Summer Reading
I have been sitting on these book recommendations for a couple of months. If you know me in real life, I've already recommended them or gifted you one of these books. Before I go on, thank you to all who contacted me about my kids and their book reviews. Each of you made them feel like a celebrity, and it will be a memory we will all cherish forever.
May is the new December for running all of us completely ragged. No one seems immune from the onslaught of activities and responsibilities that require our attention in May. Here's to hoping, for all of our sanity, that June will usher in the dog days of summer, and we can all take a beat to relax, soak up the sun and pick up a good book.
I have two books that are a perfect companion for the pool, beach, lounge chair, or anywhere else you find yourself with a spare moment this summer.
Nora Goes Off Script by Annabel Monaghan was published in June of 2022 but still deserves a look in 2023 if you have not read it. Nora is a screenwriter for what we would call The Hallmark Channel if this book took place in real life. When her husband walks out on her and her two kids, she draws inspiration from her real life and writes a story that gets picked up for a big-screen movie. The Sexiest Man Alive is tapped to play the leading man, who will be filmed at her 100-year-old home, and for some reason, I pictured Bradley Cooper when I pictured the leading man in my head. It's the ultimate meet-cute if the universe actually dropped off The Sexiest Man Alive on your doorstep. While it has its moments of sadness, it all comes together unexpectedly in the end.
From Nora Goes Off Script
"When I'm done, I ceremonially delete the Instagram app and move my banking app to the exact spot where it used to sit. I get in bed and scroll through my account. The big deposit, the interest. It's infinitely satisfying, and I wish there was a like button to press."
"Even when Ben was around and belittling me for selling out and writing crappy romance movies, I felt grateful for my work. I mean, someone had to sell out; you can't walk into the Stop n' Save and trade big ideas for chicken."
Believing that you will fly right through Nora, the next book I want you to keep on hand is This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub. I unintendedly went down a time travel rabbit hole the first part of the year and happily found This Time Tomorrow. In This Time Tomorrow, the author touches briefly on romantic love, but it is mainly about the father-daughter relationship. This one will remind you of classic movies like Freaky Friday, Big, 13 Going on 30. Alice wakes up the morning after her 40th birthday to find that it's 1996 and she is 16 again. She is not only shocked to find herself in her 16-year-old body, but she's also happy to find her father young and vibrant again. What has she gotten right? Where did she go wrong? How would you change any of your life if you could go back from time to time to check in on the past?
"Maybe that was the trick to life: to notice all the tiny moments in the day when everything else fell away and, for a split second, or maybe even a few seconds, you had no worries, only pleasure, only appreciation of what was right in front of you."
"He had been young, and she had been young - they had been young together. Why was it so hard to see how close generations were? That children and their parents were companions through life. Maybe that's why she was here now. Maybe this was the moment when they were both at their best and together."
As we crawl across the finish line of May, know that gorgeous movie stars and time travel are waiting for us in June. We've made it and deserve the time to relax and read.
