Happiest of Wednesdays, book friends! It’s been a bit since I’ve checked in with you, thanks to our guest post last week. Fun fact: I pretty much always have to go back to the previous WWRW post to refresh my memory before diving into the updates. That’s even more true this week, since I haven’t checked in since January 4th. 

It’s been a good reading month so far, which is surprising given how much is going on with my pending career shift and our move. I’m eager to talk books, so let’s get right to the updates.

(Full disclosure: This post uses Bookshop.org affiliate links. Books marked with an asterisk were received as complimentary review copies.)

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Recent Reads

I was feeling like something a little different after I started my year with a romance, so I grabbed Lauren Groff’s Matrix. What a ride! This book follows Marie de France, who is shipped off to an abbey by the woman she loves, Eleanor of Aquitaine. We follow Marie’s life as she becomes abbess, over the span of many years. I really enjoyed this take on life as a nun and on using what power you are able to have as a woman in this time period. My review will be up later this week.

After spending some time with no quotation marks, I was ready for another romance which naturally meant picking up Well Traveled, the latest in Jen DeLuca’s ren faire romance series. I read it in the span of two days, surprising no one. This is a bit slower on the love story in my opinion, but I really appreciated following Lulu’s personal growth as she tries to figure out what’s next for her. I’ve got a review ready to go for this one as well (really on top of it this year so far, which I’m sure will continue… maybe).

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Current Reads

I am finally nearing the end of Kerri Kelly’s American Detox*. This one has been a bit of a struggle and I’m still trying to parse exactly why. It’s always a little overwhelming to read about big systemic issues like racism and inequality, but I think it’s more than that. The tone feels very much like a lecture, and one I’ve heard before. I still think it’s a worthwhile read, hence having not DNF’d the book. 

On audio, I am out of back catalog for my latest podcast obsession so I’m back to audiobooks. I’m nearly finished with Aubrey Gordon’s What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About Fat. It’s been an okay read, but the narrator doesn’t quite work for me and many of the stories included are also discussed on Gordon’s podcast, so it hasn’t been as engaging as I hoped. I was thrilled to see that Gordon narrates her second book on audio, as I always prefer a self-narrated nonfiction read. 

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Up Next & On to You

It’s time to return to the NetGalley queue for my next fiction read, and I’ll be picking up The Rom-Com Agenda*. It came out last week so of course I’m already behind, but I realized I do have a bit of time to get ahead of the next few ARCs in my queue if I read them strategically for once. 

What about you, book friends? What are you reading and how is it treating you? 

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