What We’re Reading Wednesday, November 16th 

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Happiest of Wednesdays, book friends! Yesterday, we got our first serious snow of the winter here in Pittsburgh, and I was predictably grumpy about it. I love a good snow when I can stay inside all day with a book and a blanket, but I don’t appreciate when it shows up during my work day and threatens to make my commute home a nightmare. 

Snow also means I have to reckon with the fullness of what it means that I insisted upon a high energy breed when we were looking for our pup, Azula. Snow or not, she will demand her walks to get out that Australian Cattle Dog/Australian Shepherd mix energy. 

Still, we make the best of the cold and use it as a good excuse to stay in and read (after walkies, of course). I spent the weekend mostly at home, baking bread and reading, with the cuddle pup by my side after a nice trip to the dog park tuckered her out properly. All that reading time means I’ve got some solid updates for this week! 

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


Recent Reads

I finished The No-Show over the weekend, and WOW was I surprised by that twist everyone kept telling me would be coming. I utterly adored this book and think it’s my now my second favorite amongst Beth O’Leary’s romances (after The Flatshare, because I cannot be convinced to resist an epistolary setup). 

My full (and spoiler free) review went up earlier this week, here: “The No-Show” Kept Me Guessing


Current Reads

Now that I have managed to catch up on two entire years’ worth of the most recent podcast I became obsessed with, Maintenance Phase, I’m back at the audiobook game. I am continuing along with Tom Felton’s memoir because I can’t resist the fun stories from the Potter set, though I confess I think this will be one of those relatively forgettable books for me in the end. At this point in the book, he’s just sort of going over his relationship to members of the cast, person by person. While I love being reminded that my childhood crush on Rupert Grint was 100% justified, it’s honestly a bit boring.

In print, I decided it was time to give Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow* a go, given its recent accolade at the Book of the Month book of the year. I’m not too terribly far in, but I am really enjoying it so far. It’s one of the thicker books I’ve picked up this year, so we’ll see how long it takes me to read. 


Up Next & On to You

It’s getting to the part of the year where I’ll be able to carve out a bit of extra reading time, so I’m looking ahead with eager anticipation. I’ll be doing a buddy read of Kiss Her Once for Me with my childhood best friend (and OG book friend) after Thanksgiving. This will spark off a few other holiday themed reads I’m planning as we head into the holiday season. 

I’m also excited to pick up my digital ARC of To Get to the Other Side* by Kelly Ohlert. I haven’t seen too much about this one yet in the bookish internet, so I’m going in with relatively unformed expectations, which I like to do from time to time. 

What about you, book friends? What have you been reading lately, and how is it treating you? 


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Unpopular Book Opinions: Hyped Books I Won’t Read

Happy Monday, book friends! No new books entered my ecosystem this past week, so I’m deviating from my usual Monday content to spill a little bookish tea.

Today, I’m talking about a few hyped books/authors that I have zero interest in reading. Let’s be clear—books are personal preference and I’m not here to say other people shouldn’t enjoy these books. I’m also not above the hype. I read popular books all the time. Just, not these.

Colleen Hoover

CoHo is everywhere, and it’s kind of fascinating. I can’t really recall seeing an author’s entire backlist become so popular so simultaneously. The hype is generally credited to TikTok but I wouldn’t know since my 48 hours on TikTok included me asking aloud “but how do I find BookTok?” The algorithm didn’t answer me.

From what I’ve seen, these books are not for me. I generally don’t go in for thriller-adjacent stories, even if they do have a love story element.

Taylor Jenkins Reid

This is really just me being stubborn, I think. Similar to how I sort of just refuse to be interested in Taylor Swift because people talk about her too much, the hype outpaced my ability to be interested in TJR.

Some of her books sound fine, but none of them are in my wheelhouse enough to interest me.

A Court of Thorns and Roses

The more I see people talking about these books, the more confused I get. I can’t get a good grasp on what they’re actually about, and there’s been enough controversy around the author that I don’t care to find out.

I fully believe I would have read these when I was younger and used to go in for lengthy fantasy stories with a love story element. But I haven’t read much like that recently and I don’t feel called to anymore.


There you have it, my unpopular bookish opinions on authors who just haven’t grabbed my interest despite being very popular on the bookish Internet. I’ll just say again that I’m not here to say these books are bad or that you shouldn’t read them. I’m just saying they don’t seem like my personal cups of tea.

I’m curious—what hyped books or authors just don’t seem like they’re for you?