I’ve read a lot more books so far this year than I expected to, and I’m happy to report I’m halfway done with the Book Challenge by Erin (which I’m taking at a more normal pace than I did last time). I still haven’t read my first book for the Reading Women Challenge, but I’m hoping to remedy that with this month’s TBR.
Here’s a look at what I read over the last month and what I’m reading right now.
Prior to Victoria Schade’s Life on the Leash, I’ve suffered through two 1-star dog-centric reads.* Thank goodness this light-hearted rom com of a novel has broken my mini-streak of disappointing books about dogs!
Cora is the owner of a successful dog training business in D.C. She loves filling her days with tricks, treats and training before coming home to her own loveable pup and an amazing supportive roommate. In growing her business (and smarting from a painful breakup), Cora isn’t exactly looking for love.
I’ve been in a little bit of a book rut the past few days, reading the same book for over a week now. It’s a perfectly good book (The Wangs vs. the World), but for some reason it’s slow going. Plus, you know, life sometime gets in the way; as much as I’d love to, I can’t constantly have my nose stuck in a book. Anyway, in making this list, I’m excited for the new books on the horizon, and I’m hoping it will kick me into gear. Once I finish this read, there’s so much to look forward to!
I recently heard about John Marrs’ novel The One on the Currently Reading podcast, in an episode about “Books to Blow Your Socks Off.” (The episode was also amazing because it included an interview with Delia Owens, who wrote a wonderful recent favorite of mine, Where the Crawdads Sing.) The description was brief but intriguing, and I immediately rushed to get a copy from the library.
It takes place in a “near future,” one in which it has been discovered that people can be matched to their soulmates through their DNA. It’s 10 years after that discovery, and those who have been lucky enough to find “the one” are considered Matched and those who are still waiting are Unmatched. Because you can be matched to literally anyone, racism, homophobia, and religious and other prejudices no longer exist.
Ever since Julie & Julia hit theaters 10 years ago, it has been one of my favorite movies. Until recently, I had never read the book it was based on. Julie Powell’s memoir Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously is based on the year she spent cooking all of the recipes in Julia Child’s legendary cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking and blogging about it. Perhaps you can see why I love the story so.
Not much over the course of Julie’s memoir was surprising to me, though certainly elements of it had been left out of the more streamlined movie (also paired with Julia’s life story, where Meryl Streep plays the iconic chef). I have to say, though, the book lacked the charm with which the movie nestled into my heart.
Apparently 2019 is the year where I get my days discombobulated and totally miss the first Show Us Your Books of the year. Oops! But my post is here — better late than never — and it’s my first time participating in Quick Lit from Modern Mrs. Darcy as well. I’m definitely looking forward to sharing my mini reviews with more readers 🙂
As always, here’s a look at what I read over the last month and what I’m reading right now.
When I went to the library recently, the brightly colored cover of Allie Rowbottom’s Jell-O Girls caught my eye. I took it down to flip through it, and the blurbs proclaiming it as “an artfully crafted feminist excavation of an American legacy” and “an important and honest feminist history for right now” sealed the deal.
The book is part family memoir and part nonfiction. In turns, it focuses on Allie’s family history and the so-called “curse” that plagued their men — the family’s fortune earned when her great-great-great-uncle bought the patent for Jell-O for just $450 in 1899 — as well as Jell-O’s history through a feminist lense.
A new year means new books! And, though I had a great bookish 2018, I couldn’t be more excited to start fresh. Together with the ladies over at Literary Quicksand, I set a couple of bookish goals for 2019, and a few of the books on my TBR list this month are sure to help me get off to the right start.
Though Louise Miller wrote The City Baker’s Guide to Country Living first, it is the second of her novels that I’ve read. Earlier this year, I picked up The Late Bloomer’s Club and adored it, falling in love with the town of Guthrie (Stars Hollow flashbacks!) as well as her food-filled writing. The paperback cover makes it look perfect for winter reading, so I waited until my holiday break to get it from the library. It wasn’t super winter-y, but it was a lovely read nonetheless!
Olivia Rawlings, Livvy to a privileged few, is a talented pastry chef working at an exclusive dinner club in Boston. When her life there goes up in flames, she flees to the nearest haven — a truck stop filled with delicious pies — and onto Guthrie, Vermont, where her best friend Hannah convinces her to put down roots, even temporarily.
