And why I didn’t finish them
It’s a truth universally accepted that when you join the waitlist for a library book you want to read it. An equally true, but less acknowledged, fact is that all of your holds will be available at the same time. This was certainly the case for me this weekend.
A good thing too, with Christmas cooking and cleaning clogging my to-do list. A few audio books in the back pocket is always a win. Unless it’s not.
The first book to plow through was…
Dial A for Aunties By Jesse Q. Sutanto
Dial A for Aunties (affiliate link)
I love the premise of this book. When a twenty something woman accidentally kills her blind date she has to call her mom and meddling aunts to help her get rid of the body? Yes please. It’s light and funny with all the expected fun. But there were three things that pulled me out of the story and made me throw it in the dreaded Did Not Finish pile. Click here for the review.
Which brings us to…
The Long Game by Elena Armas
The Long Game (affiliate link)
To be honest, I didn’t give this book much of a chance. I started it right after turning off Dial A for Aunties and just wasn’t in the mood. It’s probably cute, but it’s fluff and a little melodramatic. And the whole book flashed before my eyes in the first one percent. She’s daddy’s little girl, but he’s a distant workaholic. Her ex is evil and has it out for her job and happiness and the only way she’ll be happy is leaving her high-powered city job and falling in love.
Long story sort, if you love hallmark movies, you’ll probably love this.
Last but certainly not least…
The Girl With the Loudening Voice by Abi Darè
The Girl with the Louding Voice (affiliate link)
This beautiful book is about a teenage girl growing up in rural Nigeria. Her mother has passed away, her father is perpetually drunk, and she had to quit school because they didn’t have enough money to pay the fees. I stopped at about five percent when she’s told she’s being married to an old man for rent money and she has to say goodbye to her little brother. It just was too sad for vacuuming at nine o’clock at night.
This book is beautiful. Really. Truly. The writing. The story. I didn’t finish it, but that’s more of a me thing. I’ll probably try to read it again someday when I have a little more space and emotional stamina.
Happy holidays, and happy reading.
xoxo – Lindsay Lock