This may be my favorite book of 2025 so far! I loved the New Zealand setting. I felt like I was eating sausages right along with them. It did a great job of having a child narrator without it feeling childish or too all knowing. It really hit all the parts of childhood—family dynamics and … Continue reading
I enjoyed We Don’t Talk about Carol but at times it was a bit convoluted and sprawling. I’m not sure if the pregnancy storyline was needed or fit. It took away momentum from her family of origin story, the story of these missing Black girls and the investigation. I liked the main character and she … Continue reading
You can always count on Miranda to have a busy plot with a lot of characters but to tie up loose ends. This book was no different. I enjoyed the townie vs college dynamics and how she touched on being a relatively young mother of a college student when some of her peers have elementary … Continue reading
Laura Lippman’s fixation with weight is in full effect in Murder Takes a Vacation. It was brought up so many times. It was a major feature of her Tess Monaghan books as well but it seems to have escalated. Who talks about their weight that much to strangers? And friends? She had virtually no other … Continue reading
I thought this would be a fun foodie memoir to read during a difficult time (my father-in-law just died and my dad is freshly out of the hospital after a long stay) but The French Ingredient: Making a Life in Paris One Lesson at a Time by Jane Bertch was a big disappointment. For some … Continue reading
I really enjoyed the first book in this unexpected series. I always like when the characters aren’t just doctors, lawyers and soccer moms but people cobbling life together a little more. I also like the aspect of having friends that maybe you wouldn’t chose if you met them today sticking around. I felt like Brooklyn … Continue reading
I have been reading Caroline Leavitt’s books for a very long time, longer than I’d like to admit! I think I might have even been in college when I read my first one. So I was happy to be part of the influencer tour for the book. Days of Wonder had a lot of elements … Continue reading
The plot of The Death of Us isn’t bad idea—the body of woman who may be the birth mother of your not quite adoptive teenage son is found in the quarry behind your house—but the execution was kind of slow. Not much happened for many chapters at a time beyond the main character talking about … Continue reading
The Wives probably should have been called “The Wife” because it was really mostly about her (understandably!) and she didn’t really explore the wives outside of their relationship to her. The other wives actually seemed annoyed by her quite a bit which she sort of noticed but never explored. I wish she had included more … Continue reading
This American Ex-Wife is another book where I wish it was just a memoir and the author didn’t try to make so many connections to the greater world. I don’t think they worked as well as they could have. Unlike Geraldine DeRuiter, she is a journalist and experienced researcher but it doesn’t help as much … Continue reading
Rachel Reads Books 