Reading Lately #5

Reading Lately: A Happy Catastrophe; Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook; Breakthrough to Excellence; The Rosie Project | book recommendations | Cotton Cashmere Cat Hair

Reading Lately

I’m back with FOUR finished books since my last Reading Lately post! I can hardly believe that I made it through four books in three months! I’m so excited. One of them was a re-read of a book I read a few years ago and wanted to re-read because I didn’t realize it was the first book in a series. I also read the second of two novels in a different series and finished two more business-related books. AND I renewed my library card recently because I realized that I needed to stop buying books and start borrowing them instead, haha. I have my first book on loan right now!

Browse all of my Reading Lately posts!

For ease, and especially for my fellow Kindle readers, all of the links below go to Amazon. If you are able, please support your local bookstores right now (and always)! Bookshop.org donates a percentage of sales to local bookstores, and if you’re local to me, check out Rediscovered Books—I buy physical books there. There are also a number of Black-owned bookstores that need support. Find one near you in this list of over 50 Black-owned bookstores arranged by state (all have online stores and a couple are online only).

RECENTLY READ

  • A Happy Catastrophe by Maddie Dawson (Kindle): This book is the sequel to Matchmaking for Beginners! Like the first book, I tore through this one pretty quickly but didn’t like it quite as much as MFB. There is kind of a wild twist at the beginning that I wasn’t expecting, but then the middle of the book kind of drug along with the same sorts of things happening, and the situation between Marnie and Patrick was annoying (and not really realistic?! idk…) and then it all wrapped up very quickly in one chapter, so the ending felt rushed. It just felt like nothing was happening and everyone was annoying and then it turned into everything happening at all once. That said, I’d probably read another book in this series if the author released one lol.

  • Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook by Gary Vaynerchuk: This book teaches you the art of jabbing (creating content and making connections with your audience) before throwing the right hooks (profit-driving campaign) when it comes to social media marketing. With absolutely no background in marketing whatsoever, I need all the help I can get! I enjoyed all the visual examples of great vs. bad marketing (jabbing) included in this book even though a lot of it isn’t relevant anymore because this book is a few years old (the Pinterest stuff made me chuckle because it’s so different now). I think the main points of the book still stand today!

  • Breakthrough to Excellence by Jasmin Haley (Kindle): I believe I heard about Jasmin and her book on a podcast, but I can’t remember which one! (Or maybe it was a conference?) In Breakthrough to Excellence, Jasmin talks about conquering and moving past your fears when it comes to your business. It’s a great book for entrepreneurs (or even aspiring entrepreneurs) that struggle with feelings of inadequacy! It’s written in a very positive way with lots of affirmations and uplifting stories of overcoming obstacles.

  • The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion (Kindle): This is the book I re-read! I rarely re-read books, but I remember loving it a few years ago, and there are two other books in the series I wanted to read. Let me tell you: I remembered not one thing. Not one! It was like I was reading it for the first time, lol. This is a sweet story about Don Tillman, a professor with a similar personality to Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory, and his quest to find a wife and instead finding Rosie.

CURRENTLY READING

  • Built to Belong by Natalie Franke: I listened to a webinar Natalie put on with Flodesk, the email service I use for the blog, and the registration included a copy of her book! I’m not that far into it yet but I already know it’s one you need to read if you also struggle with feeling like you don’t belong, especially if you’re also an entrepreneur/blogger/influencer. I relate so much to everything she writes about.

  • The Rosie Effect by Graeme Simsion (borrowed from library): This is the second book in the series and the book I borrowed from the library! I borrowed the ebook version late last week, and I have it for two weeks, which is a very short amount of time for me. I hope no one else requests it so I can renew it! (But my goal is still to finish before the due date, haha.) I’m really enjoying this book already; I find my eyes skipping over sections to get to the next part and I have to stop myself and go back.

TO BE READ

These are all the books I have in my possession and plan to read! (One book is technically Korri’s but it lives on the shared bookshelves so that basically means it’s mine, too, right?!) I arranged them in alphabetical order by book type (physical, Kindle, or one of Korri’s). I removed two books (read one, decided against reading another) and added five new books since the last Reading Lately update.

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