It’s been a while since I’ve shared what my Kindle has been up to!
September, October and November kind of got away from me. I didn’t have quite as much time to read (or, to reflect on what I read) during my India trip as I would have liked.
So, I wanted to take a second to recap some of the books I’ve read over the last few months.
(As a reminder: I always track my reading both on Goodreads and via Instagram stories.)
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‘THE YOGA SUTRAS OF PATANJALI’ BY SRI SWAMI SATCHIDANANDA
The Yoga Sutras is a collection of short principles (“sutras” translates to mean “threads”) compiled eons ago in India by Hindu philosopher and author Patanjali. These sutras, which Patanjali created by synthesizing and organizing yogic knowledge passed down through Indian culture, make up the foundation of yoga.
This was pretty much the only book I read in full throughout September and October since I was doing a lot of refreshing in advance of my yoga teacher training. It took me a while to get through it because I kept researching, re-reading, taking notes and trying to commit several passages to memory. Overall, I think this is a pretty great introductory book to Patanjali’s yoga sutras, which are the foundational texts of yoga. The sutras can get pretty complicated fairly quickly, and Sri Satchi Satchidananda did a fairly great job translating them and providing commentary to accompany them.
‘OPEN MIC NIGHT IN MOSCOW’ BY AUDREY MURRAY
When asked why she wanted to embark on a months-long journey through the former Soviet Union, Audrey Murray’s answer was simple: “I have a lot of Russian ex-boyfriends.” In her travel memoir, Murray details her experiences searching for black markets in Uzbekistan, getting kidnapped in Turkmenistan, performing stand-up sets in Russia, taking horseback rides through the Kyrgyzstan mountains and exploring Chornobyl in Ukraine.
As someone with a bit of an interest in Soviet culture and history, I really liked “Open Mic Night in Moscow.” I thought it did a pretty great job of balancing Murray’s humor with some really deep-lying thoughts and insecurities. I will say, though, that if you’re not extremely interested in Soviet history, you likely won’t like this book.
‘A WALK IN THE WOODS: REDISCOVERING AMERICA ON THE APPALACHIAN TRAIL’ BY BILL BRYSON
When Bill Bryson publicly committed himself to hiking the whole of the Appalachian Trail — all 2,190-ish miles of it — he didn’t realize quite how large of an endeavor it would be. And, while Bryson didn’t manage to through-hike the entire trail, he took out a good portion of it. In “A Walk in the Woods,” Bryson shares facts about the trail, history of its gateway towns and stories about the people he meets along his journey.
I really appreciated how much research Bryson did, and how much he padded his book with historic knowledge. I also enjoyed reading about the people Bryson met on the trail. However, I wasn’t really a huge fan of Bryson’s smug and holier-than-thou attitude that prevailed through the entire book. In one chapter he was complaining about underprepared hikers calling for rescue, and in the next chapter he was struggling through a mountaintop storm because he forgot to bring a rain jacket and a midlayer. The level of irony had me rolling my eyes about halfway through.
‘FIRST LIE WINS’ BY ASHLEY ELSTON
Evie Porter has the perfect boyfriend, perfect group of Southern friends, perfect job at an art gallery, perfect historic house. The only problem? Evie Porter doesn’t exist. Evie is actually Lucca Moreno, and she’s been sent by her secretive boss to spy on that perfect boyfriend, Ryan Sumner. Evie is playing her role to perfection until she encounters the unexpected: A woman who introduces herself as Lucca Moreno.
I’m rarely caught off-guard by a thriller, and I’m glad to say I really didn’t see any of this thriller’s twists coming. Unfortunately, Elston does rely on the unreliable narrator method toward the end of the book, which did dock a few points from the review. But, if you’re able to suspend logic for that, this was a great thriller that kept me engaged, and had a very satisfying ending.
‘THE WEDDING PEOPLE’ BY ALISON ESPACH
Phoebe has lived a perfectly restrained life, and has spent every waking moment aspiring to be as normal, as demure, as passive as possible. So, when Phoebe’s husband admits to his affair and leaves her, she decides to go on one final adventure. She dons an emerald gown, hops onto a plane with nothing but her purse, and heads to the Cornwall Inn so she can enjoy her seafood feast, her ocean view, and the other things she has planned. However, Phoebe is the only guest of the Cornwall who has not arrived for the wedding… and during her stay at the Cornwall, Phoebe can’t seem to escape the wedding people, who will change the course of her life.
I really liked this book! It was slow and meandering, but I adored Phoebe, and I find it’s so much easier to read a book when you really adore the main character. I actually loved all the characters, who all felt like very real people. I loved their interactions and while this book was very slow, it was a beautiful read.
‘THE GOD OF THE WOODS’ BY LIZ MOORE
It’s the summer of 1975 when 13-year-old Barbara Van Laar goes missing from the camp located on the nature preserve her family owns. Fourteen years earlier, her brother Bear disappeared in a similar manner. Now, as investigators begin searching for Barbara, Bear’s disappearance is back on their radars. Are the two disappearances connected? And what do the Van Laars have to hide?
This was a pretty decent thriller. The story was told from several different view points — some of them barely used — and the story was long and drawn out, but parts of the ending were unexpected and the ending seemed pretty feasible (by thriller standards). Overall I’d recommend it.
‘THE MINISTRY OF TIME’ BY KALIANE BRADLEY
In the near future, an unnamed narrator lands a job as a handler for an expat – but instead of a country, the expat is from history. Tasked with essentially babysitting Commander Graham Gore, kidnapped from his imminent death following the failed 1845 Arctic expedition, the narrator is tasked with assimilating Commander Gore to the present while helping a newly-established government ministry determine the limits of time travel.
I wanted to love this book. I really did. The premise of it is so fascinating: Kidnapping “dead” people from the annals of history and pulling them into present time. I loved so many of the characters and the concept of the book, but I didn’t love the execution. The first 80 percent of the book was slow-paced (and tried to cover way too much ground), and then the last 20 percent was rushed and I felt like the book ended too soon and left too many unanswered questions.
‘LOVE, THEORETICALLY’ BY ALI HAZELWOOD
Elsie is a theoretical physicist by day and a fake girlfriend by night. But, an end to the fake dating is in sight. Elsie has an interview lined up for a tenure-track position as a faculty member at MIT! However, nothing can prepare her for the chaos that ensues when her client’s older brother ends up on her interview panel, unraveling an intricate web of lies that Elsie, a notorious people-pleaser has woven to pay her bills and placate the people in her life.
Is this classic literature? No. Is it fleshed-out fanfic trash? Yes. Did I still stay up four hours past my bedtime devouring it until my Kindle battery finally died and forced me to go to sleep? Also yes. It’s fun, it’s quirky. It doesn’t have the chemistry of my beloved Emily Henry romance novels but it was still a really easy and enjoyable read.
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