The Book Nook Chronicles

This book was the first read for my Virtual Book Club with friends back in Maryland. We’re keeping things lighter this year with one book a month inspired by a book challenge prompt. The prompt for our January read was “A book written in another language, translated into English”.

Your Second Life is a hybrid of self-help meets beach read, which I actually loved. Raphaëlle Giordano seamlessly entwines self-help with literature throughout the novel, using her main character, Camille, as a test subject for different strategies and techniques people can use to bring more positivity into their life.

I found the overall plot of this novel predictable and it will come as no surprise that this book was originally written in French since it is dripping with Parisian ennui, but it was a perfect way to kick off 2025. If you’ve every battle with anxiety and depression, I highly recommend this title.

I have read an unnecessary amount of World War II historical fiction in my life–I blame my obsession with the Molly American Girl Doll– and it has made me hypercritical of any WWII novel. This novel didn’t really have a chance when it came to being a mind-blowing read.

The overall premise of this book was unimagined and after finding out it was a retelling of stories told to Millie Bobby Brown by her grandmother (not her grandmother’s actual story) it felt a bit redundant. I gave this book a lukewarm 3 stars because it did open my eyes to a WWII tragedy that had never crossed the pages of my previous reads, but the overall love triangle and ending of this book was too far-fetched for my liking.

This novel is giving Groundhog Day meets Tim Curry’s Clue meets purgatory. If that’s your thing, you’ll probably love this book. I was not a fan.

Mystery thrillers are not my genre of choice. I would legitimately rather read the encyclopedia than a mystery thriller 9 times out of 10. I had heard so many good things about this novel that I decided to get out of my comfort zone and give this a try, and I’m proud of myself for that.

At the end of the day, I couldn’t find redeeming qualities in any of the characters, which I think was kind of the point, and the audio book reader made me sleepy. This is likely my own fault seeing as I use to fall asleep to the Harry Potter audio books as a kid and the audio reader sounded just like Jim Dale. Either way, this book was not my cup of tea.

It is very rare that I have no qualms with a book or that I want to instantly start reading it again, but being the dystopian lit junkie that I am, How High We Go in the Dark itched a scratch I haven’t reached in decades.

This novel feels like more than a book. It’s a perfectly woven tapestry of human heartache and resilience. It’s a book built for our time, a typed-out curse of what could come.

This novel will forever live on my lifetime favorites and will haunt me in the ways the Handmaid’s Tale and Never Let Me Go have haunted me since high school. Please do yourself the service of reading it now.

While The Cure for Women is technically set in the Victorian era, this novel is extremely relevant in the current fight for bodily autonomy in the United States.

I learned a lot reading this book–for example, did you know life at conception wasn’t even socially accepted until the Victorian era? And it was predominately triggered by a male doctor who was butt-hurt that females were starting to make strides in the medical community. It’s important to note that women were the predominate providers of healthcare (healers, midwives, etc.) before modern medicine existed.

Menstruation was weaponized and used as a reason to keep women uneducated and, more times than not, women were gaslit into believing their ailments were all psychological–easily fixed by electro-therapies, intensive stays at mental hospitals, and the like.

All of this information and more is artfully intertwined with a biographical telling of Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi’s life as the first woman to graduate from medicine at the University of Paris and the first woman to graduate from pharmacy school in the United States.

While infuriating to read due to the blatantly obvious parallels with the current state of our nation in 2025, this book was inspiring and is a great reminder that alone, women will never succeed in our fight for equality, but together we might have a chance at changing history.

I’m fairly certain that Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey can do no wrong when they team up together. This book is no exception. As a die-hard Office fan, I’m fairly confident I could listen to these two ladies talk about paint drying and still be entertained.

I highly recommend giving the audio book a try. Jennah and Angela turn this read into more of a podcast retelling of their time on The Office with guest appearances from Rainn Wilson, Creed Bratton, and even Jennifer Gardner.

If you like to learn about the ins and outs of sitcom life in Hollywood, this is a quick read you will love. Jennah and Angela share their story, hitting on the development of their friendship, the struggles of work life balance as new mothers, and the exciting new journey they are taking together as podcasting entrepreneurs. It’s a wholesome memoir that will have you laughing, crying, and gagging throughout its pages.

This was an unexpected Libby find that I was honestly so impressed by. It’s a surprisingly lighthearted read that skillfully illustrates racial discrimination in modern-day America.

Interestingly enough, I could see some parallels to The Devil Wears Prada in this novel, albeit a bit more passive aggressive and nuanced due to the racial undertones throughout the book. Emira, the true star of this read, goes from resigned and complacent with her circumstances to confident, strong, and willing to stand up for herself. I love that she is able to find herself in all of the white noise of this book (some pun intended).

The author is extremely skilled at making the two white main characters, Alix (Emira’s boss) and Kelley (Emira’s boyfriend), perfect examples of people who are unable to see the faults and biases within themselves, but are extremely capable of calling it out in others.

As a white woman who knows she has her own forms of unconscious bias, I found this story both entertaining and humbling. If you are looking for a book to help explain unconscious bias to anyone, this is the book to do it with.

Oh, American Dirt. This book has been dragged through the wringer due to its author trying to tell a story that wasn’t hers to tell. If you decide to read this book, please go into it with that in mind and take it wholeheartedly as a piece of fiction.

This book is a retelling of The Grapes of Wrath, but through the eyes of Mexican migrants trying to make it to America. I did like this a lot more than Steinbeck’s novel, but the plot is very cut and paste: a journey to a better life that comes to a bittersweet and disillusioned end.

While I felt this novel was artfully written–I had a very hard time putting it down–I did find that the main characters, Lydia and Luka, were uncharacteristically lucky. The secondary characters within this novel experience some truly horrific things within this pages. While Lydia and Luka do come close to these horrors, they always manage to come out on the other side unscathed.

I understand that this is an inaccurate portrayal of the actual experience many migrant experience while trying to get into the United States. I do believe it may have the potential to open minds, and hearts, regarding the undocumented immigrants in our country, which we really need right now.

I’ve been inspired to find actual memoirs by people who have experienced this journey firsthand thanks to this novel, and I think that shows how powerful of a novel this is.

I started reading this book back in 2024 but due to personal reasons put it down until January. God, am I glad I picked it back up.

This may be the first time I’ve enjoyed the second half of a book more than the first, which is why I gave this read a 4.75 instead of a perfect score. Due to the amount of world and character building that occurs in the first 40 to 50% of the novel, you can’t skip the first half by any means, but it’s so emotional draining I would recommend taking it slow.

Main character, Elizabeth Zott is women supporting women personified. I want to be her best friend and her daughter all at the same time. And don’t get me started on Harriet, the love of my life. Being brought up Catholic, I’ve come to realize I may very well have been her in the 1950s which terrifies me and makes me feel most connected to her all at once.

I found that the moments featuring Six-Thirty’s (Elizabeth’s dog) subconscious pulled me out of the novel most of the time. It was a cute concept and relatable, as pets can often feel like people in our lives, but I wasn’t sure it was absolutely necessary for us to be put inside of the dog’s head.

I’ve put off watching the TV adaptation of this book until I finished it and can’t wait to watch it now. I’m not ready to leave Elizabeth, Harriet, and the rest of this novel behind. I was really glad to finish out this month with a book filled with so much girl power.