July Reading Wrap-Up

Not only was July a great reading month for me (I read 8 books!) but I would highly recommend *almost all of my reads. Parachutes, A Woman Is No Man, and Maybe In Another Life were my absolute favorites in July - maybe even in 2020. Even more exciting, I was able to attend an exclusive chat with Parachutes author Kelly Yang via the Bad Bitch Book Club in August.

The Mothers, Red At The Bone and Winter In Paradise were all great stories as well. I didn’t love Dear Emmie Blue (thanks to Net Galley for providing me with the arc for this one) but it was still a nice read. Lastly, Otherwise Engaged was the only book I truly did not like this month and is probably one of my least favorite books of the year.

Winter In Paradise

This book is a nice, light read. I really enjoyed the story but it was super predictable and I felt like we never really got any answers. Luckily, it’s a series so I’l have to dive into the next one and pray that SOME sort of conclusion happens.

Goodreads Summary:

Irene Steele’s idyllic life-house, husband, family-is shattered when she is woken up by a late-night phone call. Her beloved husband has been found dead, but before Irene can process this tragic news, she must confront the perplexing details of her husband’s death. He was found on St. John island, a tropical paradise far removed from their suburban life. Leaving the cold winter behind, Irene flies down to the beautiful Caribbean beaches of St. John only to make another shocking discovery: her husband had a secret second family. As Irene investigates the mysterious circumstances of her husband’s death, she is plunged into a web of intrigue and deceit belied by the pristine white sand beaches of St. John’s. This exciting first book in the Paradise series will transport readers to a new beach locale-another world that Elin knows as well as her beloved Nantucket-and have them longing for winter

Red at the Bone

Red at the Bone explores how history and our community mold our lives. This book is a super quick read but covers identity, sexuality, race, class and more through the eyes of 5 different characters. I really enjoyed the story, but I found myself having to reread pages because it’s is difficult to identify which character is narrating the chapter since there is no obvious indicator.

Goodreads Summary:

Moving forward and backward in time, Jacqueline Woodson's taut and powerful new novel uncovers the role that history and community have played in the experiences, decisions, and relationships of these families, and in the life of the new child.

As the book opens in 2001, it is the evening of sixteen-year-old Melody's coming of age ceremony in her grandparents' Brooklyn brownstone. Watched lovingly by her relatives and friends, making her entrance to the music of Prince, she wears a special custom-made dress. But the event is not without poignancy. Sixteen years earlier, that very dress was measured and sewn for a different wearer: Melody's mother, for her own ceremony-- a celebration that ultimately never took place.

Unfurling the history of Melody's parents and grandparents to show how they all arrived at this moment, Woodson considers not just their ambitions and successes but also the costs, the tolls they've paid for striving to overcome expectations and escape the pull of history. As it explores sexual desire and identity, ambition, gentrification, education, class and status, and the life-altering facts of parenthood, Red at the Bone most strikingly looks at the ways in which young people must so often make long-lasting decisions about their lives--even before they have begun to figure out who they are and what they want to be.

Maybe In Another Life

All hail queen Taylor. Only Taylor Jenkins Reid could give us a chick-lit novel that deals with a time-space continuum. I was so invested in both “worlds” that I just could not put this book down.

I love a book that’s light and fun, but still makes you think and this one definitely did that - every single decision we make regardless of how big or small puts our life on a certain path. I loved finding out how one simple decision that Hannah made one night could affect her life on such a huge scale and relating that back to what small decisions I could have made in my life could have affected me the same way. This was definitely one of the best books I’ve read this year!

Goodreads Summary:

From the acclaimed author of Forever, Interrupted and After I Do comes a breathtaking new novel about a young woman whose fate hinges on the choice she makes after bumping into an old flame; in alternating chapters, we see two possible scenarios unfold—with stunningly different results.

At the age of twenty-nine, Hannah Martin still has no idea what she wants to do with her life. She has lived in six different cities and held countless meaningless jobs since graduating college. On the heels of leaving yet another city, Hannah moves back to her hometown of Los Angeles and takes up residence in her best friend Gabby’s guestroom. Shortly after getting back to town, Hannah goes out to a bar one night with Gabby and meets up with her high school boyfriend, Ethan.

Just after midnight, Gabby asks Hannah if she’s ready to go. A moment later, Ethan offers to give her a ride later if she wants to stay. Hannah hesitates. What happens if she leaves with Gabby? What happens if she leaves with Ethan?

In concurrent storylines, Hannah lives out the effects of each decision. Quickly, these parallel universes develop into radically different stories with large-scale consequences for Hannah, as well as the people around her. As the two alternate realities run their course, Maybe in Another Life raises questions about fate and true love: Is anything meant to be? How much in our life is determined by chance? And perhaps, most compellingly: Is there such a thing as a soul mate?

Hannah believes there is. And, in both worlds, she believes she’s found him.

The Mothers

The Mothers asks what it means to look back on your life and wonder, what if? This complex story starts off strong but fizzled out towards the end for me, and then it just..ended. However, similar to Maybe In Another Life, this book really makes you reflect back onto the decisions you make in your life and how they can affect you for the rest of your life.

Goodreads Summary:

Set within a contemporary black community in Southern California, Brit Bennett's mesmerizing first novel is an emotionally perceptive story about community, love, and ambition. It begins with a secret.

"All good secrets have a taste before you tell them, and if we'd taken a moment to swish this one around our mouths, we might have noticed the sourness of an unripe secret, plucked too soon, stolen and passed around before its season."

It is the last season of high school life for Nadia Turner, a rebellious, grief-stricken, seventeen-year-old beauty. Mourning her own mother's recent suicide, she takes up with the local pastor's son. Luke Sheppard is twenty-one, a former football star whose injury has reduced him to waiting tables at a diner. They are young; it's not serious. But the pregnancy that results from this teen romance—and the subsequent cover-up—will have an impact that goes far beyond their youth. As Nadia hides her secret from everyone, including Aubrey, her God-fearing best friend, the years move quickly. Soon, Nadia, Luke, and Aubrey are full-fledged adults and still living in debt to the choices they made that one seaside summer, caught in a love triangle they must carefully maneuver, and dogged by the constant, nagging question: What if they had chosen differently? The possibilities of the road not taken are a relentless haunt.

In entrancing, lyrical prose, The Mothers asks whether a "what if" can be more powerful than an experience itself. If, as time passes, we must always live in servitude to the decisions of our younger selves, to the communities that have parented us, and to the decisions we make that shape our lives forever.

Dear Emmie Blue

When Emmie is in a rough patch of her life, she releases a balloon into the sky and happens to fall in love with the boy who finds it. At times, I loved Emmie and was rooting for her the entire book. BUT, she can also be slightly infuriating with some of the decisions she makes. However, I really enjoyed following along on her journey to find her happiness, and discover some hard truths. My only complaint is that the book dragged a bit until the very end where everything seemed to happen quickly and at once.

Thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review!

Goodreads Summary:

At sixteen, Emmie Blue stood in the fields of her school and released a red balloon into the sky. Attached was her name, her email address…and a secret she desperately wanted to be free of. Weeks later, on a beach in France, Lucas Moreau discovered the balloon and immediately emailed the attached addressed, sparking an intense friendship between the two teens.

Now, fourteen years later, Emmie is hiding the fact that she’s desperately in love with Lucas. She has pinned all her hopes on him and waits patiently for him to finally admit that she’s the one for him. So dedicated to her love for Lucas, Emmie has all but neglected her life outside of this relationship—she’s given up the search for her absentee father, no longer tries to build bridges with her distant mother, and lives as a lodger to an old lady she barely knows after being laid off from her job. And when Lucas tells Emmie he has a big question to ask her, she’s convinced this is the moment he’ll reveal his feelings for her. But nothing in life ever quite goes as planned, does it?

Emmie Blue is about to learn everything she thinks she knows about life (and love) is just that: what she thinks she knows. Is there such thing as meant to be? Or is it true when they say that life is what happens when you are busy making other plans? A story filled with heart and humor, Dear Emmie Blue is perfect for fans of Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine and Evvie Drake Starts Over.

Parachutes

READ THIS BOOK!

Parachutes covers all the bases: racism, classism, sexism, rape culture, and more through the perspectives of two very different teenage girls. Both of the main characters are so infuriating at times but in the best way possible.

I cannot recommend this book enough, and emphasize how important this story is. I also highly recommend that anyone who does choose to pick up this book read the author notes at the end, as the inspiration behind this story is so important and meaningful.

Goodreads Summary:

Speak enters the world of Gossip Girl in this modern immigrant story from New York Times bestselling author Kelly Yang about two girls navigating wealth, power, friendship, and trauma.

They’re called parachutes: teenagers dropped off to live in private homes and study in the US while their wealthy parents remain in Asia. Claire Wang never thought she’d be one of them, until her parents pluck her from her privileged life in Shanghai and enroll her at a high school in California. Suddenly she finds herself living in a stranger’s house, with no one to tell her what to do for the first time in her life. She soon embraces her newfound freedom, especially when the hottest and most eligible parachute, Jay, asks her out.

Dani De La Cruz, Claire’s new host sister, couldn’t be less thrilled that her mom rented out a room to Claire. An academic and debate-team star, Dani is determined to earn her way into Yale, even if it means competing with privileged kids who are buying their way to the top. When her debate coach starts working with her privately, Dani’s game plan veers unexpectedly off course.

Desperately trying to avoid each other under the same roof, Dani and Claire find themselves on a collision course, intertwining in deeper and more complicated ways, as they grapple with life-altering experiences. Award-winning author Kelly Yang weaves together an unforgettable modern immigrant story about love, trauma, family, corruption, and the power of speaking out.

A Woman Is No Man

READ THIS BOOK!

This might be one of my favorite books of the year. I knew very little about the Arab community before reading this book, so a lot of this story came as a shock to me. This book explores not only what it means to be a woman, but it opened up my eyes to what it means to be a woman in a culture different than mine.

As of now, this is probably my top book of the year and definitely on my shortlist for favorite book ever.

Goodreads Summary:

This debut novel by an Arab-American voice, takes us inside the lives of conservative Arab women living in America.

In Brooklyn, eighteen-year-old Deya is starting to meet with suitors. Though she doesn’t want to get married, her grandparents give her no choice. History is repeating itself: Deya’s mother, Isra, also had no choice when she left Palestine as a teenager to marry Adam. Though Deya was raised to believe her parents died in a car accident, a secret note from a mysterious, yet familiar-looking woman makes Deya question everything she was told about her past. As the narrative alternates between the lives of Deya and Isra, she begins to understand the dark, complex secrets behind her community.

Otherwise Engaged

I really disliked every single character which made it hard to want to keep reading. Gabe is clueless and self-centered, only concerned with becoming a celebrity author with no regard to how his words and new lifestyle affect Molly. And Molly! Sometimes I found myself wanting to scream at her for her lack of communication and how she was so quick to leap to conclusions, but also frustrated for her at the same time. Unfortunately, compared to some of the other stories I read this month, this one paled.

Goodreads Summary:

Life is sweet for New Yorkers Molly and Gabe: They’re young, in love, and newly engaged.

But when Gabe sells his first novel—a thinly-veiled retelling of his wild love affair with ex-girlfriend Talia—and it becomes a national sensation, Molly can’t help but feel like the third wheel. To make matters worse, Talia reappears in Gabe’s life, eager to capitalize on the book’s success and to rekindle what she had with Gabe… at least, that's how it seems to Molly. But even more concerning? Gabe doesn’t seem concerned at all. Instead, he’s delighting in his newfound fame and success.

Jealous, paranoid, and increasingly desperate, Molly starts to spin out of control. Her social life, work life, and love life all go to pieces. As fact and fiction, and past and present, begin to blur, Molly realizes the only way out of this downward spiral is to fight her way back up. But what—if anything—will be left of her life and her relationship when she arrives?

Perfect for fans of Liane Moriarty and Jennifer Weiner, OTHERWISE ENGAGED explores the life we seek when the life we have... suddenly goes down the drain.

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