Shiny Happy Books

Hi!  As I look over my recently read book list, I can tell I've been making selections of reading material that will not drag me down.  I'm glad I did that for myself - despite the light at the end of the tunnel with the pandemic, it's been a trying year (for everyone!).  Here lately I've been absolutely climbing the walls!
I had been considering taking down my blog, but it turns out that I do still have readers!  I appreciate you and look forward to talking books whenever and however we can!
​I decided to go back to my normal way of blogging, because I want to say at least something about each book I read.  I can do that – it’s my blog!  Who cares!

Paperback Crush:  The Totally Radical History of ‘80s and ‘90s Teen Fiction by Gabrielle Moss
This was so much fun!!!  The author was so hilarious that I forgave her for getting political (in a book about Sweet Valley High and Babysitter’s Club for flip’s sake!!) – and this was super well researched and provided tons of food for thought.  I would certainly recommend this to those in my age range who grew up with pink-covered brain candy and/or those who graduated to the darker Christopher Pikes and RS Stines.  There are tons of pictures of covers – books I’d forgotten all about but that we definitely had in our house!  My Lord, we had all of them! 
This would be a great book to read after something really heavy.

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Last Couple Standing by Matthew Norman
A modern-day problem to have:  All of your married friends have divorced and now you and your spouse are left looking at each other wondering if you’re next and….how do we not be next?  How do we salvage this?  I guess by agreeing to sleep with other people?  What could go wrong?  Ground rules are made and broken and it’s all very hilarious and stupid and weirdly romantic.  This is the kind of fluff that I like when I’m looking to read fluff- good characters, funny moments, meaningful takeaways.  
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The Biggest Bluff:  How I Learned to Pay Attention, Master Myself, and Win by Maria Konnikova
Simply put, this is of the family of books written by someone-normal-who-tries-something-crazy-for-a-set-amount-of-time-and-learns-about-life-in-the-process.  I’m jealous of the authors who can get a book advance and a deadline and just go try whatever, but I agree that it usually makes for good reading.  Usually the author pretends that their motivation is something other than a book advance, but I feel like Konnikova was pretty open about the situation here, which I liked.  Anyway!  This was a lovely book written by a psychologist who tries her hand at poker and does really well.  If she sucked, would they have made the book?  I mostly just want to learn how to play poker now.  I think Jeff was surprised when I wanted to watch some televised poker the other day and then I’m not sure what his emotion might’ve been when I couldn’t shut up about the book while we watched.

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The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes
I like Moyes because she writes strong characters, including likeable female *and* male characters.  I struggle with books that are very obviously skewed in favor of female=good and male=bad.  That isn’t real life!  The Giver of Stars has a whole slew of fantastic folks and I’d love for you to meet them.  It’ll mean a trip to 1930’s rural Kentucky, which stinks in a lot of ways, but you’ll get to ride your horse through the mountains and deliver books to people!  ….and so much more.  This is a beautiful book and if you’re looking for some historical fiction where nothing horrific happens – this is it!  

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What are you reading!?!?