I’ve always been a fan of Hepworth’s novels but this one stands out amongst the others.
There’s no way to finish this book and not to fall completely in love with Mabel and not to find yourself cheering for her, wanting to hug her and apologize to her on behalf of the world and truly cruel people that ruin it.
It’s hard to say that I loved reading this book because so much of it is so sad. So much of it was spent with me trying to jump into the pages of the book and protect Mabel. And also it’s such a sweet, dear, at times funny, and mostly devastating book.
The audio is truly fantastic and brings both of the mabels to life so well. A true gem from Hepsworth.
with gratitude to netgalley and Macmillan Audio for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review
Even though the book in book format was interesting, I really hated the book inside the book and wanted those chapters to end as quickly as possible. And I really loved Samantha’s chapters so for a long time, her chapters are what sustained me.
But then towards the end it all started coming together and loved all of it and found myself admiring how the author brought it into a full circle. I am confident most people will enjoy this one. And the narration was absolutely perfect.
with gratitude to netgalley and Macmillan Audio for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review
With any Jane Harper book you’re guaranteed to read a story seeped in atmosphere and deep in character development. That’s where this author shines and where her novels stand out. In Last One Out, Carralon Ridge, the town, is so atmospheric that it’s a character of its own. The town people’s relationship with the town is a major part of the story.
And so are each of the characters, their history, their connection, their sense of loyalty and betrayal.
On its face this story is not as twisty and interesting as many of Harper’s other novels. But it still has all of her characteristic style so if you go in with the right expectation you will enjoy this story a lot.
And the audio is absolutely excellent, transporting the reader to Australia adding just the right texture to the story.
with gratitude to netgalley and Macmillan Audio for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review
And here we are, the last week of January. I have one more week to try to make some more progress and then we will move to another month. I will say that this setup has both been helping me and is being a bit hard on me. I can’t help but want to rush through all of it and be done so I have nothing to do. But I also know that’s not how life works and several of these are BIG items that will take a lot of time, money, and energy and while they are important, they are not urgent so it’s a good opportunity to learn to take my time here and make slow and steady progres.
Big Goal: I didn’t get to cook a lot more this week because I still had leftovers we ate and also we ordered two nights for different reasons. I still have items at home to cook so I still feel good about this so far. I’ve been mostly making healthy choices and eating a good amount of vegetables.
Progress on the big five:
Y: Still waiting to hear back from hoa but got one more quote and about to get one more. I feel closer to being ready to make a decision and get things moving on this one. Next steps: get final proposal, make a choice, fill out hoa form.
Xóchitl González creates the most memorable characters, and then puts them in an interesting time and location in the middle of interesting conversations. The characters feel so real, they jump out of the book, especially with this excellent narration.
I loved this one even more than usual because it’s about early 2000s in Brooklyn and I was living in Manhattan at the time. And the conversations and settings felt all the more real. Each character is three dimensional and you can’t help but love these characters and see the world a little from their eyes.
Another excellent, excellent offering from Xóchitl González.
with gratitude to netgalley and Macmillan Audio for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review
What a complete fun ride this book was! I love Monaghan’s voice and it shines through in this novel. This is the story of Dolly, a single mom to Gus, competent daughter to a dad who’s set in his ways, and sister to a brother who doesn’t like to leave the front porch (or wear pants), and she has a sister too who lives further away and is not involved enough.
When her childhood house almost burns down, Dolly comes home to help out her Dad for the summer. A chance encounter where she’s helping Stewart (the rich son of the rich family their island is named after) turns into a thing and Dolly gets an offer she can’t refuse because it will mean she can truly help her dad and make sure her house is saved.
And of course things don’t go as planned. There’s so much good in this book but the best part, for me, is what an awesome character Dolly is. She’s strong, kind, capable and will not take crap from anyone. I love her.
Monaghan knows how to write characters and she knows how to do dialogue. She made me laugh and feel so much joy while reading this one.
with gratitude to netgalley and G.P. Putnam’s Sons for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review
So the story is still out on this Grain Bowl. A handful of things: the sweet potatoes and beets were PITA to peel. The wild rice was PITA to cook. But then it was all delicious once I cooked it. And the pistachios added just the right crunch.
But then, that night I woke up with a sharp back pain and violently vomited all this up. So there’s that.
I thought it might be fun to catalog and keep track of food that I cooked so that I could have a list of recipes I like to be able to come back to when I want.
This Sheet Pan Ratatouille involved a bunch of chopping and sitting around while the veggies roast but other than that it was super easy to make and incredibly tasty.
Another week has passed. January always feels like it’s crawling and racing at the same time.
Big Goal: My goal for January is to work on prepping meals. Good week for progress on this. I’ve ordered groceries with lots of vegetables this week and made chicken, sheet pan ratatouille with a LOT of vegetables, and roasted zucchini and tomatoes, and roasted sweet potatoes and beets. Most of the days this week, I ate a lot of vegetables so we will consider this a lot of progress. In fact the Ratatouille dish I made has been one of the best things I’ve ever eaten and I plan to make it every week for a while. So I am feeling good about the progress here so far and have some good plans for this week as I still have zucchini, broccoli, and lentils that are waiting to be cooked this week.
Progress on the big five:
Y: Progress here. Got a quote, emailed for a few more, waiting on HOA for coverage.
G: Made progress on this one, too. Researched options, email ready to go.
S: Made appointment with doctor and removal. Good progress, here, too.
Sa: No progress on this one, will do some research first.
D: Here too, no progress, will also do research so I can have a plan.
Three Medium goals:
skin: started on this. maybe not the ideal way but making progress.
art: didn’t do much more than last week. I think I actually want to find a few classes, let’s see if I can.
dance: no progress on this one.
Start: Started both classes. Yay!
Stop: Mostly there on both. At least happy with progress so far.
Continue: Fixed chase account, done with AAA. Still more to go.
Brave: typed up the email.
Other things I did:
Got appointment to fix my microwave that decided to not heat anymore.
Pay Attention: This week people were really kind to me:
I had some moments I wanted to save but now that I am sitting to write them down, I forgot them all.
I seem to still be giving myself a hard time for not getting it all done. So I am having to constantly coach myself to slow down and that I will have time to get through my list and that all my list is mostly nice to have etc. It’s taking a lot of self-coaching to stop my thoughts that definitely seem to be moving at a pace that’s just not great.
Here’s to another week. Paying attention. Savoring and living in awe. And taking steps to move onward.
I am glad for people who are brave enough to tell their stories. To many, it might look like Belle’s privilege meant that her story wasn’t as interesting to share or that she had no right to be so hurt or she should not have been so dumb as to stop working, change the prenup and put herself into the position she put herself in.
People love to judge others. People feel entitled to tell you which stories deserve to be told. People think they would have done differently if it were them. People love to watch and point and laugh and judge and judge and judge.
It’s so easy to be a critic.
It’s hard to choose to put your life on paper anyway. And these stories deserve to be told. I’m grateful she did.
