What I’ve Been Reading: February 2025

Hello!

Well, I’m a bit late sharing the books I read in February, but it was another great month of reading (or listening…as you’ll see in a minute!)

…and hi, my name is Jen…and I apparently love a memoir!

{As always, book summaries are from Goodreads…}

Sutton Foster’s Hooked:

Summary:

From the 2-time Tony Award-winner and the star of TV’s Younger , funny and intimate stories and reflections about how crafting has kept her sane while navigating the highs and lows of family, love, and show business (and how it can help you, too).

Whether she’s playing an “age-defying” book editor on television or dazzling audiences on the Broadway stage, Sutton Foster manages to make it all look easy. How? Crafting . From the moment she picked up a cross stitch needle to escape the bullying chorus girls in her early performing days, she was hooked. Cross stitching led to crocheting, crocheting led to collages, which led to drawing, and so much more. Channeling her emotions into her creations centered Sutton as she navigated the significant moments in her life and gave her tangible reminders of her experiences. Now, in this charming and poignant collection, Sutton shares those moments, including her fraught relationship with her agoraphobic mother;  a painful divorce splashed on the pages of the tabloids; her struggles with fertility; the thrills she found on the stage during hit plays like Thoroughly Modern Millie, Anything Goes , and Violet ; her breakout TV role in Younger ; and the joy of adopting her daughter, Emily. Accompanying the stories, Sutton has included crochet patterns, recipes, and so much more!

Quick Thoughts:

I actually finished this book at the end of January but not in time to include it in my book post last month.

I’d had Sutton Foster’s book saved on my Goodreads list, and after I started watching binging Younger on Netflix, I decided to listen to her memoir. I really enjoy listening to this book. Her childhood was interesting moving around, her parents’ relationship and her mom’s struggles. I felt sad for her at some points as she recounts all the times throughout the years that all of those things impacted her even as an adult. I loved hearing about her time on Broadway, winning Tony awards, and making Younger.

Rating:

From Here to the Great Unknown:

Summary:

In 2022, Lisa Marie Presley asked her daughter to help finally finish her long-gestating memoir.

A month later, Lisa Marie was dead, and the world would never know her story in her own words, never know the passionate, joyful, caring, and complicated woman that Riley loved and grieved.

Riley got the tapes that her mother had recorded for the book, laid in her bed, and listened as Lisa Marie told story after story about smashing golf carts together in the yards of Graceland, about the unconditional love she felt from her father, about being upstairs, just the two of them. About getting dragged screaming out of the bathroom as she ran towards his body on the floor. About living in Los Angeles with her mother, getting sent to school after school, always kicked out, always in trouble. About her singular, lifelong relationship with Danny Keough, about being married to Michael Jackson, what they shared in common. About motherhood. About deep addiction. About ever-present grief. Riley knew she had to fulfill her mother’s wish to reveal these memories, incandescent and painful, to the world.

To make her mother known.

This extraordinary book is written in both Lisa Marie’s and Riley’s voices, a mother and daughter communicating—from this world to the one beyond—as they try to heal each other. Profoundly moving and deeply revealing, From Here to the Great Unknown is a book like no other—the last words of the only child of an American icon.

Quick Thoughts:

This was such a great book to read, but even better to listen to. I believe this book was a recommendation thanks to Sarah.

Of course, it was interesting reading about Lisa Marie’s childhood, but her story is also so heart-breaking. Hearing her daughter read the parts that she included to finish the book made the memoir that much more impactful. Julia Roberts read the parts Lisa Marie had written, and hearing her voice in contrast to Riley Keough’s was perfect.

Rating:

Far Beyond Gold:

Summary:

What fears are standing in your way or holding you back? How do you want to become stronger? Olympic and World champion hurdler Sydney McLaughlin wants to help you answer these questions as she shares her personal story of struggles and victories, of faith and transformation. Sydney McLaughlin knows about facing down obstacles. She has mastered not only racing over hurdles on the track but also tackling challenges in her personal life—from lifelong battles with perfectionism and anxiety to persistent questions about her identity and whether she was “enough.” Her pursuit of perfection and people-pleasing continued for years until God broke into her story with his overwhelming grace, transforming love, and empowering truth. In Far Beyond Gold , Sydney will share aspects of her life story and personhood she has never shared publicly before, offering a more complex picture of who she is. She will inspire you Experience the story of a woman who shifted from anxiety to boldness, from limits to freedom, and from perfectionism to purpose—and now shows the world that often what we think is impossible is possible with God.

Quick Thoughts:

When searching memoirs auto/bio that my library had available on audio, Sydney McLaughlin’s book was available.

You know my kids love to follow runners, and we’ve followed Sydney’s career since the one year she was at the University of Kentucky. We’d hoped to see her run at the Olympic track trials when we were in Eugene last summer, but she changed up the races she was going to run. Anyway, her athletic career and her faith were both inspiring to read (listen) about in her book.

Rating:

The House Party:

Summary:

Maja Jensen is smart, stylish, and careful, the type of woman who considers every detail when building her dream home in the suburbs of Philadelphia. The perfect house that would compensate for her failure to have a child, the house that was going to save her marriage. But when a group of reckless teenagers trash the newly built home just weeks before she moves in, her plans are shattered.

Those teenagers are the “good kids”–the ones on track to go to college and move on to the next stage of their privileged lives. They have grown up in a protected bubble and are accustomed to getting by with just a slap on the wrist. Did they think they could just destroy property without facing punishment? Or was there something deeper, darker, at play that night? As the police close in on a list of suspects, the tight-knit community begins to fray as families attempt to protect themselves.

What should have been the party of the year will have repercussions that will put Maja’s marriage to the ultimate test, jeopardize the futures of those “good kids,” and divide the town over questions of privilege and responsibility.

Quick Thoughts:

This book was just ok. I kept waiting for more of the story line to develop but…There was a party at a house. The kids caused damage. The end.

Rating:

I’m off to a good start reading in 2025!

Happy reading,