I know I’ve mentioned it 100 times…but I’m in a reading slump, y’all. It’s terrible! I didn’t even want to write this post as I wasn’t sure I would have a good attitude about it, but I’ve missed doing book recaps on the blog and I love how it is a somewhat easy post to write every month, so I want to bring it back! I know reading book lists and book recaps on other blogs is one of my favorite things to read, so here I am, back with a book recap for the month of October.
I used to recap my books every single month, but about a year ago I started a book Instagram account and I would just write my reviews over there. I still have it and continue to stay active with reviews on that Instagram account. I love that it is just a book account and I can keep track of the books I’ve read and what I want to say about them in real time. But I do miss putting together monthly recaps that help me see what progress (or lack of progress) I am making in my reading goals.
As mentioned, I’m not loving where I am at in my reading life right now. I feel like many of the books I pick up are just mediocre, and I know that for as many books as I read, they aren’t all going to be wonderful. But I think I need to go through my TBR and harshly edit it to get rid of anything that I don’t really, really want to read. Or maybe I just need to take a break from reading and let myself be slow and not have a great reading month. It’s hard to know! Can you tell that this has been way overthought in my mind? Ha!
Let’s just get to the book reviews!
Mailbu Rising
I finally got Malibu Rising after being on hold for months and months! I have loved some of Taylor Jenkins Reid’s previous books so I went into this one with high hopes! It was alright. It wasn’t terrible, but it didn’t quite live up to all the hype for me. One thing that is great about it is how unique and masterful TJR is as an author. She writes plots and characters in a way that I have just not experienced elswhere. So, it’s almost like the book is good because of the experience of reading it and being on the journey, not so much the plot or characters (although those are also interesting enough). It is about a sibling group who grow up with wealthy and famous father who has completely abandoned them. Their mother does absolutely everything to raise them, but is eventually overcome by her own demons and they end up practically raising themselves, each rising to fame in their own way. This is the story of complicated relationships and family drama and family connections that are sometimes stronger than the drama. It’s good. Not my favorite book of the year, but not the worst, either!
The Sunday Philosophy Club
This was the worst book I read this year. I know that is harsh, but I am so bitterly dissapointed in this book. I will honestly say that I HATED it. Listen- I LOVED The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency (written by the same author) so I went into this with high hopes for a slow comfort read. Nope. It was boring. The characters were underdeveloped, and I was so confused about the ages of the characters and their interactions with one another. I felt like the book actually revolved around the murder for 5% of the book and the rest was random soliloquy’s about the philosophy of life. I kept reading hoping for some kind of redeeming plot twist, but NOPE. I’m almost mad enough to not read The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency again.
Viral Parenting: A Guide to Setting Boundaries, Building Trust, and Raising Responsible Kids in an Online World
This was a nonfiction read for parents of teens and kiddos who are getting online. It is written by a Mormon family who have gone viral for their hair tutorials and family life. I liked parts of the book and didn’t like parts of the book, and admittedly ended up skimming quiet a bit. It had enough good tidbits to keep me going, but not enough to change my life and make me recommend it to everyone.
XOXO
This was the best book I read all month! I loved this one! It was the perfect light and fluffy (and so clean!) teen drama that I needed after the other books I had read. It’s a totally predictable teen rom-com, but I loved the unique aspect of being set in Korea and the K-pop band references. This was just really cute and I really loved it!
A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail
I listened to this book on audio, and 5 minutes in, I wanted to take my kids and my husband and go hike the Appalachian trail! But by 10 minutes in, I was perfectly content to just read about someone else hiking the Appalachian trail. This book was funny, sometimes a bit crass, and I loved how it took me on the journey. Our family does love hiking, but I learned so much about what it means to hike the Appalachian Trail. This book was also full of lots of interesting nature tidbits, sometimes that stretched on for a very long time and weren’t overly relevant to the trip on the Appalachian Trail. My favorite parts of the book were the descriptions of the people whose paths they would cross in the woods. SO interesting! I highly recommend this one for any nature lovers or hiking lovers.
Year of Wonders
This is a novel of the plague. I was a bit nervous going into this one, for obvious reasons (hello, currently living in a pandemic). I did have to skim some of the more detailed descriptions of children dying of the plague, but otherwise I found I was able to read the novel and not feel too triggered by what is going on in my own life. Still, this was a heavy book that dealt with the power of humanity to endure trauma and how sometimes in the midst of it we still create strife and drama amongst one another. I do have a bone to pick with the ending of this story as it came out of left field and MADE NO SENSE. It literally felt like someone was playing one of those classroom “roll the dice and write the story” games because as the story went along it felt like we were reaching a conclusion and then BAM she gets on a boat with a baby that isn’t hers and goes overseas and becomes a Muslim man’s 6th wife. And that’s not really a spoiler because literally none of it is mentioned in the story until the last five pages and then all that happens. It’s so strange I just cannot even made sense of it!
The Cake Therapist
I liked this one! It’s about a young woman whose life is seemingly falling apart, so she moves back home and opens up a bakery. It turns out she has kind of a “6th sense” and can basically read people using cake flavors. So, this person loves orange because it is bitter and they have some bitterness in their heart, which of course she draws out of them and helps them deal with. I thought that was a really cute and clever plot, but it was a little bit underdeveloped in the story. There was a touch of romance, but I’m guessing there is a sequel, because it wasn’t very fleshed out. I did like all the side/supporting characters, but there was a lot of characters to try to keep track of! Overall, it was a good read and I liked the plot idea a lot, but wish it had been fleshed out a bit better. Maybe if there is a sequel it will answer most of my questions!
This month I started and quit FOUR books. That is basically unheard of for me, but I was not feeling for any of these:
DNF: 100 Cupboards, A Dance in Donegal, Under Magnolia, Early Morning Riser