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?

NEWS: What If You & Me is out today!

It’s here! It’s here!

I’m so excited to share Andi and Hill’s book with y’all. This heroine is near and dear to my heart because I’ve wanted to write a horror-movie-loving heroine for a long time. I’ve always loved horror movies/books and have been fascinated by true crime—and didn’t understand why, since I’m an anxious person. But once I dug into the research and found out that many people who struggle with anxiety, particularly women, find comfort in horror and true crime stories (for a number of layered reasons), I knew I had to write a story about that kind of woman. Andi is the result of that.

And her hero, Hill, is one of my favorite kinds of heroes. Tough and gruff on the outside but hiding lots of his own wounds—and secretly a gooey cinnamon roll on the inside. Plus, he cooks!

I hope you enjoy spending time with Andi and Hill as much as I did! (Well, when they were cooperating and not being difficult characters who didn’t do what this writer wanted them to do. :) )

Grab your copy: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indiebound | iBooks | Book Depository | Books-A-Million

Add to Goodreads

Here’s the official summary and scroll down for an excerpt:

About the book:

New York Times and USA Today bestseller Roni Loren blends heat and heart in this emotionally charged story of:

• A frightened woman longing to break free

• A wounded man searching for his purpose

• An unexpected friendship turned sizzling hot connection

• And an emotional climax that'll have them both learning to let go

The world can be a scary place. At least, that's what Andi Lockley's anxiety wants her to believe. It doesn't help that she narrowly escaped a dangerous man years ago, or that every relationship since has been colored with that lingering fear. But things are better now—she's channeling everything into her career as a horror novelist and true crime podcaster, and her next book may be the breakthrough she needs.

If only her grumpy new neighbor would stop stomping around at all hours of the night.

Former firefighter Hill Dawson can't sleep. After losing part of his leg in a rescue gone wrong, he's now stuck in limbo. He needs to figure out what he's supposed to do with his life, and he can't let himself get distracted by the pretty redhead next door. But when someone breaks into Andi's place, Hill can't stop himself from rushing in to play the hero. Soon, a tentative bond forms between the unlikely pair. But what starts out as a neighborly exchange quickly turns into the chance for so much more...if Andi can learn to put aside her fear and trust in herself—and love—again.

Excerpt:

Andi startled, a yelp escaping her, and nearly knocked over her tea. The loud sound repeated, and it took a second for her to realize it was coming from the door she’d just checked. Boom! Boom! Boom!

The afghan was clutched tight in her fist, and the movie still blasted, screams filling the living room. Her heartbeat thumped in her ears, and she stared at the door like it was going to splinter and the movie’s Ghostface was going to walk right in and disembowel her with his knife.

Andi’s logical brain registered this probably wasn’t the case, but that part was a distant whisper at the moment. She couldn’t move. She couldn’t turn off the TV. She was frozen in place.

The thunderous knocking started again. “Fire department. Open up!”

The words fire department penetrated her fear fog. Fire. Fire? That didn’t make any sense. Why the hell would the fire department be banging on her door in the middle of the night? Maybe something had happened in the neighborhood. Or maybe they had the wrong house.

Thinking it through helped a little. Finally, she was able to unfurl her fingers from the afghan and grab the remote to hit Pause. The silence that followed was almost as unsettling as the banging. The pounding on the door started again with an added threat to break down the door if no one responded. That got her moving. She hurried to her feet, headed to the door, and peered through the peephole. All she could see was a T-shirt clad shoulder as the man apparently leaned over to try to see through her front window.

A T-shirt, not a firefighter’s uniform. She cleared her throat and called out, “How do I know you’re a firefighter?”

Whoever it was stepped back and pointed to an NOFD insignia on his T-shirt, just visible in the peephole’s view. “Hill Dawson,” the man called out. “Your neighbor. Everything okay in there?”

Her neighbor? She reached for the pepper spray she kept in the drawer of her small entryway table, turned the latch on the lock, and opened the door, ready to spray if needed. Underneath the porch light, the outline of a man came into view. A very tall, broad-shouldered man. The werewolf. Complete with dark messy hair, a trimmed beard, and a scowl. He was equal parts gorgeous and intimidating—not unlike a real wolf—and her body tensed as though it couldn’t decide whether she should run like hell or rush forward and volunteer to play villager.

His brown eyes met hers, his searching look sending hot awareness through her, but then his gaze scanned downward. Only then did she remember she was standing there braless in a thin tank top and a pair of Wonder Woman pajama pants with a very formidable stranger on her doorstep. That snapped her out of her ridiculous staring. Who cared that he was attractive? He could still be there to hurt her. She crossed her arms over her chest and tipped up her chin, trying to look tough. “What’s going on?”

“So, you’re okay?” he asked, brows knit, his voice a deep rumble. His gaze flicked to the pink canister of mace still clutched in her fist. “I heard screaming. A lot of it.”

“Screaming?” She frowned.

He shifted, and her attention jumped to his right hand, the one hanging loosely at his side. The one holding a baseball bat. She stiffened, her mouth going dry and her mind racing past suspicion and into worst-case-scenario territory. What if he wasn’t a firefighter? What if he wasn’t her neighbor? What if he was there to rob/rape/murder/dismember her and wear her head as a hat?

She uncrossed her arms, her finger poised on the trigger of the pepper spray. She was suddenly much less concerned about her lack of bra and much more concerned that she’d be caught off guard and attacked.

The man frowned, his gaze tracking her weapon before looking at her again. “There was yelling and screaming. I could hear it through the wall. I thought you were in trouble.”

She narrowed her eyes. “How do I know you’re really a firefighter? Anybody could get a T-shirt.”

He tried to peek past her into the house and then lowered his voice. “Ma’am, if you’re in trouble, if there’s someone in there you’re scared of, just step outside and I can help.”

“Someone inside?” She closed her eyes and shook her head. “I’m alone. It was a movie.”

Her brain screamed at her as the words slipped out. I’m alone?

Have you learned nothing? Don’t tell the stranger you’re alone in the house! She should fire herself from her own podcast.

“I mean,” she went on. “I’m not in trouble. The screaming was a movie. I was watching a horror movie.”

The stiff hold of his shoulders relaxed, and his gaze met hers again, disbelief there. “A movie? It sounded like you were getting murdered over here.”

“Just Drew Barrymore. Not me.” She shifted on her feet. “Maybe I had it a little too loud.”

He made a frustrated sound in the back of his throat, and she realized her imagination hadn’t been far off earlier. This guy could be cast in a movie as lead werewolf. Scruffy and muscular in his navy-blue T-shirt and gray sweats. He was one full moon away from howling and ripping off that well-fitting shirt.

“A little too loud?” he asked, repeating her words. “It’s midnight. The screams were damn near vibrating my walls.”

That made her spine straighten and a flash of indignation rush through her. “Yes, it is midnight. And someone thought blaring songs about tractors was appropriate at this hour. I had to turn up my TV to drown you out.” She nodded at his weapon. “Do you make it a habit to scare the shit out of new neighbors by brandishing a baseball bat on their doorstep?”

He glanced down at his bat as if just remembering he had it, like it was a normal extension of his arm. He leaned over and set it against a planter out of her reach, then lifted a brow her way. “Says the lady with the pink pepper spray.”

“Hey, you’re at my door, man. I didn’t bang on yours.” She wasn’t going to put down her weapon. No, thank you.

He sighed, a long-suffering sound, and rubbed his forehead. “Okay, so you’re not getting murdered or the hell beat out of you.”

“I am not.”

“That’s good.” He nodded, almost to himself, and ran a hand over the back of his head.

“Agreed. I consider it a good day if I haven’t been murdered.”

He stared at her for a moment as if at a loss for what to say to that, and she was momentarily struck by how well his beard suited his tense jawline, by how long his eyelashes were, how his brown eyes

“I’m sorry if I scared you,” he said finally. “But maybe not so loud on the movies. I’m trained to respond to screams.”

Somehow the words trained to respond to screams sounded dirty to her ear, and heat bloomed in her cheeks. God. What was with her tonight? She cleared her throat. “Right. And maybe not so loud with the tractor music?”

His mouth hitched up at one corner, a lazy tilt of a smile. “I played no songs about tractors. There was no farm equipment referenced at all.”

She crossed her arms again and gave him a knowing look. “What about mommas, trains, trucks, prison, or gettin’ drunk?”

A low chuckle escaped him, and he coughed, as if trying to cover it. “Touché. No promises there.”

***

Grab your copy: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indiebound | iBooks | Book Depository | Books-A-Million

Add to Goodreads

Reading Challenge Mid-Year Check-In!

Can you believe we’re at the halfway point of 2021? Maybe it’s because 2020 seemed to drag on forever, but this year seems like it just started. However, here we are, and I thought what better time to do a check-in on our reading challenges.

Or, if you didn’t sign up for any at the beginning of the year and now might want to, it’s the perfect time to join one!

This year I’m doing three challenges:

• The TBR Backlog Reading Challenge - (You can get all the details here.)

• The Read Wide 2021 Challenge - (Grab the details and a downloadable chart here.)

• The Goodreads challenge

So, how is it going so far? Let’s see! I did MATH, y’all.

TBR Backlog Reading Challenge

Let’s start with the new challenge I created this year—The TBR Backlog Reading Challenge. For this one, I wanted to tackle books based on what year I purchased them in (which I can see on Goodreads) because usually I’m just picking up the newest things in my stack. I also wanted to whittle down my Book of the Month club stack so I made a section for that.

Here’s how it’s going:

As you can see, I’m doing pretty well! I’ve filled in all the circles for the years purchased except for one, and I’m almost halfway through the Book of the Month number.

So, what have I learned so far and is the challenge accomplishing what I intended?

Well, I’m definitely learning things! I’ll talk more about that below. And yes, it’s accomplishing the main goal—thinning out my TBR—but if I was hoping to discover books that I’ll love that I forgot about…well, that’s been a little less successful.

Let’s look at some stats (because I don’t like math but I get super nerdy about book math!)

I have read 21 books so far for the challenge (you’ll only see 20 recorded in the chart because I’m writing down backlist books even after I’ve filled in those circles just to keep track of how much TBR I tackled.)

Of the 17 books that I’ve read based on the year purchased, 53% have been either DNFs, one, or two star ratings. Ouch. 18% have been 4 or 5 stars.

Of the 5 Book of the Month club books, I only rated one 2 stars. The rest were 3 or above. So, better luck there!

What are my takeaways from those numbers?

1. Reading taste changes over time.

   I can see the evolution of my reading taste over the ten years I’ve been keeping track on Goodreads. Not only do I have another decade of reading under my belt (and life experience) but I have another decade of WRITING. My critical eye is…highly critical these days. I’m much pickier and much less patient now.

2. Book of the Month usually gives me solid books.

   There’s a reason I’ve been a member for a number of years now. BOTM introduces me to books I may not have sought out on my own. Sometimes those risks don’t pay off, but more often than not, they do. (If you’d like to try BOTM, I believe this referral link will get you a discount or free book or something. :) )

3. Book trends are real and sometimes older books just don’t hold up.

   Partly, this may be because I can burn out on genres that were the big thing a few years ago. This also is because some books are written in a way that can stand the test of time—and some just feel dated.

4. I can clean up my TBR by aggressive use of the DNF (did not finish) because some books are clearly going to fall prey to #1 and #3 above.

So far, I’m calling this challenge a success.

The Read Wide Challenge

Next up is the challenge I created a few years ago and have been doing ever since—The Read Wide Challenge. The point of the challenge is to make sure I’m reading from a wide number of genres and subgenres (good for writing inspiration!) and I add some categories for fun as well. I’m almost done with this one!

So let’s look at the numbers on this one so far…

I’ve read 37 books for this challenge so far.

51% of the books have gotten 4 or 5 ratings. Nine have gotten 5 stars, which is a very high bar for me.

19% have gotten 2 stars or below.

It’s almost the exact opposite of the other challenge!

So, what does that teach me about the Read Wide challenge?

1. Reading widely and diversely is a much more effective way for me to find books I love.

   This may be partly because it keeps my reading fresh. I don’t get stuck in one kind of book very long.

2. Pushing myself out of my comfort zone genres pays off.

   I find things I wouldn’t have picked up otherwise, and it also helps me learn what genres I don’t like.

3. The only downside is that it means I have read less of the genre I actually write in because I’m spending time reading many different kinds of things.

   This isn’t all negative. Often my book ideas have come from reading books very much outside of my genre—non-fiction especially.

4. This challenge helps with the dreaded “What Should I Read Next?” question.

   Looking at the squares I still have to fill in gives me a direction.

So this challenge is definitely one I’ll be keeping in the future. I’m even considering creating a new chart for the second half of the year since I’m almost done with this one!

The Goodreads Challenge

This one is a straightforward number to hit. When I started the year, I chose a number to go easy on myself. I chose 50 books because I still had a book deadline looming, and I didn’t want this number stressing me out. However, I’ve now turned in my book and have been reading like crazy. So…I moved the bar, which is something that is nice about the GR challenge. You can adjust it.

Now, please don’t be too impressed with my current number. That 72 is inflated because I added a bunch of cookbooks I bought to the list. My actual number read right now is 55. But that’s still very high for me at the halfway point of the year. In 2020, I read 73 books total, so I’m on track to be higher than that if my pace continues.

No lessons from this one, but it is satisfying to look at that number!

How are your challenges going?

So, how are your reading challenges going? Now’s the time to make adjustments!

Maybe you need to scoot that number down or up on Goodreads. Or maybe your current challenge isn’t working for you and you want to switch to something new to liven things up. Or maybe, like me, you’re about to complete some of the challenges and want to take on a new one. Or you didn’t sign up for one at the end of 2020 because 2020 and now you’re ready to try one.

Wherever you are with your challenges, I hope you’re having fun with them and not letting them bring you any stress. :)

I’d love to hear how yours are going and which ones you’re doing (if any). Have you leaned anything from them? Share in the comments!

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?