This was an interesting book! It describes the history & impact of refrigeration in the world. I‘ve never considered how so much of my food has to be refrigerated at some point in its lifecycle! She touches on the energy use & environmental impact of the “cold chain” in the world as well, and compares refrigeration in the US to other countries like China & Rwanda. This is a great book if you have a general interest in history, culture, & science!

I enjoyed this one a lot! The first half started a little slow for me, but once I got to the second half, I finished it in a day! It‘s about four retired women who had a long career as assassins — and now someone is trying to assassinate them. Very entertaining!

The main character discovers that she had a magical attic that generates new husbands and new lives. She has to decide if she will always be looking for the perfect one, or if she will ever pick one and commit to that husband and that life. It was an interesting premise and well written! A good read.

I finally finished this book, but I would give it a thumbs down. It has a lot of similarities to Where‘d You Go Bernadette, but it falls flat. It follows the protagonist Eleanor for a day in her life when she is trying to do better, meeting her poetry teacher, getting her kid from school, and finding out a secret about her husband. This book is okay, it‘s just not that good or interesting. The plot jumps around, which was disorienting to me.

This is a retelling of Medusa‘s myth. I picked up this one because it was giving Madeline Miller vibes. I did like it—it was humorous, it did interesting interpretations with the Greek characters and gods, and a lot of the chapters were short which made it easy to get through. The plot did feel a little more sparse and didn‘t always have a clear center, so it wasn‘t the level of Miller for me, but I did still like it!

I enjoyed this one. Sometimes it felt like the plot was going in circles, but it was a good story with believable emotions. Sometimes the main character in the present-day storyline didn‘t make sense to me—she was a bit inconsistent. Overall I liked it!

I forgot to review this one when I finished it, so I‘m reviewing it a bit late. This is one of those stories that spans families and generations. I didn‘t love it, but it was pretty solid and could make a good book club pick for discussion.

This book is perfectly written with an unreliable narrator and the writing is absolutely uncanny, witty, and disturbing. I was totally sucked in for most of the story, finishing it in a few days. Towards the end, the plot dragged a little bit to me, but overall it was an amazing book.

A fast-paced sci-fi book exploring the possibility of switching between different possible versions of your life. It was a quick read, pulling me along through the story! There were several times where something happened in the plot that felt a little too convenient. But I would say it‘s a pick just because it was creative and entertaining.

This month‘s book club pick! This was a good one for discussion because there is SO MUCH going on in this book. I won‘t even try to explain the plot. 😂 At first, the endless characters and storylines annoyed me, but over time as things developed and tied together, I liked it better. By the end, it was a pick for me!

I don‘t know if I love this book or hate it. It‘s about a young woman who moves to NYC, gets a job at a restaurant, her complicated friendship with a female server and her pining for an emotionally unavailable bartender. On the one hand, the writing is amazing & the characters feel so real. On the other, the plot is flimsy & everything feels too vague. Truly don‘t know if I loved it or didn‘t like it! Have you ever felt that way about a book?

This is really an incredible book. Tara Brach is a great teacher, and I‘ve been listening to her guided meditations for a while. It was so nice to read more of her teaching, stories, and insights in this book. She has such a great way of teaching self compassion and acceptance! I would definitely recommend.

Always the perfect summer read! I enjoyed this Elin Hilderbrand story as one of my “farewell to summer” books as the summer is winding down and the fall will be coming soon. They always make me want to plan a vacation to Nantucket!

This was a fun and humorous nostalgic book all about growing up millennial. The author uses her life experience to reminisce, but also do insightful cultural criticism of the millennial childhood and teenage years. It was fun and funny, with some heartfelt and important insights along the way.

This starts out with a Lord of the Flies feel, a pack of children abandoning and avoiding their incompetent parents, forming a rogue band together with rules and games. As the dystopian story continues, it felt like a retelling of the biblical story of Noah, the world being wiped out in a storm. Over time, more biblical allusions happen, adding more to the story. I felt like I was missing something, but I did enjoy the writing & it made me think.

So good! This book is written from the perspective of an Italian girl in the 1500s who is married off from her family to a Duke… and the hardships big and small that she endured. This book is engaging to the last page, and although it has a lot of sad moments, it‘s not a downer. It feels true, insightful, and meaningful.

This was well done, but teen romances just aren‘t for me. In the book, the main character is living in Italy for the summer, reading her late mother‘s journal, trying to uncover the mystery of who her father is. I was frustrated, though, because she kept stopping reading the journal to go on side quests to figure it out, except if she stopped doing that and just finished reading the journal, she wouldn‘t have to in the first place!! 🙄

This book was well organized and covered a wide range of topics in a balanced way. A good group read.

I really liked this one! It was a page-turner with lots of twist and turns. I have seen in some other reviews people not liking the main female characters, but personally I loved them. I thought they were very well written as real people. They were frustrating sometimes, but they didn‘t seem helpless to me. Something I didn‘t like was the multiple SAs in the plot - they did not feel necessary, but just for shock, which I didn‘t like.

This month‘s book club pick! I loved it. I had been meaning to read this one for a while, so I‘m glad book club finally made me. I wanted more chapters from the perspective of the octopus—he was so funny! It was very well written, emotionally intelligent, and heartwarming. I could have done with fewer descriptions of eels, though!!

This one has been recommended for so long and I finally read it. It really is amazing how Evangelicalism has become more about patriarchy and patriotism than actual Christianity or theology. This book was interesting to learn about 20th century history, but also it was sadly very relevant to today.

This was a really well written memoir. It follows the story of the author from when she first attends a party at the Playboy mansion, through her time there as a girlfriend and then wife, and then when she leaves after Hugh Hefner‘s death. She does a great job of describing what happened but also reflecting on it and how the experiences were harmful or hurtful and how she‘s grown. It felt balanced and insightful.

This was a ⭐️⭐️⭐️ read for me. I know, everyone loves it! But while the overarching idea was original, all the ways it played out felt formulaic. The enemies to lovers was… so predictable. And I hated how Violet was “strong” but she was constantly talking about how weak she was and 1000% just focused on helping/impressing/getting the man. I got bored in the middle, but I will say the end picked up and was good. Not planning to read Iron Flame.

I have mixed feelings. The story kept me going, wanting to find out what happened next. It had a lot of drama! I also enjoyed reading a book set in Ghanaian culture. But for me personally I didn‘t like the main character, which was a big barrier. Sometimes she was so submissive and then other times she was so stubborn. I just didn‘t connect with her. I think it was supposed to show her transformation, but to me it just came off as inconsistent.

This was a good one! It‘s kind of an anti-time-management book. Basically, rather than trying to find all the hacks, get it all done, and have the perfect routine, just realize that you‘ll never reach perfection and all you have is the present. Inspirational but also realistic.

This book interweaves the stories of a school‘s assistant principal, principal, secretary, alumni, board, and students as the school votes on a new Hall of Fame. The story was interesting and woven together nicely, but overall it felt a bit depressing and just “adults behaving badly” but not in a good or fun way. So so for me!

Loved this one! I was hooked from the beginning. It‘s such a page-turner with great pacing and great characters. I always love Liane Moriarty!

The author uses the 7 deadly sins as a framework to flip them and talk about the ways women limit, deny, or shame themselves. For example, use envy as a way to go for what you want, use greed as a way to make sure you meet your own needs, use anger as a way to make social change, etc. I thought this was an interesting concept and she had good points. My one fault with the book is that sometimes she oversimplified things or conflated things.

This book is a gritty story of three friends who grow up and as adult men their lives intersect in crime, family, and mystery. I don‘t know how I feel about this book. It felt very long, it was pretty depressing, and I didn‘t like how disability was depicted. Lots of crime and sadness. But it was a gripping story and an interesting look at how childhood trauma follows us our entire lives. I don‘t mind dark books, but this one felt different.

Wow, I wish I would have read this book sooner. It is so well written, engaging, it teaches so many things and unveils the workings of race and caste in American society. It‘s long, but it‘s not hard to read. I always wanted to keep learning and reading more chapters. This feels like it should be required reading for all Americans.

Such a great graphic novel! The story took a lot of twists and turns, the characters were funny and heartwarming, and the art was INCREDIBLE. I got this around Lunar New Year, and I was a little late in finishing it, but so worth it. Would definitely recommend!

This was not my typical genre, so I think some of my issues with the book are just that it‘s not my usual. I‘m between a pick and a so so. It was exciting and interesting with some twists, although a generally predictable plot. The main character was a bit too incompetent sometimes, which was annoying. But it was easy and fun and overall well done.

This book won me over. Towards the beginning it felt as if the plot, though interesting, was predictable. However, as the book progressed, the characters were complex and the story took some unexpected directions. This was a great book club pick! Lots to discuss.

Kazuo Ishiguro is one of my favorite authors, I‘ve read three of his books and they are all so profound. He is also probably the best male author writing female characters that I‘ve read. This book is explores childhood and friendship in such a true and searing way. There is an overarching story/mystery that is fairly science fiction (similar to Klara and the Sun) but the heart of the book is really focused on the children and their relationships.

“I wanted to give a sense of the people of the book, the different hands that had made it, used it, protected it.” We follow a rare book expert who is uncovering the history of an old book. In each chapter, she discovers something in the book, like a hair, an insect wing, a wine stain, etc. In the following chapter you read the backstory of how it got there. 🔽

This is a short little book about meditation. It is a basic guide to what meditation is and why it‘s important. Something that I thought was interesting was that he talked a lot about how meditation doesn‘t have a purpose. It‘s not supposed to make us more peaceful, happier, better, etc. Those might be side effects, but if you go into it with that expectation, you‘re missing the point. It‘s about accepting what is, not trying to get better.

This was a great book! She discusses what boundaries are, why they‘re important, and how to have healthy boundaries in all areas of life. A very good and practical book!

This book follows the stories of two sisters and their sister-in-law in Brooklyn. It explores themes of class, wealth, family, career, and how two people can be in the same situation but have totally different perspectives. This book is a character study, following a few people for a period of time. There wasn‘t a huge point. There was a plot, but it meandered. If you enjoy delving into characters, just for the sake of it, you‘ll like this.

This book has been described as a modern retelling of Lolita. It‘s about a girl‘s relationship with her teacher, flashing back and forth from her teenage years while it‘s unfolding to her adult years, trying to make sense of what happened. Her adult years are set amidst the Me Too movement, which provides context for her to ask the questions: Was it love? Was it abuse? Am I a victim? Is that all I am? I loved the nuance & complexity in this book.

Another thrilling mystery! I enjoyed this one, it kept me guessing, and I didn‘t see the twist coming. That‘s not saying much, though, bc I never do 😅 I didn‘t think it was as good as The Silent Patient—there were more plot holes and unnecessary characters—but I still liked it. The main character is a little clueless, but for whatever reason it didn‘t bother me that much, I just enjoyed the mystery.

This book is a YA novel about a group of unlikely middle school friends in Florida who work together to save owls from a big, bad corporation. It has a strong environmentalist streak, and the writing tends to portray all the adults as bumbling or corrupt, with just a few redeeming moments. Overall I didn‘t love it, I felt like the story could have been neater. But maybe I would appreciate this more if I read it at a younger age!

Read this in honor of the NFL‘s final week of the regular season! Adam Schefter‘s wife, Sharri, was widowed when her previous husband died in the twin towers in 9/11. This is the story of them meeting and building a life after 9/11, and Adam‘s reflections on the man he never met, Joe. It‘s a good story, but would have been better as article; the book dragged and the writing was a bit repetitive and flat. Very touching story though!

My first book of 2024! I stayed up past midnight to finish it. 😂 I think I‘m probably the only person left who hadn‘t actually read this book, so I figured it was time. It actually was pretty slow to me at the beginning, but I really enjoyed the second half!

This series just gets better and better! I love every book with these characters. This was the perfect book to read over Christmas break, and it was full of laughter and tears.

I had high expectations going into this, but it surpassed them. This book does an amazing job of revealing the story bit by bit, and you start to question and realize what‘s actually real, what‘s really going on, and who can be trusted. The story is told mostly in journal entries, so it‘s so immersive, and it‘s truly just one of the most imaginative books I‘ve read in a long time. This is sneaking in at the end as my favorite fiction of the year!

This book tells the story of Clover, a death doula in NYC. Her work is spending time with people in their final days to sort through their affairs, thoughts, feelings, regrets, and more. She has lived a reclusive life, so the story is about her blossoming and embracing her life, as she helps her clients with the end of theirs. If you like stories with quirky characters, unlikely friends, redemption, and exploring deep topics, this is for you!

The final third of this book brought the whole thing down for me. All the set up at the beginning was interesting & exciting. The whole conclusion didn‘t work for me. The plot felt out of control, the motives were tenuous, some parts or characters were never resolved, & honestly I thought the motivation, as shaky as it was, was just a bad message to have in the book. I was disappointed! High intrigue in the 1st half, then letdown in the 2nd half.

This was a really great romance read! I liked how the story incorporated some more thought-provoking elements, even amidst a lighthearted romance story.

Wow, this book is so important. It tells the story of white and Black neighbors, how their teenagers fall in love, the ways that adults push their agendas, racism in the criminal justice system as well as society in general, not listening to young women, and more. It had a modern-day Romeo and Juliet feel to me. There are many trigger warnings for this book, just be aware.