It’s time for my first half of May book review post! I am sharing what I read in May so far, although I am skipping any 5 star reads to share later in the month. I have also already shared three books in separate posts so I will link to those here. The Amazon links to the books I’ve read are affiliate links and if you use them and make a purchase, I may receive a small commission. If you’ve read any of these books or are interested in them, I’d love to hear about it in the comments!
Title: My Ex-Life
Author: Steven McCauley
Genre: Contemporary / Literary Fiction
Publisher: Flatiron / Macmillan Audio, 5/8/18
Source: Purchased in 2019
Why I Read It: Was waiting on my shelf
My Rating: 3 Stars
When I first became a bookstagrammer I purchased a few books from my want to read list before knowing if I’d like them – I try not to do that anymore! – and this was one of them. This is a family drama about Julie, a divorced mom of one daughter and her ex, David, who helps students prepare for college applications and comes to help Julie’s daughter with hers.
“David Hedges’s life is coming apart at the seams. His job helping San Francisco rich kids get into the colleges of their (parents’) choice is exasperating; his younger boyfriend has left him; and the beloved carriage house he rents is being sold. His solace is a Thai takeout joint that delivers 24/7. The last person he expects to hear from is Julie Fiske. It’s been decades since they’ve spoken, and he’s relieved to hear she’s recovered from her brief, misguided first marriage. To him. Julie definitely doesn’t have a problem with marijuana (she’s given it up completely, so it doesn’t matter if she gets stoned almost daily) and the Airbnb she’s running out of her seaside house north of Boston is neither shabby nor illegal. And she has two whole months to come up with the money to buy said house from her second husband before their divorce is finalized. She’d just like David’s help organizing college plans for her seventeen-year-old daughter. That would be Mandy. To quote Barry Manilow, Oh Mandy. While she knows she’s smarter than most of the kids in her school, she can’t figure out why she’s making so many incredibly dumb and increasingly dangerous choices? When David flies east, they find themselves living under the same roof (one David needs to repair). David and Julie pick up exactly where they left off thirty years ago―they’re still best friends who can finish each other’s sentences. But there’s one broken bit between them that no amount of home renovations will fix.”
I didn’t really like any of the characters or care much about their stories. I must not understand dark humor, as this is supposed to be dark and humorous, but I didn’t really feel that way! I do appreciate George Nerbern as the audio narrator – he is one of my favorites.
Title: The Firefly Summer
Author: Morgan Matson
Genre: Middle Grade Contemporary
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers, 5/2/23
Source: Storygram Book Tours
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review
My Rating: 4 Stars
This was a cute summer story of discovering the past and connecting with family. It would be perfect for an advanced middle grade reader as it was longer than most middle grade books but a bit predictable as an adult reader!
“For as long as Ryanna Stuart can remember, her summers have been spent with her father and his new wife. Just the three of them, structured, planned, and quiet. But this summer is different. This summer, she’s received a letter from her grandparents—grandparents neither she nor her dad have spoken to since her mom’s death—inviting her to stay with them at an old summer camp in the Poconos. Ryanna accepts. She wants to learn about her mom. She wants to uncover the mystery of why her father hasn’t spoken to her grandparents all these years. She’s even looking forward to a quiet summer by the lake. But what she finds are relatives…so many relatives! Aunts and uncles and cousins upon cousins—a motley, rambunctious crew of kids and eccentric, unconventional adults. People who have memories of her mom from when she was Ryanna’s age, clues to her past like a treasure map. Ryanna even finds an actual, real-life treasure map! Over the course of one unforgettable summer—filled with s’mores and swimming, adventure and fun, and even a decades-old mystery to solve—Ryanna discovers a whole new side of herself and that, sometimes, the last place you expected to be is the place where you really belong.”
I loved the camp setting and the treasure hunt!
Title: Romantic Comedy
Author: Curtis Sittenfeld
Genre: Rom Com / Literary
Publisher: Random House, 4/4/23
Source: Publisher
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review
My Rating: 4 Stars
I would call this book a literary rom com and imagine that most of the people who hated it were expecting more along the lines of a typical rom com. This one has a unique format, written in three sections. The first section of the book takes place behind the scenes of an SNL type comedy show where Noah is the musical guest and host. Sally is a comedy writer for the show and the two of them connect while writing a scene. They go their own ways, but two years later it’s 2020 and real world based, so section two consists of emails between the two of them. They get to know each other better in this section. Finally, Sally drives from Kansas City to LA to stay with Noah in person. This occurs in part 3.
“Sally Milz is a sketch writer for The Night Owls, a late-night live comedy show that airs every Saturday. With a couple of heartbreaks under her belt, she’s long abandoned the search for love, settling instead for the occasional hook-up, career success, and a close relationship with her stepfather to round out a satisfying life. But when Sally’s friend and fellow writer Danny Horst begins dating Annabel, a glamorous actress who guest-hosted the show, he joins the not-so-exclusive group of talented but average-looking and even dorky men at the show—and in society at large—who’ve gotten romantically involved with incredibly beautiful and accomplished women. Sally channels her annoyance into a sketch called the Danny Horst Rule, poking fun at this phenomenon while underscoring how unlikely it is that the reverse would ever happen for a woman. Enter Noah Brewster, a pop music sensation with a reputation for dating models, who signed on as both host and musical guest for this week’s show. Dazzled by his charms, Sally hits it off with Noah instantly, and as they collaborate on one sketch after another, she begins to wonder if there might actually be sparks flying. But this isn’t a romantic comedy—it’s real life. And in real life, someone like him would never date someone like her . . . right?”
One of the themes that runs throughout the book is Sally’s belief that while hot women can fall for less attractive men, this doesn’t occur in the reverse. So Sally is extremely insecure about whether Noah, who is famous, can actually like her, as a regular person. I found the love story believable, although if I was Noah, I might have been annoyed by Sally’s low self esteem!
Title: Pack Your Bags, Maggie Diaz
Author: Nina Moreno, illustrations by Courtney Lovett and Asia Simone
Genre: Middle Grade Contemporary
Publisher: Scholastic Press, 5/2/23
Source: Rockstar Book Tours
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review
My Rating: 4 Stars
See my review for Pack Your Bags, Maggie Diaz, right here!
Title: I Have Something To Tell You
Author: Chasten Buttigieg
Genre: YA Memoir
Publisher: Atheneum Books For Young Readers, 5/16/23
Source: Rockstar Book Tours
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review
My Rating: 4 Stars
See my review for I Have Something To Tell You right here!
Title: Even If Everything Ends
Author: Jens Liljestrand
Genre: Cli-Fi / Contemporary
Publisher: Gallery / Scout Press, 5/9/23
Source: Publisher
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review
My Rating: 4 Stars
This is a book about climate change, but it really focuses on the way people react to a climate crisis. Taking place in Sweden, the first section is about a family who must leave their vacation home and flee a fire. This section was fast paced and you could feel the family’s panic. Section 2 is about Melissa, an influencer who prefers to focus on the joy, rather than the climate. She deals with the crisis through denial. She is also addicted to pain meds. Next we meet Andre, who has a difficult relationship with his father and is dealing with a lot of anger. Finally, the teenage daughter from section 1 copes through resistance.
“Even when the climate crisis escalates beyond our worst nightmares and people become refugees, the world keeps turning and life carries on as usual: teenaged love stories, marital collapses, identity crises, and revolts against hopeless parents continue to play out. Didrik is a forty-year-old media consultant whose misguided efforts to become the family hero render him a pathetic vision of masculine incompetence. Melissa is an influencer with a suitcase full of lost dreams after denying climate change for years. André is the nineteen-year-old loser son of an international sports star who uses the erupting violence around him to orchestrate his own personal vengeance on his negligent father. And Vilja is Didrik’s teenaged daughter who steps into a leadership role in the face of adult ineptitude.”
There was some overlap in the stories of the main characters. They were mostly unlikeable. And the middle became a bit slow. I will also say I found some of the language used to be vulgar and there was some fat phobia included, though the book was translated from Swedish which could account for some of this.
Title: It. Goes. So. Fast.
Author: Mary Louise Kelly
Genre: Memoir in Essays
Publisher: Henry Holt, 4/11/23
Source: Publisher
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review
My Rating: 4 Stars
This memoir in essays deals with Kelly’s job as the cohost of All Things Considered on NPR the fact that her oldest child is about to graduate high school and head to college. I am not a working mom, but my oldest just graduated and I am dealing with all the emotions that go along with that. Trust me when I say I was crying from the first chapter of this book.
“The time for do-overs is over. Ever since she became a parent, Mary Louise Kelly has said ‘next year.’ Next year will be the year she makes it to her son James’s soccer games (which are on weekdays at 4 p.m., right when she is on the air on NPR’s All Things Considered, talking to millions of listeners). Drive carpool for her son Alexander? Not if she wants to do that story about Ukraine and interview the secretary of state. Like millions of parents who wrestle with raising children while pursuing a career, she has never been cavalier about these decisions. The bargain she has always made with herself is this: this time I’ll get on the plane, and next year I’ll find a way to be there for the mom stuff. Well, James and Alexander are now seventeen and fifteen, and a realization has overtaken Mary Louise: her older son will be leaving soon for college. There used to be years to make good on her promises; now, there are months, weeks, minutes. And with the devastating death of her beloved father, Mary Louise is facing act three of her life head-on. Mary Louise is coming to grips with the reality every parent faces. Childhood has a definite expiration date. You have only so many years with your kids before they leave your house to build their own lives. It’s what every parent is supposed to want, what they raise their children to do. But it is bittersweet. Mary Louise is also dealing with the realities of having aging parents. This pivotal time brings with it the enormous questions of what you did right and what you did wrong. This chronicle of her eldest child’s final year at home, of losing her father, as well as other curve balls thrown at her, is not a definitive answer―not for herself and certainly not for any other parent. But her questions, her issues, will resonate with every parent. And, yes, especially with mothers, who are judged more harshly by society and, more important, judge themselves more harshly. What would she do if she had to decide all over again?”
The essays switched from those about motherhood to those about her reporting experiences overseas, in war zones. I enjoyed the way she connected her stories to how people are effected by the situations they live in and definitely think I should listen to her on NPR now. I obviously could relate more to her direct feelings on mothering teenagers as hers were the exact ages of my older two. There were stories that made me laugh and those that made me cry. She says “you raise them, and then you let them go.” Isn’t that the truth.
Title: In The Lives of Puppets
Author: TJ Klune
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Macmillan Audio, 4/25/23
Source: Publisher Audio
Why I Read It: On my TBR
My Rating: 4 Stars
You probably know that I don’t read much fantasy, but I obviously loved The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune and thought this one might have a similar vibe to that one. It did, but it was much more adult, and didn’t hold my attention quite as well.
“In a strange little home built into the branches of a grove of trees, live three robots―fatherly inventor android Giovanni Lawson, a pleasantly sadistic nurse machine, and a small vacuum desperate for love and attention. Victor Lawson, a human, lives there too. They’re a family, hidden and safe. The day Vic salvages and repairs an unfamiliar android labelled ‘HAP,’ he learns of a shared dark past between Hap and Gio–a past spent hunting humans. When Hap unwittingly alerts robots from Gio’s former life to their whereabouts, the family is no longer hidden and safe. Gio is captured and taken back to his old laboratory in the City of Electric Dreams. So together, the rest of Vic’s assembled family must journey across an unforgiving and otherworldly country to rescue Gio from decommission, or worse, reprogramming. Along the way to save Gio, amid conflicted feelings of betrayal and affection for Hap, Vic must decide for himself: Can he accept love with strings attached?”
A retelling of Pinocchio, this book also reminded me of the Wizard of Oz and Up. The characters are robots and androids and the City of Electric Dreams is Las Vegas, which was fun. Ultimately about humanity and free will, this was entertaining but not a favorite as The House in the Cerulean Sea was.
Title: Seven Rules For Breaking Hearts
Author: Kristyn J. Miller
Genre: Rom Com
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin, 5/16/23
Source: Publisher
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review
My Rating: 4 Stars
This sweet book was a fast read about Margo, who along with her best friend Jo runs a podcast about being happily single. But now, Jo is getting married!
“Margo Anderson is sworn off commitment. Alongside her best friend Jo, she runs a viral podcast featuring rules for hooking up without catching feelings. So when Jo surprises her by deciding to get married and takes up a sponsor’s offer to host an all-expenses-paid wedding trip on Catalina Island, they have the whole internet to answer to. In a scramble for content to appease their disappointed listeners, Margo cooks up a social experiment: break all her own dating rules, just to prove that it’s a bad idea. And she’s found the best man for the job in the groom’s best friend and her old high school nemesis, Declan Walsh. He may be easier on the eyes than Margo remembered, but he’s sure to be as smug and annoying as he was before. There is no chance Margo will ever catch feelings for him…until she does. The more time they spend together through cake tastings and wedding party activities, Margo can’t ignore their obvious spark, and she may actually be enjoying getting to know Declan. But can she let go of the rules to let him in?”
Spending two weeks on Catalina Island for the wedding, Margo is reunited with Declan, her high school nemesis and the best man in the wedding. Margo decides to break her dating rules as an experiment, but then she falls for Declan. Catalina was a fun destination to visit via this book and Margo and Declan were fun to read about!
This post includes 9 of the books I read this month. Of these books, 7 were print and 2 were audio. 6 were adult books, 1 was YA, and 2 were Middle Grade. Genres included contemporary, memoir, fantasy, and rom com.
Have you read any of these books or do you want to? What have you been reading lately?