore her voice and she does narrate this book. There is nothing earth-shattering in this particular book but I did find that it’s a great reminder, generally speaking, to get off the hamster wheel of life once in a while and to slow down. And it’s okay not to be perfect, which this self-described perfectionist needs to be reminded of now and again. You can’t go wrong with Brene Brown but this audiobook is worth a listen.
Lora Terrill 