Happy Wednesday, book friends! It’s a crisp, sunny morning and Azula and I have already gone for a quick morning run to celebrate the fact that it is not raining.

As predicted, my weekend away meant less reading time but I still have some updates to share for this week’s reading check in. Let’s get to it!

Recent Reads

I finished Sarah Penner’s The London Séance Society and regret to report that I’ve joined the camp of readers who found the book a bit disappointing. I’ve got a review slated to go up tomorrow, so stay tuned for my in-depth thoughts.

I also wrapped up Anti-Diet, which was great as an overtview of the harms and falsehoods of diet culture, but which fell short on actual actionable tips for breaking up with it. My review for that one went up last week.

Current Reads

Wrapping up two books means exciting new reads on the horizon!

Fiction-wise, I picked up Melissa Ferguson’s Famous For a Living* next. I’m so excited to have a NetGalley approval on this one, and I am enjoying it so far. I will say, I don’t know if it’s just me, but the eARC formatting is terrible and definitely adding a layer of struggle to my reading experience. The publisher logo just ranodmly breaks up pages all over the place! Still, I’m enjoying this story of a disgraced influencer trying to figure out what’s next.

Nonfiction-wise, I’ve got two reads going. I finally picked up Michelle Tea’s Modern Tarot, which examines the energy of each of the 78 cards of the traditional Rider-Waite-Smith deck. For me, I find that it’s best to read about one or two cards and sit with them rather than read several at once, so I decided to add a second nonfiction read to my mornings.

That second book is the highly anticipated (for me) Women Without Kids by Ruby Warrington. I just started it this morning, so not much to report yet, except that I am already very into it.

Up Next & On to You

I’ve got some ARC catchup to do, so I think I’ll be focusing on my NetGalley shelves for a bit trying to stay ahead of release dates as much as possible. I have a few physical copies lying around as well, so I’ll be a book reviewing machine for the forseeable future.

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

Happy Wednesday, book friends! This week is off to a warm and sunny start, which has me in a relatively good mood. 

It doesn’t hurt that I got my color streak redone at my hair appointment yesterday, which means I sat in a chair by the window with my book and foil in my hair for about an hour in total. I was somehow the only customer in the salon during the entire two hours, and it was an introvert’s best case scenario. 

Afterwards, I went to my favorite pizza place from before we moved, since my hair dresser is in my old neighborhood. Same story — only customer, seat by the window, with my book. In all, a really solid way to spend a Tuesday afternoon and basically everything I imagined the freedom of freelancing/working part time from home would bring me. 

All that reading time means plenty of updates this week. Let’s get to it!

(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 finally finished Witches of America. Please applaud. 

It was hard to get through in part because it wasn’t the book I expected and partly because a lot of what happens is just kind of… weird. No judgement to the people who hold these particular beliefs but it definitely took me out of my personal comfort zone to read about some of the practices. In all, I didn’t really care much for the book, which I explore in my full review here.

I also finished Rachel Lynn Solomon’s Weather Girl. It was a cute read with some nice exploration of mental health, but something about it just didn’t take it to that next level for me. I sort of lost interest about half way in, but kept going because I was curious to see how things would pan out. I liked it, but didn’t love it the way a lot of people seem to. 

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Current Reads

I decided to take a break from witchy/spiritual reads for my morning nonfiction time and instead picked up Christy Harrison’s Anti-Diet: Reclaim Your Time, Money, Well-Being, and Happiness Through Intuitive Eating. (Content note: Next paragraph talks a bit about body image and food, so please skip if that might be triggering for you read)

As someone who hit puberty early and spent a lot of time feeling “too big” compared to her peers, I still struggle with body image and the temptation to diet, even though I know it isn’t actually good for your health. It felt like a good time to learn a bit more about the history of diet culture and how to actually engage in health promoting behaviors. I’m really enjoying it so far, and even though I’m relatively well versed in this topic at this point, I’m still learning new things.

On the fiction side of things, I dove right in to Juno Dawson’s Her Majesty’s Royal Coven, and I am loving it so far! It’s what I spent my afternoon reading at the hair salon yesterday, and it is just… so good. The perfect blend of magic and modernity that I was apparently craving without realizing it. Also, the paperback is the perfect floppy soft kind that I just love reading. 

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Up Next & On to You

I am pretty pleased with how many books I’ve actually been reading off my TBR cart so far this year, but I do definitey owe my NetGalley shelf and the couple of physical arcs I’ve got some attention. So, I’ll be on to those after I finish my current reads. 

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