My Reading Diary (with spoilers)

Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid My rating: 5 of 5 stars I have to say I am really surprised to see the overall rating for this book under a 4.0. The somewhat mediocre ratings kept me from picking this book up sooner, but I am so glad I did. The story is told from two different women's point of view. You have Alix, a 30-something white mother of two who just left the city she loved (NYC) where her career was thriving to move to Philadelphia for her husband's career. A move they had always agreed was going to happen. Alix is really struggling to find her place in Philly and she loses focus and motivation on her own work projects (a lifestyle blog and social media presence). Then you have Emira, a 25 year old black woman who is still struggling to find her passion in life and is constantly comparing herself to her other 25 year old friends that she sees as more successful in their lives. Emira goes to work as a babysitter for Alix, primarily responsible for caring for Alix...

The Things We Cannot Say by Kelly Rimmer My rating: 5 of 5 stars This was a book club selection and if I am honest, I was really dreading picking up another WWII historical fiction at this time. But a few of my friends had read it and said great things - and book club is next week - so I finally started on it. I was instantly drawn into the characters. You hop back and forth between present day (Alice) and WWII Poland (Alina). Alice is being asked by her 95 year old Polish grandmother to go on a wild goose chase in Poland with very little clues to what she is looking for. Alice will have to leave behind her 7 year autistic son and her 10 year old gifted daughter, both to be cared for by her brilliant husband who has stayed pretty uninvolved with the day to day responsibilities with the kids. Despite those challenges, she embarks on the journey to learn more about her history and figure out the mysterious clues from her non-verbal grandmother. Meanwhile you are rea...

The Wives by Tarryn Fisher My rating: 5 of 5 stars I kept seeing The Wives pop up on various social media posts by different readers and the reviews went from "I loved this book!" to "I loved this book... but that ending..." There is definitely a group of readers that are annoyed by the ending. Here is how I judge the ending of a good thriller: (1) Did it trick me (or keep me guessing to the very end)? and (2) Did they actually END it or just leave it with some random cliffhanger? This book had positive answers from my point of view on both of those questions. I got about half way into the book, stopped to text my friend a "WTH?!?!" then literally didn't put it down again until it was done. And I was still guessing at the ending up until probably the last 10 pages. Highly recommend this thriller! 5 Stars! I am debating writing a spoiler blog for this one because the spoilers would just be too good. I might just have to jot some notes in my pe...

Vox by Christina Dalcher My rating: 5 of 5 stars This was a book club selection that I was putting off reading. I just read The Testaments for another book club and I didn't know that I was ready for another book full of women's suppression. The premise in Vox is that we have a new U.S. President who is basically a puppet being led by a member of Clergy and other powerful leaders. We enter the story one year into a national regulation on women's speech. Every female in the US has been outfitted with a "bracelet" that counts the number of words they speak in a day. They are only allowed 100. If they go over 100, they get an electric shock. The shock will increase in intensity with every word spoken and quickly becomes horribly painful. 100 words is not much. As of right now in this review, I have written 144 words. Through the story we learn about Jean, who used to live with a friend who was an activist and would try to push Jean to get involved. Jean used ...

First Comes Marriage: My Not-So-Typical American Love Story by Huda Al-Marashi My rating: 3 of 5 stars 3.5 Stars. I listened to the audio on this one which was a nice way to enjoy this story. Another book club selection, it was a book that I may not have picked up otherwise. The memoir is meant to show you how young first generation immigrants navigate an American love story while balancing with the cultural pressures and expectations they are expected to follow. In all honesty, I thought this was such an "American" love story that my overwhelming feelings throughout this book can be summed up in two ways: (1) I am SO glad I didn't have a daughter and (2) Man, we women sure can get in our damn way sometimes! I found myself feeling sorry for Hadi, that poor guy just loved Huda and never doubted that he would marry her and that regardless of any "expectations" in his mind, it was a "love marriage." But Huda had spent her life watching American r...

In Five Years by Rebecca Serle My rating: 5 of 5 stars I first "met" this author by reading The Dinner List in 2018. I fell in love with that book. I felt like it touched my soul in so many ways. It was a very personal book for me, one I could relate to - almost a little too much. When I saw the premise of In Five Years, I knew I had to read it and after finishing it in one day (it would have been one sitting, but I had to work in between), I can say this one did the same thing. In Five Years introduces us to a very Type A personality in Dannie (a New York City lawyer, with her perfect boyfriend living in their perfectly planned life) and her polar opposite best friend Bella (artist, whimsical, free spirited, serial dater). These two girls have been best friends since they were seven years old. Right there - I am hooked. I love a good story of lifelong girlfriends. I have been blessed in my life to have a friend that has been part of my life since I was 9. We know every...

Do You Mind If I Cancel? by Gary Janetti My rating: 4 of 5 stars 3.5 stars probably? But 5.0 if you are the kind of person who enjoys short funny memoirs of hilarious gay men. :) I only know Gary Janetti from his Instagram account (which I personally find hilarious). I did the audio book of this one, which was read by him in a very unique cadence. It was a lot of short sentences with very hard stops. That's a horrible description but that is the best I can give you. It took a little getting used to, but the dialogue itself was funny so I kept going. The audio book is less than 3 hours long, so it is a super fast listen. The entire book is telling the story of Gary's younger life in NY as he aspired to be a writer in film or TV. There are a ton of digressions into what was going to happen in certain circumstances (in Gary's imagination) but in reality none of them actually do. Which I found hilarious. Because didn't we all do that in our 20's? Build something A...

(No Spoilers Here...) I will tell you what I didn't realize about this book before I started reading it. It's really a book of short stories.  Maybe I missed that in the description. I expected to pick up a book about a child raised by a chef and learning the nuances of food and following that path.  It was sort of that, but sort of not. I want to try to write a review here that does have any spoilers, because there are several spoilers to be shared, especially in the first few "chapters."  (I put chapters in quotes, because they are not really chapters as much as short stories.) I was fortunate enough to meet this author at an author event recently.  I had never heard of his books before that but I loved the premise of this one and his newer one.  After hearing him speak, he was just such an endearing person and I think that made me enjoy this book even more.  I could really see his personality come through in the story. So this is a book about E...

(Spoilers Ahead) I have read multiple books by Shari Lapena and A Stranger in the House was recently recommended to me by someone as another good one by her. I requested it from my library that day and finally picked the book up yesterday.  Just a short day later, I have finished and immediately had to pick up my computer to come write my review and my blog.  Mostly because I didn't want the details of how this book annoyed me to slip through my fingers. Karen and Tom Krupp are set up as a normal couple, but you open thinking that maybe Tom has a secret.  He comes home and finds his wife missing and her phone and purse left behind and he starts worrying immediately. Not long after, the police show up at his door and tell them that his wife's car was involved in a single vehicle accident and they need him to come to the hospital to identify whether the injured driver is his wife.  Upon arriving at the hospital, he confirms that it is and the story just runs aw...