I have lived in the Bay Area almost my entire life (minus that one year I lived in Seattle). You’d think that by now, I would remember that we don’t start Fall until November. Yet every year, I get excited for September, thinking “No, this is the year that Fall starts when Fall is supposed to start” but I sit here writing this as I look at the weather app on my phone and see that we’ve entered a heat wave (is it still a heat wave if it only goes up to 103 degrees?) for the week of my baby shower (where the app said it was supposed to be only around 74 degrees as of 2 weeks ago?). Being pregnant in the heat is not where it’s at. My temperature is already higher than normal and I have a large, heavy belly just hanging out. I suppose I am simply happy that I don’t live in a humid area and that I have air conditioning.
I slammed out books at the beginning of the month but have slowed down in the past week or so. My husband got his 2nd ACL surgery (different knee) and luckily it was a minor tear (still needed surgery though). It’s been a little hectic with work, planning a baby shower (hi, yes, I am a Type A control freak so I’m planning it please tell past Lauren not to), getting my Maternity Leave things together (gotta love the U S of A), setting up the nursery (this has been the MOST fun), taking care of the whole household (you never realize how often your dog wants to go out until you’re the only person who can get up and take them out), and did I mention that I’m pregnant? Cause I am. We’re in the final stretch, folks.
Hula by Jasmin ‘Iolani Hakes
My Rating: 4/5
What’s it about: Hula, the relationship between a mother and a daughter, how important ancestry and your family history is, and the battle between what it means to really belong.
My Review: This was a book that Jacob had picked up for me on one of his travels for obvious reasons. My mom ran a halau (basically hula school) out of our house but instead of doing competitions, she would perform. We performed at a lot of weddings and corporate events. She hasn’t done that for years so the only way to see us perform is to come to a family BBQ and convince my mom to dance. Hula really is just a way of life for Native Hawaiians. It is how we tell stories. I wish I had kept it up and I hope my daughter wants to practice hula!
All that being said, this book was very relatable. There are a lot of Hawaiian words and there’s pigeon (the Hawaiian dialect) which were easy for me because I’ve heard both for my entire life. The author purposefully does not include a dictionary so it might be tough for those who aren’t as familiar. The author seamlessly ties Hawaiian history in with her story. It’s history that you don’t learn in school, things that I know because my family knows it and lived it. It’s important history about how Hawaii “became” a state. While she’s informing the reader about important events, she’s also telling a story as old as time – the tumultuous relationship between mother and daughter. Hi’i is the daughter of Laka, a Hawaiian girl who ran away from home when she discovered she was pregnant at a very young age. When she returned home, everyone looked down on Hi’i since she was very clearly not fully Hawaiian (we call that “hapa” – which I am – but it’s typically a person who is part Asian and part White). It’s a lot about trying to fit in when you feel like you don’t “look” the part (again, something I very much relate to), making your mother proud, and trying to grow up with chaos constantly surrounding you. It’s a beautiful, emotional, and familiar story.
Henry VII by Shakespeare
My Rating: 3/5
What’s it about: Divorced, Beheaded… actually that’s it. It just stops after the 2nd wife.
My Review: Surprisingly, I have never read a historical Shakespeare play. Despite all the English Classes (with one focused on Shakespeare), I never had to. After reading this, I understand why. Henry VIII is a play you can read if you already understand and know Tudor history. There’s a lot of information left out and Henry (plus the 2 wives included – Catherin of Aragon and Anne Boleyn) isn’t really in it a lot. It’s more so everything that influenced Henry and all the things going on at the time… Which is fine but I thought it was going to be about Henry VIII? It seemed like this was a play written to talk about how great it was that Queen Elizabeth I was born and had such a fantastic rule (which… might have been the whole reason it was made). It was fine but it definitely made me not want to read any more historical Shakespeare plays.
Sniffing Out Murder (Bailey the Bloodhound Mystery #1) by Kallie E. Benjamin
My Rating: 4/5
What’s it about: There’s a small town. There’s a murder. There’s a wonderfully perfect dog who finds the dead body of a woman that everyone seems to hate. Oh yeah, and there’s a hot cop, because of course there is.
My Review: This book is ADORABLE! It’s such a quick read. I’ve avoided other Cozy Mystery series’ since I already have one (the Hannah Swensen series by Joanne Fluke) and I know it’s a very formulaic thing. There’s a dead body in a small town, our heroine finds it, she’s the one to solve the case (oh and apparently the sheriff is always a love interest). I’m into it. It’s not high brow literature but it’s fun. I just didn’t think I’d need a 2nd series with the same formula. BUT I DO! I have to say that I much prefer the writing style and characters from this book than I do from the Hannah Swensen series (perhaps it’s because this book was written in 2023, not in 2000 so it feels much more “up to date”). I loved having a dog as one of the characters. He has a full personality and I love him so much. I didn’t actually guess the murderer until it became completely obvious later on in the book and it really got me! I’m super excited for the author to make more in this series.
Thirst: 2600 Miles to Home by Heather “Anish” Anderson
My Rating: 2/5
What’s it about: A woman hikes the PCT completely unprepared but pretends like she knows what she’s doing.
My Review: I don’t even know where to start on this book. My dad read it before me and he said that he was annoyed by the narrator for whining too much. I took this with a grain of salt but really shouldn’t have. Because she does. Let’s start with her nickname – “Anish”. Her nickname is short for Anishinaabe, a Native American tribe that her Great Great Grandmother was a part of. After talking about heritage in Hula and how even if you have a drop of Native Hawaiian blood, you are Native Hawaiian, it might seem to you like I’m taking a 180 here. I was fully raised in the Hawaiian culture, with my grandmother part of the generation talked about in Hula who watched Pearl Harbor’s bombing and came to the mainland when Hawaii became a U.S. state. From what I gather, the authors Great Great Grandmother didn’t pass on Anishinaabe traditions, just simply claimed she was Anishinaabe. As soon as she explained this, I immediately did an eye roll. Your thru hiker name should be something you feel and experience. It should be a nickname for you. And yet, Heather Anderson simply said, “Well someone in my family is Native American and I love the wild outdoors which is obviously a Native American trait so I’m like SUPER into that”. Whatever.
Let’s move onto the next issue. Anderson portrays herself as an experienced hiker, which, her track record really does show. She’s done several thru hikes (including the PCT) along with backpacking trips. She should know what she’s doing. Despite all this, her first 2 weeks consist of her really only eating one granola bar per day but hiking more than 30 miles per day. Girl. She consistently says that she feels weak and exhausted but she’s just simply “not hungry” so she won’t eat. You’re weak and exhausted because you are not eating! Food is LITERALLY fuel for your body. Later, we find out that she really just seemed to plan on trail angels to feed her ACTUAL food instead of packing any. All she packed (and sent to herself) were granola bars, oreos, and nut bars. Listen. I’ve been on exactly one backpacking trip with a friend (it was both our first times) and I think I would be more prepared for doing the PCT than Anderson was for this trip. When hiking, you should be consuming approximately 1500 calories every 5 hours (at minimum). With her averaging 40+ miles a day (sometimes 50!), she should be getting in like, 7500 calories because she’s burning an insane amount of calories. I’d even settle for getting in 5000 calories but if she does actually get any in, it’s barely over 2000 calories. This is NOT healthy. Anderson starts off her hike anemic and underweight. She didn’t want to bring her too much food OR carry her re-stocked food (in fact, she left most of her first package at the stop cause she still wasn’t hungry) because it would make her pack too heavy. You have to have muscle to carry a backpacking backpack. Yes, running is great! But as someone who isn’t a runner, I appreciated my weight lifting muscles much more during my backpacking trip because the pack wasn’t as much of a struggle for me, despite the fact that I was the one carrying most of our food in a bear canister and our 2 person tent. I think this part pissed me off the most. All of this “I’m not hungry so I won’t eat” but never once saying, “Hey btw, I fucked up and shouldn’t have done that. If you’re going to do this, you need to bring something nourishing”. At one point, she buys tuna packs in a store because her body is literally screaming for protein. After she eats it, she notices that she is FULL of energy. GEE I WONDER WHY. Throughout the book, she complains about her body aching and her exhaustion and it got so annoying. After the first 2 weeks, when she finally got hungry, I thought she would figure out that food is fuel and when she ate food, her body felt better, but that was not the case. Towards the end of the book, she goes to take a shower and sees that her ribs are protruding – all her bones are – because she’s lost a drastic amount of weight. Sure, you’re going to lose weight while hiking the PCT or any thru hike but her weight loss seemed super dramatic (she lost over 10lbs within that first 14 days – and this hike was 60 days. She never says how much she lost after that but I can only imagine it has to be close to at least 30lbs, that she didn’t seem to have in the first place). She somewhat marvels as her bones protruding and we do learn throughout the book that she was overweight and out of shape as a kid… Then it all makes sense. The lack of eating, the marveling at losing so much weight… It’s highly concerning and the fact that again, she never states that this is absolutely not the way to go, even more concerning.
This book should absolutely not be read or followed by newer hikers.
Cinnamon Roll Murder (Hannah Swenson #15) by Joanne Fluke
My Rating: 3/5
What’s it about: There’s a murder in the hospital while Hannah and the entire rest of the town tries to break up Norman and Bev.
My Review: Yes, by book #15 these do get repetitive. It’s why this series is my comfort series. I will never recommend that you binge this series (maybe one a month is fine) because the repetition that DOES work, will probably drive you insane. That being said, I did not predict the murderer this time around. I don’t know if it’s pregnancy brain or if it was a legitimately hard one (can someone else read this and tell me?). The love triangle is getting a bit worn so I’m wondering how much longer Fluke can make this last. I’ve been bored of it for quite a while but since it doesn’t really drive the story (this isn’t Twilight), I don’t mind it too much. After reading my other cozy mystery this month though, I have to say that while I already knew these books weren’t very well written… I realized how badly written they are. Am I still going to read them? Absolutely (there are 29 of them after all). But they are definitely filler books that you just throw in when you are in a funk.
Beautiful Bodies: A Memoir by Kimberly Rae Miller
My Rating: 3/5
What’s it about: TW: Miscarriage (this is not really upfront and it’s something I wish was). Miller is an actress, journalist, and author who shares her life story about the state of society during the 80s until now about disordered eating and what we show women is “ideal”. It’s raw and passionate and incredibly real.
My Review: I won this book on GoodReads back in 2017 and it’s been sitting around, waiting to be read. This month, I created a fun little spinner wheel, listing every book I own because I just could not choose a book to read at one point and I wanted to give up. Since this book was written in 2017, I will say it was probably very groundbreaking at the time. Miller is incredibly raw and honest about her relationship with food and all of the diets she consistently put her body through. It got to a point where she could no longer lose weight since her body was just constantly in survival mode, storing every ounce of calories in the fear that her body would go back into 800 calories a day with 4 hours of cardio (Luckily, I never went lower than 900 calories with 2 hours of cardio and that was very short lived – probably about 1-2 months before I had to admit I had a problem). I feel like I’ve read so many books, articles, instagram captions, etc that talk about everything that Miller talks about. I have surrounded myself with these powerful women who have overcome their eating disorders in the hopes of fixing my relationship with food. While it’s still touch and go, reading their struggles really has helped me so I don’t want to say you should disregard this book if you’ve read so may others that are more recent. But I do want to say that there is a lot of the same information here and I found myself skimming a lot of the history (because I already know it). The one section that really caught me off guard was about her miscarriage. It was incredibly raw and unfiltered. I felt every moment of her pain and had to put the book down multiple times because I got teary eyed.
The Last Devil to Die (Thursday Murder Club #4) by Richard Osman [audiobook]
My Rating: 4/5
What’s it about: The Thursday Murder Club is back because one of their friends was murdered – a pawn shop owner who received a very questionable package… full of drugs.
My Review: I’m going to tell you upfront that this one is EMOTIONAL okay. I almost cried. But I don’t want to spoil anything so that’s all I’m giving you about that. This was absolutely delightful on audiobook. I’ve physically read the other 3 but this became available so i figured why not. The narrator is absolutely fantastic and it makes me want to continue on this journey via audiobook (if there end up being more books). Other than the emotional rollercoaster, this was a typical Thursday Murder Club book – it’s book #4 and the characters are slower to develop (because they’re old and they’ve developed so much already). They did throw more and more characters at us and via audiobook, it can really get quite confusing to remember all the newbies. All in all, still a great series.
The Shining by Stephen King [audiobook]
My Rating: 4/5
What’s it about: REDRUM. But no seriously. A man becomes the caretaker for a hotel during their off season in the late Fall/Winter and he takes his family with him. Oh yeah, the hotel is totally haunted.
My Review: I’ve seen this movie at least a dozen times. It’s a top one for me. The casting is perfect. The cinematography is beautiful. The music (including the score) is captivating. I put off reading this book for a while only because I know the movie so well. It became available for audiobook so I thought that might be a good way to go. And it was. I want to re-watch the movie now to compare because in the book, Jack seemed to be a little kinder, while movie Jack always seemed on edge (but that could just be Nicholson himself). I loved how much we were in Danny’s head. At first I thought it might be annoying to be in a little kids head so much but hearing all his thoughts – especially around “The Shining” – was very cool and informative.
Will I ever take another reading picture? Who knows. This was such an easy thing earlier in the year but for some reason (pregnancy? heat?) the past few months have me forgetting to take them all the time. I even had a perfect opportunity while sitting pool side in a bikini with my pregnant belly but here I am, sharing a super old photo I had forgotten my husband took back of me reading.
Did you read any great books in September? Tell me about them in the comments! Although, with October coming, I’m reading spooky books (or apparently true crime if you look at my audiobooks) only.
Writes with Wolves 