Life

OK, the photo above is a book I haven’t read yet, but I started Truly Like Lightning while I was on vacation this month and it’s a real trip. More on it later! Now onto September’s reads!

The Temple House Vanishing by Rachel Donohue • ★★★☆☆

If there’s one trope I fall for all the time, it’s mysterious events at an elite boarding school or college. I read these books all the time.

And I fell for it again with The Temple House Vanishing. In this book, reporter seeks to uncover the truth about what happened at Temple House, a top-notch Catholic girls’ school, when a teacher and student went missing 25 years prior. As she digs deeper and interviews one the missing girl’s closest friends, more is uncovered.

This book was a touch spooky and perfectly moody. It was a good read for a rainy September day.

Beach Read by Emily Henry • ★★★★☆

I never fancied myself to be much of a rom-com reader. In fact, until last year, I never had picked one up. But now they are becoming a regular part of my reading rotation. And I think I found a new favorite in Beach Read.

This book follows January, a romance author who has hit a snag personally and professionally. She heads to her late father’s secret lake house to clean it out and get some writing done. While there, she discovers her college rival and best-selling author Gus lives right next door.

Over the summer, they challenge one another to write in a whole new style. She’d try to write the next great American novel and Gus would try his hand at romance.

This book is really sweet, comforting and was just the right thing to bring with me on vacation.

Fierce Little Thing by Miranda Beverly-Whittemore • ★★☆☆☆

Years ago, I read Bittersweet by this author and was totally engrossed. Ever since I’ve been waiting for another one of her books to speak to me. And when Fierce Little Thing came out, I made sure to add it to my list. A book about a woman who grew up in a remote commune in New England who is beckoned to return after receiving some threatening letters? Sounds thrilling!

But I had a hard time following this book. It might have been listening to it versus reading that lead to a lot of my confusion; either way, this just didn’t pull me in. I felt like I didn’t know any of the characters at the end.

The Cherry Harvest by Lucy Sanna • ★★★☆☆

Every time I visit Door County, I fall in love with it all over again. For a month or so after I return, I become obsessed with cherries and develop an appetite for all things Peninsula, which is why I picked up The Cherry Harvest.

Set in Door County during WWII, the Christiansen family struggles to keep up with their cherry orchard. With all the working men overseas, they become desperate for help. Charlotte, who owns the farm with her husband, encourages the county’s farmers to host German POWs to harvest the crop. This shakes up the whole county and the Christiansens especially.

This book was a really easy and interesting read. I had heard about POWs working in Door County from my beloved great-uncle who lived in Baileys Harbor but never much else. The Cherry Harvest does well examining how the Americans had a love (OK more like tolerate)-hate relationship with the POWs that were helping them make a living.

As always, you can follow along with my progress and see what I’ve read over on Goodreads!

Maybe this is just a book blog now? It seems like these are the only posts I can really keep up with.

That said, it was a pretty good month for reading. I got six books in—two that were five-star-worthy. That’s a pretty good month!

The Dilemma by B.A. Paris • ★★★☆☆

B.A. Paris sucks me in every time. I don’t think the books are outstanding by any stretch, but they are definitely page-turners.

As with a few of her other books, this one rehashed details and thought processes a few too many times. Like, we get it, the characters are in a dilemma.

All this being said, it was a quick and satisfying read. Sort of like binge-watching a season of Drag Race All-Stars (which I’m doing now).

The Shape of Darkness by Laura Purcell • ★★★☆☆

The Silent Companions remains one of my favorite Halloween reads of all time. Since then, I’ve picked up every Purcell book I could get my hands on.

While The Shape of Darkness isn’t quite as good as its predecessor, this book was still a fantastic spooky read. A silhouette artist teams up with a medium to contact the dead and solve a spate of murders? That’s some spooky perfection right there!

That being said, maybe this deserves 4 stars, but let’s settle on 3.5.

The Sound of Gravel by Ruth Wariner • ★★★★☆

I took a brief departure from domestic thrillers and gothic-y novels for this memoir about Wariner, the daughter of a religious sect’s prophet, growing up in rural Mexico (and later bouncing around the US).

I’ll be honest, this was a really difficult read in terms of subject matter. Wariner is a solid writer and her story was compelling, but what she suffered through as a child was traumatic and could definitely be triggering (so be careful).

The Umbrella Lady by V.C. Andrews® • ★☆☆☆☆

V.C. Andrews is a major throwback for me. I have vivid memories of all the book covers on display in Walmart and thinking I can’t wait to read a book like that because they just looked so so cool.

Eventually, I picked up Flowers in the Attic like every other 16-year-old and devoured it in two days. And then I read a handful of her other books.

But it’s been a long while since I’ve seen a new V.C. Andrews release (now with ®). When The Umbrella Lady came into my inbox as a cheap audiobook, I bit. And holy moly, this one was awful.

It had a lot of the V.C. Andrews signature elements: abandoned children, terrible parents, mysterious caretakers. But it was absolute trash (in a bad way). Nothing really added up. It didn’t build to any satisfying or scandalous conclusion. Also, I realized so much of the book was telling not showing (a big no-no for us writers).

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid • ★★★★★

I’m a bit late to the party on this one, but late is better than never with a five-star read like this.

I won’t say too much because you’ve probably read it! But I loved how this book followed a magazine writer as she chronicled the life of a Hollywood legend. How this all tied together was perfect and the story was beautiful along the way.

Last Summer at the Golden Hotel by Elyssa Friedland • ★★★★★

This just might be my favorite book of the year and one of the best summer reads on my list.

Let me say this: If you wish the Catskills episodes of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel lasted forever, this is the book for you. Set in the Catskills (duh), this book follows members of the Goldman and Weingold families as they debate selling their once-great Borscht Belt resort.

This book was part nostalgia, part family drama and all wonderful. There were a lot of characters here—the story spans about 60 years—but they were so well done. Each was unique, interesting, flawed and loveable—like all our favorite family members.

As always, you can follow along with my progress and see what I’ve read over on Goodreads!

Summertime is prime reading time as far as I’m concerned. I love to sit out on the patio with a book after work or read a few pages at the beer garden. And this month I queued up plenty of audiobooks as I prepped for my first craft fair in 17 months.

Not every book was a winner this month, but there were a few standouts.

The Half Sister by Sandie Jones • ★★☆☆☆

This one has been on my TBR list for a while, and when my library hold came up, I was happy to claim it. But this story—about a family torn apart by a woman claiming to be a long-lost half-sister—wasn’t a thrill.

Sure, there were lots of turns and twists as characters tried to learn more about this half-sister and the family she supposedly belonged to, but the resolution wasn’t really satisfying. And it didn’t end up being that stunning. I think I’m becoming harder to please.

The Perfect Nanny by Leila Silmani • ★★☆☆☆

When I rented this from the library, I was really hoping for a twisty, domestic thriller.

But it just wasn’t. To me, there wasn’t much exciting here. A family hires a nanny and they are thrilled with her work. After a while, the polish wears off. This just didn’t seem new to me.

My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite • ★★★★★

This is an incredibly quick read at just 226 pages, but Braithwaite made the most of every word.

This book was thrilling, funny and left me thinking for days. What if my sister was a serial killer? Would I still love her like Korende loves Ayoolya?

The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray • ★★★★☆

It became a bit of a summer tradition to pick up a bit of historical fiction like this each summer. It all started with a handful of Fiona Davis books and it grew from there.

The Personal Librarian definitely fits in this category for me and was such a good read. This book is a factionalized version of the life of Belle da Costa Greene, librarian to JP Morgan.

Belle is a fascinating character in this novel and IRL. In order to make her way in society, she suppressed her Black identity and passed as white. This helped her become a librarian at Princeton and then later for Morgan. She was intelligent, outspoken and intuitive. And this novel does a great job following her story.

The Animals at Lockwood Manor by Jane Healey • ★★★☆☆

I had this book on my list for a while and really wanted to savor it. I mean the premise was great: A museum director moves her taxidermy to a great estate during WWII to protect the collection. Once there, pieces start moving and eerie stuff begins to happen.

Fantastic, right? The summary gave me The Silent Companions vibes (and I loved that book). The first two-thirds were satisfying but things took a less spooky turn toward the end. And it sort of felt lame and unexpected. But the build-up was good. It’s a B-.

The Last Painting of Sara de Vos by Dominic Smith • ★★★☆☆

I’ll say it, this description from Chirp grabbed me: “As curator Ellie prepares for an exhibition, she’s horrified to learn that the paths of a famous Dutch painting and its forgery — which she herself created — are set to converge.”

Ooh! Like what a scandal! The book was not as scandal-focused as I anticipated, but a good listen nonetheless.

As always, you can follow along with my progress and see what I’ve read over on Goodreads!

Five books in a month is pretty good! It’s outdoor reading season so that always helps me turn a few extra pages.

Better Luck Next Time by Julia Claiborne Johnson • ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Better Luck Next Time introduced me to the concept of “divorce ranches.” These locales were essentially resorts where women in the ’30s-’70s would relax, gain residency in Nevada and bid their time until their divorces were finalized. I’d never heard of this before and was fascinated by the idea.

And Better Luck Next Time painted a really interesting, entertaining and compassionate picture of the women who temporarily called these places home and the men who worked these ranches—though in this case they were fictional.

Definitely pick this one up this summer. It was a solid four-star book, bordering on five.

Act Your Age, Eve Brown by Talia Hibbert • ⭐️⭐️⭐️

After reading the first two books in this series, I was really excited to finish with Act Your Age, Eve Brown. After all, this was the title that initially attracted me to these books. With a plotline about a girl taking over the kitchen of a quaint B&B, how could I resist?

But I didn’t enjoy the last installment as much as the other Brown Sisters books. I just never came around to the characters in this one. I found the other sisters (Chloe and Dani) much more interesting than Eve. That being said, if you’ve read the others in the series, don’t stop short. It was still light, fluffy and enjoyable.

The Arctic Fury by Greer Macallister • ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Reading a book set in the arctic in the middle of May when it’s 70º outside? Yep, I did it.

The gist here: Virginia Reeve and a team of women are hired by a wealthy woman to search for the members of a lost arctic expedition. This expedition (Franklin’s Lost Expedition) was a real thing—which I did not know going into this book. All along the way, the women have to deal with difficult personalities and even more difficult terrain.

So I learned something with this book and I got to try a new type of historical fiction. It was good (but not a standout).

Still Lives by Maria Hummel • ⭐️⭐️⭐️

I am a sucker for things that are labeled as Target Club Picks or Reese’s Book Club selections. These books are reliably satisfying. Need proof? Here are a few that I’ve read and really enjoyed: The Woman in the Window, The Sanatorium and The Guest List.

This was a satisfying read (though not the best thriller I’ve picked up in the past year). The night of her opening, artist Kim Lord goes missing. At first, gallerists think this may be a stunt to promote the show (a show depicts famous murders), but as time goes on, things become less clear.

The Bookshop on the Corner by Jenny Colgan • ⭐️⭐️⭐️

I’ve been reading a lot of lighter fare recently, including this fluffy read from Jenny Colgan. It was sweet: A girl laid off from her job as a librarian moves to Scotland and opens up a mobile bookstore (so not a bookshop on the corner, despite what the title may indicate). She makes friends, learns to love her new home and finds her purpose in life.

Could I see the ending a mile away? Sure. But it was a nice easy-breezy listen.

As always, you can follow along with my progress and see what I’ve read over on Goodreads!