I have been in the longest reading slump these last few months where I have essentially only been reading what I absolutely had to for book club at work. Thankfully, this week I busted that slump and got a ton of reading done. I started the week with a few days off and that certainly helped a ton.
Sunday, September 10th
I finished Fierce Fairytales: Poems and Stories to Stir Your Soul by Nikita Gill. I’m not normally into poetry collections, but this one ended up in my online book cart a few years ago after watching a vlog from Books and Lala on YouTube. While I didn’t connect with every entry in the collection, there were several that I thoroughly enjoyed. My overall rating was 3/5 stars.
Once I finished that collection I started Advika and the Hollywood Wives by Kirthana Ramisetti. I picked this one up from Book of the Month earlier in the year because I loved this author’s debut, Dava Shastri’s Last Day, which I rated 5 stars. I got about halfway through Advika’s story on this first day. It’s the story of a young woman who dreams of being a screenwriter and takes work on the fringes of Hollywood to pay her bills. One night while bartending at an awards show after party, she gets hit on by an older, very successful producer who sweeps her off her feet. The story progresses from there with a very interesting premise. I liked the beginning of this book, but it had started to drag slightly by the midpoint.
Monday, September 11th
I finished Advika and the Hollywood Wives today. This book addresses a lot of topics related to manipulation and problematic relationships. Reading those parts of the story was difficult for me. The story also focuses a lot on friendship and grief and following your dreams when they get difficult and those parts are the reason that I kept going with this story. I ultimately rated it 3/5 stars and would still recommend it to others. This may have just been an issue with me and my headspace around those types of relationships.
After finishing that one, I started By the Book by Jasmine Guillory. This is from the Meant to Be series that sees big name authors taking on fairy tale retellings. This particular retelling was a modern take on Beauty and the Beast. This was a nice, light and fluffy romance palette cleanser after the last book. I ended up finishing it the same day and rated it 4/5 stars.
Tuesday, September 12th
Sadly, this was the day my vacation ended and I spent the day packing and driving home, so I didn’t get to do any reading (my traveling partner doesn’t do audiobooks).
Wednesday, September 13th
After lamenting that it was back to reality this day, I decided to take advantage of my return to reading and hit up the library for some more titles. I picked up and quickly flew through Ben Hatke’s new graphic novel for kids, Things in the Basement. I really enjoyed the art style and the layered nuances behind the story. It’s about a little boy whose mom just had twins. He’s feeling a little left out but also feeling the new pressures of responsibility. They have moved to a new house that has a scary basement. When his mom asks him to go down to the basement to try and find a missing sock for one of his new siblings, he has to face his fears. The basement holds all sorts of scary things…but also secrets and adventures? There are so many things that can scare you as a child, and I really appreciated how those fears were validated and also resolved in the this story. Highly recommend even though I wasn’t the target audience. 3/5 stars.
Thursday, September 14th
I began reading a new book today that I picked up because I was hoping to convince my book club to try something new. They don’t typically gravitate towards sci-fi, but the summary for this one sounded humorous. The book is called The Road to Roswell by Connie Willis. Willis is an award-winning sci-fi author, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I got to page 36 on the first day and it definitely throws you into the story early.
I also started listening to The Wishing Game by Meg Shaffer because my audiobook hold came in on Libby. I listened on my commute and determined that this was going to be too emotional for me to listen to. I returned the audiobook and put myself on hold for the physical copy. I normally listen to mysteries or thrillers on my commute, things that aren’t going to make me cry. When I’m already stuck in traffic, I don’t need another reason to get emotional.
Friday, September 15th
I finished The Road to Roswell today. This ended up being very funny and fun to read. There’s very little serious sci-fi here. It’s a book that takes some of the most well-known tropes about the sci-fi community and UFOs and runs wild with it. This book name drops every alien movie I’ve ever heard of and several that I haven’t as well as a ton of Westerns. The characters were incredibly lovable and it takes a different approach to first contact than I have ever read before. We are following a young woman named Francie who is headed to Roswell to serve as the maid of honor at her college roommate’s UFO-themed wedding. Her friend is marrying a true believer and Francie is secretly hoping that she can talk her friend out of it. When she gets there, the town of Roswell is getting ready to celebrate their annual UFO festival, marking the anniversary of the infamous crash and cover-up. There has also been a reported new sighting just outside of town and all of the UFO-enthusiasts are losing it over that. When Francie finds herself kidnapped and ordered to serve as the getaway driver for an actual alien, the story really gets started. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to convince my book club to pick this one up, but I’m really glad that I did. 5/5 stars
Saturday, September 16th
I started reading Three Fires by Denise Mina. This is a slim historical fiction novel that focuses on the story of the Bonfire of the Vanities and Girolamo Savanarola in 15th century Italy. I got to page 58 this first day. This is another title that I picked up to pre-read for a potential book club pick. It’s a very short novel and a new release from Mina. I’ve only read one previous title from Denise Mina, Conviction, which I rated 3/5 stars. Looking at her backlist, she rarely writes the same style of book twice, so I’m not expecting any parallels between my previous read and this one.
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