Episode 23: The Best Books of 2024 - So Far

Hello, Hi, and welcome to Medium Lady Reads this is episode 23, “The Best Books of 2024 - SO FAR.”

In this episode, Erin and Jillian discuss their favorite books of the year so far. Since it is mid-June and mid-year, it’s the perfect time to catch up and see what books have been the standouts up until now.

In This Episode:

• It’s time to celebrate! Medium Lady Reads turned 1 year old - join us in celebrating by sharing your favorite episode with us on Instagram - tag us @mediumladyreads.
• The ladies check in to see how their reading is going.
• Erin and Jillian jump into the topic of this week’s podcast which is checking in on what their top books of the year are, so far.
• Both women share what constitutes a 5-star read for them.
• Jillian and Erin each share their top 3 books of the year, so far.
• Looking for more book recommendations? The ladies have you covered with their quick-fire list of some more top books of the year.
• Episode 22 - The BIPOC Alphabet with Alesia Galati
• Tune in to hear this week’s Hot Take!
• As always, Erin and Jillian and the show by checking in on their holds list.

Books Mentioned In This Episode:

• There There by Tommy Orange
• The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley 
• Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune
• Every Summer After by Carley Fortune
• Happy Place by Emily Henry
• The Guncle by Steven Rowley
• The Celebrants by Steven Rowley
• Not in Love by Ali Hazelwood
• The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon
• Shark Heart by Emily Habeck
• Family Family by Laurie Frankel
• Women & Power A Manifesto by Mary Beard
• The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center
• The Seven Skins of Esther Wilding by  Holly Ringland
• Project Hail Mail by Andy Weir
• One in a Millennial by Kate Kennedy
• This Summer Will Be Different by Carley Fortune
• Against the Loveless World by Susan Abulhawa
• Canadian Boyfriend by Jenny Holiday
• Finish by Jon Acuff
• The Whispers by Ashley Audrain
• You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi
• First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston
• Heartstopper Graphic Novels by Alice Oseman
• The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy by Megan Bannen
• Telephone of the Tree by Alison McGhee
• A Love Song for Ricki Williams by Tia Williams

Transcript

I struggle the first 10 to 15 pages to really get into a book.

It's my least favorite part of reading.

It's starting a new book and not grabbing your attention right away.

It frustrates me.

So when a book, if I open that book and it grabs me immediately and starts telling the story and I'm in it, then it automatically, almost automatically turns into a five-star read.

Hello, hi and welcome to Medium Lady Reads.

This is episode 23, our favorite books from 2024.

So far.

Hello, everyone.

I'm Erin Amama, three, a hospital administrator in Ontario, Canada, and the host and founder of the Medium Lady Community and Medium Lady Talks podcast.

And I'm Jillian, an Instagram content strategist for Bookish People, a mom to two, based in Buffalo, New York.

We're together, we're thrilled to bring you another episode of Medium Lady Reads, a podcast about reading as self-care, a passionate love to the public library, and all of our thoughts and opinions on book culture having its moment.

Hi, everyone.

Today we're going to review our favorite books of the year so far.

But first, we'll not only do a check-in, we'll do a little mini celebration because Jillian, you reminded me yesterday that Medium Lady Reads is turned one year old.

Yay!

I know!

It's so exciting.

I can't believe it.

I can't believe that we made it this far.

Right?

We just put one episode in front of another, and here we are.

It is literally the epitome of when people say one foot in front of the other, that is exactly what we've done with this podcast.

And Jillian, how many of the steps have I dragged you?

Oh, most of them?

I need...

No!

Anytime that there's been listeners, anytime that there is a new type of episode, a new format to our episode, Erin has to talk me off a ledge because I get so anxious and like, I can't do this.

I don't know what to do.

And Erin has to talk me off a ledge and remind me that, yes, yes, you can do this.

And we've done it before.

It's just a little different.

So thank you for that, Erin.

I think I know you.

No, you're welcome.

On medium-lady talks for quite some time.

And I just see that as part of the course.

If the roles were reversed, you would do the same for me.

But it's because you really care about making a great episode.

And that's always what's driving your number one concern is like, can we make a great episode?

And sometimes I'm like, who knows?

Let's just see.

Maybe it'll be terrible.

And it always turns out to be great.

It does.

So far, so good.

Well, Jillian, thanks for this year together.

And cheers to you and I.

And cheers, I wish we could be doing this in person.

But cheers to you and I for the next year.

Who knows what those episodes will bring?

Yes, it's very, very exciting to think of what the future could hold now that we have a year under our belt.

Yeah, that one year feels like a big deal.

Kind of like when your baby turns one, you feel like you've hit a special level of survival.

You've got like a couple extra hearts in your arsenal of your video games or whatever it is.

All right.

Well, let's pivot to the check in then Jillian.

How's your reading going?

I wish I could say it was going well, but it's not.

I have been myself in a bit of a funk.

So my reading has suffered.

And I've been scrolling a whole lot more and not picking up the book.

Like I'll have the book sitting next to me and just not not picking it up, choosing the phone over the book.

So I can't say it's going well.

It's not going terrible because I am still reading.

I so far, it's what today, the 15th of June, I'm also January, but the 15th of June and I've finished three books in this month, which is not very many for me.

So it's a slow month, but I'm not worrying because almost always comes back around and I'm like, yeah, reading again.

How about you, Erin?

How was your reading going?

Yeah.

I'm right there with you.

I might be in a bit of a slump.

I just feel like I'm not choosing to read.

And usually it's not a choice that I belabor very much.

I'm like, oh, I have a bit of free time.

Should I read or should I do this or should I do that or should I scroll my phone?

And sometimes it's not even that conscious and I just I do also I've been finding myself doing a lot of phone time lately or I'll open my book on my chest and then my book will become a prop for my phone.

My book on my chest will hold my phone at the perfect height so that I can relax and read.

I'm the same with you.

I've only finished four books in June.

I think I'm going to have kind of low a low number for the month, which is fine.

I have been on pretty good tears since January, so I think I have to just like see it for what it is.

I do also feel like my reading what I have on the docket right now are very beautifully written books, which tend to not be the ones that come with like a propulsive page-turning plot.

And you're sort of really like absorbing dialogue, absorbing context, absorbing reflections by the author on the observations that the characters might be making.

Two of the books I'm reading right now, they're there by Tommy Orange and the Ministry of Time by Kellyanne Bradley.

I'm using bookdarts to just like mark the passages of the books that I'm really loving.

And it's just like slow.

It's way a way slower way to consume the stories.

So if I talk it out loud, which is why I always love this check in, it's probably not all bad that I'm not reading that quickly because I'm like, I love a great story, but I also love great writing.

And I feel like I'm enjoying great writing when I am reading.

I am reading less, but when I am reading, I'm enjoying really great writing.

That's good.

I think that's important.

Yeah, I think so too.

I think you're right.

And before we head into the summer, I know I'm going to be just like consuming books like a mad woman, especially if there's ever going to finally be any downtime.

But Jillian, I know you had said, like for me, I've also been very, very tired.

And when I'm tired, it's a terrible time to read.

Not like I have to be super energized to read, but if I'm tired or sick, I don't really want to be looking at words at all.

Yeah, same.

Same.

I've been, there's been a couple of nights this week where I've been so pooped at the end of the night that I opened my book and I'm like, no, not happening.

And I put it to the side.

And so that was, part of it was I was reading against the Loveless World by Susan Abul-Hawa.

And that's a really heavy book.

And sometimes when you're really tired at the end of the night, you just don't have it in you to read a book like that.

So I finished that and I loved it.

And I picked up a gunkle, which I haven't read before.

I know everybody loves it.

And I loved, but as it's Stephen Raleigh's, he also wrote the celebrants.

And I read that last summer and loved it.

So I'm hopeful that I'll love this one too.

So I wanted to pick something up that was a little bit faster paced because of the same thing.

Just wanting something easier to read and not, you know, when I'm feeling this funk and this tiredness that there's more there in the book, it's a little bit more fun, I guess.

Yeah, yeah, for sure.

For sure.

All right.

Well, let's jump into our theme for today.

We're mid-June, as Jillian said, it's June 15th today.

And we both love an end of the year wrap up, but they can be a little bit intimidating to think of an entire year's worth of books to look back on a whole year and be like, what are the books that I need to use to wrap up my year of reading?

And since we always love talking about what we're loving right now, this week's episode will be a roundup of our five star reads so far in 2024.

How is it already the middle of June?

Like, how is that possible?

I don't know.

I feel like it was just Mother's Day.

Yeah, I feel like it was just September.

Like I feel like my kids just went back to school and we're already, we, I mean, Emmett's done, except for one more exam he has to go in for and then he's done, but Esther goes until the 25th, but still we're just about at the end and it just doesn't feel what is time.

I don't know.

That's what I like to ask.

What is time?

Yeah, it's true.

It's true.

Even though there's all this going on and we have, like you mentioned, summer's just getting going, there's never enough time to read.

Yeah.

But I do have some books that even though we're speeding through the year, there have been some books that have stuck with me.

So I have plenty to share and I'm excited to get into them with you in this episode.

Yeah, I actually have more standout books than I expected.

I went to my beloved tracker and it turns out that this year, I have rated more five star books than any other rating.

So I've, yeah, I've read some 60 odd books this year and my tracker tells me that 17 of those got five stars.

So to make this episode, I filtered down by those five star reads and then I actually was kind of like, I don't know, that was a generous five star.

Like I don't, you know, sometimes you give a five star in the moment.

Absolutely.

And it doesn't always last, but I do have some books I think I gave 4.5 stars that have like transformed into a more, they left more of an impression than I thought they would.

It is like really kind of nice to think about this in June.

Usually when we do it at the end of the year, I find my most top, top favorites are books that I recently read.

So the books that I read in November, the books that I read in December, I think probably just because I have a bias for the ones that I've recently finished and they've left an impression on me.

Plus, I can use this round up to think about what we want more of in the latter half of the year.

Maybe we'll notice a genre that's missing or we're really loving or a specific trope that we can look forward to in the rest of June, but also in the rest of 2024.

Totally.

When it comes to five star reads, we're all going to have different books that fall into this category.

We all have different criteria that we use to rate a five star book just because one person views it as a five star doesn't mean that someone else will.

Not only that, but people experience books differently too, which of course is going to change the rating for them.

I personally love rating books on a five star system, but I know not everyone does, and that's okay.

You're welcome to love and take your books.

However, you choose.

Aaron, how would you define a five star read for you?

A five star read for me is probably not genre specific.

It's probably not type, specific or trope specific.

I was really surprised to see how many books I rated five stars, but there were themes across them.

The number one theme is a thoughtful plot.

I would have said that I am equally invested in plot driven books and character driven books, but when I look at the books that I've given five stars, it's clear that I really like a plot.

I really like a story with a really strong beginning, middle and end.

And while I do love really great main characters, what I love, love, love, love is a supporting cast.

A lot of the books that I'll mention today, they just have the main, you know, the main characters, the main family, but then there's like a lot of other people around that bring that story to life.

And I just feel like that's really realistic storytelling.

And then finally, the thing I figured out is I really love a surprise in the emotional tone of the book.

I don't want to feel manipulated.

I don't want to go into a book and feel like it's trying to make me cry or feel like it's trying to be overly sentimental.

But when I'm reading a book and it takes a turn and I think like I feel something and I'm like, oh, I didn't see that coming.

Those are books that often get five stars for me.

What about you, Jillian?

What makes a five star read for you typically?

My number one is sort of the opposite of what you just said, which is why I laughed.

If a book makes me cry, it almost always is a five star rating.

So immediately.

And I don't mind the manipulation.

I don't mind if I know I'm going into a book that is automatically going to make me cry.

I have a book in mind that I'm thinking of, but I can't think of the title at the moment.

But definitely was a book that you knew going in.

You were going to cry.

And I'm okay with that.

That's a five star read for me.

I also love a fast moving plot.

So I love when I'm reading a book and I'm really quickly turning pages and I can zoom through it.

I love a book like that.

And finally, I think books become five stars for me when there's a strong plot, which is similar to what you said and great characters.

I like the two combined.

It makes for a better, I think it makes for a better book.

And it almost always becomes a five star read.

It's like I closed the book and I'm like, yep, that was five stars.

There's no waffling back and forth of maybe this was five stars.

Maybe this was four, four and a half.

It's like, yep, five right away.

Yeah, I know what you mean.

I can think of a book I read recently where I was like that book was really beautifully written, but the characters were lacking for me and the plot was lacking for me.

And so it changes like, you know, it's like when you kind of like you finish a book and you're like, I was waiting for more of this or I was looking for more of that or I didn't like this.

And that's where you start to kind of like notch the book down from five stars.

It's almost like I wouldn't say I start every book with five stars.

It's like before I start a book, I could be giving it five stars.

And then as I read the book, it starts to like lose points and it can gain those points back to.

Yeah, I know what you mean.

Sometimes you just close a book and you're like, yeah, I can't think of anything that would have made that reading experience any more enjoyable.

Exactly.

I actually just thought of something else that really makes me want to give a book five stars from the beginning, from like the very, very first page is when I get, I struggle the first 10 to 15 pages to really get into a book.

It's my least favorite part of reading is starting a new book and not grabbing your attention right away.

It frustrates me.

So when a book, if I open that book and it grabs me immediately and starts telling the story and I'm in it, then that automatically almost automatically turns into a five star read.

The most recent one that I read, Project Hail Mary, absolutely was a five star read because at the second you start reading, you're sucked in.

I love that.

Yeah.

Yeah, I know just what you mean.

All right.

I get to go first for the five star reads.

Choosing which book to start with was relatively easy for me.

I've been much more discerning when it comes to reading my books.

So I know if I've rated it five stars, it's actually pretty good.

This first book has been one of my favorites of the year so far.

My first book I chose was Family Family by Laurie Frankel.

This was a book I had been looking forward to for a few months and it did not disappoint.

Here's the premise.

India Alwood grew up wanting to be an actor armed with a stack of index cards for research, line memorization, makeshift confetti.

She goes from awkward 16 year old to Broadway and Janu to a TV superhero.

Her new movie is a prestige picture about adoption, but its spin is the same old tire story of tragedy.

India is an adoptive mom in real life though.

She wants everyone to know there's more to her family than paying and regret.

So she does something she should never do.

She tells a journalist the truth.

It's a bad movie.

Soon she's at the center of a media storm battling accusations from the press and the paparazzi.

From protesters on the right and advocates on the left, her twin ten year olds know they need help and who better to call them family.

But that's where it gets really messy because India is not just an adoptive mother.

The one she knows for sure is what makes family isn't blood and it isn't love.

No matter how they formed the truth about family is that it's complicated.

This book was so good and I particularly liked it because adoption stories are often very sad and rip your heart out.

And that's not what adoption stories are all like.

There are some that are really very beautiful and wonderful and positive and this story shares it that way because while she's an adoptive mother, she also has a child that she gives up for adoption and you just you follow the journey and it's just a beautiful story.

Yeah, I'm so glad you mentioned this one.

I'll mention it again later on but I just think Lori Frankel is really plugged into the experience of motherhood, the experience of parenting, the experience of coupling, the experience of children and she brings all of that to her writing.

This book also has really great children perspective.

The stories parts of the story are told from the perspective of the kids.

That's done really astutely in a way that is hard to do and something I always give points for is when an author can really write children well.

Yeah, it was a good book.

If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it.

It is a 2024 release so if you're going to request from the library, you may have a wait but it is worth it.

Totally agree.

Alright, Erin, what is your first favorite of the year so far?

Okay, so with the number of five star books I've enjoyed so far, I'm going to try to be choosy with what's coming to the top of the list.

The first book I'm going to share completely surprised me.

It had a great cast of characters, a very unique sense of place.

I'm going to talk about the seven skins of Esther Wilding by Holly Ringland.

Here's a little bit of setup.

Esther Wilding's older sister, aura, vanished walking towards the sea.

Struggling with her loss, Esther travels from Tasmania to Copenhagen to the Faroe Islands, including the fairy tales and cryptic verses that Aurora left behind.

This book is a really moving novel about sisterly love, also about mothers and daughters.

It's about the power of self-expression and how to embrace grief and joy all at the same time.

The things that I really, really loved about this book is it is contemporary fiction but it does bring elements of magical realism.

From the jump, there's a lot of symbolism in this book.

But not in a way where you feel like you have to hunt for clues.

Holly Ringland does a really good job of writing about the symbols and writing about why they're important to the characters in a way that gives you a lot of meaning, doesn't make you feel dumb, and continues the themes of the story, continues to deepen the themes of the story.

Holly Ringland is an Australian author and this book has a really unique setting in Tasmania and then the story moves to Denmark and the Faroe Islands, which just had me googling Tasmania, Padme Gugling, the Faroe Islands, and these places that I've never been to, I felt like I kind of took like a mini trip to be honest with you because the description of the landscape is a really beautiful part of this book.

Again, I really love the complex and complicated family relationships, Jillian, not dissimilar to family family.

It's like family is about love, family is about trust and truth, but it's complicated.

And this book is also brings that complication into the plotline.

And then the other thing I really loved and I always love and I should have actually checked this, but most of my five star reads are written by women and the majority of books that I read in a year are by female authors.

But there is really nuanced themes of womanhood and loss in this book.

There's also a lot of indigenous folklore and mythology and it just felt this book had a little bit of something to offer everyone and it was a really tremendously immersive reading experience.

And so that's why I'm listening at one of the top books of my year.

This is one that I am actually very excited to read to.

My library doesn't have it, so I have to suggest it as a purchase, but I'm very excited about it because it sounds so good and you've talked about it a few times now that I'm like, "Oh, I gotta read it."

Yeah.

I was recommended to read this book by my friend Amanda.

I grew up with Amanda.

We were best friends since we were like five or six years old and Amanda lives in Australia now.

And whenever I do my 12 friends, 12 months, one year, 12 books, 12 friends, what I can't remember what I call that challenge.

Amanda always recommends a book and this was a book she actually recommended this year and I'm so, so, so glad that I read it.

It was amazing.

I'll have to add it to my very long TBR or our ever growing TBR.

Yeah, exactly.

Okay, Jillian, what's your next book as a contender for 2024 favorites?

Okay.

Another huge standout for me so far this year was a recommendation from you.

So thank you for that.

It's Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir.

I absolutely love this book.

This is definitely going to be one of those books like Under the Whispering Door where I talk about it a lot and I recommend it to a lot of people.

It's going to be the book for, well, I can't say that yet. 2024 isn't over yet, but it's pretty close to being the book of the year for me.

Here's the setup.

A lone astronaut and an impossible mission and ally he never imagined.

Rylian Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate last chance mission and if he fails humanity in the Earth itself will perish.

Except that right now he doesn't know that.

He can't even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it.

All he knows is that he's been asleep for a very, very long time and he's just been awake and to find himself millions of miles from home with nothing but two corpses for company.

His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning.

Rylian realizes that an impossible task now confronts him.

Hurtling through space on a tiny ship, it's up to him to puzzle out the impossible scientific mystery and conquer an extinction level threat to our species.

With the clock ticking down and the nearest human being light years away, he has to do it alone or does he?

Oh, listeners, as you recall, one of my goals for the year was to find a book that measured up to under the whispering door and this book does that as I sort of just mentioned.

As I also mentioned at the beginning of the episode, books that make me cry almost always get a five star rating for me and this book made me cry, shocking tears, sad tears and happy tears.

Not all at the same time, but at different points throughout the book.

It's just, it's wonderful.

It's a wonderfully written book.

It has a very solid plot and characters that you love.

You can't help but love them, which are two very important pieces of a five star read for me.

So definitely something I may, I'm not often somebody who will buy a book as a trophy.

That's just not my thing.

I don't have an issue with people doing that.

I just not my thing.

But this book, just like I have two copies of under the whispering door, one signed, one with sprayed edges.

I might just buy this book for my bookshelf to keep to have and maybe read again sometime.

Oh my gosh.

I love this book too.

I read this book a while ago, maybe two years ago now, but it just leaves an impression.

Andy Weir is known for writing the Martian, but I've never read the Martian.

And this book, I think came my way from some episode or another of the currently reading podcast.

And I'm so, so, so glad when you said you were looking for books to, you know, keep company with under the whispering door.

That felt like a weird, like exciting challenge for me.

And I'm so glad my brain went back in my role, a dex of books and found Project Hail Mary.

Yeah, me too.

I'm very grateful for it.

It's one of those books that stick with you that you think about even when you're not reading it.

Yeah.

Which is very difficult for me sometimes because I'm often one of the, I'm one of those people that will read a book and forget the plot in, in the characters instantly.

So the fact that I can still think about this book and the characters in it and like what the plot points were means that it was a really good book.

So yeah, thank you for that.

Oh my gosh, I'm so glad it worked out.

All right, handing it back to you, Aaron, for another of your favorites of the year.

Okay, my next book is nonfiction.

And when I looked at my list of five star, this title jumped out at me and I was like, oh, definitely.

I also don't know if I've talked a lot about this book in our other episodes.

And that actually, Jillian is one thing we talked about celebrating our one year anniversary of the podcast.

I'm starting to like, I can't contain all of the episodes in my head and I can't contain all of the books we've mentioned in all of those episodes.

So I don't know.

I feel like maybe we start need to start building a database of like books we've already reviewed because I think I could easily circle back and be like, hey, everybody, I want you to hear about this great book.

And you're like, yeah, Aaron, we know you've mentioned that before.

I know.

It's not a bad, bad idea.

I wonder how it would probably be pretty easy because I've since the beginning, we kept track of all the books in each episode with our show notes.

So it wouldn't be too difficult to like just throw the books in a big spreadsheet or something, something searchable.

So we know if we've reviewed it or talked about it.

All right.

But this book, this book is nonfiction.

It also really surprised me.

And I think being surprised is something again that just earns those five stars from me.

I'm going to talk about one in a millennial by Kate Kennedy.

I really love Kate Kennedy.

She's known as the beloved host of the podcast, Be There In Five, which is a long form essay show where Kate will research and deep dive on a host of unique but very relatable topics that appeal to an audience of contemporary women.

Here's the setup of her book, one in a millennial by pop culture podcast or Kate Kennedy explores millennial nostalgia and life lessons from growing up in a much malign generation with humor and vulnerability.

Kate discusses topics like AOL instant messenger, purity culture, American girl dolls and spice girl feminism.

Her sharp, partnering commentary celebrates and critiques the culture that shaped her blending humor with deep insights.

I'll say a few things about this book, which is just do the audio.

Just don't just trust me on this.

Just do the audio.

I started reading this book in print and I immediately went to audible and just purchased the download of the copy because Kate is a writer who knows how to speak her ideas out loud.

You do get that a little bit from the text, which just means that you're going to have in my opinion a better experience of her ideas and her essays as audio.

You really wouldn't think these topics could be emotional AOL instant messenger, purity culture, American girl dolls, sleepovers, all that kind of stuff, but they really cut deeply to the heart of what it was like to grow up in the 80s and 90s.

Because of that, you'll read this book and you'll constantly think things like, I thought that was just me.

I thought it was only me who had that experience, which is just like a very deeply emotional and sort of reflective experience when you're reading a book.

Kate Kennedy does a great job of highlighting the unique strengths of millennial women and our muscles to be able to appreciate and critique something at the same time.

That's one in a millennial by Kate Kennedy.

It's one of my top of the year so far.

It sounds really good.

It's something when I was looking at our script, I was kind of, I noticed that you were talking about this one.

I added it immediately to my TBR and then I read down a little bit and you said, do the audio and I'm like, okay, got to get this up.

Audible next time my next credit goes through.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

I wish we could share audible credits because like I have it on audio.

I'm never going to listen to it again.

I wish I could just like, I know.

I know.

I feel like to somebody who can use it, which is the beauty of the library because then you can do that sort of thing.

It's just sometimes you don't want to wait for it from the lot.

Totally.

And this was a new release when I read it and I was part-way through the text and I was like, I'm just going to use an audible credit and it was well worth the credit.

And I'll have to grab it.

Yeah, let me know what you think.

We're in our third round of favorites and I don't know about you, Jillian, but I could do this all day.

I really could.

All right.

So here's my next book.

This summer will be different by Carly Fortune.

I am a huge fan of the books that Fortune writes.

One of the favorite books overall is every summer after.

So needless to say, I was excited to dive into this book when it arrived in my mailbox.

Yes, I bought this one because I love her book so much.

She's almost like an autobi for me.

Here's the premise for this summer will be different.

Lucy is a tourist vacationing at a beach house on Prince Edward Island.

Felix is the local who shows her a very good time.

The only problem, Lucy doesn't know he's her best friend, younger brother.

Lucy in Felix's chemistry is unreal, but the list of reasons why they need to stay away from each other is long.

And they vow to never repeat that electric night again.

It's easier said than done.

Each year, Lucy escapes to PEI for a breath of fresh coastal air, fresh oysters and Chris Vino Verde with her best friend, Bridgett.

Every visit begins with a long walk on the beach beneath soaring red cliffs and a golden sun.

And every visit Lucy promises herself she won't wind up in Felix's bed again.

If Lucy can't help being drawn to Felix, at least she's always kept her heart out of it.

Bridgett suddenly flees to Toronto a week before the wedding.

Lucy drops everything to follow her friend to the island.

Her mission is to help Bridgett through her crisis and resist the one man she's never been able to.

But Felix's sparkling eyes and flirty quips have been replaced with something new and Lucy's beginning to wonder just how safe her heart truly is.

It's so wonderful.

It gives you the warm fuzzies.

If you're looking for the perfect summer beach read, this is it.

I absolutely recommend it for sitting in the sand with your kids playing around you with this, you know, making sandcassels and pulling out the book.

It's just, it's perfect.

And if you're somebody who really loves the way a book feels, Fortune's books always feel so good in my hands.

So it's also like, it's nice and floppy and it's made to be read.

So it's perfect for the beach.

Plus you have the romance and spicy scenes which are spot on for me.

They're not too, too open door and they're not too closed door.

They're right there in the middle.

Yeah, I loved it too.

I think I read this book in like maybe two days and it's, I don't know, like it really Carly Fortune to me is about the nostalgia of summer.

Yeah.

A lot of her books feature flashbacks and you remember yourself in your 20s or in your 13 years, you might find yourself at a life transition, but also you remember yourself at other points of life transitions.

And I think that Carly Fortune just writes a really solid female main character who can kind of has those memories that are not that long ago, like, you know, maybe eight or 10 years ago.

And that really taps into that nostalgic side of the summer for me, you know, like who can't remember who's forgotten those summers at the beach or what it felt like to be let out of school with two whole months stretching out in front of you or what it felt like to have a summer fling or a summer crush that was kind of temporary for the season.

You know, all of those feelings are things that you access when you read Carly Fortune.

Any of her books in this book in particular, I think the settings for me are also very relatable as a Canadian.

Carly Fortune is not shy of being like very pro Canada in her books.

Yeah.

I love that about her the same way that happy place centers around Maine, this book centers around PEI and yeah, I mean, if you're if you're if you're a lover of Anna Greengables or you've always felt like the island is particularly romantic, this book will get you.

It's good.

It's a great book.

Definitely good.

All right, Erin, now that we're truly on a roll, what is your third book?

Okay.

My third book.

So I have been talking a lot about my goal to read 40% of my books from diverse authors in 2024.

I'm following along with the full challenge for this year to help me keep my eyes on diverse books.

In January, the prompt was to read from a Palestinian author and I discovered Susan Abel-Hawa and her most recent book against the Loveless world.

I am very happy to have read so many five star reads this year, but this one is in a category all of its own.

Here's the setup.

In this sweeping captivating novel, a young Palestinian refugee named NAR reflects from solitary confinement on the events that led to her imprisonment, born in 70s Kuwait to Palestine refugees, not her dreams of a better life, but faces heartbreak, poverty, and displacement due to the US invasion of Iraq.

Her journey takes her from Kuwait to Jordan and finally to Palestine, where she finds love and confronts her fate under Israeli occupation.

This book is nothing short of spellbinding.

From the opening chapters, we meet our heroine who is now a prisoner in a high tech Israeli prison and then we start to experience the story that brought her to that prison.

At first, for me, we were meeting somebody angry and destructive and I expected Jillian to see a lot of self-destructive behaviors that had resulted in this straightforward reason.

Why is this woman in jail?

You're asking that question from the start.

The behaviors that you see when you first get to know the character, you're like, "Well, yeah, I mean, this is pretty self-destructive.

I can see how you're going to end up in jail."

However, I also think that that's something that Susan Abel-Hawa is doing very artfully to the reader, to make you think about your own bias as to why characters end up in jail, and to think that there is always a fair reason as to someone might end up imprisoned.

This book taught me quite a lot about the history of conflict in the Middle East, which is something I had no prior knowledge of.

But beyond that, you will really feel the heartbreak, the love this book is infused with.

When I look at the things that really make a book five stars, this book has it all, a thoughtful plot, a compelling supportive cast, and a very surprising emotional outcome.

Jillian, I know you mentioned you read this book too.

Do you have any thoughts you want to share?

Yeah, I loved it.

And the one thing beyond which you've already shared that stood out was the community.

There is a huge, huge amount of community in this book where people, somebody is released from prison and the house is full of people.

There's some people who die, the house is full of friends and family and acquaintances.

I made me really long for a community like that that I could turn to and rely upon, which I just don't have around me right now.

And it was a wonderful feeling.

And I think that that added to the book as well.

Oh, that's really beautiful.

I love that you shared that.

Yeah.

So that's my last book.

Those are our top three.

What the top of the top for now?

For now.

We have six months left.

Yeah.

We love books.

Books may even be our whole personality just kidding, but maybe not.

But because we love books so much, we love talking about them and we love recommending them.

It is so fun to give you in-depth looks into our favorite books, but it's also really fun to just list off books that we think you should read.

Yes, exactly.

This was one of the really fun things about our episode 22 with Alicia Galati.

You should go check it out if you haven't heard it yet.

We just went wild like listing books without going too deep into synopsis and reviews.

Here are a few more books we want to put out on the table for you.

Some of our favorites from the year.

Aaron, can you get us going?

Yes, you know I will.

Okay.

It's also kind of hard to list off these books without just like gushing and going into detail, but I will try.

So Jillian, I know you've already talked about family, family by Laurie Frankel.

I've got that on my list.

This book just makes me smile to this day, I think about the story and I smile.

And while the book is actually very sweet, it is not saccharine or cheesy and it comes with a very surprising emotional plot point that I mentioned that I really love.

Okay.

Another book, this book is Hard to Not Gush Over, is Canadian Boyfriend by Jenny Holiday.

Hear me out.

This might end up being.

I know we just talked about the summer.

We'll be different, which was a really good book.

It was like very good.

But Canadian Boyfriend might be my favorite romance of 2024.

Mostly I think because I went in with no expectations and the male main character Mike Miller is just like the dreamiest book boyfriend I could have asked for.

So that's another top five book, but that's all I'm going to say.

Okay.

Another five star book was finished by John A.

Cough and maybe the only male author on my list.

I will definitely reread this book.

This is a professional development book.

If you think you're a perfectionist and even if you don't think you're a perfectionist, this book, Do the Audio, will give you a surprising new perspective on how to tackle that voice in your head that says you've got to get everything right.

I have two more books.

My next book is The Whispers by Ashley Audreim.

This came out I think very early 2024.

Oh, this one is so good.

Neighborhood mom's gone awry in a plot that will have you squirming and flipping pages so you can find the relief of figuring out where it all went wrong.

And then lastly, you made a fool of death with your beauty by Aquake Amizi.

This is a sexy, hopeful romance novel that goes beyond romance in so many ways.

The writing is phenomenal and challenging and halfway through the book.

I found myself saying like, wait, what?

So you can expect a twist in the plot there.

Okay, Jillian, I'm going to stop myself there and share the mic with you.

What are some other quick picks that you want to share with listeners?

All right.

So my first quick pick is First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston.

This one kept me turning pages super fast and I kept guessing throughout to determine what the outcome would be.

Definitely a B tree.

I would say another five stars read was the heart stopper volumes.

It's a graphic novel.

That's volumes one through five.

These are perfect.

I loved every single one and I cannot wait for volume six to come out, which I'm not sure when that'll be, but I hope soon.

The undertaking of Heart and Mercy by Megan Bannon.

This book nearly made it in my top three of 2024, so you know, I love it.

By the end of the book, I was deeply in love with the characters and the outcome, which was not at all what I expected.

It's set in a world full of magic and demigods, donuts and small town drama.

It's enchanting and quirky and utterly unique fantasy.

I definitely recommend it.

Telephone of the Tree by Alison McGee.

This is an unforgettable story of grief and the support of a community as a young girl faced with aching loss begins to understand that what we love will always be with us.

This is a middle grade book that broke my heart and put it back together.

I highly recommend this one.

Very quick read too.

And then my final quick pick is a love song for Ricky Wilde by Tia Williams.

As the synopsis says, this is an epic love story 100 years in the making and I loved it.

It was quirky and unique and it had me swimming over the love story that developed.

Okay, I need to stop, but seriously, I could give you more five star books.

There's just so many.

I mean, it's great and in that it really fulfills the purpose of the podcast for us, which is to just like carve out time in our life to talk about books.

And you know, I think that's what makes it like hard for us to stop, but it were only halfway through the year, Jillian.

How does that make you feel about like the rest of your year for reading?

It's exciting because I feel the same way if we already have, let's say, so we have eight each top book so far.

That means that maybe we'll have eight more, maybe we'll have 16 more who knows for the rest of the year.

Oh my gosh, but these books also have like a high mark.

The books in the back half of the year have to be like, you know, pretty, pretty great to start holding company with these stories.

Very exciting.

It is time for hot takes and our current thoughts on book culture.

A hot take is an opinion usually formed off the cuff and with little research, sometimes provocative.

Today's hot take, new releases versus the back list.

How do you choose, Aaron?

Well, I think this year and the year is not over yet, but it remains to be seen.

I think this will be the year I read more new releases than I ever have before.

And I don't want to trade off and have the Jillian 2023 problem, which is that I'm always deprioritizing the books that really feel like a fit for me for the books that are new releases.

But a lot of the books that I mentioned in my list were new releases this year.

So for example, you know, family family was a new release this year.

Canadian boyfriend was a new release this year.

The one in a millennial was a new release this year.

And then there's some other books that were published in 2022, which was like not that long ago, but is still two years into the back list.

But I think that this year I have been more swayed than ever for the new release book.

And generally, I probably choose a new release over the back list.

What about you, Jillian?

I would say I'm probably the same, especially obviously like you mentioned last year 2023.

I was very dedicated to the new release.

This year I have been more dedicated to what I want to read.

So I would say it's more of an even ground.

Yeah, where if it's a good book, if it's a book like the summer will be different.

And it's by my favorite author and it's being released this year, I'm going to read it.

Yeah.

But at the same time, I'm also making sure to find time for books like Guncle.

That's what I'm currently reading.

And that is a book that I think came out in was it 2020, I think?

So it's at least three or four years old, probably a little bit more.

So I'm not prioritizing one over the other.

I know that's kind of a non-answer, but it comes down to reading more of what I want to read.

And that's what I didn't do in 2023.

And what I'm doing more of in 2024.

And I think that for me is what's most important.

I love that.

So listeners, pay attention to what you love to read.

And then if you care about new releases, read the new releases that match what you love to read.

Exactly.

Pay attention to the words that you always use when you're describing a book like Jillian, I was going to point out to you that some of your favorites use the word quirky a lot.

I do.

So that might be something that you pay attention to when you're reading a book blur.

And it says quirky.

You're like, "Hmm, quirky is one of my words, you know?"

Or I know some other people look for the word propulsive because they feel like they're going to get that page turning experience.

Some people look for words like unique because they appreciate.

And this is just again about paying attention to what you need from your reading and then giving yourself what you need, making the choices that are aligned with what you need.

That's really reading as self-care.

And it's something that we talk to in circle back to time and time again.

We're going to always be beating over your head that your reading should be self-care.

Yes.

If it's not, then you need to reevaluate because sometimes you're going to have to read a book maybe for work or for business or whatever the case is.

But for the most part, when you're sitting down at night and picking up a book, it should be for self-care.

And that's it.

Yeah.

All right.

Now, let's talk about what's on our hold list at the library.

Maybe some of those five star books are waiting for us, Jillian, what's on your hold list?

So I don't have anything currently waiting for me.

But I do have not in love by Eli Hazelwood, her newest one in transit to me.

So that should be, I would say, sometime next week that I'll have that.

And then the Frozen River, I am number five in line.

So hopefully within the next week or two, I'll have that one.

And then I have lots of other ones on hold waiting come due to me, but not quite yet.

Still waiting.

What about you, Aaron?

What do you have?

I'm similar right now because it's an odd episode.

I'll share my physical holds list.

So I actually recently just returned a ton of books.

I was like, this is getting out of control.

I'm going to just send it all back.

But there were two books that stood out to me that I hadn't read that I was sad to put in the return bin.

The first was Shark Heart by Emily Hackbeck.

I think this book was published last year and it got a lot of really rare reviews.

So that is actually coming back to me.

It's in transit.

I'll probably get it next week.

And the next book is a book called Women and Power, a Manifesto.

This is a book written by Mary Beard, a nonfiction book that was recommended to me by a guest on the podcast, Megan from UBU Skills recommended this book to me.

And it's a thin tiny, just, it's like a pamphlet if a pamphlet was a book.

And I really wanted to read it.

But I sent it back and I thought, those are the only two books.

I'll just put those back on hold.

They'll come back to me.

And yeah.

Then I have some other books that are new releases, the ROM Commerce.

I also have Not in Love.

I think it won't come to me for a little while.

And a few others that were on the spring or summer new release list.

All the new books.

Oh my goodness.

It's so, the holds part of the episode might be one of my favorite parts.

Just because I love hearing what you have on hold or coming to you because I'm always like, okay, maybe I need to add that to my list.

I need to add that one.

I think that was how Esther Wilding first came up was you were mentioning it on your hold list.

And so I added it to my TBR immediately.

And now I need to just request it for my library because they don't have it.

Yeah.

Maybe for the next year of episodes, we need to remind people, open up your hold list because we're going to start to talk books and you want to put all the holds, put holds on everything that you love from this episode.

So let's remind everybody right now while you're listening, just open up your digital holds or open up your Libby search for some of the books that we mentioned in today's episode.

You can find everything in the show notes.

Jillian does an amazing job with the show notes and get your holds going and tell us DM us on Instagram.

What's on your holds list right now?

Yes, please.

And when we say that, we're not just kidding.

We really want to hear what you have on your holds list.

If you're not into like tagging each of us individually and you just want to do one big tag, do our podcast, medium lady reads.

Just please, we really do want to hear about it.

Absolutely.

So before we wrap up, we have an update announcement to make.

We had announced that our book club pick for June and July was Selene by Peter Heller, but life has thrown us all a couple of curve balls.

So we're deciding to postpone the medium lady reads book club until we can find a bit more breathing room.

When we pick up our book club again, it will still be with Selene by Peter Heller.

So if you've already started reading, no reason to stop.

You'll just be ahead of the eight ball when we announce the return.

Hopefully soon, but we'll let you know.

Yeah, we're playing it by ear.

Thanks, everyone, for your patience.

Obviously, this podcast and community is a labor of love for us.

We want to be bringing our best to everything we have planned for medium lady reads, but that really includes being realistic.

And on a podcast that sees reading as self-care, we also want to role model other kinds of self-care, like changing plans when necessary.

So we will be sure to give you a bit of runway when we announce the return of our book club.

We don't have a date yet.

We're just going to play it by ear.

As Jillian said, life has thrown a few curve balls at both of us and we know it's the busy summer season.

So yeah, we're going to be continued.

That wraps up episode 23 of Medium Lady Reads.

Medium Lady Reads is a spinoff of the Medium Lady Talks podcast and Instagram community.

You can find me, Jillian, at Jillian Finding Happy, and you can find Aaron at Medium.lady for more of our current reads and other shenanigans.

And of course, you can follow the podcast itself on IG at Medium Lady Reads.

If you'd like this episode, please share it with another bookish friend or post on Instagram and be sure to tag us.

We would be tickled to pink to hear from you.

Thank you for listening.

I'm your host, Aaron.

And I'm your other host, Jillian.

Until next time, we hope your hold's arrived quickly.

And your next book finds you right when you eat at most.

We'll talk to you soon.

Bye.

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