Since my reading has been...I want to say slow but it's been something different in the last several months, I'm going to do quarterly posts instead of monthly. Essentially, my goal is to pop in every three months in 2022 with an update on what I read and what I quit. (I quit a lot of books.) I set a quite modest goal of 20 books in 2022 and I'm ahead of schedule so...yay?
The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller
The Happiest Baby Guide to Sleep by Harvey Karp
We Are the Brennans by Tracey Lange
Nope. Wasn't corrected in the final copy.
The Lies I Tell by Julie Clark
The Golden Couple by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen
And then the books I quit...I'm not linking them all, but I'll tell you why I quit them, I suppose.
This Time Next Year by Sophie Cousens I wanted this to be so much better than it was. I wasn't shocked that I didn't like it, but I thought it'd be more interesting. The name thing was non-believable as a plot point, first of all. Minnie was super depressing to me, as a character. She did not ever seem able to do anything the way an adult might and she was just hapless. 30 is not 20. She acted like she was stunted at 20. I have no feelings on Quinn either way. All the side characters were stereotypically annoying. Minnie's mom was not great. And the idea that her parents just hoarded clocks kind of bothered me.
The Third Wife by Lisa Jewell I can see why I'd never heard of this before. There was something weird about it. It wasn't nearly as interesting as any other book she'd ever written.
Playing Nice by J.P. Delaney This is one I quit about 15% in. I found it to be a bit triggering to read while pregnant. It wasn't terrible though.
The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley I liked The Guest List. I want to read The Paris Apartment. Everything about The Hunting Party kind of bothered me though. Way too many characters. Narcissists, mostly. That wasn't hugely appealing. I quit about a quarter of the way through.
People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry I quit this about 15% in too. It wasn't awful. I just found it boring and I don't do rom-com well. The predictability factor bothers me. I don't love her writing. I think I've tried all of her books at this point and have quit them all. Call me the dissenting vote, I suppose.
Local Woman Missing by Mary Kubica I tried it? Kubica's books are usually interesting enough. I don't remember much about it aside from I didn't like it that much. Don't remember where I quit.
You Will Remember Me by Hannah McKinnon I remember reading the first two chapters and then quitting.
Dark Circles by Caite Dolan-Leach This was sent to me by Netgalley and I didn't hate it at first. It was interesting enough. Then it started to drag and I felt like they were never getting anywhere. I quit at about 40%.
I've written about my library woes before (there is no availability on anything, ever), so I'm back to really just scouring Netgalley once in awhile and then getting a Book of the Month so this is how I'm reading new books and crossing them off of my recently-downsized TBR.
Currently, I'm reading Once Upon A Wardrobe by Patti Callahan and waiting for The Paris Apartment to show up from Book of the Month.
I enjoyed The Brennans and The Golden Couple. I am adding The Lies I Tell and Paper Palace to my list. I heard a few other people enjoyed Paper Palace as well.
ReplyDeleteI picked up The Golden Couple too, and am kind of glad I haven't read The Wife Between Us so I won't be too disappointed! Lisa Jewell is a favorite author of mine and while I thought I wanted to read her entire backlist, maybe I'll skip this one.
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