So many good books this month! I will say that is the ideal birthday gift, when all of your reads end up being pretty good!
I listened to “The Blue Zones of Happiness” and really thought it had a lot of good info! It focused on three “strands” of happiness, being Pleasure, Purpose and Pride, giving suggestions for each category. There were a lot of examples of living from other countries and how people do things differently to cultivate a well rounded life that exudes happiness. Lots of good take aways.
I also listened to “Daisy Jones and the Six” this month and loved it. Not my typical read per se, but I enjoyed the audio book cast and how it really brought the story to life. It was a story about Billy and his band coming to it’s high point in the 70s, joining with Daisy as another lead singer and all the success that this brought the band. It truly felt like a real story, with their success and popularity brought all kinds of trouble and conflict. There is this underlying tension between Daisy and Billy, the pull of Billy’s family…Daisy and her own family/personal issues…it is a huge train wreck at times in the best way.
What can I say. Sarah J. Maas is Queen, “Kingdom of Ash” hit just as good the second time. If you haven’t read the Throne of Glass series, you are missing out!
I’ve been into Megan Miranda this year, and “All the Missing Girls” was a good read. Nicolette’s best friend, Corinne, disappears when they are in high school, and ten years later, she returns home to help with her sick father. Not long after her arrival, another girl goes missing…the book works backwards through time to what exactly happened to both of them, it kept me guessing.
I pretty much always enjoy listening to Gretchen Rubin’s books, lots of very practical advice. “Secrets of Adulthood” was a quick easy read, just plainly simple truths for our complex lives. It’s so easy to overlook the basics, and quickly goes through easy basics to remember and implement through timeless sayings. I do think this would be a great coffee table book, or one to have in paperback that you could crack open and read at any point in time.
“The Paradise Problem”….your typical, “let’s pretend to be married” trope, which transitions into we actually want to be married to each other haha…good storyline, definitely some adult content.
What a great read, “Die With Zero.” I love the idea of this book – getting all you can from your money and your life. It can be hard to know when to save and when to spend, and it’s easy to lean to hard one way or the other. I loved listening to the ideal of spending your money on experiences while you can, and giving your money away while you can, rather than hoarding it up for whatever reason and missing out on opportunities with loved ones. It definitely got me thinking that a risk is ok to take if the payout of experiences is worth it.
I loved “Pictures of You” and I love Emma Grey. She is an amazing author. Evie is in a car crash that kills her husband and lands her in the hospital, not being able to remember a single thing about her life and how she got to where she was. Her high school friend, Drew, seems to be the only one that can help her piece together the puzzle of her life, and slowly but surely, she starts to remember what happened. It was a good one.
“Is She Really Going Out With Him” was really cute too. Anna has just come out of a painful divorce, and as a single working mom with two kids, she absolutely has no time to date. She is a columnist writer, and in struggling to keep her job, she pitches a 7 date series, where her kids get to pick her dates and then she write about them. It was really cute and I loved the way it ended (minus the initial divorce, of course – I always hate to see marriages fail!).
I read “Rebel Witch,” the sequel in the Crimson Moth series. Rune has allied herself with Cressida, in order to stay alive. She is running from everyone it seems, and eventually from Cressida too. She must join forces with Gideon, even though he initially wants her dead as well, in order to save their societies and themselves. Really enjoyed reading the conclusion to this story!
That’s July! Thanks for stopping by and checking out my book reviews! If you’d like to see previous months from this year, check out the links below! I have more reviews from the last almost ten years under my Books tab! Follow me on Goodreads here!
What I’m Reading – January 2025