What I Read - June 2023

This month was a slow month for me in the reading department. I was back and forth between my hometown and Eau Claire more often than I usually am for some family time (cousins were in town and a little bro graduated!) and the Taylor Swift concert (an amazing top ten experience)! The trips home on top of work did not give me a ton of reading time, but I did manage to sneak four books into the month.

Girl, Stop Apologizing

Rachel Hollis

I have had this book in my TBR pile for YEARS and finally got around to cracking it open. Self-help books usually take me ages to get through simply because I'm not getting lost in another world and losing track of time, but that doesn't mean I don't enjoy them! I ended up enjoying Girl, Stop Apologizing more than I usually enjoy self-help books, too. Hollis's tone was so upbeat and unapologetic, and she didn't try to hide behind her truths. She owned every little good and bad and ugly about herself, and my experience with self-help books is usually not like that. She has some actually useful tips, encouragement, and advice for her readers and doesn't adopt the mindset that a lot of other self-help book authors seem to take on in their writing. By this, I mean the "don't worry anyone can do it just get up and do all the things NOW", and I don't find this kind of mindset helpful. Hollis, though the encouragement was there, also acknowledged that it can be really hard and you will make hundreds if not thousands of mistakes before you get to your goal. Overall, I liked that Girl, Stop Apologizing seemed a lot more personable, and it helps that Hollis also has a large social media presence where she's able to interact with her readers, followers, and fans.

Say What You Will

Cammie McGovern

I have very mixed feelings about this book. I LOVE that Amy, the main character, had a severe disability that affected her every way of life. I don't think I've ever read a book where the main character, much less a supporting character, has Cerebral Palsy, and I think the representation of it, for the most part, was fantastic. There were a few things that, though not impossible or unrealistic, also made the main character continuously seem like a miracle baby (the doctors predicting she would never walk without her walker and her mom basically saying "no not my daughter" and forcing her to learn how to walk), and I felt like this aspect put it in an "if you try hard enough you can" motto, whereas this is not always the case. Though I loved the representation of a main character with a disability, the character development throughout the story and the relationships were lacking. Amy and Matthew, the best friend and love interest, were set up to have such an immense relationship growth, but I felt like it didn't go very deep. There were deep things that happened to them as friends and leading up to being more than friends, but I didn't feel those emotions as I was reading about those moments. It was very surface level in my opinion, which made it an easy read, but it's not going to be a book I think about for years to come.

Pride and Prejudice

Jane Austen

It's almost embarrassing to admit that I just now got around to reading one of the classics of the classics. The older dialect definitely made it tricky to read from time to time simply because I didn't always understand what was being talked about, but I still loved the relationship development between Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy. A slow burn enemies to lovers has got to be one of my favorite tropes, especially when it's the man who falls first and/or falls harder. I also happened to binge watch Bridgerton while reading this, so for a while I really was just lost in that time period. It definitely took some time to get used to how relationships and marriage were gone about, but the love story was not any less impactful because of that. I loved getting to read Elizabeth slowly fall in love with Mr. Darcy and not even realize she's in love with him until she has been for a while. I'm so happy it ended up working out between them and even happier that I can now check this book off as read!

Bedtime Adventure Stories For Grown Ups

Anna McNuff

I snagged this book on Amazon sometime last year, mostly for the pretty cover but also for the adventures:) McNuff's stories and adventures got me more excited about travel than I usually am, and that's saying something! One of my favorite parts about her short stories was how unique, simple, and spontaneous a lot of them were. It wasn't some around-the-world trip where she spent countless amounts of money on adventures that most of us wouldn't be able to afford. I loved the one where she would get a group together each Wednesday night and go camping in a nearby county at a beautiful location. The ability to have these little adventures so close to home and share them with friends each week gives me so much joy, and it makes me want to do something similar. I'm a sucker for adventure and travel (big or small), so this was by far my favorite book that I read this month.

Hopefully, I'll have more books on the list in July, because I'm definitely having a reading withdrawal from this past month. My work schedule will be the determiner, though, so may the odds be ever in my favor! Thank you all for reading:)

Please note: Each book title is an affiliate link, and at no additional cost to you, I earn a commission if you choose to purchase a book. There is no pressure from me to do this; the choice is entirely yours!