Review: The Grumble-Free Year by Tricia Goyer

When Less Becomes More by Tricia Goyer

Publication Date: November 5, 2019

★★★

I'll be honest, I don't think I was in the best mindset for this book. I had a hard time relating to the author who is a mom of 8 (or was it 10? I got confused 🤔) and has littles all the way up to twenty-something aged kids. I liked the idea of reading about a family who tries to stop complaining (we could all try that!) but unfortunately the book as a whole fell short for me. I do think this book would be helpful to people with larger families, or even just people with teenagers in the house!

Review: When Less Becomes More by Emily Ley

When Less Becomes More by Emily Ley

Publication Date: November 12, 2019

"In a world of constant comparison, it's easy to believe we aren't measuring up to everyone else- that our children aren't as well behaved, that our clothes and cars aren't as current, that our homes aren't perfect enough, that our incomes are lacking, or that our aspirations as women and as a family aren't as sparkly or big enough."

What a lovely book! 🥰 I've read Emily's other books and love the truth she speaks in all of them. 🙌🏻 I'm always intrigued by the idea of practical minimalism...that less truly is more but that doesn't mean our houses need to be perfectly clean and boring. Emily provides several different aspects of life where we are running ourselves to the ground (commitments, social media, work, to name a few) and offers ways we can take a step back and simply SLOW DOWN. Being super busy is overrated if you ask me and I loved so much of what Emily wrote about how and why we should stop overwhelming ourselves. Definitely recommend this one!

Book Review: Finding Mr. Better-Than-You by Shani Petroff

Finding Mr. Better-Than-You by Shani Petroff

Publication Date: January 14, 2020

This book is cute as a button! It's a very innocent high school setting, with some "edgy" topics sprinkled in here and there. For a second I found myself thinking the things the characters cared about were silly, but then I thought back to when I was in high school and it all came rushing back. High school IS silly, in the best way! There are a lot of great messages from this book (can't share or I'll give it away! 🤫) and I really think this would be a great read for a high schooler. Especially a boy crazy one!

Review: The Starter Wife by Nina Laurin

The Starter Wife by Nina Laurin

Publication Date: June 11, 2019

My rating: ★★★

This book was completely packed with CRAZY. 😳 With a very unreliable narrator, this book was different than pretty much anything I've read. I found this book to be mentally exhausting, yet I finished it super quick because I needed to know what was going on. I'm giving this book 3 stars simply because even though this is a mystery, it was REAL confusing. I found myself flipping back to earlier chapters to see if I missed something or to refresh myself. I was also left with a couple of questions that I'll never know the answer to, and for that reason I'm bummed. 🤷🏼‍♀️ But if you're looking for a domestic thriller, look no further!

Review: Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple

Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple

Publication Date: January 29, 2019

My rating: ★★★★

My first thought after finishing this book was "what did I just read?!", but I get a feeling that that's the whole point of this book. This story as a whole, like the character of Bernadette Fox, is a complete puzzle that you never really get figured out. Bernadette is a mysterious woman, and every time I thought I had something figured out the story took a drastic turn that surprised me! I was surpised by the writing style, which is a lot of correspondence between several different combinations of people. With each new document or email I had to remind myself who was who and what their relationship was. 🤷🏼‍♀️ There is a lot going on behind the scenes in this book, so don't get too comfortable thinking you know everything! Three words for this book are quirky, (sometimes) funny, strange.

My 2019 in Books

Even though I'm a total words person, I love statistics! I took a Stats class in college and it was by far my favorite math class I had ever taken. I always get excited at the end of every year when Spotify sends each person their data from the year- which bands/singers you listened to most, how many minutes were spent listening, and lots of other stuff.

On that same note, I get just as excited when Goodreads provides us our "year in books" at the end of every year! There's something about seeing how many pages you read in a year, and all the books that contain those pages, in a pretty way. I thought I would share my 2019 in books with a couple thoughts. Of course if you want to see the full list, click the link in the previous sentence. :)

I'll take it! I had set a Goodreads goal to read 35 books in 2019, so I was happy to pass that! I have decided NOT to set a reading goal for 2020, but I have set a goal for the past several years and it's always fun to reach them! 

I'm not surprised at all that To All the Boys I've Loved Before is the most popular book I read in 2019. The whole series is SO adorable! I also find it fun when my least popular book has less than 100 people who also read it. Just shows I have a wide range of books I like to read (I guess?), ha!

There's more details and a list of all the 2019 books I read here, if you're interested. Make sure to check out your 2019 in books! 

Review: One Day in December by Josie Silver

One Day in December by Josie Silver

Publication Date: October 16, 2018

My rating: ★★★★★

Oh my goodness, THIS BOOK! Pretty much from the first page I knew this was going to be a good story. There's something so whimsical about the concept of love at first sight, isn't there!?

I loved this story being told from the alternating perspectives of Laurie and Jack. Part of me thinks I would have liked to hear from Sarah's perspective as well, but then there would be no mystery. ;) 

This story is told over the course of 10 years and boy, a LOT can happen in 10 years! We get to walk through life with Jack and Laurie as they have successes and failures and tip toe around each other. This book is full ups and downs and missed opportunities, but I love that it's over the course of 10 years as we really get to KNOW the 3 main characters. There are some frustrating moments where you just want to yell at one of the characters and say "tell them what you're feeling!!!", but that just makes this book so much more realistic.

I was genuinely sad when this book ended and I already miss the characters. Highly recommend!