Read and Wright

Everyone in my life knows I love to read. I rarely get through a conversation without saying “I’m reading this book right now,” and no one is ever shocked. I love gifting people my favorite reads of the year and inscribing a little note in the front. I do try to only do this for people who I know will actually read and enjoy it. But that’s why there are also so many great coffee table books to give! Coffee table books are awesome gifts because they are usually something a person won’t splurge on for themselves. And they make great decor! Here are some of my favorites that I own or are on my current wish list for the holidays. 

Downton Abbey

Homebody

Whiskey in a Tea Cup  

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone Illustrated Edition

Hamilton: The Revolution

Kate Spade All in Good Tase

Do you like to give books? Let me know what is on your list this year!

It’s finally Thanksgiving week! I’m so excited to go home and spend some time with my family and really get into the holiday spirit. It also means that I finally get to read Winter in Paradise by Elin Hilderbrand! I’ve been saving it for the holidays and honestly, I’m really impressed that I was able to hold out so long! It helped that I had so many other wonderful books to finish as well. Kind of exciting, I completed my 2018 Reading Challenge! I’m going to do a separate post all about.

I sometimes think it’s hard to have weekly reading goals. I don’t like to force myself to read. If a book isn’t grabbing me, I’ll only read on the subway but if I’m really invested, I’ll read anytime anywhere! But my goal for the week is to finish Winter in Paradise as well as This Christmas by Jane Green. I did finish Seven Days of Us! I’ll include a review in my Weekly Wrap Up on Friday, but here’s a sneak peek. 

Seven Days of Us

A cute, heartwarming family story for the holiday season. It’s actually not as Christmassy as I thought it was going to be! It’s more about familial relationships and how the holidays can bring us together or tear us apart. It definitely took a bit for me to get into it, because there was a lot of plot and a lot of character perspectives going on. I listened to this on audiobook so I finished it while decorating my tree on Saturday and ugh, I just loved it at the end. Very sweet, very cozy. Perfect for this time of the year! 

What are you reading this week? Do you have a favorite book to read around the holidays?

Phew, it’s Friday! I’m so happy cause it’s been a long week and I have a lot of fun things planned for this weekend. I’m also treating myself to decorating for Christmas tonight. It’s my favorite time of year and I want to enjoy it for as long as possible! I don’t think there’s anything wrong with decorating early. Thanksgiving and Christmas have such similar philosophies of being thankful for what we have and reflecting on the year. 

It was also the first snow in NYC yesterday. I shared a little of NYC in the snow on my instagram stories, so if you’re not following me there you definitely should be!

Books Finished: A Spark of Light

So I want to do a more in depth review, but I feel like I’ve been holding onto my thoughts of this book all week. Basically, I didn’t like the structure. I think it was an important story to be told, but I really wish Picoult had stuck to her typical formula. I just wasn’t wild about how she went about telling the story backwards…I feel like we lost a lot of the depth we usually get from her writing and I ended up very confused on if this book was actually pro-choice or not. 

If you don’t know, A Spark of Light is about a shooting and hostage situation at an abortion clinic in Mississippi. There are multiple character perspectives like in Picoult’s other books, but all told from a single third person voice as opposed to the individual chapters told in the first person. I actually really didn’t like this style at all. I felt like we were missing so many pieces of this puzzle. 

I did like the big reveal at the end as to why all these people were there that morning, because there are so many different reasons why women seek the advice of health care professionals when it comes to reproductive health. However, I think this was a missed opportunity to really delve into the issue that abortion is not a one-stop issue; women does not decide to terminate a pregnancy lightly. 

Overall, I was disappointed. Small Great Things was one of my favorite books of 2017 and took such delicate topics to the surface in a brilliant, poignant way. I flew through it, so it is a quick read, but I just felt like I was missing so much when I finished it. 3.5/5 stars from me. 

Currently: Seven Days of Us and This Christmas

Next Up: Winter in Paradise

New Releases: Becoming by Michelle Obama. I’m DYING to read this book but I’m on a book buying ban for November…I don’t know if I can hold out until the holidays! 

Weekend Goal: Finish Seven Days Us! 

Weekend Plans: Decorate the Christmas, go to the NYC Christmas markets with my friend Meghan, and then Sunday is Meghan’s Harry Potter birthday party! 

Recommendation: Go see Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald! I loved it so much more than the first one. Although I did see a friend post about it after seeing it last night and he said he has a lot of strong, confused opinions. Let’s see what you all think! 

What are you doing this weekend? 

I know I’ve been posting a lot of reviews from books past as I’ve been trying to get this blog off the ground. I love writing daily so it’s been good motivation to figure out what I want to say every day. I think I’ll try to limit old reviews to Thursdays, in a little throwback post. I tend to reread books I love, so this will be a good vehicle for that, especially since I tend to learn something new each time I pick a book up. 

I think it’s safe to say Nineteen Minutes is one of my favorite books of all time. I tend to get a strange craving for it around back to school season, which is when I reread it this year. Jodi Picoult is one of my favorite authors because I appreciate the multiple perspectives of characters she writes with (let me know if you want to see a review of Small Great Things, another absolute fav). This book is ten years old and I think it’s sadly more relevant today than it was then. 

In a sleepy New Hampshire town, tragedy strikes when a student enters school one day with four weapons and a list of targets. In nineteen minutes, Peter kills 10 classmates and injures more, intent of killing himself after his rampage. He’s found before this can happen, nearly unheard of in the school shootings reported since Columbine in 1999. 

Picoult takes us on the journey of these characters, including providing the shooter’s point of view. From birth through the day of tragedy, we travel the path of Peter, his parents, the judge of his case who happens to be the mother of his former best friend, the detective, and that former best friend. Picoult weaves in other major issues facing teens such as sex and relationshops, bullying, identity, teen pregnancy, and domestic violence. This is the major reason I love this book so much; Picoult creates well rounded PEOPLE in her books. 

The character of Josie is always my favorite. She used to be best friends with Peter but due to classic circumstances of growing up, grew apart. Josie finds her way into the “popular crowd” even though she constantly feels like a fraud. Her life looks perfect from the outside, but she’s so unhappy inside. Since I’m not a mom yet or a male detective, I always found Josie to be the most relatable character. This time around, I was even more struck by the complexity of Josie’s feelings and her relationship with her boyfriend Matt. Without spoilers, I am always so charmed by him at points and terrified by others. Yet I’m always still so shocked by the end. 

This book is also extremely well researched, as are all of Picoult’s books. I think this book sticks with me so deeply is because I read it while I was a young person still attending school but now as an adult, I worry even more about gun violence. 

This book is hard to get through. I grew up 20 minutes from Sandy Hook Elementary School. I had read this book before that horrific day and can’t even imagine the horror those six year olds faced. I will never understand gun violence. If you’re looking to get involved or donate to prevention, here’s a link for Mom’s Demand Action.

Have you read Nineteen Minutes? Or any of Picoult’s other books? I was mostly inspired to write this review since I just finished A Spark of Light. And well, I have thoughts on that one. I’ll include a mini review of it tomorrow, so be on the lookout for that!

Have a great Thursday!

I always want to start these posts with “Happy________(enter day of the week).” I hope it’s not redundant, but I believe in celebrating the little things. Halfway through the week is an exciting thing! I thought I’d share what I’ve been diving into this week. 

Seven Days of Us by Francesca Hornak 

I’ve been listening to this audiobook while on the subway and walking through the city. It’s about a family at their estate in England during Christmas time. Honestly, I don’t love audiobooks. Sometimes they can be great, but my mind tends to wonder a bit. However, my library on Overdrive only had it available via audiobook. 

The Man Who Invented Christmas by Lee Standiford

I’m a little disappointed with this just because I had different expectations. I thought it was going to be a work of historical fiction because there was a movie released last December. I wasn’t really in the mood for another biography after The Good Neighbor. I may shelf this one for now. 

What I Want to Read

This Christmas by Jane Green

I haven’t started this one yet! It just became available to me last night so I think I’ll probably give it a try tonight. I’m all for festive books to get you in the mood. Plus I think it’s nice to read about other families’ traditions and get ideas for your own celebrations! 

Winter in Paradise by Elin Hilderbrand

Okay. I’m not reading this one yet. I am saving it for next week when I can read it uninterrupted over Thanksgiving! I can’t wait! This is one of the books I chose to buy this year, so I hope it stands against the Winter Street series. I reread that series every year and LOVE it. The Quinn family is so dear to me. A lot of people have said that this is Elin’s best book yet…that’s a lot of pressure! 

What are you reading this week? I want to find ways to connect more and have more discussions. Leave me your ideas below or comment on my latest instagram post!

I read The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas back in August and if you are one of the few people who still haven’t read it, READ IT. I haven’t seen the movie yet so I can’t say how it compares, but I definitely will do a follow up when I finally do!

This is going in my top 10 favorite books of all time list. I kid you not, I finished this book in less than 24 hours because I canceled plans on a Friday night to stay home and finish it. If you haven’t heard of it, read it, or seen the publicity for the movie yet…are you sure you don’t live under a rock? I LOVED reading this book. I learned so much as a white person and couldn’t help but feel mortified for my younger self who did not understand the gravity of my words or actions. 

“That’s the problem. We let people say stuff and they say it so much that it becomes okay for them and normal for us. What’s the point of having a voice if you’re gonna be silent in those moments you shouldn’t be?” 

I’m late to the game on this one, but if you have not read The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, stop what you are doing and read it now. This is another book that is going on my Required Reading for the Human Race list. Seriously, please give it a read. The film will be released in October if reading isn’t your thing, but I still encourage you all to read it first. I read it in less than 24 hours. Illuminating, painful, and most disturbingly, real. .

Starr Carter is a 16 year old black girl caught between two worlds and two Starr’s. Her home self, in her neighborhood of Garden Heights surrounded by people who look and sound like her, were raised like her. And her school self, at Williamson in the rich white suburbs. She has to act a certain way, she feels, not wanting to be labeled “ghetto” or the “Angry Black Girl.” She and her childhood best friend, who haven’t seen much of each other since Starr switched schools, are driving one night when a cop pulls them over. This is an intimate look into the story we’ve seen on the news too many times, from the side they refuse to show. .

I don’t want to give too much plot away, but this is one of the finest books I’ve ever read. Last summer I read Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult and it changed my life. The Hate U Give has gone even deeper. I am a white girl from the suburbs of Connecticut. I went to private school my whole life and have a 4 year degree from a private university. I have privileges I don’t even know about half the time. I recommend this book to every.single.white.person. You will thank yourself. .

Happy Friday! This has been an INSANE week and I can’t believe I made it honestly. I want to start a little series here for Fridays where I share any books I finished this week, what I’m looking forward to, and any other little tidbits. Maybe even a recommendation of the week? Let me know what you’d like to see! 

Books Finished: The Good Neighbor by Maxwell King. Read my review here. 

Currently: A Spark of Light by Jodi Picoult 

Next Up: I can’t decide! I posted on my instagram (@readandwright) yesterday a question of the day and I want to put it on here as well! What book are you saving for your final book of 2018? I really want to read Winter in Paradise next, but I also kind of want to save it for the day after Thanksgiving and just enjoy it in one sitting in front of the fire. What do you think I should do? 

New Releases: Joanna Gaines’ new book was released this week! I checked out Homebody when I stopped at the bookstore yesterday and it looks beautiful. It’s definitely a coffee table book, but my fiancé and I are moving next year so I think it will be the perfect inspiration to decorate our new home! 

Weekend Goal: I’d like to finish A Spark of Light this weekend, but I have a bit of a hectic weekend so I don’t know how much reading will get done. 

Weekend Plans: I think we are going to finally see The Hate U Give this weekend! Nick has been traveling a lot for work and I promised I see it with him. He’s home for a quick stop this weekend before heading back on the road and I can’t wait to see him! 

I saw an advanced screening of Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald last weekend and was thinking of typing up a review of it. I know it’s not a book turned movie, but it is in the Harry Potter world! I’d save to post it next week, after the movie has been released to the public. Would anyone be interested in that? 

Have a great weekend! 

I wasn’t planning on being stuck on The Good Neighbor for so long, but it ended up being way more of a detailed biography than I anticipated based on the introduction. The introduction of this book was so sweet and moving. My fiancé can attest that I was tearing up when I was reading it in the car. Typically, I get through 2-3 books a week but as with JEFFERSON’S DAUGHTERS (which I read back in October. I wasn’t impressed with it but did learn a lot.) it took me a lot longer than that. It took me a week and two days to get through it. 

If you want to know more about the life of Fred Rogers behind the scenes of the show and how the show worked, I totally recommend this book. I grew up watching Mister Roger’s Neighborhood and it holds such a sentimental place in my heart. I think I wanted the book to be more of a tribute to his work (which in actuality, it is) instead of a recitation of facts. It felt a *little* dry to me; the writing didn’t pull me in and make me feel like I had to keep reading. 

There are definitely moments that stand out, like the introduction and final chapters. I was fascinated to learn about his childhood in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pittsburgh. Fred Rogers was raised as an only child until he was eleven years old and was incredibly shy; he often turned to his own puppet theatre and the few friends he had for socialization. These puppet friends inspired the Neighborhood of Make-Believe and characters like Daniel Striped Tiger, King Friday, and Henrietta Pussycat. 

Reading this book made me reflect a lot on who I am and my own childhood. Mister Rogers was committed to enriching early childhood education through the medium of television. This book details his early career with NBC when television first began. I was incredibly impressed with the precision and effort put into every single detail of his programming, especially his commitment to restrict any advertisements aimed at children from appearing during commercial breaks. Rogers was so deeply committed to respecting children and what they could and could not digest mentally. 

In the age of technology, it really makes you think. We didn’t watch Sesame Street, which premiered around the same time as The Neighborhood and was much more colorful and fast paced. I would have to say I’m a pretty even tempered and thoughtful person (unless you really rile me up, then I’m gonna stand up for myself). I can’t help but wonder if my innate curiosity and love of reading was fostered by the slow paced, “reality” established in Rogers’ show.

Mister Rogers was a great man but I do have respect for the author in that he was not afraid to disclose some of Fred’s short comings and mistakes. Since he was an only child until his parents adopted his little sister Laney, throughout his life Fred always had a problem with having to be in control in every situation and getting his way. Honestly, I was most fascinated with the psychology discussed in this book. It really has made me look at my own childhood and who I am today due to what I was exposed to. 

I work with a lot of children. I’ve babysat since I was twelve years old, worked in children’s theatre, and taught in a school setting. The programming Mister Rogers created was so thoughtful that I truly think it should be one of the only things children are allowed to watch. Rogers respected children and knew how to communicate with them to make them feel heard. If you grew up watching his show, you’ll love learning so much more about the man behind the puppets. 

I’m going to give this book 4/5 stars and caution anyone who doesn’t like extremely fact oriented work maybe to skip this one. It can feel a bit dry but the special moments are so heart warming I really don’t think most readers will mind. It is long as well so if you’re a slow reader trying to finish up your yearly goal, maybe save this one for 2019 or when the movie version (starring Tom Hanks!) comes out. 

Did you grow up watching Mister Rogers Neighborhood? Let me know! 

I read EDUCATED back in September after waiting for quite some time for it. It was definitely a hot topic book for the year and I’m so glad I finally read it! I think books like this and THE HILLBILLY ELEGY are really important. Living in one of the most liberal cities in America and growing up in a blue state, I’ve spent a lot of the last two years wondering how our country has gotten to the point it has; I would be one of those “coastal elites” the news likes to talk about. After reading both ELEGY and EDUCATED, I think I can understand a little more how the current administration came to power. 

Tara Westover never went to school. Her father believed that public education brainwashed children to suit the government agenda. I had different expectations for this book than it turned out to really be about. It had a slow start for me due to my expectations, but once I found my stride within it’s pages I couldn’t put it down. This is a book about challenging our upbringing and finding our own voice, even when it’s difficult. 

I think the moment that hit me the hardest was after Tara worked so hard to teach herself enough information to get the appropriate SAT scores to apply to Brigham Young University, she arrives to a complete culture shock. In the middle of a class she reads a word in a book that she has never seen or heard of, so she raises her hand to ask her professor. The professor is embarrassed and shocked, ignores the question, and continues his lesson amid the anger of the fellow students. The only friend Tara has tells her at the end of the lesson that she doesn’t want to work with her anymore and that she shouldn’t joke about such things. The word Tara didn’t know? Holocaust. 

She had grown up in a community that rewrote history in order to suit its needs.

Even though I was quite far into the memoir at this point, this is when everything really clicked for me. There are people in this country who do not know the real history of the world because they have been secluded in an area that has created its own facts to suit their agenda. I’m writing this review on Election Day 2018 actually and it’s kind of clouding my ability to provide adequate, unbiased information. 

Here’s why I loved this book and I recommend it: it makes you think and I admired Tara’s story. Even though it created a rift between her and her parents, even though it was the hardest thing she had to do in her life, she sought out the outside world and formed her own opinions. This book inspired me to really look at the way I was raised and if I believed everything my parents told me. Did I when I was young? Yes. But then I grew up and experienced other parts of the world and learned more.

I’m trying to keep this about the book and not get too personal, but I think everyone should read it. Even just for the shock to learn that Tara didn’t have a birth certificate until she was 9. She had to ask for it, and learned that many of her siblings weren’t registered either; Tara’s father believed that the government was using things like social security and the medical system to further a political agenda. They hardly went to the doctor, using at home homeopathic methods concocted by Tara’s mother. 

Tara’s father devoted his life to preparing for the End of Days. They canned food in the summers to stash away when the second coming finally arrived; he believed they would be the only ones prepared and their family would survive. The chapter on Y2K was particularly enlightening and I even found myself feeling oddly bad for Tara’s father. He has devoted his life and energy to preparing to keeping his family safe when the world ended. His devastation that he was wrong kind of made me tear up, even if I thought he was crazy the whole book. Though Tara went to a Mormon university, I don’t think she was technically raised as a mormon. I believe they were Christians and “survivalists”, but don’t quote me. 

I learned a lot from this book even if this review is scattered. I got this book from the library so I wasn’t able to make notes in it to annotate. Have you read EDUCATED? Let me know if you’d like to see a review of THE HILLBILLY ELEGY as well. 

Continuing with Kevin Kwan’s trilogy (NYPL, please let me get a copy of Rich People Problems soon!) I want to review CHINA RICH GIRLFRIEND today! If you haven’t read it yet, this may contain spoilers. Read at your own risk! 

I actually enjoyed this book more than Crazy Rich Asians. I think Kwan hit his stride in writing about these characters. The money talk does get exhausting and there wasn’t as much about Nick and Rachel as I would have liked, BUT this Astrid storyline gave me LIFE. She was my favorite secondary character from the first book. I’d definitely recommend reading this and it’s made me want to finish the series as well.

We begin two years after the end of the first book. Nick and Rachel are living in New York, preparing to head to California for their wedding (!!!). Nick hasn’t spoken to his family in all that time and has gone to great lengths to keep his mother from discovering their wedding date and location. Given how it went when he brought Rachel to Singapore, I can’t blame him. But obviously, Radio One Asia makes sure Eleanor knows everything. 

Eleanor isn’t a big player in this book. We really only see her at the beginning of the novel, which oddly disappointed me. Basically, Eleanor discovers the true identity of Rachel’s father and brings him to the wedding, where he invites the newlyweds to spend the summer in China with him. Spoiler alert: he’s crazy rich and Rachel has a brother! Who’s mother is not pleased with the discovery that her husband fathered a child in his teen years. 

What ensues is a summer of drama for Nick and Rachel, with introductions to new colorful characters like Colette and Carlton in addition to Rachel’s successful businessman father. Back in Singapore, we learn that Astrid and Michael are not as happy as the rest of the world seems. 

Michael’s tech start up has made him his own fortune and Astrid feels their marriage issues have been solved. Michael has his own money to be proud of now, or so she thought. I’m gonna be blunt and just say it: Michael is an asshole. In the first book, I wrote him off anyway because any man that is intimidated by a woman’s money is no man to me. Like dude, come on! The way he speaks to Astrid in this book drove me BONKERS and the way she defended him made even more upset. Granted, that have a child and I know she was just hoping the man she married as somehow still inside this money focused monster. There is a silver lining in Charlie Wu. Ugh, dreamy. I can’t wait to see how they incorporate him into the second movie!

We have a few Peik Lin moments that shine through, but definitely not enough. But the drama is definitely not as “high stakes” in my opinion, until it becomes literally life threatening. 

Overall, I loved this book and I am so glad I read it. I’ve heard Rich People Problems is even better and that people have flown through it! I can’t wait to get a copy, but from the waitlist at the library, I think it may have to way til 2019 to get my hands on a copy!