LIFE'S A PEARL

It’s the 15th already! Time for another Quick Lit post! Modern Mrs Darcy, one of my favorite book blogs, hosts a link up once a month for fellow readers and bloggers to share what they’re reading lately. These quick reviews offer a mid month glimpse into my reading life.

My 2021 reading year is off to a solid start this month. Today I’m sharing four of the books I’ve read so far in January. With my 2021 reading goals in mind, they’re all new to me authors, two romances, and two nonfiction books. One is a diverse book. I’m nearly through my nonfiction year of health pick. I listened to two of the books on audio and I’m 50/50 on the experience.

What I’ve Been Reading Lately in January:

 

Love Lettering by Kate Clayborn

Meg Mackworth is very skilled with her hand-lettering work as well as her ability to see signs other people often miss. When she observes the engaged couple she’s agreed to design a wedding program for, she can’t help but include a secret message that the relationship is doomed.

Reid Sutherland tracks Meg down a year later wanting to know how she knew his marriage would fail before he moves away from New York City. Meg is struggling with her creativity as she tries to set up a new business. If Reid can help her find inspiration again, then she’ll make the time to answer his questions.

As they get to know one another and open up about their regrets, the connection between them deepens. They must learn to read the signs between them before Reid leaves the city for good.

When I saw the audio version of this book available on Libby, I snatched it up. Kate Clayborn recently popped up on several of my bookish sources. It seemed like fate. Maybe going with the audio version wasn’t the best format for me with this story.

I didn’t really connect with either lead character. Reid especially felt very flat. Meg’s hand-lettering career was interesting as was the way she saw different signs around the city. Obviously that is a visual art form and I had a hard time recreating it in my imagination. While I didn’t think there was much conflict in the story, I was pleasantly surprised by how intense the chemistry felt between Reid and Meg as their relationship progressed.

 

Dear Girls: Intimate Tales, Untold Secret, & Advice for Living Your Best Life by Ali Wong

Dear Girls is a collection of letters comic Ali Wong wrote for her daughters to read as adults sharing everything they need to know in life. With her raunchy humor she writes about her own childhood, dating in her 20s, her travels, making it as a comic, how she trapped their dad, and what it’s like being a working mom in a profession dominated by males.

This was my other audiobook pick so far this year. I love memoirs that are narrated by the author, especially celebrity ones. Although this was my first encounter with Ali Wong, I think getting to listen to her voice, pacing, and humor made this a wonderful listening experience.

What made me seek this book out was seeing it featured on a book list about motherhood. She’s definitely brutally honest as she shares what becoming a parent was like for her, including the horrors of afterbirth and the first year. She also discusses what it’s like being a mom working on the road as well as the struggle to balance work and family.

 

Beach Read by Emily Henry

Read my full book review here.

January Andrews is a bestselling romance writer, who finds herself facing writer’s block for the first time after her personal life is turned upside down. Broke, she has no choice but to move to the beach house her father left her when he passed away.

After a late night encounter with her grumpy neighbor, she’s shocked the next day to discover he is Augustus Everett, somber literary fiction author and an old college rival. Eventually they strike up a bet to spend the summer writing a book in the other’s genre.

January will take Augustus on rom-com research trips and he will take her along on his darkly heavy interviews. With looming deadlines, they’ll each be challenged to finish a book while resisting another chance at love.

I picked this book up on the suggestion of a friend. It’s been recommended on several lists including Modern Mrs Darcy’s Summer Reading Guide. As a 2020 Goodreads Choice Award Nominee, it also fit the January category for the romance reading challenge I’m participating in.

I loved this contemporary romance. It has witty banter, great chemistry, and two lead characters who really come to understand one another. This book is also so much more than a romantic love story. It deals with all types of love. The love between parent and child, extended family, and friends too. I thoroughly enjoyed reading about these two fictional authors’ writing processes and careers as well.

 

The Case Against Sugar by Gary Taubes

I’m currently reading this book for my 2021 year of health experiment. In The Case Against Sugar, Gary Taubes literally builds a case for sugar being at the root of modern western society’s health epidemics with obesity, diabetes, and liver disease.

He extensively researched the history of sugar, the money and industrial power, the medical community’s standpoint on it, and the numerous research studies that were swayed, hidden, or skipped to justify it’s presence in our food.

I’ll share an update at the start of next month covering this book further. So far, I’m enjoying discovering it’s revelations and learning about the history of sugar in western society. The book is much denser than I expected. That’s great since it’s full of facts, citations, and studies, but it’s taking me a little longer to read than I thought it would.

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What have you been reading lately?