Everything I Read in Summer 2023
I’m back with another reading update! I finished 12 books this past summer—nine of which were audiobooks! Half were fiction and half were nonfiction. I would definitely not be able to read as much if it weren’t for audiobooks, haha. I fell way behind my original 2023 reading goal of 50 books and 15,000 pages on StoryGraph so I changed it to 45 books and 13,000 pages. If you’re also a reader, be sure to join the app and add me as a friend: my username is cottoncashmerecathair! And share your favorite recent read(s) in the comments!
READ NEXT: Everything I Read in Spring 2023
Everything I Read in Summer 2023 (June—August)
Fiction
Every Summer After by Carley Fortune
I absolutely loved this book! I liked it more than both Emily Henry books I read up until that point (I’ve since also read Book Lovers, reviewed below, though I think I like this book just a touch more). I can’t believe it’s Carley’s debut novel! Having grown up in Toronto and spent her teen year summers at Barry’s Bay, Persephone (Percy) Fraser thought she’d never go back after making the biggest mistake of her life. The death of her beloved former neighbor (and mother of Sam, whom she spent all her time with) meant she had to go back to Sam’s world and face her past. Percy and Sam grew close over the six summers she spent at the lake until it became something more—and then fell apart. This book alternates timelines between the present (going back for the funeral) and the six summers Percy spent in Barry’s Bay. It was so sweet, I really loved it and highly recommend!
Books Lovers by Emily Henry
This was my third Emily Henry novel and is my favorite of the three I’ve read far (I’d rank them as #1 BL, #2 BR, and #3 PWMOV). The ending didn’t feel rushed to me like it did in the other two novels, which is why I enjoyed it more! Plus, I really just loved the characters and was rooting for them. I also didn’t guess the twist (I feel like I’m not usually good at guessing twists, so this isn’t that surprising, haha). A workaholic, NYC-based literary agent Nora Stephens meets another agent, Charlie Lastra, for a work meeting and it did not go well. Years later, her sister Libby convinces her to go on a month-long sister trip to a small town in North Carolina (the setting of one of Nora’s authors’ books) to reconnect before Libby adds baby #3 to the family. While there, Nora keeps running into none other than Charlie…over and over again. Is it a coincidence? At the same time, Nora is trying to keep Libby safe—like she’s always done since their mother passed. It’s a fun novel!
Nonfiction
Swipe Up for More! by Stephanie McNeal
I love reading books about influencers and the influencer lifestyle. As someone in sort of that group myself (I’m much more of a blogger than your typical Instagram “influencer”), I just think it is so fascinating! Stephanie McNeal has been writing about influencers and internet culture for years as part of BuzzFeed News (now she’s a senior editor at Glamour Magazine) and I’ve loved following her on Instagram, so it was a no-brainer to preorder her book! She follows three influencers with three different backgrounds and experiences for a couple of years (Caitlin Covington of Southern Curls and Pearls, avid runner and outdoors lover Mirna Valerio, and Mormon mommy blogger Shannon Bird) to learn about their “unfiltered lives” behind the scenes of their online personas. The amount of money they make will truly blow your mind. At the same time, you learn just how volatile the industry is and how quickly it can all come tumbling down. If you love following influencers or find this line of work fascinating, read this book!
Audiobooks
Princess in Pink by Meg Cabot
This is book 5 of The Princess Diaries series! Don’t read this if you plan to read (or reread, as I’m doing) the series and don’t want spoilers. 😉 Princess in Pink contains Mia Thermopolis’s diary entries from the end of the school year leading up to the biggest event in high school (at least, according to Mia): prom! She is convinced it’ll be the end of the world if she doesn’t get to attend prom with the love of her life, Michael, as he doesn’t feel the same way about prom that she does. At the same time, there’s a service workers’ strike that threatens to cancel it entirely.
Princess in Training by Meg Cabot
This is book 6 of The Princess Diaries series! My library actually didn’t have audio versions of books 7, 9, and 10, so I requested book 7 and they added it as well as books 9 and 10! Now I have a complete set to listen to (though now there’s a wait list for book 7 haha). It’s the start of a new school year, Mia’s sophomore year. Lilly has nominated Mia for student body president, which she simply cannot deal with at the same time that her boyfriend is away at college and her nemesis Lana makes her believe he’s going to cheat on her with college girls if she doesn’t sleep with him.
Die With Zero by Bill Perkins
I REALLY enjoyed this audiobook and it completely resonated with me. Bill Perkins reframes the idea of saving for retirement and encourages you to think about what you really want out of life and what you want to experience because by the end of your life, all you’ll have left is your memories. He urges people to travel when they are healthy and not to work so hard that you can’t enjoy your life now. What if you get to retirement age and have too many health issues to travel like you want? Or you die shortly after you retire? If you plan to give away a large sum of money to a loved one or a charity you care about (and already have it saved and earmarked for them), why not give it to them at the best age that they can use it? Why wait until you die for them to get that money, when often times it’s not as useful for them? It really made me think about how we are so conditioned to save, save, save, and while that’s important (and I certainly save more now than I did when I was younger), it’s also important to LIVE while you can and die with as close to $0 left in your bank account as you can.
Essentialism by Greg McKeown
This book (which is great in audiobook form, especially if you like British accents) discusses the way of the “essentialist”—basically, it teaches you to pare down on the nonessential tasks to focus on the things and people that matter most to you. If you don’t decide what you want to focus on and do in your life, someone else will decide that for you—by asking of you tasks that you don’t really want to do (though I know we can’t really avoid this in the workplace, ha). The author makes a good case for saying “no” more often, to cut out what doesn’t serve you or what you only agreed to do because you felt bad for not doing it. If you feel like you’re doing too much but not really getting anywhere, or focusing too much on minute details and not on the big picture, read this book!
Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
I’ve heard such good things about this book (especially in audiobook form), and it was just as good as everyone said it was! (This is also the author’s debut novel!) We meet Tova Sullivan, an older woman and recent widow working the night shift at an aquarium in a town on Puget Sound in Washington State. In addition to losing her husband, Tova’s 18-year-old son had disappeared decades prior on a boat in Puget Sound. She befriends the giant Pacific octopus named Marcellus, who is determined to solve the mystery of her lost son. At the same time, we meet a young man named Cameron who just went through a breakup and job loss that leaves California on a mission to find his dad in Washington. The novel alternates between all three perspectives (yes, even the octopus!) as their stories weave and intersect. It’s a fun read especially if you’re planning to visit northwest Washington! I was kind of sad when it ended.
Crucial Conversations by Kerry Patterson
I honestly only read this book because Korri did and he said it was good. I thought it was fine, but it did sort of feel like I was listening to a textbook at times. I did find it helpful when it comes to crucial conversations in the workplace, especially now that I’m in a management position. This book teaches you the skills to have more meaningful and productive conversations (and fewer abrasive or defensive conversations/reactions) in all aspects of your life and how it’s important to not avoid difficult conversations. The emphasize that communication is key, which is always a good reminder!
Keep the Memories, Lose the Stuff by Matt Paxton
My toxic trait is that I listen to/read all of the books on decluttering and still have yet to declutter myself, lol. (One of my short-term goals is to hire a professional organizer to help! I need a neutral third party to give it to me straight.) Matt Paxton’s approach is to focus on the stories and the memories behind your items rather than the physical items themselves. He found that people liked talking about the stories while they decluttered, and that in turn helped them to pass the items along. He also recommends photographing the more sentimental items and saving that instead of the item. This is probably not brand new information to most people, but it is helpful to hear it again (and again, in my case). It’s a great book if you also give sentimental value to your items! (And he straight-up says that if you sell items secondhand, expect to make less than you think you will because other people value your used items less than you value them because they don’t have memories and feelings attached to them.)
One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reid
If you like TJR’s other books and haven’t read this one yet, I highly recommend it! I really enjoyed this one. The audiobook was great, too. It was my first time listening to a Julia Whelan narration, and while I had to get used to her voice at first, she did a great job voicing everyone. Emma Blair is married to her high school sweetheart, Jesse, her soul mate whom she travels the world with. Together, they move to southern California to get away from where they grew up in Massachusetts. On their one year anniversary, Jesse heads to Alaska for a work trip and the helicopter vanishes over the Aleutian Islands. Jesse is presumed dead. Devastated, Emma moves back to Massachusetts to start her life over and runs into an old friend, Sam, who has always had feelings for her. They fall in love and plan to marry. Then—suddenly—Jesse is miraculously found alive and Emma must decide which man is her one true love.
Paris: The Memoir by Paris Hilton
Ohhh my gosh, I had no idea what to expect going into Paris’s memoir. I enjoy watching reality TV about people that live much more lavishly than I do (I just find their lifestyles so fascinating) so I assumed that this would just be a recap of her very privileged life. I didn’t realize how much shit she went through in her younger years. She prefaces the entire part 2 of the book with a trigger warning, and it was so much worse than I thought (her parents sent her to “behavioral health centers” as a teen because she hated school and preferred to spend her time partying and she and other students were just abused the whole time). I didn’t expect to cry while listening to this book, but I did. I enjoyed it otherwise and actually really enjoyed Paris as a narrator; I’d listen to other books she narrates if she ever decides to go that route ha.
