Everything I Read & Where I Read It: July 13-20
Super busy past week: home in DC with my family; taught a session of GirlsUP, the nonprofit my mom’s run since 2009; and met up with college friends in Ocean City. Very little reading done. Almost none. That’s ok!
The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren
I read this one on my Kindle during our drive from NYC to DC. Scott came up with a complicated plan for our drive down, which involved stopping in Milburn, NJ and running 15 miles in a state park while I did an 8-mile loop. He’s insane! That’s why we love him. We also got amazing sandwiches at Milburn Deli. I don’t usually read in the car–it feels bad, like I’m sleeping or on my phone while Scott’s driving–but he was listening to a podcast that I wasn’t into, so I could justify reading for a bit.
And, as it turns out, I spoke too soon about Christina Lauren–I liked this one! I thought the build in the relationship was wayyyy more natural and intriguing than her other two books I read, and I liked the main character. The 3rd-act-break-up was, in my opinion, extremely stupid, but they often are, so I’ll forgive it. ⅘ romance stars.
Where Do You Sleep At Night? By Danzy Senna
Read this one throughout the week in DC. The reason I made such slow progress was two-fold: one, whenever I’m home with my family, we watch movies at night, and then I don’t have time to read. (This week: Kicking and Screaming; The Departed.) And two, this book was kind of slow for me.
I really liked Colored Television, which was Senna’s book that came out last year, so I was excited for this one. I liked parts of this book, but a lot of the deep family lore dragged for me somewhat. Which surprised me, because I really love a memoir usually. I loved all the parts where Danzy Senna was writing about herself–her thoughts on race, her life in Boston, her feelings about East vs. West Coast–but I didn’t love the parts of the book that were more straightforward chronicles of her family in the South. 3.5/5.
Lights Out by Navessa Allen
I read this one on the beach in Ocean City, cooking under a very full, very blazing sun. I’ve never brought my Kindle to the beach before–felt wrong, somehow. I heard about this book from Navessa Allen’s interview on the Bad on Paper podcast and wanted to read it since it’s been on the NYT bestseller list for so long.
This is basically today’s Fifty Shades, I guess, although the main female character is, admittedly, way less annoying than Dakota Johnson. The best part of this one were the sex scenes, for sure: they were well-written, and they contributed to the character development in a thoughtful way. I never like an organized crime subplot–this was an issue I had with a lot of Ana Huang’s books, too. I would’ve preferred for the nursing/hospital life subplot to continue. Whatever, though, I read it in about 10 hours and it was fun as a beach weekend. ⅗ romance stars
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