Stuff I Like: Recent Reads.

I've been doing a lot of reading lately and here are a few that I finished, one that I'm currently reading and what I have on deck. First, what I've read recently:

The Cloisters by Katy Hays. I am so conflicted about this book. I loved the story overall and really loved the dark academia/NYC feel. It's really atmospheric and descriptive and I love learning about an esoteric subject about which I knew nothing. But, the main character feels like such a beige drip of a Mary Sue that it's hard to feel like she's a real person. This resolves itself later (sort of) but the other characters are so much more alive, cunning, and interesting that it really was kind of off-putting, but Marianne (who also read it) thinks that contrast is important to the story.) Despite my conflict, I would recommend this if you like a twisty dark academia type novel. 

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt. I'm pretty sure one of you recommended this to me! Overall I loved this book - the PNW location and the beautiful weirdness that one of the main characters is a giant Pacific octopus named Marcellus really made this book work for me. I enjoyed Marcellus above all the other characters. My only complaint is that one of the main characters is so unlikeable that I couldn't really make myself care about that storyline, but the rest of the characters make up for it. Overall, definitely recommend. 

The Christmas Wish by Lindsey Kelk. This was delightful! It's pure British rom-com Christmas fun but has a fun Groundhogs Day setup that I enjoyed a lot. All of the characters feel like real people and it was a fun read. I'm definitely going to see what else she's written and add her to my Brit rom-com roster. 

Currently reading: 

Meet Me Under The Mistletoe by Jenny Bayliss.  I am almost finished with this one and it's also delightful and fun in the most British rom-com Christmas kind of way. This is the third book by Jenny Bayliss and I really feel it's her best so far. Just a comfortable, cozy read with super likable (and a few deliciously hate-able) characters. 

On deck: 

Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson
I was saving this book to read on my flight to and from my hometown, but that trip obviously got canceled so it's been patiently waiting for me to be ready for it. 

Heartburn by Nora Ephron
How have I never read this? I love all of Nora Ephron's essay books but I've never read her novel. 

Finally, I was gifted the following books which are currently waiting in a tempting stack:

This Must Be The Place by Maggie O'Farrell
An irresistible love story, an unforgettable family. The New York Times bestselling author of Hamnet captures an extraordinary marriage with insight and laugh-out-loud humor in what Richard Russo calls “her breakout book.”

Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr
A triumph of imagination and compassion, a soaring story about children on the cusp of adulthood in worlds in peril, who find resilience, hope, and a book.

The Southern Book Club's Guide To Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix
Steel Magnolias meets Dracula in this New York Times best-selling horror novel about a women's book club that must do battle with a mysterious newcomer to their small Southern town.

MacBeth by Jo Nesbo
Shakespeare’s dark and tragic play retold in a heart-pounding New York Times bestselling thriller from the author of The Snowman and The Thirst.

Gift Guide: Books, of course!

 I love getting books as gifts and love giving them as well. I've done quite a few book gift guides (here, here and here) but why not one more? 

Two Arty Books:

Wild Things Are Happening: The Art of Maurice Sendak. I suspect Maurice Sendak was a big part of a lot of your childhoods and now there's a book celebrating the art of his illustrations! I think this would be an amazing gift for the Gen-Xer in your life. 

Terry O'Neill: The A-Z of Rock ‘N' Roll. Okay, obviously I love that David Bowie is on the cover but Terry O'Neill's took amazing rock 'n roll photos of just about all the music legends. This book seems to cover a lot of ground and gets great reviews. This would be a great gift for anyone who's a rock music fan, especially a fan of 60's and 70's era music. 

Two Cook Books:

Appetites: A Cookbook by Anthony Bourdain. I've included this before but now I own it and it's amazing. Have I made any of the recipes? No, I have not, but I have taken his advice re. pigs in blankets, which is solid advice. It's a beautiful book and fun to read and I hear his voice in every page. 

Simply Julia: 110 Easy Recipes for Healthy Comfort Food. Marianne loves this cookbook and I buy what she tells me to because she's pretty much always right. The recipes aren't super complicated and they're really delicious. This is a good one. 

Two That I Read This Year and Loved:

Lesson in Chemistry. This one is guaranteed to be a crowd-pleaser! It's weird and funny and a fast read. My sort-of review is here, but if you're stuck on a gift for a fiction reader, this is probably a safe choice. 

This Time Tomorrow is such a delight. I am a big fan of time travel stories and this one was deeply satisfying and has such an excellent sense of place. My sort-of review is here. Highly recommend. 

Two To Get You In The Spirit:

In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash. Years ago I won a $5 off a guy when I was waxing poetic about A Christmas Story and he said he bet me I couldn't tell him the name of the book it was based on. What he didn't know is that my father was a huge Jean Shepard fan. There is a sucker born every minute and I took that guy's $5. Anyway, if you love the movie, read the book that inspired it and trust that it's amazing. (You can also buy just the Christmas story part but why? Get the whole book. It's funny as hell.) 

The Christmas Wish. I haven't read this but Marianne has, and she sent it to me because she's the best. She said it's the perfect light holiday read. A funny, holiday romance. I'm in! 

And, don't forget to check out my Christmas-y read list from last year! 

Stuff I Like: Books and Prime Day!

Hey there! Today's Stuff I Like is half books, half Prime Day recs because, hey, it's Prime Day and there are deals to be had. First, the book recommendations: 

This Time Travel Delight I'm Currently Reading

I recently discovered Emma Straub and I'm reading This Time Tomorrow like it's my job. It's a time travel book but it's mostly a story about a very relatable woman named Alice and is very much a "what could've been" type thing. Plus, a good chunk of it takes place in New York City in1996 so I'm very much enjoying the nostalgia of it all. (Alice is a Sassy reader) 

This Twisty Thriller I Ripped Through

Greenwich Park by Katherine Faulkner is exactly what I wanted - a twisty British thriller with an unreliable narrator. It's not a perfect book by any means, but it'll keep you guessing until the end and it's perfect if you want a fun vacation read. Plus, I love the descriptions of the Greenwich area of London. 

This Re-Read I Loved More The Second Time

I've been re-reading the Jackson Brodie series by Kate Atkinson and finally re-read the most recently book, Big Sky. It's not the best in the series but it is a truly satisfying final (?) chapter in the Brodie timeline. It certainly works as a stand-alone story but I really recommend reading them in order as you get some excellent cameos from previous books. 

And of course, it's Prime Day! Here are a few recs, all of which are things I have personally purchased:

This Work From Home Bra I Love.

Last week (!) I bought this cobalt blue True & Co bra full price like an idiot. Don't be like me, take advantage of the deals today! I'm definitely putting another one in my cart because I've tried a lot of wireless around-the-house bras and this one is my long-time favorite. I get the full cup style and basically wear them until they're falling apart, I like them that much. They have a ton of colors available but the blue one I got is really a pretty color, so if you're good on neutrals, go for a fun color. 

Have I Mentioned Lately How Much I Love My Kindle?

My Kindle Paperwhite is second only to my iPhone when it comes to Personal Electronics I Adore. I use it every single day and have multiple library accounts so I can download library books for free. (I also buy books but mostly I am a library girl.) I recommend the Paperwhite for excellent readability and suggest going ahead and getting the one without ads so you don't have to pay extra later to have them removed. (Although, a reader commented to let me know you can just get on chat later and tell them the ads are inappropriate and they'll remove them without charge! Excellent hack.) If you are a protective case person, I suggest this one because it has an easel and allows me to stuff food in my face while I read. Charming.

A Noise-Canceling Delight Awaits You.

Listen, if you have AirPods but not the AirPods Pro, treat yo self. These are life-changing! Some days (like lawn work day with multiple leaf blowers) I just put them in on the noise canceling setting with no music because I need my shoulders to be back down where they belong. If you are like me and have a hard time tuning out background distractions, get these. They're also great on airplanes! The price today is the lowest I've seen, so now is a good time. 

PS. A Few Prime Beauty Deals I Feel I Should Mention

I'd be a bad blogger if I didn't tell you about a few of the great beauty deals! There are also some good Prime deals on R+Co hair products (I recommend Television Conditioner and Rodeo Star Thickening Foam), Marianne's favorite GrandeLash has a great Prime deal and I've been dying to try this Wander Beauty Lash Serum Mascara, which is discounted today as well!  Oh, and my beloved Laneige Lip Sleeping Mask also has a Prime deal. Phew. 

Monday Mood: A few good Christmasy/Winter books.

 This is by no means a complete list or an accurate list, just some books that take place around Christmas time that I have loved or re-read every year or so. Some of these are books I've written about before but I feel are worth repeating:

This Darkly Weird Modern Fairytale
A Wild Winter Swan It's a coming of age story set in 1960s New York at Christmas time and I do love a bit of modern day fairytale. It's written by Gregory Maguire who wrote Wicked, so you're in good hands. It's not a super happy story (fairy tales rarely are) but it does have a satisfying ending, is dryly funny in parts, and also just beautifully written. Give it a try. 

A Christmasy British Romcom That Doesn't Disappoint
Marianne recommends The Twelve Dates of Christmas which is exactly the kind of cozy and relatable small British town Christmas romance novel we both enjoy. (I read it last year and loved it, especially as I've gone on quite a few internet dates in the past and know that pain all too well.) 

The New Jenny Colgan Which Did Not Disappoint
I just finished The Christmas Bookshop and y'all, it's really, really delightful. Unlike some of her other Christmas books, this one is a stand-alone so you don't have have read the others in the series (though there are some cameo appearances.) It's got everything: Beautiful snow-bound Edinburgh, a relatable protagonist, a cozy but decrepit book shop, a love triangle, and a deliciously hate-able villain. 10/10 - the best cozy Christmas read. 

A YA Favorite I'm Currently Rereading
The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper is a favorite from when I was a kid and it starts on midwinter's eve (that's today!) which is the day before the main character's birthday, the day he discovers he's an Old One, destined to fight in the ancient struggle against The Dark. It's the second book in a series that weaves Arthurian legend in with the struggle of darkest and light but you don't have to have read the first one to follow it - this one is good all by itself. 

Another YA Favorite You Really Should Read
The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken isn't a Christmas book but it takes place in the winter and is another one of my favorites from when I was a kid. It has everything: Adventure, orphans, poverty, riches, bad guys and good guys, wolves and geese. Trust. I love that it's little dark, that most of the heroes are women, and the Edward Gorey cover art cannot be beat. 

This One I Can't Believe I Haven't Mentioned
Winter Solstice by Rosamunde Pilcher isn't my favorite of her books (that would be Coming Home) but it's a really good, engrossing read about a group of people, all with painful pasts, brought together for the holiday. I mean, you can't beat a Christmas book set in the Scottish countryside, right? 

Honorable Mentions: Obviously Little Women is a classic with some good Christmas action and the Little House books (especially The Long Winter) have wonderful Christmas scenes in which we should all be delighted to get a tin cup, a stick of candy and an orange for gifts. 

Black Friday: Read a Book/Buy a Book!

Because I'm dropping the ball hard this Black Friday (hi from Ireland!) I though I'd round up all of my book posts and encourage everyone to buy some books for gifts or for yourself. Instead of fighting over shit you don't need at Target, cozy up with a good book! Our book recs can be found in a lot of our "Stuff We Like" posts but also here:

Buy This: Books Make Great Gifts.

Stuff I Like: Thank God For Books.

Gift Guide: It's Book Time Y'all.

Gift Guide: Yay Books.

A Slightly Better Gift Guide: Books Are Awesome.

Holiday Stages of Grief Gift Guide: Bargaining.

BUY THIS: Books Make Great Gifts.

 Nearly every year I post a gift guide that's all books because I am old fashioned and I think books make great gifts. I tend to read (and gift) mostly novels, because that's what I like the most - a good story. I've talked about most of these on the blog already, but here is a selection of my favorite books from the past year or so:

Longbourn by Jo Baker
This is one for Jane Austen fans! Longbourn is a servant's retelling of Pride and Prejudice though, really, Longbourn is just the setting for a totally separate story while the action from Pride and Prejudice is happening in the background. It's really quite satisfying and I loved the writing.

News of the World by Paulette Jiles
I read this last year and was floored by how GOOD it is.  It's a post-civil war novel about an elderly widow who's tasked with returning a young orphan to her family after she was "rescued" from the Indian tribe who kidnapped her. The writing is beautiful and the characters are compelling. It's an adventure tale, suspenseful but also touching.  (PS. I know that the movie version just came out and while I love the casting of Tom Hanks, I can tell from the trailer that they've changed the story. Please read the book first. 

Paris for One and Other Stories by Jojo Moyes 
Jojo Moyes is one of my go-to writers for when I need a comforting, easy read. This is a book of short stories, though the main story, Paris for One, is length and the rest are easy to dip in and out of. If you miss traveling like I do, check this one out. 

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern
This is not a book for everyone but it was, by far, the best thing I read this year. It's in parts a love story, a fantasy novel and a mystery, with several different narratives. It's also a book for people who love books! It's weird and sometimes goes to places that you're not sure you'll come back from, but somehow all makes sense in the end. This is a great story to really fall into and I didn't want it to end. 

The Ocean and the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
Another fantasy novel, surprise! I read this a few years ago on my friend Kate's suggestion because she thought I'd like it. And really, you can trust Neil Gaiman for a really good story. This one is a dark fairy tale that focuses on memory and the powerlessness of childhood. 

I Capture The Castle by Dodie Smith
A classic! Definitely read this if you haven't already. My mother gave me for my birthday years ago and I re-read it every so often because it's just fantastic. It's the adventures the Mortmains, and eccentric family living in genteel poverty in a decaying castle during the 1930s. Hijinks ensue and there's a really good dog as well. 

That's all I've got for today! Some of my other favorite books can be found here and here.