All the Dangerous Things by Stacy Willingham
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I really enjoy Stacy Willingham’s novels. They manage to be both character and plot driven. The pacing is unlike any other and there are always awesome twists that don’t make you feel stupid. I think that combination is very hard to achieve.

This is the story of Isabelle whose baby is taken from their house a year ago and she hasn’t slept since then and has been desperately looking for him. She has been doing everything she can to scour every opportunity to talk about it and even agrees to do a podcast to see if it will help find the person who took Mason.

She and her husband are now separated and he’s with someone new. So she’s going through the loss and betrayal all at once. The book also alternates between the present and the past where she has suffered another terrible loss so Isabelle is not sure if she can trust herself.

The insomnia in this book is almost a character. It makes isabelle so hazy and sometimes we can’t tell if she’s an unreliable narrator or not. We can viscerally feel her doubts and worries as she experiences them.

I loved this book and highly recommend Willingham’s books. They are also fantastic on audio!

with gratitude to Macmillan Audio and netgalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

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The Minimum Method by Joey Thurman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I requested this book on a whim because I’ve read so many other books on this topic and the idea of thinking about how to optimize your time and streamline a way to think about your health really appealed to me.

This book is broken into different chapters tackling different areas from meditation to breathing to exercise to nutrition etc. I liked that it was more holistic and really leaned into getting more sleep and building a well-rounded way to be healthy and whole.

I also liked that he had different next steps depending on your starting point and how hard you want to tackle some of these topics. You can pace yourself according to where you are and what feels feasible to you.

As we got into the exercise and nutrition chapters, I started feeling like the book was losing me. There was a lot of great information across the board in the whole book. But then it got so detailed and so much information and so many different things I had to keep track of that I got overwhelmed and couldn’t get through the chapters anymore.

It definitely didn’t feel minimum at that point. I know the author was trying to give options and more information but I specifically chose this because I wanted simple. To be fair, he does still give you a simple starting point for movement (7minute + 2 walks) and for nutrition (eat whole) but it all just left me more overwhelmed than inspired in the end.

with gratitude to edelweiss and benballa books for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

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Earthlings by Sayaka Murata
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Holy shit. I don’t even know how to rate this book. It could be 5 for creativity. It could be 1 for wtf? It could be all the ones in between. There is so much trigger warning in this book, the entire book is one big trigger warning for trauma and sexual assault and so so much more that I can’t mention without giving away some of the huge twists. It’s a weird weird weird book.

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Earth’s the Right Place for Love by Elizabeth Berg
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I just love and adore Elizabeth Berg. Her books are always a balm for my soul and I love her characters. I love how you can almost feel them viscerally and I love how when I am weary and tired, I can pick a Berg novel and I know it will give me the comfort I need without feeling like too light a book. I will grow to love her characters.

This book is no exception. OF course it couldn’t be as it’s Arthur’s story and we already know what a gem he is. This is the story of how he and Nola end up together and it’s a real nod to patience and deep friendship and loving and caring for someone anyway.

I loved this book. I love Berg and will continue to read her books for as long as she’s generous enough to give us her stories.

with gratitude to netgalley and random house for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

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Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Ann Napolitano’s ability to capture the complexity and layers in a character is truly beautiful. This book is really quiet. At least it was for me. You have to sit with it for a long time and let yourself get immersed in their world. Each of the characters slowly winds their way into your heart and then there’s no moment that you don’t want to spend with them.

This is the story of four sisters who are incredibly close to each other. One of them marries William who is merged into their family wholesale from the moment Julia picks him. And like it always does in life, so many different things happen to this family. There’s so much about parenthood, acceptance, forgiveness, grief, love and of course deep sisterhood in this book.

It pays a beautiful homage to Little Women and these women will absolutely stay in your heart long after you’re done reading the book.

with gratitude to netgalley and Random House for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

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The Lightkeeper’s Daughters by Jean E. Pendziwol
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this story about a woman in a home who meets a girl who’s doing community service there and they connect and over the course of the story, they find out their lives are more intertwined than they thought. It’s a beautiful and touching story.

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