7. It's A Balancing Act
Confronting myself, reading updates (A Little Life), and an author and book that changed my life.
Welcome!
On this weekly newsletter, every - you guessed it - Sunday, we’ll discuss upcoming releases, an author of the week, top 10 books from last week, and recommendations from you. I’ll have a fun book related question somewhere in the post for you to answer as well! To send in your recommendation & review, visit the R&R page. Without further ado, let’s get into this week of The Sunday Reads.
News & Thoughts
Did you get anything bookish for the holidays? If so, what? If not, what is something bookish on your wishlist?
To start off, I deeply apologize for my lack of engagement on this platform. With a new job and the holidays, I haven’t found enough time to be on here as much as I’d like. Actually, I probably could easily scroll through during lunch and after dinner, but I don’t feel like I’ve quite found my place or stride on Substack. On my Instagram, I’ve been lucky enough to create some fantastic friendships and find accounts I love to follow, but on here it’s harder for me. I’m not as confident in my writing as I am in my love and reviews of books. I compare myself more to the career writers I follow on Substack. I am still figuring out the kinks in terms of content I want to add on here. I have a fantastic vision of this newsletter: creating a community of readers where I can talk with you all in the Chat daily, getting dozens of reviews and recommendations sent to my email to post weekly, possibly being able to even interview authors for my Author of the Week section … it’s a dream. One that feeds me to keep pushing through my doubts, knows the only way to improve as a writer is to keep writing, and being honest with myself when I ask if I’m avoiding this platform or I genuinely don’t have time.
Well! Now let’s move on! I read A Little Life over the past two weeks, and if you want to know my thoughts, check out my review here. It’s not that long, and it is one of my favorite reviews ever. Guess what happens when you write from the heart? You write well! All I’ll say here is that it is a mess of contradictions for me - stunning and beautiful and haunting and devastating. My top 10 books of the year are also on my Instagram (shamelessly plugging because I’m extremely active on that account & you’ll get way more in depth and specific reviews; love you all). If you’re planning on rereading all of SJM’s books (like me because I’m crazy) before CC3 releases in a month, you better get cracking! Or you can be like me (a weirdo who apparently loves parenthesis and challenging herself) and try to read all of her books in three weeks. That will definitely be a topic I update you on! I’m scared!
A surprising amount of mystery books & since I skipped last week’s post due to the holidays, I missed getting to announce the release of Ruthless Vows by Rebecca Ross. I’m devastated. So I decided to simply announce it now …
Ruthless Vows by Rebecca Ross (Fantasy): Dec 26, 2023
First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston (Mystery/Thriller): Jan 2, 2024
New Covers
What Lies in the Woods by Kate Alice Marshall (Mystery/Thriller): Jan 2, 2024
Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson (Mystery): Jan 2, 2024
Books I’ve compiled from B&N Top 100, the NYT Bestsellers List, and Amazon Bestsellers in no particular order. I’ve decided to simply add the books I haven’t before, since I’ve caught up to the new additions. If you’re curious, last week’s post can be found here.
The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown (Nonfiction, History)
Murtagh (The Inheritance Cycle #5) by Christopher Paolini (Fantasy)
Betting on You by Lynn Painter (Romance)
To Kill A Shadow by Katherine Quinn (Fantasy)
The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel (Nonfiction, Finance)
This might be incredibly basic of me, but reading Dolly Alderton’s Everything I Know About Love when I was 20 and depressed changed my life. I couldn’t see beyond the darkness I was experiencing. I could only see how much I was failing at everything - friends, school, securing my future, family relationships, dating. I couldn’t see myself being 25 and okay, 30 and getting married, 40 and single. When I read her book, I resonated so deeply with the fear of being alone, the depressive cycle, the scariness of getting older. I was inspired by her time in therapy, learning about grief, overcoming your own fears, being happy in your own skin. I am 22, turning 23 in 3 months, and it is still a struggle everyday. I am on medicine and in therapy, and I still spiral and question myself daily. But more days I am happy, comfortable in my skin. I can see myself on a beach at 25, financially independent, content, and sipping a margarita. I can see myself at 30, walking down the aisle to marry my husband. I can also see myself at 40, single but not alone - I have myself for company after all. The point is that I have learned I will be okay whatever future I have in store, and part of the reason I have been able to learn that is by reading Dolly’s book.
Now that I have gushed about Dolly and her talent for writing, can we appreciate how absolutely stunning this woman is? I look up to her so much. She is an author, journalist, and hosts a podcast. Everything I Know About Love was wildly successful, and she has also written Ghosts and Good Material. As for journalism, this woman has written for a extremely wide variety of publications from The Sunday Times to Cosmopolitan. She cohosts The High Low podcast with her friend Pandora Sykes. Round of applause please! Quite frankly, there is a TON of other things she does, which you can read about here on her website.
I wanted to talk about this book if anyone wants some guidance, and I have heard on good authority her other works are incredible as well.
No review today since our author of the week was kind of combined with a review, just a reminder to submit any books you think others will love on the R&R page or to my email: thesundayreads@gmail.com.
That’s all for today. Much love.
Izzy