Episode 28: Your TBR is a Version of Your Ideal Self

Hello, Hi, and welcome to Medium Lady Reads this is episode 28, “Your TBR is a Version of Your Ideal Self.”

September is over, but that doesn’t mean the book fun stops! Erin and Jillian are coming to you today with loads of new book recommendations, so get that pen and paper out, and let’s go. 

In This Episode:

• The ladies check in to see how their reading is going and even mention a few books in the process.
• Mentioned in this Episode: Our TJ Klune episode
• If you’re wondering what types of books the ladies include this week, don’t worry because we share the deets.
• Ready or not, it’s time to add 6 new books to your TBR. Jillian and Erin share 3 new books each.
• Instead of hot takes this week, the ladies share a goal’s check-in since they’re heading into the 4th quarter.
• It’s time for the holds list – Erin and Jillian share what’s on their holds list and what’s up next for them in the book world.

Books Mentioned In This Episode:

• The Secret History by Donna Tartt
• Somewhere Beyond the Sea by TJ Klune
• The Seven Skins of Esther Wilding by Holly Ringland
• Half a Soul by Olivia Atwater
• The Tenth Mistake of Hank Hooperman by Gennifer Choldenko
• Slow Burn by Rainbow Rowell
• How to Say Babylon by Safiya Sinclair
• A Love Like the Sun by Riss M. Neilson
• By Any Other Name by Jodi Picoult 
• Same as it Ever Was by Claire Lombardo
• The Witch of Wild Things by Raquel Vasquez Gilliland
• The Life Impossible by Matt Haig
• Our Best Intentions by Vibhuti Jain
• You Only Die Once by Jodi Wellman

Transcript

I always feel so guilty adding to my TBR, like maybe I should take a break.

Like I add too many books to it because I just love books so much that I'll read almost anything.

Like yesterday, the fall preview came out for modern Mrs.

Darcy and I went through it and I tried to be really discerning.

Am I really, is this a book that I would really ever read?

And that ended up with, I think there might have been 30 books on there and I added 25.

So I mean, as you can see, I just, I'll read pretty much anything in any category.

A TBR is like a version of your imaginary self.

Right?

Like that maybe never is going to be reality, but it's fun to imagine.

Someday I will read this book and it's going on my TBR.

Hello, hi and welcome to Medium Lady Reads.

This is episode 28.

Which you look like you could use a book recommendation and we've got six more reviews coming up in this episode.

Hello everyone.

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

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

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

Hi everyone.

Welcome back to Medium Lady Reads.

This is episode 28, airing the week of October 2nd, October, Jillian.

Who knew?

Oh my god.

I can't believe how fast September has gone by.

But honestly, I'm actually, I'm also kind of relieved.

It's passed past us by because September kicked my butt is kicking.

It's currently September 1, we're recording boiler alert, but people will hear this in October.

And I was just complaining to Jillian just about like how many things there are to juggle and how many balls I'm dropping and Jillian gave me a very nice pep talk.

But but Jillian, September kicked my butt.

Before we get into our reviews, I'll ask our favorite question, Jillian, how is your reading going?

It is going really well and I think that's because I've been reading some really good books.

I felt like I was slowing down a little bit with reading, but then I picked up a book.

I was was all excited about reading and I read the were some reviews on it.

And I determined that this just isn't the book for me right now.

And with some pep talk from the buddy reads my my bossy big sister book club.

I decided to put that book down, which was the the newest Jodi Pico book by any other name.

I decided to put it down and move on and I started reading the secret history, which is so good.

That is like the quintessential fall read.

It is and I never read it.

It's famous.

It's famous for like it's kind of like the beginning of dark academia, no?

Yeah.

Yeah.

It is and it's perfect.

It's just I am loving it and I'm about halfway through and I can't wait to read more of it every time I put it down.

I'm like, do I have to?

So yeah, reading is going really really well for me.

How about you?

I know you said September has been tough.

So how's the reading been going?

I mean, the reading has been my refuge through the month of September, thankfully.

Yeah, I just feel like every other day something new happens in my life and I have to kind of course correct and rebalance and reprioritize.

But I think I'm doing a pretty good job of taking care of myself throughout all of that, even though, you know, it's not easy.

September is very, very challenging.

My current read is somewhere beyond the sea by our beloved TJ Clune.

I think he's doing a lot in this book.

And if you've read TJ Clune in the past, if you know anything about, you know, some of the criticisms of TJ Clune, I would strongly recommend that you still check this book out.

It's very beautiful.

I'm loving it so far.

For me, it is living up to the hype and probably I think he's really leveling up.

In the thing that he wants to achieve with his writing, I think he's doing the most, which I really, really love.

This is the second in the Cerulean Sea series.

So you do need to read the house in this Cerulean Sea before you pick this one up.

It's not a standalone.

If you haven't read it in a long time, will you be lost?

No.

Okay, that's good.

No.

The only thing you might miss, which I feel like I'm missing, are the little Wink and nods to some of the inside jokes from the first book.

But plot wise, general overview, I read the house in the Cerulean Sea.

I think it was 2022.

I did not read it before this book.

And I don't feel lost.

Okay, good.

Good.

Because that was my main concern, because I know it's the second in the series.

And I haven't read the Cerulean Sea in at least as long as you.

And I was concerned I was going to be missing out on too much.

But that's good to know that I won't.

I think it definitely will make me reread house in Cerulean Sea after this.

Okay.

That's good.

Yeah.

That it'll be hard.

It'll be hard to not that I'm going to want to reread Cerulean Sea, who knows.

But it's like there's so many other books.

It's so hard to reread a book for me, for me personally.

Oh, I know.

I know.

For me, I'm like, maybe I could get it on an audio at 2.0 speed and then just like do it when I'm cleaning and stuff.

Not have to give it my full attention as a reread and just kind of comfort reread it in the context of, however, somewhere beyond the sea ends.

But yeah, he's doing some really purposeful stuff.

He's being really intentional writing in the context of, you know, what kind of books he wants out in the world.

And I really, really admire his tenacity and his grace and his character building and his world building.

And I think there's a lot to talk about in this book.

And I'm only about a hundred pages in.

So I'll probably have to hold off on that for a future episode.

And not to get too bogged down in TJ Clune, though, why wouldn't you want to?

He has another book coming out in February, which I can't remember the name of right now.

But I'm so excited that we'll get double doses of TJ Clune this year.

Well, the share and technically next year.

Well, within six months, within six months of another.

Is that the bones beneath my skin?

Yep, that's the one.

Yeah, yeah.

And like, gosh, these covers, man, they just soak it right up.

He's got really beautiful, beautiful, compelling covers.

It's just great love stories, great family writing, great.

It's just, yeah, a lot to talk about, a lot to talk about there.

If you haven't listened to our TJ Clune love story, yeah, our episode all about TJ Clune, where we professor love to him and his writing, please go back and do that.

I'll link it in the show notes like usual.

It's worth a listen.

TJ Clune has also fallen under some criticism.

We don't want to deep dive that here either.

But I think it's really important that you, if you've heard that criticism that you read his books, like we don't want to censor anyone around here.

We're not about to ban books or cancel authors.

I think it's really important that you do both be an inform reader.

And absolutely, absolutely.

That's a bit of a book adjacent side, side convo.

Thanks, Jillian.

We'll hop off of that track and we'll make a track jump back onto the main, the main feed for our episode today.

You know what time it is.

It is time for the heart of the episode.

Okay, Jillian, tell me about the layout of your last three books.

What are we in for this episode?

This week, I'm bringing a grief and joy-filled novel, a heartbreaking middle grade book, and finally, a brilliant and emotional memoir, which I'm super excited to talk about.

What are your three books like, Aaron?

I debated long and hard about the books to bring to today's show with our change in format.

It's really lovely to bring like the most recent part of my reading life to each episode.

So in the end, for today's episode, I landed on a cozy Regency England fantasy, a nostalgic retro contemporary romance, and finally, a romance by a highly praised new author that I gave mixed reviews.

All of these are comfort reads for a variety of readers, and I'm firmly in the reading as self-care quadrant for our content today.

But Jillian, you're going to kick us off today's episode.

What is your first book for today?

The first book I'm bringing today is a book you brought to the show in the past, Aaron, but it's so good that I wanted to bring it a second time.

That book is The Seven Skins of Esther Wilding by Holly Ringland.

I gave this book 4 1/2 stars.

It's a haunting magical novel about joy, grief, and courage.

Here's the premise.

The last time Esther Wilding's beloved older sister, Aura, was seen.

She was walking along the shore towards the sea.

And the wake of Aura's disappearance, Esther's family struggles to live with their loss.

To seek the truth about her sister's death, Esther reluctantly travels from Lutruida, Tasmania, to Copenhagen, and then to the Faroe Islands following the trail of the stories are left behind.

Seven fairy tales about selky swans and women, alongside cryptic verses, Aura wrote and has secretly tattooed on her body.

The Seven Skins of Esther Wilding is sweeping.

It's deeply beautiful and profoundly moving in novel about the far reaches of sisterly love, the power of wearing your heart on your skin, and the ways life can transform when we find the courage to feel the fullness of both grief and joy.

I think my favorite part of this book is the community of women that Esther had around her.

Even before she realized she had it, the community is so rich and deep with love that Esther just needed to open her eyes and heart to the magic of it.

My least favorite part of the book and the reason it got four and a half and not five stars was the Seek Secrets Inline that is rampant throughout the book.

I realize that they all play a role in the story, but I just can't stand secrets in lying and miscommunication in novels.

I can't stand it.

I can't stand it in real life and I can't stand it in novels.

If you want a chunk of a book with an absolutely stunning story, this is for you.

This is The Seven Skins of Esther Wilding by Holly Ringland.

Aaron, I know you read this book did you have anything else you'd like to add?

I brought this book to the show earlier this year as maybe one of my standout books in the first half of 2024.

What I can say about this book many months later is that it still holds up as one of my favorites of the year.

So it's not a kind of book that has left me or kind of gotten dusty in my mind palace.

You know, I like to imagine if my mind is a house and the house has rooms and there's a library in that room.

Some of those books have like a front facing cover.

You know, they're like Aaron's pick and it's this book and other books get shelved and they maybe move to the archives and some of them are easier to find than others.

Esther Wilding is a book that is one of the front displays when you walk into that library of my mind and I really, really love this book and I think it's great to bring it back to the show again.

We'll just doubly encourage people to read it.

It is such a good book.

Yeah, it is, it is long and it is dense but it's so good.

It is so, so good.

If you've been maybe reading a lot of beach reads the summer and you're ready with the changes in the season and the changes in the temperature to sink your teeth into something to kind of take a slow burn read maybe this is a good option.

Yes, that's a really good point.

All right, Aaron.

What is your first book for the show today?

The first book I'm sharing today might maybe be the opposite of Esther Wilding.

It's called Half a Soul by Olivia Atwater.

This is a book I've had on my list a TBR for a while.

I borrowed it once before then sent it back.

It just wasn't the right timing for me.

But after I finished this book, I knew I had to bring it to the show.

So let me paint a picture for you.

It's September or October when you're listening to this.

The leaves are changing color.

You have a free weekend.

What a miracle and it starts to quietly drizzle outside.

You make an Earl Grey tea and you reach for this book Half a Soul by Olivia Atwater.

Your cat hops on your lap while you read.

You don't have a cat just roll with it.

Tailor swifts, folklore album plays in the background and life is good.

Our heroine Theodore Eddings was fairy cursed as a young girl leaving her with only half a soul.

Dora experiences no fear, no embarrassment and has an unfortunate knack for stirring up scandals in Regency England.

Think Bridgerton when I say Regency England.

As much as Dora tries to blend in the background during the London season, her condition catches the attention of the mysterious Lorde Sorcier, a man selected by the King to manage all things magic on his behalf.

Suddenly Dora finds herself swept into London politics, both human and fairy, gains an appreciation for her own magic and maybe even a little more feelings coming to the surface after a very long time dormant.

As Dora navigates her curse in society's expectations, she discovers that falling in love, even with only half a soul, is very much possible.

Jillian, I was not looking for cozy Regency England fantasy, but it found me and I'm not mad at all.

This is a really delightful way to spend time reading, especially if you love Bridgerton, if you love fairies, if you love Pride and Prejudice, if you want to read a book with a neurodiverse female main character.

I was swept into the story from the jump and I really enjoyed the slow unfolding of the story.

The stakes are set early on in the book, but the tension never really reaches cliff heights.

This is more of a rolling English countryside.

I enjoyed the ambience of Bridgerton, with the magic of fairy tales, and I found the ending really satisfying yet subtle.

The best part of the book is Dora, our female main character, and how Olivia Atwater takes the creative fantasy ploy to write actually a really layered, neurodiverse character that is compelling, and interesting, and brave, and utterly unforgettable.

While this book will not have you whipping through the pages, or squealing for chemistry and scabice, it does offer something different and refreshing, which makes it an easy book to reach for whenever you need something in between.

And that is half a soul by Olivia Atwater.

I am hooked and I definitely need to get this book on my TBR, although I just added 25 books yesterday to my TBR.

So...

Listen, you don't have to add every book to your TBR, but also your TBR is kind of like this, like a Morpheus ecosystem where the book will wait.

It will wait.

I think it was published in 2022.

It is the beginning of a three-part series, but it does not end on a cliffhanger.

I plan to read this as a standalone.

I don't feel a sense of urgency to pick up the other two books, but it's there for you if you want it.

And it is a really good...

This would be a really good like...

You're going away for a weekend.

This book would take you probably over the weekend.

It's simple, sweet, short, comforting, easy to pick up, put down.

Sometimes it's really nice to have those books too when you've read something like the secret history.

And you need a palette cleanser.

Us in our palette cleanser.

Totally.

Totally.

This book will be ready when you're gonna pick it up.

All right, Jillian.

What's your next most recent read?

All right, my next most recent read is the 10th mistake of Hank Hooperman by Jennifer Choldenco.

I gave this book five stars and here's why.

When 11-year-old Hank's mom doesn't come home, he takes care of his toddler, sister Bo, like he always does.

But it's been a week now.

They are out of food and mom has never stayed away this long.

Hank knows he needs help, so he and Bo seek out the stranger listed on their emergency contact form.

But asking for help has consequences.

It means social workers and to new school and having to answer questions about his mom that he's been trying to keep secret.

And if they can't find his mom soon, Hank and Bo may end up in different foster homes.

He could lose everything.

Jennifer Choldenco has written a heart-wrenching, healing, and ultimately hopeful story about how complicated family can be, about how you can love someone even when you can't rely on them, and about the transformative power of second chances.

I balled my eyes out and felt every single possible emotion that exists while reading this book.

I was happy at times, angry for sure, and of course heartbroken.

I know that that's the point of the story, but my heart breaks for any child whose mother is struggling with addiction.

What they must go through is devastating.

This is a middle grade book, but I would absolutely recommend it to anyone.

That's the 10th mistake of Hank Cooperman by Jennifer Choldenco.

Oh my gosh.

I don't know if I could do this one.

Kid suffering is just like such a trigger for me.

It's something I deal with in my 9-5 as well, and I don't know if that just makes me highly sensitive.

But I already love Hank, and I have an 11-year-old son, and I just, oh, Jillian, how did you make it through this book?

It was hard.

It was really, I mean, one it's a middle grade book, so it's easy reading and short, but it's hard because all I could think about was Emmett, my son, who's 12, but similar.

And all I could think about was him having to take care of Esther and just disappearing and not being there for them, and it just broke my heart.

It absolutely broke my heart.

But it's a good book.

Who would you recommend this book for?

I would recommend this for, I honestly would not recommend this for middle grade students.

I thought it was a bit too painful for a middle grade student, but I would say, you know, a mom who's very strong in her love for her kids and, you know, is, I don't honestly, I don't know because it's a good book, and it's full of emotion, but it's got to be for a special reader that is ready to hurt a little, then, you know, feel a lot of emotion.

Yeah, I mean, sometimes you're looking for a book that's going to make you feel.

Yeah, it's a safe way to feel reading a really super sad book.

Even though, of course, this is a story that really does happen to kids and some families, Hank Hooperman is a fictional character, and it can create maybe a sense of safety for you to feel those feelings and learn about that lived experience while also sort of being able to tell yourself, this isn't real, this isn't really happening.

Even, of course, world grownups, we still know that there are Hank Hooperman's out there who are having that experience.

Yeah, what you said is absolutely right.

All right, Erin, what is your next book?

My next book is an audiobook that I wish I could have hugged when it ended.

I don't know how I would hug an audiobook, but there it is.

This is Slow Burn by Rainbow Rowell, and it has been making the Bookstagram circuit.

It's got an eye catching lime green cover.

And while I wasn't planning to read it, a book blogger I really like at everyday reading, she did a quick 30-second review on her Instagram, and then like Magic, Libby had it on my 4U page, available to borrow, so I thought, "Sure, why not?"

Here's the summary.

Back in high school, Shiloh and Carrie were best friends.

Everyone thought they'd end up together, except for them.

They spent summers on the porch dreaming of their futures, Shiloh off to college to be an actress and Carrie to the Navy.

But now, 14 years later, Shiloh, 33, is divorced with two kids, back in her childhood home, and navigating her adulthood.

It's something we all realize eventually.

Life doesn't usually go as we planned when we were teenagers.

The book opens with present-day Shiloh heading out to an old friend's wedding we've all been there, Jillian.

She's welcomed by old friends, people she hasn't seen in years, but easily brought back to inside jokes and epic stories.

But her attention keeps returning to Carrie.

Will he be there?

Will he be alone?

And will they reconnect after all these years?

Slowdance is a story about mischances, lost friendships, and finding your way back to the open-hearted ideals of your youth, even after life has taken you far, of course.

Slowdance is also kind of, well, slow.

It's more character than plot.

The story meanders over the decades that a relationship can develop and change, and it kind of becomes something different from what it was while it's still also impacted by what we remember about past events and how those events inform our decisions in the present.

Some people might claim that this book is miscommunication through and through, but for me, I felt like it was a more subtle exploration of what keeps us apart, as much as what brings us together.

Who can't relate to those stories we told ourselves about our high school relationships?

Slowdance has characters who leapt off the page for me.

The audiobook is performed beautifully to the point where I could still hear the characters in my ears long after the book was over.

Shiloh and Kerry are people you remember from high school, the couple that never was a couple.

It's kind of this nostalgic image that gets conjured in my mind, and that was further amped up by the book's setting, which is set in 2006 and has flashbacks to the early 90s.

The supporting cast includes a handful of people who are flawed but still lovable, and we really understand the deep affection that the main characters hold for them.

This is also a story about who stays in your old hometown and who leaves, and ultimately who comes back to stay.

I loved so much of this book.

I think it's an instant read for anyone who loves John Green or anyone who enjoyed Talking at Night by Claire Dabberley.

That's Slow Burn by Rainbow Rowell.

I have seen this everywhere.

As you mentioned, it was it's hot on book talk and books to Graham, and it has me wanting to read it for sure.

I did love Talking at Night by Claire Dabberley, so maybe another one I add to my tear.

It is Slow.

It's Slow.

Here's what I'll say.

If you usually do non-fiction on audio, try this instead.

Try this instead.

It's such a good audio book.

It's so well performed.

It's just really good performance of the story.

I wouldn't recommend it on paper because I do actually think it would feel very slow on paper, I'm print rather.

I was not looking for this book.

I was not planning to read it, and I'm really, really glad that I did.

I think it will stick with me for a long time.

All right.

With those words of so annoyed, no, no, no.

I always feel so guilty adding to my TBR.

Guilty is the wrong word.

I don't feel guilty.

I feel like maybe I should take a break.

I add too many books to it because I just love books so much that I'll read almost anything.

I add almost anything.

Yesterday, the fall preview came out for Modern Mrs.

Darcy, and I went through it, and I tried to be really discerning.

Is this a book that I would really ever read?

I think there might have been 30 books on there, and I added 25.

As you can see, I'll read pretty much anything in any category.

A TBR is a version of your imaginary self.

That may be never going to be reality, but it's fun to imagine.

Someday, I will read this book, and it's going on my TBR.

Or it'll be 10 years from now, and I'll be looking at my TBR, and why did I say I was going to read this?

I would never read that now.

That's pretty harmless.

All right, Jillian, what's your last book for today's episode?

The last book I'll be sharing is an emotional memoir titled How to Say Babylon by Sophia Sinclair.

I listened to this as an audiobook.

I love listening to memoirs as audiobooks.

I don't know why.

It's just a thing I have.

And hearing the author's voice break, as she read her own words, was so powerful.

This was another five star read for me.

It was so beautifully written, and with such heart, while my heart broke for the author and her siblings at times, it was a beautiful story.

Here's the premise.

Throughout her childhood, Sophia Sinclair's father, a volatile reggae musician and militant adherent to a strict sect of Rostafari, became obsessed with her purity, in particular, with the threat of what Rostas called Babylon, the immoral and corrupting influences of the Western world outside their home.

He worried that womanhood would make Sophia and her sisters morally weak and impure, and believed a woman's highest virtue was her obedience.

In an effort to keep Babylon outside the gate, he forbade almost everything.

In place of pants, the women and her family were made to wear long skirts and dresses to cover their arms and legs, headwraps to cover their hair, no makeup, no jewelry, no opinions, no friends.

Sophia's mother, while loyal to her father, none the less gave Sophia and her siblings a gift of books, including poetry, to which Sophia latched on for dear life.

And as Sophia watched her mother struggle voicelessly for years under housework and the rigidity of her father's beliefs, she increasingly used her education as a sharp tool with which to find her voice and break free.

Inevitably, with her rebellion comes clashes with her father, whose rage and paranoia explodes in increasing violence.

As Sophia's voice grows lyrically and poetically, a collision course is set between them.

How to say Babylon is Sinclair's reckoning with the culture that initially nourished but ultimately sought to silence her?

It is her reckoning with the patriarchy and tradition and the legacy of colonialism in Jamaica.

Rich in lyricism and language only a poet could evoke.

How to say Babylon is both a universal story of a woman finding her own power and a unique glimpse into the rarefied world we may know how to name Rastafari, but one we know little about.

It moved me beyond words.

Just be able to witness someone like Sophia go through the abuse she went through and come out as successful as she has such an incredible memoir that I highly recommend.

This is How to Say Babylon by Sophia Sinclair.

Aaron, I believe you read this one too, right?

Mm-hmm.

I did.

Yeah, I added this one to my list.

Probably at the end of last year, I was really influenced by the Washington Post, top 10 books of the year, New York Times, top 10 books of the year, what's going to be on the Pulitzer shortlist, etc.

And this book kind of jumped out at me and I think I read it earlier maybe in May.

This is a really complicated, messy story.

It's very inspiring.

At times, it's baffled me the degrees of resilience that were demanded from Sophia and her family.

I'm really, really glad I read this book.

It definitely opened my eyes to a part of the African diaspora, the Rastafari religion, Jamaican culture.

I never could have possibly experienced any of that first hand and that's what makes reading such a powerful tool.

It was a great book and a beautiful memoir.

Definitely, if you're someone who likes to read memoirs or listen to memoirs, then I would pick this one up.

One of the reasons I like memoirs on audiobook, not all of them, but very many of them are read by the authors themselves.

And I love that.

I love listening to them read the book and hearing them react emotionally.

And sometimes you'll get a memoir where they'll add like Leslie Epping Jones, for instance, when she read hers, she added in tons and tons of stories that weren't in there to begin with in her book, but she adds them in and a lot, not a lot, but some of the authors will do that.

They'll add in like little tidbits for you that aren't actually in the book, but it will give you a behind the scenes of what they were going through or what their thought processes were.

And I enjoy that as well.

Okay, time for your last book and review.

Are you ready, Aaron?

I'm ready.

Here we go.

I debated the book in my last slot today, but I'm bringing it ultimately because I think this is the right book for someone in our audience, even though it was not the right book for me.

I'm sharing a love like the Sun by Reese M.

Nelson.

Here's the summary.

In a love like the Sun, we follow best friends, Lanaya, a private small business owner in Providence, Rhode Island, and Isaac, an artist turned heartthrob influencer whose brand is Hotman Who Believes in Love.

When Isaac comes home for a visit and realizes Lanaya's family hair care business is struggling, he steps in with a wild plant.

They should pretend to date and give her store a boost to publicity from his fame and the public's rampant interest in his love life.

It starts as a fake relationship just for the summer, but soon the lines between friendship and something more start to blur.

With their deep history and undeniable chemistry, the arrangement becomes a summer of confusion, tension, and maybe love.

Published by Berkeley, friends to lovers, an endearing female woman of color as the heroine, and a make-your-week-in-the-needs-love-interest, plus add on a compelling backstory and a visually immersive setting.

Honestly, Jillian, this should have been a home run for me.

But if I could say anything to this book as we part ways, I'd say this.

It's not you, it's me.

I really blame timing my own personal life feeling somewhat chaotic at the beginning of September and my mind was just elsewhere.

The escape of a contemporary romance just wasn't enough to silence my overwhelm.

There were many times I chose to scroll rather than read, and this is the book that suffered.

A love like the sun, Jillian, has a lot of things going for it, as I've said before.

And personally, I particularly enjoyed reading the flashback scenes, reaching farther and farther into the past of Lanayan Isaac's friendship, the context of that friendship in their own formative childhoods.

If you're one for nostalgia in your romance, Kofkof Karli Fortune, this book will be a great fit.

I love the story setting both in Rhode Island, which is a kind of unique spot that you don't see in a lot of books, and Los Angeles, and the way that flowers and plants feature really, really heavily in the story.

The cover is gorgeous, and there is plenty of chemistry in this book, even though I personally would call it a slow burn.

The open door scenes will harken to some of the steamy events in Tio Williams's Seven Days in June, which is one of my favorite romances of all time.

So all of that's in the prose column.

I will say, while I love those elements, I did feel like the plot was missing on pacing.

Much of the middle of the novel is a little bit mundane, people not saying what they're thinking and spending too much time in their heads.

The best parts of this book are when Lanayan and Isaac are on the page together in person, and too much of the middle of the book is spent with them and their long distance relationship apart.

My rating aside, I would definitely recommend this one, especially if you like Tio Williams or Kennedy Ryan.

If you're a fan of Berkeley publishing, that's the publishing house that does M.H.N.

Karli Fortune, Ashley Poston.

If you're a fan of Berkeley's work, this hits the mark in so many ways that's a love like the sun by RISM Nelson.

I'm not sold on it.

I was thinking, I give you a review and then you're like thumbs up or thumbs.

This is like Shark Tank, the Shark Tank of Book.

Yeah, yeah.

I can't help myself.

It's like you read it.

That's the point of a review.

Yeah, are you going to read it or not?

For sure.

You tell me about a book.

I'm sucked in.

The authors you mentioned, like Karli Fortune and Tio Williams and everything.

I love them, but I'm not sold in the fact that you're saying it's kind of boring and mundane in the middle.

I don't know yet.

I don't know if I'm going to add it.

I think you don't have to.

I think you can do it every day.

You want to do it?

I do think that there's so much good for this book, but again, I did feel like the middle on pacing was a little bit missing some stuff for me, but I did also feel like RISM Nelson, I think she's written a bunch of YA fiction.

This is her first adult contemporary romance.

There's those growing pains, that transition piece.

I also think that if I hadn't just needed to just constantly veg and rot and disconnect from the busyness of September, I probably would have just whip through the middle of the book and not even noticed that part of it.

I feel bad for saying that now, but you're going to know, listener, if this is a book for you or not.

Also, you're going to know if it's something that you're going to pass on and gain a little extra space on your TBR, like Gillian Desperately Needs.

All right, everyone.

Let's transition to our next segment.

This is the segment we usually do our hot takes, but since it's October and we're in the last quarter of the year, we thought it would be really fun to do a goals check-in.

Aaron and I both set reading goals in early 2024, episode 14, and then we checked on those goals back in April in episode 19.

The purpose of these goals was purely to help us get the most out of our reading lives and to make sure that we're paying attention to what matters most to us throughout the year.

Plus, you know me, I'm a bit of a goal junky, I won't deny it.

First, we'll check on our Goodreads goal.

This is a challenge Goodread sponsors annually to get its users to commit to reading a certain number of books in the year.

Gillian, where are you at with your count?

I set a goal of 62 books and I'm currently at 75 for the year.

So I've already surpassed my goal.

So of course, I feel okay with this.

Earlier in the year, I struggled with falling asleep every time I began reading.

I've been reading more chonkers and they take me longer and I did hit a bit of a slump in July and early August, because while I did surpass my Goodreads goal, I am a little bit behind where I was and have been in the previous two years.

So part of that is this falling asleep reading chonkers and then my reading slump.

So I'm happy with 75 and I will do my best to try to hit 100 by December 31st.

We'll see what happens.

So you have like an unpublished goal of 100 books?

Only because that's what I've hit.

The last try I hit 104 and the year before I think it was 108.

So that's only reason why.

It's not really a goal goal.

It's just will I hit it again?

But you also were more purposeful about your books this year.

Last year you were reading all of the like seven day holds and a lot of the stuff that was like hot on Instagram and you were reading books lower and not enjoying your reading as much.

It's true.

And do you feel like the trade off of those, you know, we're at 75 books right now, those 75 books.

Do you feel like they're that you're enjoying a higher quality reading life than you were last year when you were like constantly under deadline?

Absolutely.

I absolutely think that I have read more books that were enjoyable.

Like for instance, again, going back to the Jody Pico book by any other name that I didn't read.

I just am so much better this year at reading books that I want to read, taking the time to actually read the cover of them or if the cover's not there, you know, going on good reads and reading the description and making a choice on the book versus just working on a deadline.

So yeah, I would say my reading life has been much more, much more enriching than it has in the past.

I admittedly I set my goal low, but I did achieve it much earlier in the year than I expected.

My goal was 83 books.

I just picked that number because I'm born in 1983.

I think I achieved that goal around July.

I feel like I probably should reset my goal, but I'm just satisfied to keep reading.

See where I land by the end of the year rather than strive for a new goal.

Yeah, I like that.

Yeah, I'm just going to kind of like let the books me under and I did have an incredible spike of reading in the summer that I absolutely won't keep pace on.

So it's not like I even have, you know, like an average that I could use to predict where I might land by the end of the year.

I also had a goal to DNF, not to finish more books this year.

My goal was to DNF free books, I believe.

I absolutely loved this goal.

It made it much easier for me to DNF a book knowing that I'm working towards a goal.

Previously, I'd read a book until the bitter end just because I felt like I needed to, that if I didn't, I was missing out on something.

And so far this year, I've DNFed four or five books.

I can't remember, and I have to admit to not tracking it the best, but I know I can definitely count four books that I've DNFed and I feel like there might have been a fifth one in there.

I also have been more discerning, whether I pick up a book or and read it or not, which I kind of just talked about.

So I've been more discerning about whether I read a book or not.

Like I mentioned with the Jody Pico book and I've been reading reviews and reading the descriptions of books and trying to determine if it's the right book for the right time.

Or if maybe I put it down and read it later on.

So what ends up happening in that is I give the book back to the library and someone else gets the book right away.

So they don't have to wait as long as they might have, because the Jody Pico book, while a brand new book, for instance, was not a seven-day hold because it's over 500 pages.

So my library doesn't put the hold, the short hold on it if it's over 500 pages.

So.

Oh nice.

Whoever was next online got it super quick.

That's like feels like a little bit of book karma that you're putting out in the world.

That's nice.

Good.

Good.

I like that.

I need it.

I think you must have in part influenced my DNF challenge this month.

DNFing is really hard and Jillian, you have really gotten good at it in the last year.

My other reading goal this year was to have 40% or higher of my books read be from diverse authors or Hashtag own voices.

Thanks to my beloved tracker, I'm happy to report that I'm at 41% currently.

And I want to tell listeners like this is not something that happens by accident.

I am often having to look at where I'm at, course correct.

When I find I'm caught up in the buzz of books on Instagram, which very sadly are not very diverse.

I'm very confident I can reach this goal by the end of the year.

And I'm actually a little bit curious to see if I could get closer to 45% or 50% by the end of the year.

To support this goal, I have a sub goal.

I've been participating in the 2024 fold reading challenge.

That's the festival of literary diversity.

I've mentioned that on a bunch of other episodes.

I have read a book associated with every monthly prompt.

So the fold will release the January prompt, February prompt.

For example, this month's prompt was a book by a neurodiverse author.

I've done that for every single month except April.

I'm still making my way through the April prompt, which was an author of C Caratage.

I chose a book of poetry and I just haven't made my way to the end yet.

I've just kind of meandered through that book of poetry.

I really did not rush through it at all.

It'll be the book that took me the longest to read in 2024.

But I'm really glad I did this fold challenge because it's opened me up to so many books that I have rated highly and enjoyed deeply.

It's absolutely colored my reading life for 2024 with so much more joy and inspiration than I could have expected.

It is definitely a challenge I would recommend and something I will pursue again in 2025.

And I have to admit, well, my DNF challenge might have influenced you.

You're reading the fold, following the fold challenge has influenced me because a couple of the books.

I know I read at least one of the books that you read because of the fold challenge and I know I've added books that you've read to my list.

So it's definitely influenced me as well.

Oh, I love that.

Thanks for saying that.

My other goal that I set mid-year was to read more longer chunkier books.

I noticed that I was skipping longer books in favor of shorter ones because I felt like I could read more, which is obviously true.

But there have been a number of chunkier books that I've wanted to read.

So I set that goal to read more of them.

For myself, I described a chunker book by having 450 or more pages.

So far, I've read four and I'm currently reading the secret secret history, which I've mentioned, which has 578 pages.

Oh, yeah.

But it's flying by.

Like, I'm halfway through and it doesn't even feel like it's been 200, 300 pages, whatever.

I made this goal in April.

So I'm technically behind by one book, but I'm not going to worry too much about it.

I've added chunker books to my reading and that is what I'm happy about.

Nice.

All right, Jillian.

Thanks for checking in.

This kind of look back in evaluation.

It always gets me really excited for the future, what the year of reading will look like when it's all said and done in December.

You know, what books will rise to our favorites list?

How many books will we read this year?

I just love like making my way through the year to that final destination.

But really looking back is the thing that I just find so supremely satisfying.

Yeah.

And it's something that I'm not great at doing personally.

So I'm really glad that you're holding me accountable to looking back because while I am keeping my two my goals, I'm not always looking back and seeing where I've come with them.

So thank you for holding me accountable in that way.

I mean, we could stop reading here and we would have done really, really well with our goals.

Absolutely.

I mean, we're never we're not going to ever do that.

But no, that would be that would be painful to have to stop reading.

We're going to wrap up with the holds list.

Aaron and I are very passionate about the library and because we're both avid users, we both have a very active holds list.

And we feel like that's something we don't hear a lot about on book podcasts or book talk or even IG.

So we know it's something we can offer the bookish community.

Plus, now we're going to be sharing what's up next to let the listener know what we'll be reaching for on our TBR.

So Aaron, what's on your holds list?

Okay.

So because it is an even's episode, I am going to share my digital holds list because I put holds on Libby and I put holds on my actual library and actually haven't looked at this holds list in a while.

So let's see what's on here.

The first book that comes up is called Same as It Ever Was by Claire Lombardo.

This was making the circuit in the summer.

This is literary fiction.

I have to admit, I don't know a lot about what this book is about, but you know, it's sort of a sweeping family saga.

And I'm a little bit scared.

I think it's actually a chonker and I am pretty scared of chonker books.

So we'll see.

But that's actually not due for quite some time.

The other book that I have on hold is a book called The Witch of Wild Things by Raquel Vesquez-Gillian.

This is a book I heard recommended by Katie Cobb on the currently reading podcast.

It's a Romanticie.

I think it's young adult Romanticie.

So that'll be kind of a nice in-between book as I transition to some of the books on my TBR right now.

The things that I have out from the library are a little bit more dense, a little bit more literary fiction.

I have a handful of memoirs there.

So that'll be a nice palette cleanser in between book.

What I have coming up is a bit of a toss up because I am scared to tell you I have 20 physical books out from the library right now.

I have no idea what I'm going to read next and I think a lot of these books are coming up due.

So I'm going to probably have to really make some difficult decisions and send some books back.

Take a page from your book, Jillian, and really be honest with myself about what I'm actually going to read.

One of the things I definitely think I'm going to pick up is The Life Impossible by Matt Hague.

This is The New Matt Hague Book, Matt Hague Wrote, The Midnight Library, which is a beloved contemporary fiction book.

I would highly recommend that if you haven't been reading in a long time, that's the book I recommend to everybody if they're like, I haven't read an ages and I'm like the Midnight Library.

So that new book by Matt Hague will probably make the cut and stay home with me, but I'll maybe share on Instagram the stack that gets returned to the library.

Jillian, what about you?

What are you waiting for from the library?

What do you have coming up on your TBR?

I have two books waiting for me at the library.

One is Our Best Intentions by the Booty Jane, the Booty Jane, I apologize.

And then you only die once, how to make it to the end with no regrets by Jody Wellman.

I already had you only die once out and I only got a quarter of the way through.

Just summer got in the way and I just didn't spend enough time reading it.

So I will get that back out and I'll read it then.

And then what's up next for me is somewhere beyond the sea, which we've already talked about by TJ Clune.

This is what Aaron is currently reading.

It's his latest book in the Surleand Sea series.

So that'll be my next book.

All right.

That wraps up Episode 28 of Medium Lady Reads.

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

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

And of course, you can follow the podcast itself on Instagram @mediumladyreads.

If you liked this episode, please share it with another bookish friend or post on IG and be sure to tag us.

We would be tickled pink to hear from you.

Thank you for listening.

I'm your host Jillian and I'm your other host Aaron.

Until next time, we hope that your holds arrive quickly and that your next book finds you right when you need it most.

We'll talk to you soon.

Bye!