Category: Books and Shows

Hello and happy Monday!

How was your weekend? Ours was pretty good! The kids were busy with their various activities, we watched basketball (and baseball!), and the sun was shining all weekend.

Before I get to today’s post, did you see my post on Friday? Last week was kind of busy, and I apparently set the post to publish late!

Anyway, as the month of March is drawing to a close, I’m sharing the books I read this month.

…and what a month of reading I had! I don’t know that I’ve ever read seven books in a month…let alone a month that’s not June or July when I tend to have more time to read. That being said, I think I finished reading one book and listening to another right at the beginning of March. Anyway, I read and listened to quite a variety this month.

{As always, book summaries are from Goodreads…}

Atmosphere:

Summary:

Joan Goodwin has been obsessed with the stars for as long as she can remember. Thoughtful and reserved, Joan is content with her life as a professor of physics and astronomy at Rice University and as aunt to her precocious niece, Frances. That is, until she comes across an advertisement seeking the first women scientists to join NASA’s space shuttle program. Suddenly, Joan burns to be one of the few people to go to space.

Selected from a pool of thousands of applicants in the summer of 1980, Joan begins training at Houston’s Johnson Space Center, alongside an exceptional group of fellow candidates: Top Gun pilot Hank Redmond and scientist John Griffin, who are kind and easygoing even when the stakes are highest; mission specialist Lydia Danes, who has worked too hard to play nice; warmhearted Donna Fitzgerald, who is navigating her own secrets; and Vanessa Ford, the magnetic and mysterious aeronautical engineer, who can fix any engine and fly any plane.

As the new astronauts become unlikely friends and prepare for their first flights, Joan finds a passion and a love she never imagined. In this new light, Joan begins to question everything she thinks she knows about her place in the observable universe.

Then, in December of 1984, on mission STS-LR9, it all changes in an instant.

Quick Thoughts:

Like the tennis book, Carrie Soto is Back, that focused so much on tennis, I wondered if this one would mostly focus on space. Well, this plot included so much more. There was history, drama, romance, suspense, and more!

After I finished the book, I actually went back to the beginning and read the first few chapters again just because the book started with the end, and I wanted to re-read those details.

Fave Quotes:

• “To look up at the nighttime sky is to become a part of a long line of people throughout human history who looked above at the same set of stars. It is to witness time unfolding.”
• “Bravery is being unafraid of something other people are afraid of. Courage is being afraid, but strong enough to do it anyway.”
• “Day in and day out, the Earth keeps spinning and revolving and sailing through the Milky Way. That is why time never stands still.”

Rating:

The Unexpected Spy:

Summary:

When Tracy Walder enrolled at the University of Southern California, she never thought that one day she would offer her pink beanbag chair in the Delta Gamma house to a CIA recruiter, or that she’d fly to the Middle East under an alias identity.

The Unexpected Spy is the riveting story of Walder’s tenure in the CIA and, later, the FBI. In high-security, steel-walled rooms in Virginia, Walder watched al-Qaeda members with drones as President Bush looked over her shoulder and CIA Director George Tenet brought her donuts. She tracked chemical terrorists and searched the world for weapons of mass destruction. She created a chemical terror chart that someone in the White House altered to convey information she did not have or believe, leading to the Iraq invasion. Driven to stop terrorism, Walder debriefed terrorists – men who swore they’d never speak to a woman – until they gave her leads. She followed trails through North Africa, Europe, and the Middle East, shutting down multiple chemical attacks.

Then Walder moved to the FBI, where she worked in counterintelligence. In a single year, she helped take down one of the most notorious foreign spies ever caught on American soil. Catching the bad guys wasn’t a problem in the FBI, but rampant sexism was. Walder left the FBI to teach young women, encouraging them to find a place in the FBI, CIA, State Department or the Senate – and thus change the world.

Quick Thoughts:

I’ve always been intrigued by the CIA and FBI, and I love a good memoir, so this was an interesting read for me. I started following Tracy on Instagram after Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance. Someone must have posted a reel of her sharing her thoughts about the case as a former CIA/FBI agent, so I followed her account. When I realized she had a book, I added it to my TBR list.

I enjoyed reading about her life, how applying for the CIA kind of fell into her lap, all about the days leading up to 9/11, her work in counterintelligence, her travels overseas, how she was treated as a female in the CIA/FBI and more.

Rating:

This Book Made Me Think of You:

Summary:

When Tilly Nightingale receives a call telling her there’s a birthday gift from her fiancé waiting for her at her local bookshop, it couldn’t come as more of a shock. Partly because she can’t remember the last time she read a book for pleasure. Mainly because Joe died five months ago…

The gift is simple – twelve carefully-chosen books from Joe, one for each month, to help her turn the page on her first year without him.

Tilly sets out on a series of reading-inspired adventures that take her around the world. But as she begins to vlog her journey, her story becomes more than her own. With help from Alfie, the bookshop owner, her budding new following and her friends and family, can Tilly’s year of books show her how to love again?

Quick Thoughts:

Admittedly, I don’t read a lot of romance fiction…it’s just not usually what I gravitate to. I’d heard a lot of hype about this book leading up to release, and wow did it live up to the hype!

While there are many moments of sadness with Tilly missing Joe, the idea of a year of books is romantic and endearing. What I loved about each book is that they were so different and “asked” something different of Tilly from month to month. I loved the various minor characters including the book store employees and a grief group that she meets in Paris. This book was sweetly charming with moments of tenderness and inspiration. I can’t imagine it won’t be in my top 5 books for 2026!

Fave Quotes:

• “Tilly has always thought of bookshops as a gathering place: all those books lined up neatly on the shelves like potential friends she just hasn’t met yet.”
• “Maybe this is what books do…They offer your own meaning among the words. They are for everyone and yet they are for you too.”
• “But it’s OK to feel happy and sad at the same time. Very few moments involve just one emotion. That’s life, isn’t it? It’s messy.”
• “I am the person I am because of the books I have read. My reading history is a map that shows the path of my life.”

Rating:

Here are the books I listened to this month…

Boat Baby:

Summary:

Starting in 1975, Vietnam’s “boat people”—desperate families seeking freedom—fled the Communist government and violence in their country any way they could, usually by boat across the South China Sea. Vicky Nguyen and her family were among them. Attacked at sea by pirates before reaching a refugee camp in Malaysia, Vicky’s family survived on rations and waited months until they were sponsored to America.

But deciding to leave and start a new life in a new country is half the story…figuring out how to be American is the other. Boat Baby is Vicky’s memoir of growing up in America with unconventional Vietnamese parents who didn’t always know how to bridge the cultural gaps. It’s a childhood filled with misadventures and misunderstandings, from almost stabbing the neighborhood racist with a butter knife to getting caught stealing Cosmo to read the answers to Do You Really Think You Know Everything About Sex?

Vicky’s parents approached life with the attitude, “Why not us?” In the face of prejudice, they taught her to be gritty and resilient, skills Vicky used as she combatted stereotyping throughout her career, fending off the question “Aren’t you Connie Chung?” to become a leading Asian American journalist on television. She delivers a uniquely transparent account of her life, revealing how she negotiated her salary in a competitive industry, the challenges of starting a family, and the struggle to be a dutiful daughter.

Quick Thoughts:

Again, another memoir! I’ve seen Vicky Nguyen many times on the Today Show, but I’d never heard her mention her book until recently. I think it came out last year. Anyway, I enjoyed listening to Vicky tell her story that highlights trials and tribulations of coming to America, but it’s also filled with humor and wonderful anecdotes. I also enjoyed following her journey of being a journalist, and her family dynamic is interesting as her parents have typically lived with her as is customary in her culture.

Rating:

Wreck:

Summary:

Rocky, still anxious, nostalgic, and funny, is living in Western Massachusetts with her husband Nick and their daughter Willa, who’s back home after college. Their son, Jamie, has taken a new job in New York, and Mort, Rocky’s widowed father, has moved in.

It all couldn’t be more ridiculously normal . . . until Rocky finds herself obsessed with a local accident that only tangentially affects them—and with a medical condition that, she hopes, won’t affect them at all.

Quick Thoughts:

Ok, I don’t really know where to start with this one. I can’t remember where I saw it recommended, but I always appreciate an audio book suggestion. Before I downloaded the book, I realized it’s by the same author as Sandwich which is a book I started and didn’t read much of a couple of years ago.

Anyway, Rocky’s family is quirky which I liked. She navigated her health journey while caring for her father and dealing with her adult children which provided many complicated layers and dialogue. The wreck seemed to be secondary but it was woven into the plot. There just wasn’t a lot going on, and I guess I was just kind of bored while listening to this one.

Rating:

3.5 stars

Sandwich:

Summary:

For the past two decades, Rocky has looked forward to her family’s yearly escape to Cape Cod. Their humble beach-town rental has been the site of sweet memories, sunny days, great meals, and messes of all kinds: emotional, marital, and—thanks to the cottage’s ancient plumbing—septic too.

This year’s vacation, with Rocky sandwiched between her half-grown kids and fully aging parents, promises to be just as delightful as summers past—except, perhaps, for Rocky’s hormonal bouts of rage and melancholy. (Hello, menopause!) Her body is changing—her life is, too. And then a chain of events sends Rocky into the past, reliving both the tenderness and sorrow of a handful of long-ago summers.

It’s one precious week: everything is in balance; everything is in flux. And when Rocky comes face to face with her family’s history and future, she is forced to accept that she can no longer hide her secrets from the people she loves.

Quick Thoughts:

Since I hadn’t read Sandwich and I thought Wreck was ok, I decided to give Sandwich a second try. Obviously it was written first, so I did want to see how the characters were before the second book. Just like when I tried to read it a couple of years ago, I almost quit listening to it, but a few hours in the car by myself got me to the finish line.

Had I read this one first, I don’t think I would have read Wreck, so I’m glad I read Wreck first. The setting of a week in the summer in Sandwich was interesting as it was Rocky, her husband, her kids, and both her parents. Again, the family is kind of quirky, making for serious and light-hearted moments. In both books, there were references to abortion and miscarriage, so those ideas could weigh heavily on some readers.

Rating:

3 stars because I feel bad giving it less!

Let me know if you’ve read either of those books. It’s pretty rare for me not to feel like I can connect to characters or a plot.

The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek:

Summary:

In 1936, tucked deep into the woods of Troublesome Creek, KY, lives blue-skinned 19-year-old Cussy Carter, the last living female of the rare Blue People ancestry.

The lonely young Appalachian woman joins the historical Pack Horse Library Project of Kentucky and becomes a librarian, riding across slippery creek beds and up treacherous mountains on her faithful mule to deliver books and other reading material to the impoverished hill people of Eastern Kentucky.

Along her dangerous route, Cussy, known to the mountain folk as Bluet, confronts those suspicious of her damselfly-blue skin and the government’s new book program. She befriends hardscrabble and complex fellow Kentuckians, and is fiercely determined to bring comfort and joy, instill literacy, and give to those who have nothing, a bookly respite, a fleeting retreat to faraway lands.

Quick Thoughts:

I’ve had this list on my TBR list for quite a while. When Tanya shared her “Spring Books” post, she mentioned that the third book in the series comes out soon…So I decided to bump the first one to the top of my list.

I don’t think I’d heard of the “blue people” of Appalachia..but then I as I continued with the book, I realized maybe that I had?!

Anyway, I was immediately intrigued by Cussy, and I loved the Lexington, Frankfort, Louisville references. Cussy is strong, smart, caring, interesting, and inspiring.

This book reminded me of a mix of The Frozen River and The Giver of Stars, both books I loved so much.

This was the only historical fiction book I read this month, and as you probably know, that’s my favorite genre!

Rating:

I’ve already downloaded The Book Woman’s Daughter to listen to next!

Happy reading,