Friday Favs 2/28/20 BOOK EDITION

Today’s Friday Favorite post is all about the books I read this month!

This month I read 5 books and abandoned one and I will be sharing my reviews on all of them! As always, my book review are my own opinion. I read books primarily for pleasure, but I also draw the line at certain content that I do not find entertaining or acceptable. I also reserve the right to know that a certain book contains extremely good and educational information, but I am not able to read it at a certain time in my life. For example, a book about race/police differences may be extremely educational and necessary to be read, but I can reserve the right to not CURRENTLY read a book like that. There may be a place in time that I am able to muster the mental strength to read certain topics. There is also a time to stretch myself and read some books that take me well out of my comfort zone. For me, these decisions are all made on a case by case basis before I pick up my next read. Does that make sense? I know that opinions can be STRONG on certain subject matters and I feel like I need to talk about that as I write my book reviews.

Winter Storms

This is the third book in the Winter saga by Elin Hilderbrand. As with the first two, I enjoyed it for it’s quick pace and sweet characters. It’s an easy book/series to get lost in, and although it doesn’t have tons of intricate plots, it has it’s fair share of drama and I enjoyed reading it. There is one more book in the series that I still need to read!

Hillbilly Elegy

I have had this book on my TBR for a LONG time, and I finally got around to reading it. Memoir is my favorite genre because there is something I find so inspirational reading about the real lives of people, especially ones who have overcome. That being said, this was not my favorite memoir. J.D. writes about his childhood being raised in Middletown, OH (about 20 minutes from where I am currently residing!). He was raised by a family who moved from the Appalachian mountains of Kentucky. While it may seem that his family moved away from the hard and dysfunctional lifestyle that ravages many who live in Appalachia, they ended up bringing most of the habits and lifestyles with them. J.D. was raised by a loving mother who often couldn’t get the ground under feet. He was able to work hard and not fall into the trap of laziness and drugs and alcohol. He has overcome much and this book is a powerful testament of that. I highly recommend it, especially if you have ever thought that those who were born into poverty and dysfunction can “just work hard to overcome it”. I found that this book very powerfully illustrates how easy it is to take on the habits of the generations that come before. I didn’t love how negatively he portrayed some people and places, but I also understand that was his reality and perspective.

Eat Cake, Be Brave

Ok, friends. This book was just not for me. Melissa Radke is known for her hilarious viral videos and how she makes parenting and marriage and life just so darn relatable and funny. In this book, she writes about her life- all of the things she has overcome from being bullied as a teen, to working through a marital affair, to being overweight, to struggling with infertility and adoption, and everything in between. I found that her humor didn’t translate as well on the page as it does in a video and that I couldn’t relate to much of her life experiences. That’s not to say that this book is not powerful and encouraging to those who can relate to her struggles, so I do recommend picking it up if you have experienced one or multiple of the things listed above.

Natalie Tan’s Book of Luck and Fortune

I was a little hesitant about this one as soon as I saw the cover. I wondered how much magical stuff I was going to have to wade through and if it was going to cross the line to spiritual. But this book was fun and quirky and cute (more like Disney magic than spiritual magic). Natalie Tan has lost everything and she finally returns home to pick up the pieces. A fortune teller tells her that if she helps three people in her neighborhood, she will have success in her dreams. So she sets out to (selfishly) help three people. She ends up causing more trouble than help until she realizes that she needs to UNSELFISHLY help people- not for her own gain, but for the good of those around her. I thought it was cute and loved the wrapped up in a bow ending.

Unsheltered

This was my least favorite book I have read in a long time. Ugh. I just kept reading, hoping that it would get better, or that something in the plot would tie to together. Instead, I got to the end and felt like I was holding the ends of a frayed ribbon – it seriously felt like a waste of time! It hit me in all the wrong ways as it is partly about a mother who raised her two grown children who are now “unsuccessful” adults. It was really depressing and discouraging to me, because I felt like the message of the book was that no matter how hard we work to raise our children, they don’t turn out how we want them to. This is 100% true and something that I need to realize, but not in this depressing manner. It also felt like a MAJOR political rant on climate change, male superiority and the unfairness of life. Which was just…depressing. Overall, there was nothing inappropriate about the content, but it just didn’t give me any positive feelings.

DNF: On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous

During this month, I picked up a book called On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous. I wish I had done my research on this book before I picked it up, but I had to learn that lesson the hard way. This book is written in the most poetic prose. I mean…the writing was STUNNING. I don’t think I’ve ever read a book with so much beauty and flow in it’s words. It is a about a young man who is born into an immigrant family from Vietnam. Each family member is working through their own varying levels of PTSD and the raw challenges of life in a new country. About halfway through the book, the main character discovers that he is gay and several chapters are dedicated to the open door romance between he and his partner. At that point, I had to put the book down. I wish that those chapters had been left out of the story, because they were not for me and I was disappointed that I couldn’t skip over them and continue to grasp the story. Again, I know that decision is not for everyone, but that was my choice. There were many things to unpack here- most notably being that I just do not read “open door” romance. Open door romance, for those who are new to book language is romance that is described as if you are standing outside the bedroom with the door open (so you get EVERYTHING). Closed door romance is when the situation is written, but not described.

Phew! That was my February in reading! I didn’t love very many books that I read this month, so I’m looking for some really good reads in March! What are you reading right now?