Yeah, I skipped a month. I didn’t read anything in August at all. And I’ve read hardly anything (relatively speaking) in September. There’s a lot of change happening in my life right now and, I’ll be honest, the adjustment period is far longer than I expected it to be.
First of all, I sold our bookstore! We had been planning to do this for well over a year at this point, so I’m kind of shocked that I can say that we did it. The new owner took over last month and it’s been so fun to see the way that she’s changing things and making it her own! She jumped in and made changes that I’d been thinking of but too tired to do for years, now. I’m really excited for the fresh energy that has been injected into this store and I’m thrilled that our local, indie bookstore is still around for our community! Small towns NEED indie bookstores. In my humble opinion.
That being said, I worked in the bookstore since 2016 and as a result, my reading life was weird. I read a lot–but almost never just for the sheer pleasure of it all. I didn’t read anything without wondering how I would sell it, who I might sell it to, how I would write a catchy review about it… If you look back at my previous blog posts, you’ll see that I was reading almost exclusively books that hadn’t been released yet or books that just came out. If a book was more than a few weeks old, I didn’t even bother reading it. I had newer things I needed to be on top of so that I could stock the store with good things that I was intimately familiar with. And that was fun! Getting books before anyone else did was fun. It was also kind of lonely, honestly, because I didn’t have anyone to talk books with. No one had ever read the books I was reading.
And I was also so busy that I hardly ever read physical books. It was all audiobooks all the time. Well, let me tell you, that sure has flipped! I haven’t listened to an audiobook since July–and here it is October (well, tomorrow it will be October). The effects of burnout are far-reaching, turns out. And not quickly healed. I can’t focus on an audiobook at this time. I can focus on thirty minute podcast episodes. I can focus on the new Sabrina Carpenter album. That’s what I can focus on.
That being said, I have finished 2 books (and sadly DNF’d a book) this month! The two books I finished were so good and I got wrapped up in them so quickly. They were also romances. I don’t want my entire book-personality to be just romances. But for right now, those are what are grabbing me. And that’s just fine. I’m going easy on myself.
Wild Love by Elsie Silver
I picked this up because I completely misunderstood and thought that Elsie Silver wrote western romances. And I wanted to challenge myself by reading outside of my usual genre by picking up a western. But instead, I tricked myself into reading my go-to genre instead–a contemporary romance about a billionaire with a heart of gold.
I’ve never read a 500 page book this fast before. I would have thought that 500 pages was excessive for a romance (and generally it is) but the pacing of this book was excellent. At no point did it feel like it was dragging or anything like that.
This is exactly how you do “grumpy meets sunshine” in a way that doesn’t feel forced. The 3rd act “break up” scene is absolutely believable (this will make or break a book for me) and the reunion is just as believable, which is hard to do!
I am not a series reader but I’ll read the entire Rose Hill series, I’m sure of it!
Seven Days in June by Tia Williams
God, I love everything Tia Williams writes. She is a master at incorporating the reality of our life and showing the way that we can fit love and wholeness alongside the hurt that we’ve experienced, too. There’s room for all of it.
Eva and Shane fell into a tumultuous and acute love affair when they were both severely traumatized teenagers. When they meet up again as adults, they’re faced with the question of whether or not they are capable of functioning relationship as healed grown-ups. It’s such a powerful conversation and not one you see very often in the romance genre.
I liked both of these books because of how real they felt. A lot of times romance can just feel like mostly silly make believe–and to be clear I also love that when I need it! But as someone who’s hoping to get back into my love of literary fiction. Or, as one friend put it, Sad Bastard Fiction, this was a good first step in that direction.
Now, the book it broke my heart to DNF. This is definitely an It’s Not You, It’s Me situation.
Ever since I started thinking about what I’d read after I sold the store and could read backlist titles again, I’ve been wanting to read Still Life by Louise Penny. She was the author that everyone wanted at the used bookstore and the author that no one ever sold us. She’s so beloved that everyone who buys her books keep them forever and ever–at least that’s how it goes in our town.
So many people whose literature tastes’ mirror my own have gushed to me about Louise Penny. So I went to the library and grabbed the first book in the Inspector Gamache series. I love a small town murder mystery! I love getting to know everyone who lives in the town. And I really loved these characters, too. But it just took me two weeks of regular reading to get even to the half-way mark. I think my brain just isn’t ready for something this beautifully written if I’m being honest. I’ll try to pick it up again next year and I think I’ll love it at that point.
That’s the thing about books–even if they’re not for you right now, it doesn’t mean they’ll never be for you.
XOXO, Lib 