Books I Read – March 2022

I have finally (I hope) found a routine that is working pretty well for reading listening to audio books. Something made me look at the eBooks available for my local pubic library and then I noticed audio books. I ended up checking out this first one and have found listening to them while I get ready for work in the morning and trying to make sure I get through an hour each day seems to be a habit, I’m enjoying and can stick with.

I’ll Be There (But I’ll Be Wearing Sweatpants): Finding Unfiltered, Real-Life Friendships in This Crazy, Chaotic World by Amy Weatherly, Jess Johnston

(3 stars)

I follow Amy Weatherly on Facebook. She is so funny and inspirational, so when she started talking about her book I knew I wanted to read it. I wanted to love this book and I did love parts of it. Amy and her coauthor, Jess, take turns reading the chapters they actually wrote. I loved the chapters Amy read, but when Jess started reading her chapters, she’s quite monotone and just harder to listen to. I did love to hear that finding and keeping friends as an adult it hard. The stories they share about their own lives, had me laughing and shaking my head in agreement. They give some pretty decent advice and while it’s nothing earth shattering, it’s always good to hear those reminders. I do recommend this book. It may actually come across better if you read it instead of listening to the audio books.

The Wife Upstairs: A Novel by Rachel Hawkins

(2 stars)

I went into this book not realizing this it was set in Birmingham, AL, so I did find that interesting. The Wife Upstairs is apparently influenced by the plot and characters from Charlotte Bronte’s “Jane Eyre,” which I have not read. In this story, Jane had recently relocated to Birmingham, AL where she walks dogs for rich-folks in a hoity-toity neighborhood. This is where she meets a handsome guy named Eddie, who she thinks doesn’t fit the mold of the other men in that neighborhood. As Jane gets to know Eddie, she finds out that a few months before his wife, Bea along with her best friend, Blanche, were killed in boating accident. Blah blah blah! Ugh! This book…first fiction book I’ve ‘read’ in audio form. I didn’t love this story, but like so many books or shows I keep thinking this has to have a good ending! Trying not to spoil it for you, but this story is nauseatingly predictable. And the overuse of the “f” word also had me just annoyed. I was generous with the 2 stars!

The Good Son: A Novel by Jacquelyn Mitchard

(3.5 stars)

The book starts “I was picking my son up at the prison gates when I spotted the mother of the girl he had murdered.” So that grabbed my attention, but the deeper I got into the novel, I continued to question if I was really loving it. The story is told by Thea, the mom of Stephan, who was convicted of murdering his girlfriend, Belinda. Although he remembers nothing from that night due to being high from taking a myriad of drugs. I found this story to be believable and thought provoking. A lot of emotion occurs from numerous characters. I enjoyed the intense thrilling descriptions of a hooded figure that continues to haunt Thea and family, as well as some crazy phone calls from a girl named Esme. The thing that kept me reading was just where is this story going, something big has to happen. The ending was actually not as I had predicted, which made reading the book worth it.

I’m curious to know if you’ve read any of these and what you thought?