The Library at the Edge of the World by Felicity Hayes-McCoy

 The Library at the Edge of the World by Felicity Hayes-McCoy

368 pages

★★★

As she drives her mobile library van between villages of Ireland's West Coast, recently divorced Hanna Casey is determined to reclaim her independence by restoring a derelict cottage left to her by her great-aunt. But when the threatened closure of the Lissbeg Library puts her personal plans in jeopardy, Hanna finds herself leading a battle to restore the heart and soul of the Finfarran Peninsula's fragmented community. And she's about to discover that the neighbors she'd always kept at a distance have come to mean more to her than she ever could have imagined.

Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren

 Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren

420 pages

★★★★

Macy Sorensen is settling into an ambitious if emotionally tepid routine: work hard as a new pediatrics resident, plan her wedding to an older, financially secure man, keep her head down and heart tucked away. 

But when she runs into Elliot Petropoulos--the first and only love of her life--the careful bubble she's constructed begins to dissolve. Once upon a time, Elliot was Macy's entire world--growing from her gangly bookish friend into the man who coaxed her heart open again after the loss of her mother...only to break it on the very night he declared his love for her.

People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry

 

People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry

364 pages

★★★★

Lifelong friends but complete opposites, Poppy and Alex have taken vacations together every year since college. Until two years ago when their vacation went awry and they haven’t spoken since.

Poppy feels like her life and job are in a rut so she reaches out to Alex and they decide to plan another vacation together. Now she has a week to fix everything. If only she can get around the one big truth that has always stood quietly in the middle of their seemingly perfect relationship.

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

 The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

305 pages

★★★★

Bilbo Baggins is a hobbit who enjoys a comfortable, unambitious life, rarely travelling further than the pantry of his hobbit-hole in Bag End. But his contentment is disturbed when the wizard, Gandalf, and a company of thirteen dwarves arrive on his doorstep one day, to whisk him away on a journey ‘there and back again’. They have a plot to raid the treasure hoard of Smaug the Magnificent, a large and very dangerous dragon…

I loved the adventure this book took me on and all the characters are so silly and loveable.

Josh and Hazel’s Guide to Not Dating by Christina Lauren

Josh and Hazel’s Guide to Not Dating by Christina Lauren

320 pages

★★★

Hazel Camille Bradford knows she's a lot to take-and frankly, most men aren't up to the challenge. 

Josh Im has known Hazel since college, where her zany playfulness proved completely incompatible with his mellow restraint. Josh has always thought of Hazel more as a spectacle than a peer. But now, ten years later, after a cheating girlfriend has turned his life upside down, going out with Hazel is a breath of fresh air.

Not that Josh and Hazel date. At least, not each other. Because setting each other up on progressively terrible double blind dates means there's nothing between them...right?

My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

 My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

226 pages

★★★★★

Korede is bitter. How could she not be? Her sister, Ayoola, is many things: the favorite child, the beautiful one, possibly sociopathic. And now Ayoola's third boyfriend in a row is dead.

Korede's practicality is the sisters' saving grace. She knows the best solutions for cleaning blood, the trunk of her car is big enough for a body, and she keeps Ayoola from posting pictures of her dinner to Instagram when she should be mourning her "missing" boyfriend. Not that she gets any credit.

Korede has long been in love with a kind, handsome doctor at the hospital where she works. She dreams of the day when he will realize that she's exactly what he needs. But when he asks Korede for Ayoola's phone number, she must reckon with what her sister has become and how far she's willing to go to protect her.

The Littlest Library by Poppy Alexander

 The Littlest Library by Poppy Alexander

336 pages

★★★★

Jess Metcalf is perfectly content with her quiet, predictable life. But when her beloved grandmother passes away and she loses her job at the local library, Jess' life is turned upside down.

Determined to pick up the pieces, Jess decides it's time for a new beginning. Unable to part with her grandmother's cherished books, she packs them all up and moves to a tiny cottage in the English countryside. To her surprise, Jess discovers that she's now the owner of an old red phone box that was left on the property. Missing her job at the local library, Jess decides to give back to her new community—using her grandmother's collection to turn the ordinary phone box into the littlest library in England.

The Strange Library by Haruki Murakami

 The Strange Library by Haruki Murakami

96 pages

★★★

Opening the flaps on this unique little book, readers will find themselves immersed in the strange world of best-selling Haruki Murakami's wild imagination. The story of a lonely boy, a mysterious girl, and a tormented sheep man plotting their escape from a nightmarish library, the book is like nothing else Murakami has written.

The Library Book by Susan Orlean

 The Library Book by Susan Orlean

336 pages

★★★★★

Orlean chronicles the 1986 Los Angeles Public Library fire and its aftermath to showcase the larger, crucial role that libraries play in our lives; delves into the evolution of libraries across the country and around the world, from their humble beginnings as a metropolitan charitable initiative to their current status as a cornerstone of national identity; brings each department of the library to vivid life through on-the-ground reporting; studies arson and attempts to burn a copy of a book herself; reflects on her own experiences in libraries; and reexamines the case of Harry Peak, the blond-haired actor long suspected of setting fire to the LAPL more than thirty years ago.

84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff

84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff

97 pages

★★★★★

This charming classic love story, first published in 1970, brings together twenty years of correspondence between Helene Hanff, at the time, a freelance writer living in New York City, and a used-book dealer in London at 84, Charing Cross Road. Through the years, though never meeting and separated both geographically and culturally, they share a winsome, sentimental friendship based on their common love for books. Their relationship, captured so acutely in these letters, is one that has touched the hearts of thousands of readers around the world.

The Banned Bookshop of Maggie Banks by Shauna Robinson

The Banned Bookshop of Maggie Banks by Shauna Robinson

336 pages

★★★★

When Maggie Banks arrives in Bell River to run her best friend's struggling bookstore, she expects to sell bestsellers to her small-town clientele. But running a bookstore in a town with a famously bookish history isn't easy. Bell River's literary society insists on keeping the bookstore stuck in the past, and Maggie is banned from selling anything written this century. So, when a series of mishaps suddenly tip the bookstore toward ruin, Maggie will have to get creative to keep the shop afloat.

To help save the store, Maggie starts an underground book club, running a series of events celebrating the books readers actually love. But keeping the club quiet, selling forbidden books, and dodging the literary society is nearly impossible. Especially when Maggie unearths a town secret that could upend everything. 

Maggie will have to decide what's more important: the books that formed a small town's history, or the stories poised to change it all.

 

The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer by Janelle Monáe and others

The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer by Janelle Monáe and others

331 pages

★★★

Singer and actress Janelle Monáe brings the Afrofuturistic world presented in her album Dirty Computer to life in this collection of science fiction stories written in collaboration with Yohanca Delgado, Eve L. Ewing, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Danny Lore, Sheree Renée Thomas. 

Memories are controlled by a totalitarian government and anyone with memories or self expressions that the New Dawn doesn’t approve of are “wiped” and memories are erased. A memory librarian is a keeper of everyone’s memories, but one librarian breaks free from the shackles of the government and this begins a revolution.

Despite being a little difficult to follow at times, this collection of short stories had an interesting perspective on politics, race, and LGBTQ+ struggles.

Unfiltered: No Shame, No Regrets, Just Me. by Lily Collins

 Unfiltered: No Shame, No Regrets, Just Me. by Lily Collins

240 pages

★★★

Star of Emily in Paris, The Mortal Instruments, To the Bone, and Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, Lily Collins deep dives into the struggles from her life in this memoir. A collection of essays, Collins focuses on different aspects of her life, such as her abusive relationships, eating disorders, and family.

This was an interesting short read. I enjoy Collins’ acting and knew about her eating disorders from her role in To the Bone so I wanted to give this memoir a shot. It was published in 2017 so it’s a little out of date, but mostly I can just tell she’s a millennial because she uses the word “quirky” so often. Besides the first chapter, this was a good read.

The Snail-Watcher and Other Stories by Patricia Highsmith

The Snail-Watcher and Other Stories by Patricia Highsmith

169 pages

★★★★

This collection of short stories was brought to my attention by quotes from The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey. Each story more and more unsettling with strange characters and even stranger events, this collection is eerie and gripping.

The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren

 The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren

400 pages

★★★★

When Olive’s twin sister’s wedding gets ruined by food poisoning, she is forced to go on her sister’s honeymoon because it was a nonrefundable honeymoon to Hawaii. But the groom’s brother, Ethan, was also told he should take advantage of the free trip, and it just so happens that Olive and Ethan hate each other. Deciding to go together but spend the whole time apart, they begin their 10 day fake honeymoon. Spending so much time near each other makes them realize the reasons they hated each other weren’t what they thought they were.

This was another cozy romance that I enjoyed, but there was a lot of focus on the main character’s weight that wasn’t necessary so I didn’t appreciate that aspect of it.

Neon Gods by Katee Robert

 

Neon Gods by Katee Robert

369 pages

★★★★★

In modern-day Olympus, Persephone must wear a happy, bubbly mask at all times as the daughter of one of the members of the 13 leaders, but she is counting down the days until she can leave Olympus and chase her dreams of going to college. However, her mother and the 13 have other plans for her when they announce that she is to be married to the powerful Zeus, who everyone fears and whose previous wives have disappeared. Persephone runs away and crosses the river into the lower city, right into Hade’s arms. Hades was thought to be a myth until then, but Persephone makes a deal with the dark god to take down Zeus together.

The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams

The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams

373 pages

★★★

Finding a sticky note with a list of classic books, Aleisha has to work at the struggling public library to help her brother take care of their mom. Mukesh finds an overdue library book among his wife’s things after she’s passed. They meet at the local library and help each other through their struggles through books and friendship.

This was just a random audiobook I saw on hoopla that sounded decent and it lived up to that expectation. It wasn’t bad but it didn’t blow my socks off. It was pretty cute but I found myself bored pretty often. I would recommend it as a simple, cozy read.

The Assassin's Blade by Sarah J Maas

 The Assassin’s Blade by Sarah J. Maas

448 pages

★★★★

Prequel novellas to the popular Throne of Glass series, this collection gives more context to how Celaena Sardothien was sent to the prison camp, Endovier. Starting with Calaena and another assassin in her group, Sam, being sent to make a deal with the Pirate Lord. The stories go on to show the relationship between Sam and Calaena grow from enemies to trusting each other more than anyone.

While some of these stories felt unnecessary, it did ultimately answer some of the questions I’ve had and it showed how different Celaena was before her year in prison, including her first love. 

The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill

The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill

288 pages

★★★★

In this thriller, four strangers become friends after they all hear a scream in the library while sitting at the same table. After a body is found, the four strangers as they try to discover who the killer was. They come to discover that the killer was one of them.

This book had its ups and downs but overall I would say it was pretty good. The mystery was well-written and I enjoyed the characters but Gentill tried to add a unique element to the novel by writing it as a manuscript being sent to an editor and the editor’s notes in return, which revealed to be a mystery in itself. It was an interesting concept but it felt too meta for me because the main character in the manuscript was ALSO a writer and it just got confusing. Also the end of that mystery ended abruptly and didn’t have much suspense to it, so it felt unnecessary by the end.

Book Lovers by Emily Henry

Book Lovers by Emily Henry

377 pages

★★★★★

This romance novel by popular author Emily Henry pokes fun at its own genre by making the characters work in publishing and self-aware of all the common romance tropes. Nora Stephens is a literary agent who lives in the Big Apple and is your stereotypical New York business woman, and Charlie Lastra is a big-shot editor who is your stereotypical cold businessman. When Nora’s sister, Libby, drags them to small town Sunshine Falls for a month-long getaway and to push Nora to have a small-town romance like in the books, Nora wants to do nothing but work and go home. That is, until she runs into Charlie working at the local bookstore. 

As someone who doesn’t normally read or enjoy romance, I was surprised how much I loved this book but it hit all the right marks by making it funny, about books, and not too cheesy.