Books books books books books. I love books, so I read twenty books during April. I'm not big on social media marketing... unless it's for books. I follow several beloved authors on Instagram, and they often share other good books written by their likeminded author-friends. This social media book marketing has become a gold mine for my discovery of several new delightful authors recently.
In April I fell in love with Sariah Wilson's snarky fun love stories, and I embarked on a quest to read all of her books. It was an enjoyable quest. She writes fun celebrity and royalty love stories, and I thoroughly enjoyed escaping into those sugary sweet worlds after feeding my brain its daily dose of healthy whole grain nonfiction. I did think that her kissing scenes were too long, though. Like, we get it! They enjoyed their kiss! Let's move on! Haha, nothing more than kissing happens, but it just feels... long sometimes. Kiss-a-thons aside, Sariah Wilson adds just enough grit to ground her fluffy unlikely celebrity love stories so the sweetness isn't cloying. And her humor kept me grinning!
Fiction:
- The Temporary Roomie by Sarah Adams: YES. So fun and sweet.
- Roommaid by Sariah Wilson: wealthy man hires a roommate who cleans to pay rent. A quirky sweet fun love story that made me look up more books by Sariah Wilson.
- #Startstruck by Sariah Wilson: loved this movie star and introvert love story; book 1 in the series
- #Moonstruck by Sariah Wilson: fun rock star romance
- #Awestruck by Sariah Wilson: sweet NFL romance
- The Friend Zone by Sariah Wilson: more football friend fun: don't date the coach's daughter! Book 1 in the End of the Line series.
- Just a Boyfriend by Sariah Wilson: book 2 in the End of the Line series. A dating couple's parents get married, making the boyfriend/girlfriend step siblings and messing everything up.
- Full Rigged by Rebecca Connolly: book four in the multi-author cowboy series. Another fun ride through Texas rodeos!
- Royal Date by Sariah Wilson--these four Royal books set in a made-up country in the Italian Alps were delightful. In this cute first book, the heir to the throne falls in love with a woman who grew up in a trailer park in Colorado.
- Royal Chase by Sariah Wilson-- a fun Bachelor TV show type read with such a great plot twist!
- Royal Games by Sariah Wilson: Italian prince moves to Iowa farmland to woo his offended true love. HAH what kind of lame synopsis was that? It's a fun book, trust me.
- Royal Design by Sariah Wilson: a cute novella in the Royals series.
- The Ugly Stepsister Strikes Back by Sariah Wilson: cute, slightly angsty, but still cute, high school romance.
- The Promposal by Sariah Wilson: sweet but more angsty sequel to the Promposal.
- The Seat-Filler by Sariah Wilson: New release in April 2021. A darling sweet and vulnerable movie star romance! The heroine had a kissing phobia and it was hilarious and sweet to see how she worked through it. I love Sariah Wilson's snarky scrappy heroines!
- Once Upon A Time Travel by Sariah Wilson: a standalone book, Sariah Wilson's only book with magic. It kind of threw me off, but the story was fun. Even though the main character was an American history major in college, she totally would have known at least a little about Regency England. She was annoyingly clueless about simple things like curtsying. All in all, I still liked this book. It has a nice, well-rounded happy ending.
- -Running With Sherman by Christopher Mcdougall: such an interesting peek into a different world: Lancaster county, PA and also Burro Racing in Colorado. Full of quirky characters with unexpected dual themes of living with mental health issues and the soothing power of exercise and animals. The author reads his own book, which I always like.
- The life-changing magic of tidying up by Marie Kondo: her tone is rather harsh and kind of condescending, but I did like her ideas on tidying up.
- -The Upside of Stress by Kelly McGonigal: AMAZING book for a self-proclaimed expert-stress-er like me to read. I ended up buying this one so I could look back and refer to the very effective techniques for harnessing stress rather than suppressing it. The author describes a number of studies on stress and how thinking about stress in a positive way creates positive change.
- Biased by Jennifer L. Eberhardt: one of those "good human" books that I wish could be required reading for humanity. She shares so much fascinating information on implicit bias (specifically in regards to racism, but applicable to many areas), how it shows up, where it shows up, and how to manage it. Spoiler alert: there are no scientifically proven methods for reducing implicit bias; the best, proven way to deal with it is to change the circumstances that trigger biased responses. Absolutely fascinating.
QUOTE Sharing Time:
*A few faves from The Upside of Stress by Kelly McGonigal:
"When stress is part of what makes something meaningful, shutting it out doesn't get rid of the stress. Instead, taking the time to fully process and make meaning from what is stressful can transform it from something that drains you to something that sustains you."
"You are most liable to feel like a victim of the stress in your life when you forget the context the stress is unfolding in."
"When you stop resisting it, stress can fuel you."
"Stress and meaning are inextricably connected in the larger context of your life. When you take this view, life doesn't become less stressful, but it can become more meaningful.
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*A few faves from Biased by Jennifer L. Eberhardt:
"Implicit bias is a kind of distorting lens that's a product of both the architecture of our brain and the disparities in our society."
"Just as drivers are conditioned by how the roads are constructed in their native land, so too are we conditioned by racial narratives that narrow our vision and bias how we see the people around us."
"The mistake we keep making--the mistake we all keep making--is in thinking that our work is done. That whatever heroic effort we've made will keep us moving forward... Moving forward requires continued vigilance. It requires us to constantly attend to who we are, how we got that way, and all the selves we have the capacity to be."
"Bias is not something we exhibit and act on all the time. It is conditional, and the battle begins by understanding the conditions under which it is most likely to come alive."
"There is hope in the sheer act of reflection. This is where the power lies and how the process starts."
I like books that make me think and books that make me laugh.
1 comment:
You are a Reader extraordinaire:)
also:
I really like the brief summaries and the select quotes.
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