My reading habits are… a little unpredictable.
I’ve always loved reading, but the older I get, the more and more my Kindle has to fight for my attention. Between wildfires at my day job, preparing yoga playlists and sequences for my night job, taking care of Yukon, gardening, knitting, recreating outdoors (camping? Great for reading! Paddle boarding? Not so much!), etc…
…reading always just seems to land at the bottom of my priority list.
However, I knew I wanted to prioritize reading just a little more this year. I started 2022 living alone in a remote Sierra Nevada cabin for a long-term work assignment, and given my seclusion, I had a LOT more time to dedicate to reading.
I naturally took a break once I got back to Flagstaff and work picked up during wildfire season, but once August started and monsoons became more frequent, I was back to draining my Kindle’s battery as fast as possible.
It’s only August, and I’ve already reached my reading goal for the year — thanks in part to the five books I devoured this month.
(As a reminder: I always track my reading both on Goodreads and via Instagram stories.)
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“The Last Thing He Told Me” by Laura Dave
3/5 stars:
Hannah falls in love with a houseboat-dwelling tech start-up-working man named Owen, and promptly integrates herself right into the lives of Owen and his daughter, Bailey. One day, Owen’s tech start-up is raided and Owen disappears, and Hannah has to bond with Bailey to figure out who Owen really is.
This thriller was decent, but it wasn’t remarkable by any means. It’s the type of thriller that you’ll totally forget about until someone asks you in a year or two what you thought of it, and then you struggle to remember the plot. The twist was a little hard to follow along with — and a little implausible — but the book itself was still catchy enough to keep me reading until the end.
“I’m Glad My Mom Died” by Jennette McCurdy
5/5 stars:
Jennette McCurdy, more commonly known as “Sam” from Nickelodeon’s “iCarly,” details her Mormon upbringing by a narcissistic mother and all the abuse she suffered during her career as a child actor.
This book was PHENOMENAL. I was a little too old for the iCarly market so I never watched it, but the rave reviews this book got — and its controversial title — were enough to convince me to give it a read. I figured I would pick at it chapter-by-chapter over the course of a week, but I stayed up past my bed time reading the entire book in one evening. It’s horrifying but such a captivating read.
“The Paper Palace” by Miranda Cowley Heller
2/5 stars:
Elle, who is 50 with three kids and a hot British husband, one day decides to have a quickie with her childhood best friend against the wall of her summer cabin. Then, Elle spends the next 400 pages trying to justify her cheating and trying to decide who to choose.
I deeply disliked this book. There was gratuitous child abuse and sexual assault nonchalantly sprinkled throughout it. I ended the book feeling like Elle and her childhood best friend were both horrible people and I felt sorry for their respective spouses.
“A Flicker in the Dark” by Stacy Willingham
4/5 stars:
When Chloe was a kid, six teenage girls went missing in her hometown. Her father admitted guilt and was jailed for the murders. Now, 20 years later, several of the teenage girls in Chloe’s life are being murdered, and their bodies are being found in the places she frequents.
This thriller was slightly better than “The Last Thing He Told Me.” The drug-addled and confused main character trope was a little annoying, but the ending was completely unexpected and the plot was captivating enough to carry me through the end.
“Book Lovers” by Emily Henry
5/5 stars:
Work-addicted big-city literary agent Nora has watched as her last several ex-boyfriend all left her to pursue their small-town Hallmark Movie romance fantasies. It’s happened so often that she’s become numb to love. A decade after the death of Nora’s mother, Nora will do anything to please the only family she has left: her little sister Libby. When Libby decides she wants to take a Hallmark Movie trip to a tiny town that just happens to be the setting of Nora’s client’s latest book, Nora has no choice but to force herself to fall into her own Hallmark Movie plot.
I LOVED THIS BOOK! While I love romcom movies, I’m typically not big on romance novels. But, I’m already DYING to see this one in movie form! Nora and her love interest had incredible chemistry, and major props to Emily for doing such an incredible job translating that chemistry into word form. So rare and so good. The ending was also incredibly satisfying. This was my first Emily Henry book and I’ve already downloaded her other bestsellers to my Kindle to power through next month.
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I have a few books I’ve already loaded onto my Kindle, including Taylor Jenkins Reid’s latest (“Carrie Soto is Back”), several more Emily Henry books (like I just mentioned), and a few Ruth Ware thrillers. My goal is to read five books start-to-finish next month, so we’ll see! I have several work obligations, including a week-long conference in Albuquerque, that will keep me busy, but I’m optimistic after a productive August.
