Happy Monday, reading friends. The long winter’s nap is right around the corner, yes? I love this time of year. It is time to reflect on what you’ve read, revisit your bookshelf, build your stack, and set aspirations for a year of reading ahead.
Push up your nerd glasses and get giddy with me.
Let’s start with a few I have read lately:
I am late to this Ann Patchett, but I felt like it needed a quiet time to be read. I put it off a few times when life seemed too frenzied. Over Thanksgiving, I savored this one, and I am glad, because the book also primarily took place during late autumn and early winter. It was easy to fall into. Its pace was steady and its words were sensual. I loved the sibling relationship at the center of this story and how it remained the only constant as life vined and weaved and died around them. This story was also about honoring oneself, even in the face of disappointment. I liked this one.
After visiting blustery Philadelphia in the fall with Patchett, I decided to return to summer on Nantucket. I am not a committed Hilderbrand reader, having only read a few, but I know many who are. However, in my head I am a committed fan of Nantucket despite never having actually set foot there. It’s on my bucket list – sooner than later I hope. This story was more than just a summer novel, though, and I enjoyed it. The plot line sounds a little strange, I do admit, because the main character is actually watching life on earth from “the beyond.” She is killed in a hit and run, ascends, and continues to observe from a comfy designer room with a personal guide who wears beautiful Hermes scarves. I know. Stick with me. From this new perspective, she learns deeply about each of her children and decides how and when to use her given “nudges.” Things she once desired on earth become irrelevant, and things she never thought she would want suddenly become clear. The Nantucket references add whimsy, but the family story is memorable.
A pastry chef moves to Vermont. This one liner sums up the reason I chose this as my ringing-in-the-holidays book. It was adorable and predictable, just the way a sweet rom-com should be. I loved the food references and the small town anecdotes. I loved the idea of turning a sugar house into a cabin and old women fighting over who is the rightful winner of the county pie bake-off. It’s the kind of read you know you’re getting into, yet continue to smile through.
My latest read was this novel/mystery. A women marries a man who has a teenage daughter, and she struggles to find her place as a stepmother. Quite suddenly the man disappears, leaving behind a note for his wife and a large sum of cash for his daughter. What follows was a dive into an unexpected backstory. It was a compulsive read, and I certainly wanted to find out what preceded his abrupt and permanent departure. For a while, I suspected he was guilty of some weird crime, but you come to find out something different. I appreciated that it was not obvious, and it left me wanting to talk to the wife. I have so many questions for her. A good read!
My to-read stack is also growing. Here are a few that I have bought myself already or pleaded to Santa for:
Hehe. Tomorrow, I enter the last year of my thirties, and it’s messing with my head. This may have something to do with why the last book made my stack. Has anyone read it?
Also wanting to know if anyone is doing this:
Yes? No? I loved Untamed, but I’m not sure about the journal.
Your turn! What was your best read of 2021?
