Introducing the RAD Reading Podcast!

Did you know I now have a bookish podcast?

Y’all know I love talking all things reading and giving book (and movie/TV) recommendations. I’ve been doing it on this blog for many years. But a few months ago, I got the urge to do something a little different with that kind of content.

I love a bookish podcast and I listen to a number of them every week, so that got me to thinking, what if I did one of these? There’s nothing I love more than talking about reading or passing along a great book, so why not do it over the virtual airwaves?

I was a little (a lot!) intimidated to learn the how-to’s of podcasting, and I’m definitely still learning, but I decided to take the leap. I teamed up with indie editor Dawn Alexander and we’ve launched RAD Reading, a bookish podcast where the R stands for refresh and the D stands for discover and where we help you do those two things for your reading life.

We have had so much fun this first month of episodes, and we have lots more to come! If you’d like to give us a listen (and we’d love it if you would!), links to the first five episodes are below. You can listen to the episodes on this website, through Apple podcasts, or you can add it to whichever podcast player you prefer.

How to Listen:

• On our website

• Apple podcasts

• Audible

• Spotify

• Acast  

• Or add to your favorite podcast app with their “Add by URL” feature and paste this link there: https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/rad-reading

This month’s episodes:

The Life-Changing Magic of the DNF

Our first episode! Join us as we talk about our vision for the podcast, preview our weekly bookish themes, and then jump into our topic of the week--the life-changing magic of not finishing a book you’re not enjoying. And make sure you stay until the end to get our RAD Reading Book Recommendations of the week!

Feeling All the Fall Feels: Seasonal Book Recs

Fall is here! This week we’re talking about whether or not we’re seasonal readers and how to enhance those autumnal vibes with your reading choices. We’re also bringing you a big stack of book recommendations! Roni’s got a pile of recs from one of her very favorite micro-genres: dark academia & campus novels. And Dawn is bringing the heat with sexy football-themed romances and some fun seasonal rom-coms. Come feel all the Fall feels with us!

Making Your Own Reading Journal (AKA Fun with Office Supplies)

We love upgrading our reading lives, so this week we’re talking about one of our favorite ways to enhance the reading experience--creating our own reading journals! Plus, as always, we’re giving our RAD Reading Recs of the week.

October’s Read/Watch/Listen Recs

This week we’re giving you all of our favorites of the month! Join us as we share the books, audiobooks, TV shows, and movies that have gotten our highest marks.

They All Float: Our Best Halloween Recs

Happy Halloween! This week Roni freaks out Dawn with her scary book and movie picks (and episode title) and Dawn offers recommendations for those who prefer their Halloween on the gentler side. It’s a long one, y’all! We’ve got a pile of recs for you, including suspense, horror, true crime, and paranormal romance. Grab a bag of Halloween candy and join us!

That’s a wrap on our first month! Next month we’ll be tackling things like taming distractions so you can get more reading time and giving our best comfort reads.

Roni's August Recs: Read - Watch - Listen

Well…it’s been a month, y’all. I’ve never been so happy to see September 1.

First, all three of us (me, hubs, and the 13 year old) got symptomatic Covid at the start of the month. (All of us were fully vaccinated.) Hubs had it the worst, ending up with double pneumonia, but none of us had to go to the hospital—though we did make lots of visits to Urgent Care *waves at Beverly*. I’m so glad things didn’t get serious, but getting Covid did wipe out all the exciting things we had planned for August—vacations, a Foo Fighters concert, Brenda Novak coming to visit in person to interview me for her book club, my husband’s band’s first show since Covid started, and kidlet’s first few days of school. But we’re okay and that’s what counts. We’re all doing much better now.

Then this week hit. Many of y’all know I’m originally from Louisiana. Well, most of my family still lives there, and my parents live in Laplace. If you’ve watched the news at all, you’ve probably seen Laplace on all the news stations as they took a direct hit from Hurricane Ida. (My husband’s hometown of Houma was also directly hit.) My parents still live in Laplace and thankfully evacuated, but their house is in one of those neighborhoods they keep showing on TV with all the flooding and roof damage. They can’t get back yet to assess. So, August has been a rough go.

However, while convalescing from Covid and taking care of the fam, I did get some time to read, watch, and listen to things. That’s the beauty of stories, right? We can escape into them for a little while when reality is stressful. So I’m here to tell you my favorites of the month.

Read

In My Dreams, I Hold a Knife by Ashley Winstead

About the book:

Six friends.
One college reunion.
One unsolved murder.

Ten years after graduation, Jessica Miller has planned her triumphant return to her southern, elite Duquette University, down to the envious whispers that are sure to follow in her wake. Everyone is going to see the girl she wants them to see—confident, beautiful, indifferent. Not the girl she was when she left campus, back when Heather Shelby's murder fractured everything, including the tight bond linking the six friends she'd been closest to since freshman year.

But not everyone is ready to move on. Not everyone left Duquette ten years ago, and not everyone can let Heather's murder go unsolved. Someone is determined to trap the real killer, to make the guilty pay. When the six friends are reunited, they will be forced to confront what happened that night—and the years' worth of secrets each of them would do anything to keep hidden.

Told in racing dual timelines, with a dark campus setting and a darker look at friendship, love, obsession, and ambition, In My Dreams I Hold A Knife is an addictive, propulsive read you won't be able to put down.

My thoughts:

This was my favorite read of the month. Y’all know that I’m a huge fan of campus novels—particularly ones with a dark edge—so this hit that sweet spot. (Want more campus novel recs? Check out this list.)

This novel was everything I wanted it to be. Even though I’m prone to like a campus novel, I'm pretty picky about mysteries. I need them to be at least somewhat character-driven and not plot only. This one had both. It's not an easy thing to have a cast of seven important characters and make them all feel distinct. I didn't have to flip back once to see--wait, which character is this again? And I loved the dual timelines of their years in college and then ten years later at homecoming. It kept me turning the pages and trying to figure out who the killer was. I didn't guess. There were lots of red herrings that worked.

If you need your characters lovable, then this might not be for you. These characters were all flawed, but the author did a good job of showing why they were the way they were and that made them (most of them) sympathetic. (And as someone who was salutatorian twice--both in middle school and high school--I resonated with Jessica's salutatorian "always second place" frustration, lol.) Also, there's a tiny bit of a love story mixed in, which did my romance writer heart good.

I don't give out 5 star ratings easily, but this one was an easy one to rate. :) My one caveat is if the opening chapters (before the flashback to the past starts) don’t capture you, keep reading. I wasn’t sure when I first started reading if it was going to be for me, but once I hit those flashback chapters, I was in.

Disclosure: I was provided an ARC by Sourcebooks for an honest review and Sourcebooks is my publisher.

Dinner: A Love Story by Jenny Rosenstrach

About the book:

Jenny Rosenstrach, and her husband, Andy, regularly, some might say pathologically, cook dinner for their family every night. Even when they work long days. Even when their kids' schedules pull them in eighteen different directions. They are not superhuman. They are not from another planet.

With simple strategies and common sense, Jenny figured out how to break down dinner—the food, the timing, the anxiety, from prep to cleanup—so that her family could enjoy good food, time to unwind, and simply be together.

Using the same straight-up, inspiring voice that readers of her award-winning blog, Dinner: A Love Story, have come to count on, Jenny never judges and never preaches. Every meal she dishes up is a real meal, one that has been cooked and eaten and enjoyed at least a half dozen times by someone in Jenny's house. With inspiration and game plans for any home cook at any level, Dinner: A Love Story is as much for the novice who doesn't know where to start as it is for the gourmand who doesn't know how to start over when she finds herself feeding an intractable toddler or for the person who never thought about home-cooked meals until he or she became a parent. This book is, in fact, for anyone interested in learning how to make a meal to be shared with someone they love, and about how so many good, happy things happen when we do.

My thoughts:

I picked this one up on a complete whim. It’s on Hoopla, so if your library has that, you can grab it there. Food memoirs are comfort reads for me, so when I was recovering from Covid (and had lost all smell and most of my taste, so couldn’t enjoy anything but kale salads and fruit), reading about this author’s dinner evolution somehow helped.

This is an easy read and technically listed as a cookbook, but I felt like this was much more memoir than cookbook. I loved reading about the author’s journey through making dinner from her early years when she was first married and then through motherhood. A lot of it mirrored my own journey, and it felt nostalgic to read about those days when she was first married and learning to cook.

I came into my marriage knowing how to cook three things—red beans & rice (like a good New Orleans girl), beef roast in a crock pot, and French bread pizza. Now, I own literally hundreds of cookbooks and consider myself a pretty savvy and adventurous cook. And I can look at my cookbook collection and see my own evolution from newlywed, to new mom, to mom of a foodie teen. I didn’t have the picky eater issue Rosentrach talked about when her kids were little, but everything else in the book felt like I’d been there too.

So, if you’re looking for an easy comfort read about food, this one might hit the spot. Plus, there are lots of recipes if you’re looking for that.

Watch

Modern Family (Hulu)

I know I am sooooo late to the boat on this one. When this premiered, my kiddo wasn’t even two yet. I didn’t have much time to watch grownup TV—or you know, brush my hair—so this one flew by me. I’d heard great things and had put it on my “one day” list, but when I was looking for a new show for my whole family to watch together, I decided to see if this one would be a good fit.

I’ve discovered that it is VERY hard to find a show that will entertain both me and the hubs AND also the 13-year old AND be age-appropriate for a young teen. Things are either too silly/kiddie or they jump to full out dirty humor. Not as much falls into the space in between. * puts on my Gen X back-in-my-day hat for a second * Back when I was growing up, sitcoms (and movies) were really good at innuendo that would entertain parents but went over kids heads and still had humor that kids could enjoy too. Those are so much harder to find now. * takes off hat * So I’m so thrilled to have found this one.

Yes, Modern Family has some sexual references, but they handle it in a way that I don’t feel awkward watching it with my 13 year old and he doesn’t feel awkward watching with us. And the show is SO FUNNY. We all regularly belly laugh to the point of losing our breath (which was a bit of a problem when we were still wheezy from Covid!) and it’s just straight up fun to watch. I don’t laugh aloud all that easily, but this one gets me on a regular basis. And it’s just a joy to hear both my husband and kiddo laughing just as hard. Family fun for all.

I’m already sad that we will one day get to the end and we’re only in the second season.

This is Pop (Netflix)

We are a music-loving family over here, so when I saw the description for this show, we decided to try it out. Each episode is a standalone documentary about a particular thing in pop music. For instance, there’s an episode about Boyz II Men, an episode about the rise of autotune, one on how Sweden played a huge role in pop music, another on the Brill Building.

The whole thing was fascinating and I learned so much. For instance, I now can’t NOT hear when a singer is autotuned—and realize that it’s kind of ruined pop music in a lot of ways. I also now can’t stop noticing nonsense lyrics from 90s/00s pop songs—lyrics I’ve sang over and over and never thought, “what does that even mean?” I want it that way. What way? What it do you want? The Backstreet Boys don’t even know. Lol.

The fam enjoyed the episodes too. You can hop around and don’t have to watch them in order if one topic interest you more than another. If you like music, I highly recommend checking these out—but be prepared to have the curtain peeled back on a few things.

Listen

Open Book by Jessica Simpson

About the book:

Jessica reveals for the first time her inner monologue and most intimate struggles. Guided by the journals she's kept since age 15, and brimming with her unique humor and down-to-earth humanity, Open Book is as inspiring as it is entertaining.

This was supposed to be a very different book. Five years ago, Jessica Simpson was approached to write a motivational guide to living your best life. She walked away from the offer, and nobody understood why. The truth is that she didn’t want to lie. 

Jessica couldn’t be authentic with her listeners if she wasn’t fully honest with herself first. 

Now, America’s Sweetheart, preacher’s daughter, pop phenomenon, reality TV pioneer, and the billion-dollar fashion mogul invites listeners on a remarkable journey, examining a life that blessed her with the compassion to help others but also burdened her with an almost crippling need to please. Open Book is Jessica Simpson using her voice, heart, soul, and humor to share things she’s never shared before.

First celebrated for her voice, she became one of the most talked-about women in the world, whether for music and fashion, her relationship struggles, or as a walking blonde joke. But now, instead of being talked about, Jessica is doing the talking. Her audiobook shares the wisdom and inspirations she’s learned and shows the real woman behind all the pop-culture clichés - "chicken or fish", "Daisy Duke", "football jinx", "mom jeans", "sexual napalm..." and more. Open Book is an opportunity to laugh and cry with a close friend, one that will inspire you to live your best, most authentic life, now that she is finally living hers.

My thoughts:

If y’all haven’t caught on to the pattern yet, I love a celebrity memoir audiobook narrated by the celebrity. This one took me a little longer to get through than Busy Phillips’ memoir that I read (and loved) in July. I think maybe because this one had less humor and tackled a number of heavy topics (TW: sexual abuse, alcoholism.) However, it was a good listen and I really did feel like she was being very open and vulnerable.

My favorite parts were when she was describing the years of trying out for the Mickey Mouse Club at the same time as Britney, Justin, Ryan Gosling, and Christina, and how not being part of that group kind of followed her (being the outsider.) I also enjoyed hearing the behind the scenes stuff about her and Nick Lachey’s reality show Newlyweds—which I most definitely watched every episode of when it was on, lol. (We’re close in age so I was only two years into my marriage when the show was on.)

She talks a lot about her faith and growing up with a pastor father. She gives dirt on people—looking at you, John Mayer. And unlike a lot of memoirs that feel very “I’ve been through these things and now I’m on the other side and have all this distance and perspective”, I feel like she’s still living through a lot of things. So, she has perspective on some but is still working through others.

And I had no idea that she was billionaire—yes, with a B—mogul because of her fashion company. Go on, Jessica.

Overall, a worthwhile listen but beware the heavy parts. Not one to listen to while your kids are in the car.

Alright, that’s it for this month’s round-up! What have you read/watched/listened to this month that was great?

What I've Been Reading & Loving Lately

Hi there! It’s been a minute. :)

I’m emerging from the book deadline cave (and book release frenzy) and finally have time to write something that is not a book! *blinks in the sunlight*

The good news is that, even though I’ve been writing most waking hours of the day for a couple of months, I have managed to carve out reading time along the way. (Because if I stop reading, the muse stops giving me words for my writing.) So, today I have some books to recommend!

Fave Fiction So Far

Wanderers by Chuck Wendig

Warning: This is a pandemic book. I bought this last year and had to put it on my shelf for a later date because I just couldn’t have handled this book in the early days of the COVID crisis. But last month, I decided to finally pick this up. I’m a person who gets anxiety relief from reading (or watching) horror stories (a concept I actually explore in my next book What If You & Me with the heroine), so your mileage may vary if you’re not wired that way. But I thought this epic book was very well done, and any author who can get me to read 782 pages of anything these days is doing something right. This hits the sweet spot between character-driven and plot-driven. It slowed a little in the middle for me, and I switched to audio to get through that part, but then after that, I raced to the end. If you’re looking for something like Stephen King’s The Stand, this is for you.

About the book:

Shana wakes up one morning to discover her little sister in the grip of a strange malady. She appears to be sleepwalking. She cannot talk and cannot be woken up. And she is heading with inexorable determination to a destination that only she knows. But Shana and her sister are not alone. Soon they are joined by a flock of sleepwalkers from across America, on the same mysterious journey. And like Shana, there are other “shepherds” who follow the flock to protect their friends and family on the long dark road ahead.

For as the sleepwalking phenomenon awakens terror and violence in America, the real danger may not be the epidemic but the fear of it. With society collapsing all around them—and an ultraviolent militia threatening to exterminate them—the fate of the sleepwalkers depends on unraveling the mystery behind the epidemic. The terrifying secret will either tear the nation apart—or bring the survivors together to remake a shattered world.

Boys Like You by Juliana Stone

This year, I created a TBR Backlog Reading Challenge so that I could tackle those books that have been sitting on my shelves for years. This book was one of them. It had been sitting on my shelf since 2015! That’s a long time to hold onto a book. But once I picked up this YA contemporary romance, I was hooked. I read through it in a day. A sweet, emotional romance.

About the book:

Two shattered hearts are about to collide in this achingly poignant young adult novel. Monroe and Nathan are two lost souls each struggling with grief and guilt from a mistake that changed their lives – looking for acceptance, so they can find forgiveness.

For Monroe Blackwell, one small mistake has torn her family apart―leaving her empty and broken. There's a hole in her heart that nothing can fill. That no one can fill. And a summer in Louisiana with her grandma isn't going to change that...

Nathan Everets knows heartache firsthand when a car accident leaves his best friend in a coma. And it's all his fault. He should be the one lying in the hospital. The one who will never play guitar again. He doesn't deserve forgiveness, and a court-appointed job at the Blackwell B&B isn't going to change that...

There's No Going Back

Captivating and hopeful, this achingly poignant novel brings together two lost souls struggling with grief and guilt―looking for acceptance, so they can find forgiveness.

When He Was Wicked by Julia Quinn and It’s In His Kiss by Julia Quinn

I had read most of the Bridgerton novels years ago (and loved them!) but I had left a few unread. After watching the Netflix show, I got a hankering for those Bridgertons again. :) Luckily, I already had these on my shelf. I raced through them and had such a good time reading them. I only have one left and am waiting to savor it. Julia Quinn is one of those authors who I can always rely on to give me a great read.

Fave Non-Fiction So Far

My Life in France by Julia Child

The ultimate comfort read—or listen, in this case, because I listened to this on audio (highly recommend!) I love that this book was so many things—personal memoir, a peek into a time in history, a foodie memoir, a travel memoir, a love story, and the tale of a wonderful, strong, talented woman. The whole thing was a delight.

Text Me When You Get Home by Kayleen Schaefer

When I finished this, I immediately wanted to go out and buy a copy for all my friends. This essay collection was such a tribute to the beauty and richness of female friendships that I just wanted to hug it to my chest. I love how it explored how female friendships have been portrayed in the media (cat fights, mean girls, etc) and how, for most of us, that hasn’t been our experience. Instead, we are uplifted by the women we’re closest to. Readers often comment on the way I write supportive female friendships into my books, and I think I do that because I have wonderful friends in my life but also because it’s something we don’t see portrayed often enough on screen and in books.

Share Your Stuff by Laura Tremaine.

Speaking of friendships, I really enjoyed listening to this audiobook about digging deeper and sharing your stuff in a journal, with friends, or in other aspects of your life. This book is hard to describe. The official description says part memoir and part guidebook, and I think that’s apt, but also doesn’t fully convey the mood. I listen to Laura Tremaine’s podcast 10 Things to Tell You and enjoy it, so that’s what made me pick up this book. If this sounds interesting to you but you’re unsure, I encourage you to check out her podcast first. If you like the vibe, you’ll probably like this book. Recommended in audio since she narrates it herself and podcasters give good audio. :)

Solve For Happy by Mo Gawdet

This is another one that is a little hard to describe. It’s a book about happiness but uses math and physics and philosophy to tackle it. This is one I couldn’t rush through because the concepts took some time to wrap my head around. But I LOVED so much of this. It’s one I will probably reread so I can take notes the second time around.

Group by Christie Tate

I was a therapist before I was a writer, so therapy memoirs are my jam, and I hadn’t read one before that tackled group therapy. This one took me a little while to get into. The author made some life choices that made me want to yell at her “not to go there” like when I watch a horror movie, but I’m glad I stuck with the read. I ended up really enjoying the journey. I was also fascinated by the style of therapy because it wasn’t the kind I was trained in.

Light the Dark edited by Joe Fassler

My fellow writers, this was such an inspiring read. It’s a collection of essays from well-known writers (mostly literary fiction writers) about the different aspects of inspiration and the writing life. I felt so “seen” in the way some of them described their writing processes. This will be one I want to read through again.


Those are my faves so far. I hope you’ve found something that looks good to you!

What’s been your favorite read so far this year?

Gex X Style Meditation: The Joy of Listening to an Album All the Way Through

I try not to start conversations with things like “When I was a kid, we…” or “Back in the day, I…” too often (though my kid may disagree) because it makes me feel old and, really, who wants to listen to people preach about “the way things used to be”? However, as someone who was born at the tail end of the Gen X generation and who is part of the last group to come of age before the internet and digital took over, sometimes I’m hit with how things have changed and some of the little (and big) things we’ve lost.

I was in the car the other day and an Alanis Morissette song came on. When it was done, I immediately started singing the next song on the Jagged Little Pill album. Why? Because in high school I listened to that CD over and over and OVER again (sorry, Mom), and I listened to it from start to finish. So the songs don’t just exist as separate entities to me but as one complete body of work. (My car, like most others, only held one CD or cassette at a time, so I would have to choose what I was listening to for that car ride and go with it.)

And it hit me in that moment in the car that I couldn’t remember the last time I’d done that—listened to one album all the way through. Or even one artist for multiple songs in a row. Like most everyone else, my music is now digital and I have my Spotify on shuffle, so I just listen to what comes up on that playlist. That’s convenient and fine, but in that moment in the car, I realized that something was also lost in that process.

An album tells a story. Artists think about which order songs should go in, and there’s a reason why they put one in front of another. There’s a reason why they opened with song A and closed with Song Z. (There were even sometimes hidden tracks tucked behind that last song if you didn’t stop playing the album when the last song was over.) With the new digital format, most of us are cherry-picking the songs we want. The hits. The songs that aren’t necessarily radio-friendly or ones that have less mass appeal get lost in the shuffle. Some of my favorite songs ever were songs that weren’t the ones released on the radio. And now I’m probably missing out on some great songs by artists I like.

So this week, I’ve made a point to go into my Spotify and choose an artist/band I enjoy and just hit play on one of their albums. Then, I let it go from start to finish without skipping around or shuffling. I’ve discovered some great new songs by artists/bands I love, and it’s felt…calming and almost meditative—even if it’s loud rock music. There’s something extra satisfying about the focus of it all. One artist/band, one album in time, one complete journey. I’m really digging it.

So, let me say in my best old lady voice, “Back in my day, we listened to the whole damn thing, and you should give that a try, too.” ;)

My favorite full album listen this week: A War on Everything by The Glorious Sons . (And if you haven’t discovered The Glorious Sons yet, you’re welcome.)

Do you ever do this—listen to an album all the way through? What have been some of your favorite listens?

My Summer Reading Wrap-Up & My Book Is Turned In!

Hi y’all! Long time, no blog. I know it’s been a while because I was in the deadline cave, but I’m happy to report that I FINALLY turned in my book! This will be book one in a new contemporary romance series that I’m very excited about. I’ll share more details when I can. Also, I have a new online romance writing class open! (See the bottom of this post for the details or click the link.)

Now on to the real reason why we’re here—books. Since it’s the first day of fall (not that it feels like it in Dallas with our 96 degree high today—UGH), I thought it’d be a good time to share some of what I’ve been reading the second half of the summer. (If you want to see my first half of summer list, go here.) Because even though I was in the deadline cave, I was still reading. If I stop reading, I stop writing. I’m also happy to report that I’ve already completed my Goodreads annual challenge of reading 60 books! I get a thrill every year when I hit that number. I blame Pizza Hut’s Book It program when I was a kid. I love counting up how many books I’ve read and hitting some goal. #nerd

So, what have I been reading? Let’s dive in.

Sweetest Romance

The Music of What Happens by Bill Konigsberg (Btw, the hardback is currently on sale for $7.99, which is 3 bucks cheaper than the Kindle version.)

I thought this was a perfect summer read. A funny and sweet romance set in the world of food trucks. The characters were great and felt real. I also liked the fact that it was set in Arizona. I realized I haven’t read a lot of books set in that part of the west. My only complaint was that romance-loving me wanted an epilogue at the end to see a little more of these characters and their romance.

About the book:

Max: Chill. Sports. Video games. Gay and not a big deal, not to him, not to his mom, not to his buddies. And a secret: An encounter with an older kid that makes it hard to breathe, one that he doesn't want to think about, ever.

Jordan: The opposite of chill. Poetry. His "wives" and the Chandler Mall. Never been kissed and searching for Mr. Right, who probably won't like him anyway. And a secret: A spiraling out of control mother, and the knowledge that he's the only one who can keep the family from falling apart.

Throw in a rickety, 1980s-era food truck called Coq Au Vinny. Add in prickly pears, cloud eggs, and a murky idea of what's considered locally sourced and organic. Place it all in Mesa, Arizona, in June, where the temp regularly hits 114. And top it off with a touch of undeniable chemistry between utter opposites.

Over the course of one summer, two boys will have to face their biggest fears and decide what they're willing to risk -- to get the thing they want the most.

Steamiest Romance

Misadventures with a Professor by Sierra Simone

Everyone had been telling me to try Sierra Simone, and I just hadn’t gotten to one of her books yet. I’m so glad I finally did! This one was well-written and hawt. Plus, some of her metaphors made me envious (nerdy writer moments brought to you by Roni.) I promptly went out and bought more of her books.

About the book:

Zandy Lynch never planned on going to grad school a virgin. So when her professor father finds her a job abroad as a research assistant the summer before she starts her master’s program, she sees her chance. She’s got one night in London to lose her V-card to a Mr. Darcy lookalike before she has to join some ancient professor in the country.

Oliver Graeme is not looking forward to having some American co-ed hovering around while he’s trying to work, but he owes her father the favor, and besides, his office is an untidy mess of uncatalogued research. He needs the help. Still, he decides to take the edge off his frustration while visiting a colleague in London, and winds up having the sexiest, sweetest night of his life with a stranger, who vanishes in the morning without a trace…

To Zandy’s shock when she arrives at Professor Graeme’s house a day later, the door isn’t opened by a fussy old scholar, but by the wild, passionate man she met in London. Cold and reserved by day, Oliver is ferociously greedy with her at night, and it’s not long before Zandy finds herself falling for both versions of him―the aloof professor and the generous, rough lover. The trouble is that summer only lasts so long, and Zandy already has a plane ticket waiting to take her home…

Creepiest Mindf**k

Verity by Colleen Hoover

This one was super dark and quite the mindf**k, so of course I loved it, lol. It had a gothic feel (big house, invalid wife, spooky kid) and was legitimately creepy. It also kept me guessing. I was rooting for it not to be a certain type of trope that I really dislike and it wasn’t. Hurrah! It kept me guessing until the end. I have a feeling this is the kind of book someone will either love or hate. I fell on the love side.

About the book:

Lowen Ashleigh is a struggling writer on the brink of financial ruin when she accepts the job offer of a lifetime. Jeremy Crawford, husband of bestselling author Verity Crawford, has hired Lowen to complete the remaining books in a successful series his injured wife is unable to finish.

Lowen arrives at the Crawford home, ready to sort through years of Verity's notes and outlines, hoping to find enough material to get her started. What Lowen doesn't expect to uncover in the chaotic office is an unfinished autobiography Verity never intended for anyone to read. Page after page of bone-chilling admissions, including Verity's recollection of the night their family was forever altered.

Lowen decides to keep the manuscript hidden from Jeremy, knowing its contents would devastate the already grieving father. But as Lowen's feelings for Jeremy begin to intensify, she recognizes all the ways she could benefit if he were to read his wife's words. After all, no matter how devoted Jeremy is to his injured wife, a truth this horrifying would make it impossible for him to continue to love her.

Best for a Mental Reboot

Who is not in need of a mental reboot? I have two picks in this category. The first is a short little read but backed with great nuggets.

In Praise of Wasting Time by Alan Lightman

About the book:

In this timely and essential book that offers a fresh take on the qualms of modern day life, Professor Alan Lightman investigates the creativity born from allowing our minds to freely roam, without attempting to accomplish anything and without any assigned tasks.

We are all worried about wasting time. Especially in the West, we have created a frenzied lifestyle in which the twenty-­four hours of each day are carved up, dissected, and reduced down to ten minute units of efficiency. We take our iPhones and laptops with us on vacation. We check email at restaurants or our brokerage accounts while walking in the park. When the school day ends, our children are overloaded with “extras.” Our university curricula are so crammed our young people don’t have time to reflect on the material they are supposed to be learning. Yet in the face of our time-driven existence, a great deal of evidence suggests there is great value in “wasting time,” of letting the mind lie fallow for some periods, of letting minutes and even hours go by without scheduled activities or intended tasks.

Gustav Mahler routinely took three or four-­hour walks after lunch, stopping to jot down ideas in his notebook. Carl Jung did his most creative thinking and writing when he visited his country house. In his 1949 autobiography, Albert Einstein described how his thinking involved letting his mind roam over many possibilities and making connections between concepts that were previously unconnected. With In Praise of Wasting Time, Professor Alan Lightman documents the rush and heave of the modern world, suggests the technological and cultural origins of our time-­driven lives, and examines the many values of “wasting time”—for replenishing the mind, for creative thought, and for finding and solidifying the inner self. Break free from the idea that we must not waste a single second, and discover how sometimes the best thing to do is to do nothing at all.

Slow by Brooke McAlary

The second pick is a more comprehensive look at how to slow down, declutter, and it leans toward the minimalism philosophy. Some minimalist books can be extreme, but I found this one to be a practical and doable approach.

About the book:

What is slow living? It's a way to find happiness by stepping away from the never-ending demands to constantly succeed and acquire more and more. It's easy to get stuck in the carousel of frantically wanting, buying, and upgrading the things in your life. The philosophy of simple living is about finding the freedom to be less perfect and taking time to enjoy the pure joys of life: a walk in the forest, sharing laughter with family, a personal moment of gratitude. Reconnecting with the living world can help you integrate moments of peace, joy, and mindfulness into an otherwise rapid life.

Simple living: After being diagnosed with post-natal depression, Brooke McAlary learned about the power of minimalism and found that the key to happiness was a simpler, more fulfilling existence. She put the brakes on her stressful path and reorganized her life to live outside the status-quo, emphasizing depth, connection, and meaningful experiences. Brooke shares the story of her journey alongside practical advice for simplifying in ways that work for your life.

Most Compelling on Audio

Evil Has a Name by Paul Holes & Jim Clemente

This was a 6-hour audiobook that I listened to in one day (things you can do when you finally turn in your overdue manuscript.) I found this super compelling and well-told. Now, a caveat: I read I’ll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara already, so this paired well with that. I don’t know if it would have had the same resonance had I not read the other book first. Because in McNamara’s book, you get to meet Paul Holes (the cop/investigator and narrator of this book) through her eyes. Then, in this audiobook, he talks about meeting her. So if you haven’t read, I’ll Be Gone in the Dark and you can handle reading true crime, I highly recommend it. Here’s my original review of that one. Both together paint a really full picture. Also, note the trigger warnings at the bottom of the description.

About the book:

The Golden State Killer. The East Area Rapist. The Original Night Stalker. The Visalia Ransacker.

The monster who preyed on Californians from 1976 to 1986 was known by many aliases. And while numerous police sketches tried to capture his often-masked visage, the Golden State Killer spent more than 40 years not only faceless, but nameless.

For his victims, for their families and for the investigators tasked with finding him, the senselessness and brutality of the Golden State Killer's acts were matched only by the powerlessness they felt at failing to uncover his identity. To be sure, the chances of obtaining closure - or any form of justice - after so many years were slim to none, at best.

Then, on April 24, 2018, authorities arrested 72-year-old Joseph James DeAngelo at his home in Citrus Heights, Calif., based on DNA evidence linked to the crimes. Amazingly, it seemed, evil finally had a name.

Delivering all-new details about the investigation and a stunning final act to the events of Michelle McNamara's haunting best seller, I'll Be Gone in the Dark, this is the true story of how the suspected Golden State Killer was captured, as told, first-hand, by those closest to the case:

Paul Holes - the forensic criminologist and retired Costa County detective who spent 20 years trying to crack the Golden State Killer case, and finally did.

Jim Clemente (Host) - a retired FBI profiler and former New York City prosecutor who has investigated some of the highest profile criminal cases in U.S. history, including The Unabomber.

Please note: This work contains descriptions of violent crime and sexual assault and may not be suitable for all listeners.

So, as you can see, it’s been a great summer of reading! I can’t wait to see what the fall brings.

What’s your favorite thing you’ve read this summer?

---

NEW ROMANCE WRITING CLASS OPEN FOR ENROLLMENT + A COUPON CODE!

Fellow writers or aspiring writers, my 8-week Rock That Romance Novel Online Beginner class is officially open for enrollment! Class size is limited so sign up soon. Classes start mid-October but can be self-paced if you need them to be. Get all the info here. Use code: FALL25 for $25 off!