Tag: reading

October 2025–Part Two:

November 2, 2025

Book #73:

Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid (341 pages).  I love TJRs writing. My favorite novel of hers is still One True Loves but this is officially my second favorite (with my third being The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo). I grew up loving learning about space and the astronauts, so this novel about the space shuttle in the early 1980s, featuring some of the first female astronauts is a perfect fit for my interests. The love story at the center of this book is the focus here and it’s very well-done. The dialogue and chemistry between the two female astronauts are well-drawn, and the romantic scenes are closed door. I’d say this book is 80% romance, 20% space (NASA, flight training, flight to space), and I do wish there was a bit more about space and the flight at the center of the novel, but even given that, this is a solid 5 stars from me. So memorable and TJR’s vivid writing puts the reader right there in the novel. Please read!

Book #74

Beg, Borrow, or Steal by Sarah Adams (Length: 368 pages). This is the third novel in the 4-novel When in Rome romance series. This is a popular closed-door romance series so if that’s up your alley, definitely check out these books. I adore Sarah Adams’ writing so much and this novel is my favorite so far. Focusing on Walker sibling #3, Emily, as well as her nemesis Jack Bennett, her second grade teacher teammate. Their chemistry is off the charts here, with a sweetness to the enemy to lovers trope that I really enjoyed. Witty banter feels organic and everything works. I adore the small-town setting of Rome, Kentucky and really enjoyed seeing the siblings from the first two books. This is cute but well-written and a must-read! 5 stars.

Book #75:

Empty Mansions by Bill Dedman and Paul Clark Newell (Length: 576 pages).   One of my favorite TV series is HBO’s The Gilded Age and this well-written non-fiction narrative account of Huguette Clark is a perfect complement to that series. Huguette’s father was W.A. Clark, the copper mining magnate who rubbed elbows with the Astors and the Rockefellers, and who built the largest house in New York City (121 rooms for a family of 4). Huguette lived to 104 years of age, with the last 20 years of her life living in a small hospital room, by her choice, while owning three empty mansions. This is a fantastic story with so many vivid details of the wild west mining towns, the uber-wealthy families and the sad tale of Huguette, a lonely heiress. A long read but well worth the effort here. 4.5 stars.

September 2025 Part Two:

September 30, 2025

Book #64:

The Identicals by Elin Hilderbrand (Length: 433 pages).  I really enjoyed this one! Set in both Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard, the two main characters are identical twin sisters: Harper and Tabitha Frost. They are estranged, due in part to Parent Trap-style machinations years ago and part due to emotional traumas. This is a very fun read, with Hilderbrand’s strong writing per usual; it is a bit cheesy in parts but the propulsive plot and writing style makes this one more memorable than most of her books. 4.5 stars from me.

Book #65:

The Carpool Detectives by Chuck Hogan (Length: 336 pages). I’m OBSESSED with this non-fiction book! I listened to this one on audio, and it’s definitely the way to go here. At the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, four stay at home moms investigated a cold case murder of a couple whose car had gone over the guardrail into a deep ravine outside of Santa Monica, California. Because it was COVID lockdown, everyone who was a potential witness (including the case detectives) were at home and the women just cold-called them, starting to break this complex case open. This is so well-written and reads like a murder novel. It’s propulsive and you won’t be able to stop reading or listening. The audio was excellent here, with the reading of the group chats adding extra interest. This is absolutely a five-star book. Let me know if you pick this one up!

Book #66:

The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods (Length: 448 pages).   There seem to be so many fiction books with the words “Bookshop” or “Bookstore” in them and apparently, I’m on a quest to read all of them. This particular novel has a blend of magical realism and romance and is set in two time periods: the 1920s through 1950s and present day. Opaline Carlisle is a woman in Ireland who opens a bookshop in the 1920s, which was very unusual for the time period. And in present day, Martha and Henry are two young people in Ireland who are connected to and are looking for this bookshop which has mysteriously vanished. This is a sweet story with likeable characters, but it’s a bit over-dramatic in parts. I enjoyed the focus on books here, especially those written by the Bronte sisters. This is a memorable, fun read. 4 stars.

Book #67:

Is She Really Going Out With Him? by Sophie Cousens (Length: 367 pages). Romantic comedies with older protagonists are rare, and I’m so happy when I pick one up that’s actually really well written, as this one is. Anna Appleby is 38, freshly divorced with two kids, and works as a journalist for a local magazine called Bath Living, about the goings on in Bath, England. To save her job, Anna agrees to write a dating column with the premise of her kids choosing who she dates and what they are to do on the date. There is of course, a separate love interest, and the chemistry between Anna and this person is fantastic. The dialogue is witty and charming, and I thought about these characters even when I wasn’t reading this. 5 stars.

Book #68:

A Marriage at Sea by Sophie Elmhirst (Length: 251 pages). This non-fiction account of an English couple, Maralyn and Maurice, who were lost at sea in 1973 after their boat capsized en route to New Zealand, thanks to a breaching whale. Forced to survive on an inflatable raft and small dinghy, this is partially an adventure story but it’s mostly about them as people and as a couple. This is a riveting, fast read and well-paced (although it does slow down a bit in the last third). 4 stars from me.

Book #69:

The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion by Beth Brower (Length: 208 pages). This volume is the best volume so far! Emma is trying to figure out options for her financial future, but this takes a backseat as her friendship with a trio of 3 different men continues to deepen. This quartet recognizes they have a unique chemistry together and it’s fun to see this develop. Emma, of course, gets into more hilarious adventures and her witty repartee shines even more here. These are so well-written and just so funny. I find myself smiling as I read them. 5 stars, of course.

September 2025–Part One

September 15, 2025

Book #59:

The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion Vol. 2 by Beth Brower (Length: 164 pages).  Clearly, I’m loving this series that seems to be everywhere on Bookstagram and various book podcasts. Here, in the second volume, Emma is getting more settled into her life at Lapis Lazuli house. The same characters that were in the first volume are here which is nice, as the focus in this volume is more on the plot. Now the plot is essentially Emma’s daily life but her antics are still on full display here. Emma doesn’t feel the need to act as a typical woman would in 1880s London; for example, she doesn’t have a chaperone, as she doesn’t feel the need for one. The writing is excellent, and the character development is where this author truly shines. Another 5 stars from me.

Book #60:

Bento Box in the Heartland by Linda Furiya (Length: 321 pages). This is a food memoir I’ve had on my bookshelf for quite a while and in the interests of clearing my shelves, I finally picked it up. The author writes about growing up in Versailles, Indiana, in the 1960s and 1970s, a town so small, she and her family were the only Japanese-Americans who lived there. Told through the various meals and foods her mother made for the family, Linda explores what it was like growing up during this time period in middle America, including the racism she and her family experienced. The writing quality here is mid-level but it’s still an interesting read. I enjoyed her food descriptions the most, and I am passing the book on to someone I know who would enjoy this account. Three stars from me.

Book #61

The Hungry Ocean by Linda Greenlaw (Length: 286 pages).   This is a non-fiction account written by the only female swordfish captain in America, the captain of the Hannah Boden. The author and her ship were referenced in Sebastian Junger’s The Perfect Storm (an account of the tragic loss of the Andrea Gale fishing boat). Here, the author intersperses an account of a “typical” 30-day swordfish run in international fishing waters in the Atlantic Ocean with snippets of her personal history. This is very well-written and very propulsive. She gets into the nuts and bolts of what it takes to operate a fishing boat, and her perspective as a female captain is riveting. She is a phenomenal writer (taking a year to write this book, she comments that running a fishing boat is actually easier than writing a book) and I enjoyed every page here. 5 stars.

Book #62:

One’s Company by Ashley Hutson (Length: 272 pages).  I listened to this one and the narrator is great. Now, this is a bleak book with a strange premise. A young woman win’s the nation’s largest lottery in history and uses the proceeds to reconstruct the entire “world” of the TV show “Three’s Company”, down to the entire apartment building, furnished exactly as it is in the show, down to period-specific daily newspapers. There is some traumatic history here which is obviously driving this, but the pacing and writing are top-notch. Ultimately, the narrator Bonnie isn’t causing harm to anyone else by doing this and we are along for the ride. Riveting account but it’s a bit unnerving to follow along at times. 4 stars.

Book #63:

The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion Vol. 3 by Beth Brower (Length: 229 pages). Clearly I’m a fan of this series and it just keeps getting better. In this installment, Emma gets invited to a society ball on her own and not as a foil to help her better suited cousin find a husband. There are so many laugh out loud lines here, and Emma’s innate intelligence and her grit make her a truly well-rounded and likable heroine. There are 5 more volumes in this series so far, and I’m intending to read all of them so fair warning. 😉. Five stars, once again.

August 2025–Part One

August 28, 2025

Book #52:

The Grey Wolf by Louise Penny (Length: 425 pages).  This is Book #19 of this author’s Three Pines mystery series featuring the esteemed head of homicide in Quebec: Armand Gamache. I’m obsessed with this series and this author and while this isn’t my favorite of the series (by a long shot), I never regret reading one of Louise Penny’s novels. This particular novel involves eco-terrorism, specifically the aspect of poisoning the domestic water supply. There are entirely too many characters to keep straight here, for my liking, so I’m glad I read this one in print instead of struggling through the audio version. The build up to the action is slow here, but the ending is very exciting with a cliffhanger. (Her 20th novel in this series is The Black Wolf). Not a lot of time is spent in Three Pines here, which makes me sad, but a few of the characters DO visit the monastery featured in my favorite book of the series, #9: A Beautiful Mystery. Overall, I’ll give this a solid 4 stars from me because Louise Penny can do no wrong, in my eyes.

Book #53:

Murder in the Dollhouse by Rich Cohen (Length: 353 pages). I had heard about this book being an excellent true-crime book and what I heard is correct. This is fantastic, but so, so sad. Jennifer Dulos was the uber-wealthy heiress who married Fotis Dulos, a Greek immigrant who didn’t come from money, but who was charming and charismatic. You learn in the first few pages that Fotis murdered Jennifer so there’s no mystery here. Instead, the author sets the scene and tries to determine the why of what happened, to the extent anyone can truly do this. The author does a fantastic job of setting the scene and giving the reader the backgrounds of this couple. This was very well-paced and hard to put down. The couple left 5 children behind, and Jennifer’s body still hasn’t been found, which are just 2 reasons why this is so heart-breaking. Solid 4.5 stars from me

Book #54:

Leave Only Footprints by Conor Knighton (Length: 322 pages).   In my quest to read all of the good books involving hiking, the outdoors and national parks, I listened to this fantastic read on audio. This is the very interesting account of the author’s visit to every national park in the United States in his attempt to get over a failed engagement. While his accounts are surface level on many parks, likely due to space and time constraints, I really enjoyed his stories, anecdotes and historical tidbits he included throughout this book. This is great on audio and would make excellent listening during a road trip, or even a walk or hike. 4 stars.

July 2025–Part One

July 15, 2025

Book #45:

The Only One Left by Riley Sager (Length: 400 pages).  Like many readers, I am hot and cold on this author as they’ve turned out some winners and some true duds. In this mystery, a young woman is hired as a caregiver for an older woman who is accused of killing her family 50 years prior. (In fact, there’s a creepy nursery rhyme that the locals chant about the horrific murders . . . a la Lizzy Borden). Leonora Hope, the older woman, is mute and can only move her left hand (and thus is able to type). Caregiver Kit is curious about whether Leonora did, in fact, kill her family, and her investigation drives the plot. The twist here is very clever, and I enjoyed the wild ride. It didn’t ever lag for me, and I thought the writing is strong. 4 stars.

Book #46:

Ascension by Nicholas Binge (Length: 352 pages). This is an odd novel: part thriller/mystery, part science fiction and it features Harold Tunsmore, a physicist who is invited on a mountaineering expedition on a brand-new mountain that no one has ever seen before. This mountain, which has appeared out of the ocean and is taller than even Mount Everest, is the scene of a prior expedition where all but 2 people have died. One of the 2 survivors happens to be Harold’s ex-wife. There are scary monsters and a creeping sense of dread here . . . both are elements I enjoy in my horror novels. On balance, I’d say this is well-written, memorable and weird, and I still can’t decide if I’ve actually enjoyed it. 3 stars.

Book #47:

Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld (Length: 406 pages).  After loving this author’s American Wife, I was excited to pick up this novel, one of her earlier works. Lee Fiora, a scholarship student from South Bend, Indiana, attends Ault School, a very prestigious boarding school outside of Boston in the 1980s, and this is her account of all 4 years there, written from her perspective as a young adult. Lee is a VERY insecure teenager and is not likeable (like many teenagers) and most of this novel is entirely too navel-gazing, but that’s also sort of the point. This novel is propulsive and very readable (much like American Wife) and cements this author as someone I’ll continue to read. (I also read Romantic Comedy but that wasn’t a favorite). 4 stars from me, but if you’re a reader who has to like the protagonist, skip this one.

Book #48:

Say Everything by Ione Skye (Length: 304 pages).  I listened to this memoir by the female lead in the iconic 1987 move “Say Anything”. I had read it’s a fantastic read on audio, and that’s absolutely correct. A must listen for any self-respecting Gen X-er, this is a very self-aware memoir by a woman who was raised by a single mom in the music/Hollywood scene. Ione is very open about her relationships with musicians here, namely Anthony Kiedis of Red Hot Chili Peppers and Adam Horovitz of the Beastie Boys. Well-written and a fun look behind the scenes of the 80s and 90s movie and music scenes. 4 stars.