what i've been reading: summer edition

It's book post time again with Steph and Jana!  I didn't share last month, so I have double the books to share today.  

First up was Natural Disaster by Ginger Zee.

ABC News chief meteorologist Ginger Zee pulls back the curtain on her life in Natural Disaster. Ginger grew up in small-town Michigan where she developed an obsession with weather as a young girl. Ginger opens up about her lifelong battle with crippling depression, her romances that range from misguided to dangerous, and her tumultuous professional path. This cyclone of stories may sound familiar to some-it's just that Ginger's personal tempests happened while she was covering some of the most devastating storms in recent history, including a ferocious tornado that killed a legend in the meteorology field.

I didn't know much about Ginger Zee before I read this, but Michelle recommended it and I really enjoyed it!  She was very honest about struggles and challenges in her life.  My favorite part was the behind the scenes info she shared about everything from her time at local news all the way up to GMA.

Happily Ali After Ali Wentworth

Moved by a particularly inspirational tweet one day, Ali Wentworth resolves to live by the pithy maxims she discovers in her feeds. What begins as a sort of self-help project quickly turns into something far grander—and increasingly funnier—as the tweets she once viewed with irony become filled with increasing metaphysical importance. And thus begins her “Unhappiness Project.”  It’s not long before Ali expands her self-improvement quest to include parenting, relationship, fitness (or lack thereof), and dieting advice. The results are painfully (at times literally) clear: when it comes to self-help, sometimes you should leave it to the professionals.

This was hysterical.  Parts of it are a little raunchy, but the premise is very clever and I found myself laughing out loud in nearly every single chapter.  I absolutely loved her humor and writing style and wanted to read all of her other books after this one.

The Marriage Pact by M. J. Mullen

Marci Thompson always knew what life would be like by her 30th birthday. A large but cozy suburban home shared with a charming husband and two brilliant children. A celebrated career as a writer, complete with mahogany shelves and a summer book tour. A life full of adventure with her friends and family by her side. Instead, Marci lives alone in 480 square feet of converted motel space next to a punk rock band, hundreds of miles from her friends and family. She works in a temporary accounting assignment that has somehow stretched from two weeks into nine months. And the only bright spot in her life, not to mention the only sex she's had in two years, is an illicit affair with her married boss, Doug.

Thirty is not at all what it is cracked up to be. Then the reappearance of an old friend with whom she had made a drunken marriage pact 10 years earlier opens a long-forgotten door, and the lines between right and wrong, heartache and happiness are all about to get very blurry, as Marci faces the most difficult choices of her life.

I got this book from the library because I had heard The Marriage Pact was quite the suspenseful page turner.  I got about 100 pages into this and thought, geez, the author sure does take a long time to introduce the suspense.  And that's when I googled and found out there are actually two books titled The Marriage Pact.  I finished this since I'd already spent a lot of time on it, but one of the main love stories centers around an affair which I didn't really love.  It passed the time, but don't run out and get it.

Take two, The Marriage Pact by Michelle Richmond

Newlyweds Alice and Jake are a picture-perfect couple. Alice, once a singer in a well-known rock band, is now a successful lawyer. Jake is a partner in an up-and-coming psychology practice. Their life together holds endless possibilities. After receiving an enticing wedding gift from one of Alice’s prominent clients, they decide to join an exclusive and mysterious group known only as The Pact.

The goal of The Pact seems simple: to keep marriages happy and intact. And most of its rules make sense. Always answer the phone when your spouse calls. Exchange thoughtful gifts monthly. Plan a trip together once per quarter. . . . Never mention The Pact to anyone.  Alice and Jake are initially seduced by the glamorous parties, the sense of community, their widening social circle of like-minded couples.  And then one of them breaks the rules.  The young lovers are about to discover that for adherents to The Pact, membership, like marriage, is for life. And The Pact will go to any lengths to enforce that rule.

For Jake and Alice, the marriage of their dreams is about to become their worst nightmare.

I'm still not sure how I felt about this!  On one hand, I couldn't put it down.  On the other, it was twisted and disturbing and weird. 

The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han



Belly measures her life in summers. Everything good, everything magical happens between the months of June and August. Winters are simply a time to count the weeks until the next summer, a place away from the beach house, away from Susannah, and most importantly, away from Jeremiah and Conrad. They are the boys that Belly has known since her very first summer -- they have been her brother figures, her crushes, and everything in between. But one summer, one wonderful and terrible summer, the more everything changes, the more it all ends up just the way it should have been all along.

This was a quick, easy summer read.  It wasn't deep or thought provoking, but perfect for summer.

Ali in Wonderland by Ali Wentworth



Mix 1 oz. Chelsea Handler, 1.5 oz. Nora Ephron, finish with a twist of Tina Fey, and you get Ali in Wonderland, the uproarious, revealing, and heartfelt memoir from acclaimed actress and comedian Ali Wentworth. Whether spilling secrets about her quintessentially WASPy upbringing (and her delicious rebellion against it), reminiscing about her Seinfeld “Schmoopie” days and her appearances on The Oprah Winfrey Show, The View, and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, or baring the details of starting a family alongside husband George Stephanopoulos, one thing is for sure—Ali has the unsurpassable humor and warmth of a born storyteller with a story to tell: the quirky, flavorful, surprising, and sometimes scandalous Ali in Wonderland.

I didn't think that this was as funny as the other one I read, but still enjoyable.  I'd love to go to happy hour with Ali.  I bet she's a good time.

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman



Meet Eleanor Oliphant: She struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she’s thinking. Nothing is missing in her carefully timetabled life of avoiding social interactions, where weekends are punctuated by frozen pizza, vodka, and phone chats with Mummy. 

But everything changes when Eleanor meets Raymond, the bumbling and deeply unhygienic IT guy from her office. When she and Raymond together save Sammy, an elderly gentleman who has fallen on the sidewalk, the three become the kinds of friends who rescue one another from the lives of isolation they have each been living. And it is Raymond’s big heart that will ultimately help Eleanor find the way to repair her own profoundly damaged one.

I think I am the last person on Earth to read this, but I hope there's still room left on the bandwagon.  I loved it.  The characters were so quirky, the plot was entertaining, the writing made me laugh out loud and tear up, and the end surprised me.  This is one that I think I would read over again!


Right now I'm in the middle of The Wife Between Us!  Did you read anything good this month?