Is there no cozier a time to read than winter? A blanket plus a book and a nice coffee, well that's all sorts of self care right there 😉 Read on for my thoughts on my most recent reads!
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
I'm back with my latest quarantine reads - because in a pandemic, it's comforting to "get away" even if it's just through literature. I'm reviewing two recent releases and two throwbacks that I'm juuuust getting around to reading because, I'm slow (seriously, for further proof of my slowness, refer back to this blog post I penned in 2016). A state-wide shelter-in-place seemed like the perfect time to finally get around to reading them.
Pandemics require some escape reading, am I right? Into Thin Air
will totally take you to a different world - the one on top of Mt. Everest to be exact. I think in another life I must have climbed Mt. Everest. I'm pretty much obsessed with all the details surrounding this endeavor. I loved the movie Everest, and last year right around the climb window (May) I picked up Jon Krakauer's personal account of the 1996 Mt. Everest disaster shown in the movie. I read it again recently, because it's such an escape (which is a little bit needed right about now).
Y'all, I've been having so much fun with my new book club! Here's what we've been up to...
In November, we read the recent release Never Have I Ever
. This is the Amazon synopsis:
. This is the Amazon synopsis:
Happy February! For my Friday Five today, I'm sharing five books that I'm super excited to dive into...
Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen are the authors of The Wife Between Us
, one of my favorite reads of 2018. An Anonymous Girl
is their new release, and I am so hoping it lives up to their first book!
, one of my favorite reads of 2018. An Anonymous Girl
is their new release, and I am so hoping it lives up to their first book! 
My Rating: 4.7
Amazon Rating: 4.8
Ya'll, I was hesitant about this book. But, I needed a new novel for our trip to Cayman, so I went with this recent release from Reese's Book Club.
I've read (and loved) the entire The Crazy Rich Asians Trilogy. I read Kevin Kwan's first book, Crazy Rich Asians
, several years ago. It follows New Yorker Rachel Chu and her trip to meet her boyfriend's Singaporean family for the first time. She assumed he came from a humble background, but what awaited in Singapore was nothing short of a palace complete with private planes, and a family that was equal to Singaporean royalty. It was such a fun read so I was super excited when they announced that a movie based on the book was being made!
I'm back with my four most recent reads!
Grab a coffee and get ready to jot down four books you need for your summer!
I've been a diligent library goer for the past few years, ever since I discovered online holds. Last month, however, I found myself actually purchasing not just one but three different books. The Immoralists was on a whim after I read about it in O magazine (or maybe it was Real Simple?). Pretty Mess I figured my library would never offer, so I pre-ordered that one via Amazon. And, I had been waiting for my library hold to come up for The Wife Between Us for months, finally lost my patience and picked it up on a Costco run, then was promptly offered the book by the library the very next day, go figure.
What a week! Parker has been out sick from school since last Friday (coughing, fever, the whole nine yards), and Max has been away on business travel. I literally sent Max this bitmoji on Wednesday:
Happy Friday the 13th! In honor of this spooky day, here are some Halloween inspired favorites...
I just finished The Kind Worth Killing
and I'm telling you - if you enjoy a psychological thriller (like me) stop everything right now and order this book! The book starts with two strangers meeting at Heathrow airport and sharing their secrets on the flight back to the U.S. The twists and turns that ensue make it such the spooky page turner!
and I'm telling you - if you enjoy a psychological thriller (like me) stop everything right now and order this book! The book starts with two strangers meeting at Heathrow airport and sharing their secrets on the flight back to the U.S. The twists and turns that ensue make it such the spooky page turner! 
I just love a new release! The anticipation of a new story (especially if it's a familiar author), waiting to see what the reviews and reactions will be... here are three recent releases, perfect for your September!
The Breakdown
is the second novel from B.A. Paris. It centers on Cass, a woman who passes a stalled car late one rainy night on a deserted, windy, road - and wakes up to find that the woman had been murdered. Rattled with guilt for not helping, she slowly goes a bit crazy. Just like Behind Closed Doors (the first novel by B.A. Paris), it's a thrilling page-turner (like, literally, you won't be able to put it down). There were a few scenarios that seemed a bit contrived toward the end in an attempt to make the plot work, but that was my only critique. If you’ve read Behind Closed Doors, you’ll figure out the twist pretty early on, but it's still a phenomenal read.
is the second novel from B.A. Paris. It centers on Cass, a woman who passes a stalled car late one rainy night on a deserted, windy, road - and wakes up to find that the woman had been murdered. Rattled with guilt for not helping, she slowly goes a bit crazy. Just like Behind Closed Doors (the first novel by B.A. Paris), it's a thrilling page-turner (like, literally, you won't be able to put it down). There were a few scenarios that seemed a bit contrived toward the end in an attempt to make the plot work, but that was my only critique. If you’ve read Behind Closed Doors, you’ll figure out the twist pretty early on, but it's still a phenomenal read. 
The Lying Game
is Ruth Ware's newest release (remember The
Woman in Cabin 10??). I preferred the actual story of The Woman in Cabin 10
(the unique setting on the cruise ship in the fjords and how it threw together a
bunch of strangers), but The Lying Game
is still just as engaging and gripping, and offers a unique setting of its own
(a boarding school in coastal England) plus lots of flashbacks from the
students who went there. It's another thriller/page turner (I may have had to stay up super late in bed to finish it because I was too scared to put it down mid-story and try to sleep!).
is Ruth Ware's newest release (remember The
Woman in Cabin 10??). I preferred the actual story of The Woman in Cabin 10
(the unique setting on the cruise ship in the fjords and how it threw together a
bunch of strangers), but The Lying Game
is still just as engaging and gripping, and offers a unique setting of its own
(a boarding school in coastal England) plus lots of flashbacks from the
students who went there. It's another thriller/page turner (I may have had to stay up super late in bed to finish it because I was too scared to put it down mid-story and try to sleep!).
Finally, I picked up the debut novel from Alisyn Camerota.
And yes, it was solely because of this cover title J In real life, the author co-anchors CNN’s
morning show and has clocked in over 15 years at FOX News. It’s evident that her
book, about a news anchor for “FAIR News”, is loosely based on her
experiences at FOX. It was a needed break from the above psychological thrillers! If you liked The Devil Wears Prada and are wanting to read a bit more about behind the scenes in broadcast journalism and your favorite morning shows, pick up Amanda Wakes Up
.
.
Happy reading!
For dinner earlier this week, I followed this recipe for Eggplant Parmesan with some tweaks. I used fresh tomatoes instead of canned for the sauce (since we have tons from the CSA) and just added a bit of tomato paste to it (worked perfectly). I eyeballed the rest of the ingredients and omitted the provolone (just using fresh mozzarella and parmesan since that's what we had on hand). It was a meatless meal and husby approved!
I brought my favorite peach salad into the rotation as well since we're getting lots of local peaches in our CSA boxes. If you haven't made this salad, it's a must!
This was our haul this week - does anyone know what the beans are? Also, I'm running out of ideas for corn... we have it coming out our ears. Help!
Our little family of three headed out to Texas for a wedding shower this past weekend. This was us, nine hours deep in airport wait. The plane coming in had mechanical issues (and even tried turning back to Dallas). Our take-off time kept being delayed by an hour, half an hour, twenty minutes, another hour... the good thing was, we were not on the plane. We were in the terminal. The bad thing was, of course, we were at the mercy of the airlines and didn't know when (or if) we'd be leaving. You also can't really change tickets when your flight is pending (and we couldn't go back home because we kept thinking our flight would leave in an hour or two). I feel the more you fly, the better you are with airport drama. Max is now part of American's Million Miler program, and he was beyond chill. I was really good until about 7:30pm when I realized we were not leaving, the only restaurant had closed (Huntsville is a small airport) and that I'd be having Cheez-Its for dinner. I may have cried. Parker did the best out of everyone - this makes sense because proportionally, he's been on the most flights given his age (he's clocked in more than fifty flights!). For him it was the best day ever since he gets screen time when we fly. He watched two full length movies while we waited (Moana and Trolls, thank you Netflix streaming), which also just so happened to be his wish when he threw a coin in the fountain at Rosie's restaurant last week (the wish was to watch two movies in one week). So two movies for someone who's only seen a handful was all sorts of awesome. While perusing Netflix on hour five-something, I discovered this gem:
Has anyone else seen it? I'm obsessed. If you're wondering how the airport drama ended, after stringing us along for hours, they just cancelled the flight around 8pm (which was just as well with me because I wasn't too keen on boarding a plane fraught with mechanical issues no one could fix). Husby worked his magic and got us on the next flight out (tip - if your flight is ever cancelled, phone the airline immediately to try to rebook instead of waiting in line at the ticket counter.) We finally left HSV at 10pm, and got into Dallas around midnight (luckily the rental car shuttle and companies are open 24/7). It made for a late night, but we wanted to be there to celebrate these two lovebirds:
Max's sister and her fiancé! Also, how clever to schedule your wedding hair trial for party day!
She's just radiating happiness!
This was Parker on the way to the shower. He never sleeps in the car, but the late night did him in.
Max relocated him to a chair inside and he slept for the entire party. Sweet little guy!
After devouring all of Gillian Flynn's books (starting with Gone Girl, of course) I've been very into psychological/suspense/thrillers. Ruth Ware's The Woman in Cabin 10
fit the bill (though the ending was a bit far reaching and lacked the finesse of Flynn). It didn't stop me from reading Ware's In a Dark, Dark Wood
and now her new release, The Lying Game!
I'm only a few chapters in (I snuck in some coffee shop reading after barre class since P was with a sitter!) but I'll update with my thoughts!
We had some end-of-summer swim lessons, and I just couldn't be happier with Parker's progress over the summer!
He started very aware of the water (and super uneasy) and is now so much more comfortable! Yay for our little Pisces!
I'm in complete denial that the start of school is right around the corner. Parker will be going to preschool five days a week this year - still only 8:30AM-11:30AM, but it's just not going to be the same without our two days of lazy mornings and doing whatever we want! The neighborhood elementary school started back on Tuesday of this week, and since we're just a couple blocks away, we saw lots of families walking there on the first day (and lots of cars on the mornings after that!). It's making me soak up our last few days of summer even more!
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