Last year I read three memoirs written by men, this year I read six newly released memoirs written by women. I don't have to be their biggest fan to read their book, but they have all had interesting lives so I wanted to learn more about their story. I know lots of people don't rate memoirs because they don't want to rate someone's life, so I will just give you a little synopsis of their story. 

As someone who loves watching Dateline and listening to the Crime Junkie podcast, I have been reading mystery books for about 10 years now. This year I did something different and researched upcoming new releases and put them in my queue at the library so I was often number 100 in the wait list, but then I constantly had 5 books at home that I had to quickly read in 3 weeks before they were due. Mystery authors typically release a new book every year. I'm finally at the point where I think I can create a list of my favorite authors and only stick to them, that will be the plan for next year.  Life is too short to read books you don’t enjoy reading. I want to start DNF (did not finish) bad books liberally. This year I wanted to finally be able to vote in the Goodreads best books of the year poll as having read most of them in the mystery category. But as it turned out, I read so many (bad) books this year and yet only a few of the books I read made it to the Goodreads annual poll, so I'm going back to my previous method of waiting for the poll results in December and only reading the top winner books.

You won’t be able to put down these 9 twisty page-turners that were released last year!  If you didn't know Goodreads is a free website that helps readers discover new books to read, keep track of what they're reading, and find personalized recommendations. I've been using this website for 9 years and it lists every book I've read, my rating of it and my review. There's also a Q&A section for each book so if you missed some detail and need an explanation, you post it there and someone will answer. It also lets you set a reading challenge for the year so you can set a goal of how many books you want to read and it shows you your progress towards that goal. 

Another thing Goodreads does is it asks it's users at the end of the year to rate the best books of the year. Each book genre started off with many many books and everyone votes for a few rounds until they get down to the top 20 books. At the end of every year I go to that list and read the descriptions of every book and put the ones that interest me on hold at the library. I currently have 22 books on hold at the library that I'm waiting for.  That's how I pick my books to read! By then the hold time at the library isn't that long and I'm only reading highly rated books.

I created a niche summer reading list from books set in Italy, France and Spain. There's nine books on the list with four being new releases this year. If you're feeling left out that you're not having a European summer and wishing you were jetsetting in Italy, I got you covered! These books belong in everyone's pool bag this summer! 

On Black Friday I purchased an annual Audiobooks subscription for $137 so $11.42 a month when if I were to purchase a single audiobook it would be  $20-36. For comparison Audible Premium is $15 a month, only with premium can you get new releases or books people have actually heard of. Sometimes the line at the library is so long and they take back the audiobook when your time is up so I thought it would be easier for me to get a membership and this way I'm guaranteed to read/listen 12 books this year. I listen to books while I walk down the street.  I think I will only do this for memoirs because for fictional books I really need to sit down and read to get a grasp for all the characters involved. On my wishlist to read this year are the following memoirs by Pamela Anderson, Paulina Porizkova, and Anne Heche. Last year I listened to Viola Davis' memoir which I highly recommend! 

 

February is Black History month in the United States. If you want to honor or celebrate Black History Month by reading books by Black authors, I have highlighted a few good picks for you. I'm not using amazon links when possible for any of the books because authors get a very small cut when you purchase there.

I read and enjoyed all of these books last year and highly recommend if you're looking for some mystery thrillers to read.
 

Northern Spy - Flynn Berry

A Reese Witherspoon bookclub pick, the book takes place in 2018 and the focus is on two sisters and how the conflict in Northern Ireland impacts their lives. The situation in Northern Ireland, past and present, is intriguing and something I was curious to learn more about. Not quite a spy thriller but rather a story of Tessa, her search for her sister Marian, and her son Flynn.

The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave

A Reese Witherspoon bookclub pick and was so suspenseful I read it one day! This book also won Goodreads Choice Awards in the thriller category. Hannah, Owen and Bailey live happily on a houseboat in Sausalito, Northern California. Hannah is a successful woodturner and creates handcrafted furniture. She's been married to Owen for a little over a year. Hannah Hall receives a note from her husband Owen, saying only 'protect her' before he disappears, leaving Hannah to take care of his 16 year old daughter Bailey.  When Hannah receives visits from the FBI and a U.S Marshal she starts doing some digging herself and begins to understand that her husband Owen was not who she thought he was.

If you have some trips to the beach planned (or just your pool) here's what I've read lately that I highly recommend.  The last couple years I've come up with a good system for how I pick books to read:  every year Goodreads, a website I use to keep track of all the books I read (I read 26 books last year and 20 so far this year). They do a Best Books of the year awards voted on by readers in December. The books are separated into categories and I will read the top rated books in Fiction, Mystery and Historical Fiction. I also read all of Reese Witherspoon's bookclub picks. By doing this I'm reading books I wouldn't have picked myself, but every single one has turned out interesting and worth the read. This year she is picking only new releases. The first week of July I took a staycation and spent a lot of time in my pool reading books. 

art by Daria Rosen

My head space is very emotional being in the epicenter in Washington, DC and witnessing everything. Black people deserve love and respect. The protests aren't new, it's just that everything has been recorded on iphones in the last 5 years so now everyone is forced to see what Black people have always known has been happening. Racial violence is not political, it's a public health problem. The system has always been broken with little to no change. How many marches have their been since MLK's March on Washington? I've spent the last two weeks sad and heartbroken over race relations in our country. This blog has always had posts on finding a deeper meaning in life so I wanted to share some resources about this human issue and how you can be an ally and advocate to the Black community. 

I had a lot more time to read during the past month. I got a new sectional couch which became my comfy new reading space. If you ever said you didn't have time to read, well now you do! It's a great excuse to turn off the news and escape into a book.

I love sharing my love of books with you and I think these books will help you pass the time that you are stuck at home.  This list has a little bit of everything. Once I start a good book I really look forward to reading a chapter every day. I tend to read right before bedtime so my eyes are not looking at the blue light on my phone. I'm not a huge TV watcher, I mean I watch a few shows but I don't have cable. I only have netflix and hulu so that frees up my time. On planes and waiting in airports I always read, but don't find much time on vacation as my vacations are very active city exploring vacations.  I read my kindle in bed in the dark, but also love a good hardcover book as I can feel how much progress I'm making through the book. I prefer to bring a hardcover book on vacation.

Did you know that Reese Witherspoon has her own bookclub? I've been reading most of her selections, you can find more reviews in this post. Last year I only read 15 books because social media has interfered with my reading time, but thanks to Reese I got a lot of good book recommendations. Here are my favorites from last year.

The Wisdom of Sundays: Life-Changing Insights from Super Soul Conversations by Oprah Winfrey; 2017, 240 pages
Super Soul Sunday is Oprah's new television show. Organized into 10 chapters - each one representing a powerful step in Oprah's own spiritual journey featuring selections from the most meaningful conversations between Oprah and some of today’s most-admired thought-leaders. Visionaries like Tony Robbins, Arianna Huffington, and Shonda Rhimes share their lessons in finding purpose through mindfulness and intention. World renowned authors and teachers like Eckhart Tolle, Thich Nhat Hahn, Marianne Williamson and Wayne Dyer, explain our complex relationship with the ego and the healing powers of love and connection; and award-winning and bestselling writers like Cheryl Strayed, Elizabeth Gilbert, and Elizabeth Lesser explore the beauty of forgiveness and spirituality. I listened to the audiobook which includes a entire conversations between Oprah and each leading thinkers as they engaged the whole world in a brilliant conversation. It's a very thought provoking book!

I reactivated my Audible account which has made reading books easy this summer as I can "read" as I walk places. But I still read on my kindle in bed and library books at the beach or in airports as I've taken 4 vacations already this summer. Here are some books I've enjoyed and recommend.