The three good things about my reading life this year

They say bad things happen in threes(which can be hard to deny) yet I believe that good things can also happen in the same way as well. Kind of a balancing point for the universe there.

With that in mind, I’m wrapping up my reading year with a set of three positive things that hopefully will set the tone for what’s to come in the new year,book wise:

I like Nora Roberts 

One of my reading challenges in 2024 was to read three sets of trilogies (made it to two out of the three) and the first one up was the Born In trilogy by Nora Roberts. I use to be a snob about romance novels and even popular writers like Roberts but fortunately, time has shown me that holding to such rigid limitations was only limiting myself and not in a good or productive way.

So, yes, I enjoyed that trio of heartfelt novels have only myself to blame for not diving into such rich and engaging storytelling beforehand. Roberts has a fine hand for character development and developing the setting of her tales in a way that reflects the emotional themes that they’re dealing with on page. Plus, she’s fun and fierce all at once! (yes, I do know about J.D.Robb but there are sixty books in that series so I might hold off on those yet)

Since then, I have read a standalone (Hideaway) and in the middle of another one (Tribute) with a couple of other titles on my TBR. Most recently, I picked up another trilogy-The Boonesboro Inn-which I have heard great word of mouth about. Looking forward to more Roberts reading-maybe some of her paranormal books?-and glad to say that is truly better late than never to discover a great author:

I Broke Two Author Slumps

“What’s an author slump?”

Well, as a reader, have you ever found a writer that you knew you would always be a lifetime fan of?

“Sure! I have so many…”

However, even among those favorites, have you ever just picked up one of their books one day and found yourself putting it back down, perhaps trying one or two after that to only discover that this just wasn’t clicking with you like it did before?

“Embarrassed shuffling of feet, with slight nod”

That’s what I call An Author Slump and first off, it’s not the fault of the writer or book; like Taylor Swift would say-hi, it’s me,I’m the problem.

Such slumps can be short lived or long term; hard to tell in most cases. For me, I was one of the last to read Daisy Jones and the Six and really loved what Taylor Jenkins Reid did there. Having Malibu Rising as one of my Book of the Month Club selections was awesome but after getting a quarter of the way into it, I put it aside and went on to other things.

I really thought that would be that for me and TJR but on on a library visit earlier this year, I added a copy of Carrie Soto is Back(a last minute decision) and wow, I was back onboard the Taylor reading train! It became one of those stay-up-all-night reads for me and now I am devouring The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo (part of my TBR reading down challenge) and planning to give Malibu Rising another shot. 

I am happy to have recovered my groove with TJR and unlike that LL Cool J song, I have to call it a comeback in this regard. I’m not even a sports fan but this particular book just had the right dramatic hook to get me back into the game:

An author that I was more connected with, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, I found myself to be slumping with after her great success with Mexican Gothic.

Try as I might, I wasn’t getting too far with her following works but when a horror themed readathon came up, I grabbed a copy of Silver Nitrate(a homage to old school fear flicks) and was delighted to be on the edge of my reading seat here.

That rekindling has me all fired up for her newest book, The Seventh Veil of Salome(ironically enough, Evelyn Hugo is also adding fuel to that literary desire fire) and two of her other novels that I have on hand. So happy to reconnect with a writer that I have enjoyed for years and now plan to appreciate for many more:

I took a book off of Pause

What I mean by “pause”, some would call DNF(Did Not Finish), however when it comes to pause, I do intend to give the book another try and even leave a bookmark in it to restart it at some point.

This year, FX aired a new season of Feud(the first one was about Bette Davis and Joan Crawford making What Ever Happened to Baby Jane and it was a hoot) and this time around , the theme was Truman Capote and his falling out with the high society “swans” of the fifties and sixties.

The show was a mixed bag of campy cattiness and sincere performances at best but I did get one very good thing out of that experience; taking out  and diving into my paused edition of Melanie Benjamin’s The Swans of Fifth Avenue, which covered this same story line in a much better way in my opinion.

Granted, this book is fiction but it felt more realistic than the Feud series(which had a nonfiction book as it’s source material) and if this novel had been the basis for an adaptation like this, the result would have been better appreciated by audiences and critics alike.

If they ever make another season of Feud, I truly hope that they find a good novel to use as the sturdy spine of their production; plenty of historical fiction writers do a great deal of research to enhance their story and characters and it does make all the difference. At least it got me to unpause this riveting emotional drama page by page:

With that, I wish you all a new year of reading and hope that this year gave you some bookish joy.

This is my last post for 2024 and LRG will be back in January, probably starting with a recap of the Christmas Spirit readathon, a review of Evelyn Hugo as well as the next Down the Reader’s Road book and more to come.

I know this year has been harrowing to say the least and the one upon to begin perhaps not much better than that. However, I do think that we as readers are a strong minded group that, along with many others, are determined to stick together during whatever form of chaos is headed our way and do what we can for each other.

Despair is quite understandable and ignoring your fears isn’t helpful but reaching out for support is always a positive thing to do. We’re more capable than we’ve been told and more braver than we might believe in times of crisis; history has shown us that.

Whether you are fighting the good fight against censorship or just passing on the good word about a wonderful new book and/or author, reading is the path worth taking towards a better world. Maybe this time, we will save the day or make it easier for those who can to find their way forward: