Yesterday’s writing prompt of the day was: “What is your favorite hobby/pastime?”
If you learned anything from my two posts earlier this year, I love to read. I’ve always been a fan of contemporary and historical fiction, and earlier in 2022, I also dabbled in fantasy and romance.
When I was younger, I loved reading. Having “Library” every week was my favorite time to pick out a new book, and having a library on a Friday meant staying up until the wee hours of the night finishing that book. When I got to high school, that all changed. Yes, I enjoyed some books in high school, BUT I hated that our teachers chose all of the books. I spent most of my high school and college years reading the required material and reading under ten books for pleasure. After I graduated, I wanted to take back my love for reading, and since 2020, I have been slowly building up the books I read each year [7 in 2020, 15 in 2021, 100 in 2022], but after I made a goal of mine to read 31 books in August, I was burnt out from all the reading I had done. I read more after that, but maybe ten books in the last four months.
2023 started rough in terms of reading. So far this year, I’m only on my 12th book. I have a goal of reading 50… It’s better than 0 books but much lower than where I wanted to be. I read a blog post earlier today about someone posting mini-reviews of the book she had just read, and it got me thinking. I love writing reviews, but not 1000-word book blogger reviews. Anywho, I wanted to share five books I read recently and a mini-review of each.
The Martins: A book translated from French, written from a French writer’s POV, whose task is to ‘Go out into the street, and the first person you see will be the subject of your next book.’ He stumbles upon an elderly woman and ends up writing his book about her, her daughter’s family, and the twists and turns that a ‘typical’ family goes through. I adored this book and the mundane of it all. It’s funny; I initially thought I would be bored reading this book, but there’s beauty in the banality of life.
Binti: This trilogy of books was recommended to me by my grandpa. The first book took me months to get through [and initially sparked my reading slump] because of all the world-building, much like all fantasy books. Even the beginning of the second book was super slow, but, once again, like all fantasy books, at the end of the second book and all of. Third, the amount of action happening page after page kept me so engaged that I finished 200 pages in one day. A ton of African culture is incorporated into this novel, from names, locations and more. I’ve never read a fantasy book with this much of a real-life essence.
Beach Read: AUGUSTUS!!! I bought this book in 2021. I read the first few chapters in 2022. I finally got around to reading the entire book last month. I can’t remember why I couldn’t read it the first time because, OH MY GOD! This book!!!! I love Emily Henry with all my heart, and her books make my heart flutter. Augustus and January are my favorites; this book and their journey fill me with joy.
Carrie Soto is Back: First of all, Taylor Jenkins Reid is a goddess. The first book I ever cried at was The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. I’ve read a few of her novels, and Carrie Soto is Back is just as good as the others. After retiring from tennis at the top of her game, she has a lot of work to do despite some haters, bad mistakes, and maybe a little love. On page one, I fell in love with Carrie and kept loving her the entire book. Reid knows how to write characters, and Carrie Soto is no exception.
Better than Before: Long ago, I read The Happiness Project [and even wrote a review for it on the blog đ ]. Since then, I have loved Gretchen Rubin. In her book Better Than Before, she tackles the age-old question, “How do we change?” The answer is habits. Rubin discusses all of her tried and accurate habit-forming methods, and boy, was I influenced. You know it’s real when you have to stop reading to take notes. It was a good read and prepared me to form healthy habits.
Have you read any of these books? What are five books you recently read?
Much love
⤠Alicia
Living off Leesh 