Hello everyone! I’m back with another set of mini book reviews! Also, I have a cool announcement! I’m doing a presentation on my blogging experience and you could watch!

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The first eight books are the last books I read in 2021, and the last two books on this list are the first two of 2022! I thought I’d talk about my reading goal for 2021 a bit, although I did a whole post of my 2021 Reading Stats last week. My reading goal for 2021 was 100 books, and I finished out the year with 103! It was super exciting and I am happy I made that goal! My 2022 goal is 65 books, since I do want to dedicate more time to writing and other fun pursuits.

Also! I am doing a presentation at my local library which you can attend virtually if you are interested! Registration can be found here. If you can’t make it, I’ll be sure to talk about my experience and share the YouTube video once it’s up!

Note about my ratings: I’ve switched to using the StoryGraph to track and rate the books I’ve been reading. This site uses 1-5 stars, 5 being the highest, in 0.25 increments. Feel free to friend me on the StoryGraph – my username is StarringPamela there!

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Clever Girl Finance: The Side Hustle Guide by Bola Sokunbi

This was an okay read. I didn’t think there was anything particularly groundbreaking in the guide. Of course, I’ve studied business and entrepreneurship for about half my life now, so that could be why, but I just felt like it was super simple and didn’t really see what it provided that other resources couldn’t. I suppose it would be a good introduction to side hustles in general if someone really didn’t know anything and hadn’t done any other research though.

I gave this book 3.75 out of 5 stars.

Revenant by Zee Lacson

This was the second book in Lacson’s Woolgathering series. Lacson is a local author and I was introduced to her work when she did an author talk at the library, similar to what I am going to do! It was pretty cool to hear her story as she got to writing her book and I enjoyed the first one so I picked up the second. The second book picked up where the first one did. I won’t spoil it in case someone else wants to read the series but I will say for the first one I liked the intro and middle much more than I liked the end and with this one it was the opposite. I felt the story was just so all over the place and the main character wasn’t as understandable as in the first book but the end was lovely and a great end to the book/series.

I gave this book 4.25 out of 5 stars.

The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green

I really enjoyed Green’s newest book! I love the idea of reviewing stuff in general, hence why I’m doing this entire post, and reviewing general life things is just genius. I loved reading Green’s perspective and thoughts on various topics and it was a really cool book.

I gave this book 4.25 out of 5 stars.

How to Stop Time by Matt Haig

I mostly picked this up because of his other book The Midnight Library. While I didn’t like this one as much as I did the other book, it was still really cool. The story follows a main character who ages very, very slowly. He returns to his home country of England after a few centuries and has to navigate his memories of his past with keeping his secret in the present. It was still a really cool story and I did enjoy it!

I gave this book 4 out of 5 stars.

Homebody by Joanna Gaines

I really liked how this book was laid out. Gaines pointed out multiple times that making the home comfortable was more important than making it look “good” but that each style had certain tricks to make it more usable and cohesive too. I really liked how it was written and how each style was portrayed. I do think that maybe there were too many styles as not all of them had examples in each chapter, but they were all really interesting and unique too.

I gave this book 3.75 out of 5 stars.

After the Fall by Ben Rhodes

I picked this book up since I enjoyed Rhodes’ memoir on the Obama White House. This memoir covered the years after Obama’s Presidency, and how difficult it was to see the American democracy embarrassed and threatened. It was interesting enough, especially since Rhodes was able to provide a lot of important context for many situations and since he also did travel sometimes with Obama after they left the White House too. I don’t think this was as good as the White House memoir but it was still really cool.

I gave this book 3.75 out of 5 stars.

How to Find Love in a Bookshop by Veronica Henry

I picked this book up because I thought “love in a bookshop?! What could go wrong???” Well, a lot honestly. I liked the basic story and plot, but I was about 75% through and no one had fallen in love yet, at the bookshop or outside of it. Eventually there was some love stories thrown in but a vast majority of the book just focused on the money troubles of the bookshop and getting to know the various characters.

I gave this book 3 out of 5 stars.

Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare

I finally picked up the next Clare book. While it was interesting to jump forward a few years and get to know new characters, it’s the same style of writing and storytelling that I just don’t like. The main character on this one, Emma, is now in a love triangle, of sorts, because she isn’t supposed to be in love with her fighting partner and it was just so obvious even in the prior series where that was going. And, as always, the book was much to long! I skipped various pages a few times and found that I hadn’t missed anything at all because nothing had happened. These books would be so much better if they were 30-40% shorter.

I gave this book 3 out of 5 stars.

Atomic Habits by James Clear

I found that this book was really quite interesting! I liked that the process to form habits was broken out so clearly and organized so well. I really liked the idea of creating habits and not tasks. For example, if your goal is to have a clean room then “cleaning the room” is the task and as soon as it’s done then you’re done so it’s not a habit. But if your goal is “to be a clean and tidy person”, that is an identity you’re working towards and the cleaning becomes a habit to reach that goal. In general I just liked the tips it gave and I think it’s a great book to start the year with.

I gave this book 3.25 out of 5 stars.

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

I finally read this one! This has been on my TBR forever and I am so happy I finally read it. It was such a really cool idea and story. Basically Evelyn Hugo is an elderly former movie star, who contacts a little-known journalist to tell her story, which revolves around her seven husbands and how she shaped her life through each of her marriages. Jenkins Reid gave her character such a compelling story. While I could have done without the journalist’s part of the story, I really enjoyed the plot and how unique Evelyn’s marriages started and ended. If I had to pick a favorite of her marriages, it would absolutely be Harry. I also enjoyed reading on her experiences in Hollywood in general but I won’t say much more now since I don’t want to spoil it for anyone. I just really liked how the story was told and how the modern day lens shaped Evelyn’s reflection.

I gave this book 5 out of 5 stars.

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So those are the ten mini book reviews I had to share with you today! Please remember to register for my blog presentation if you want to attend. Otherwise keep an eye out for the link to it later! (Probably in February!)

Thanks for reading!

Pamela

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