July 2024 BookSnacks
Vol. 19 — Emily Henry, Phase 2 has begun!
Me again! I can’t wait to tell you all about my first Emily Henry and a very popular book that I absolutely did not like.
The Crumbs Podcast
This month was a quick one. I’m not sure this episode needs any sort of explanation. The Crumbs—Episode 7.
And now, on to the books of the month!
Currently Reading
Funny Story by Emily Henry
Read if you like:
Curtis Sittenfeld (Romantic Comedy)
Jojo Moyes (One plus One, Someone Else’s Shoes)
Elle Cosimano (Finlay Donovan Is Killing It)
Amazon-$20 | Barnes & Noble-$25 | Bookshop-$27
Continuing on my Emily Henry Journey, I’ve picked up Funny Story. Reading truly is a journey. Daphne and Miles only have one thing in common—their fiancees left them to be with each other instead. Daphne moved with her now ex-fiancee, Peter, to his hometown in Michigan and molded herself to fit into his life. Now that they aren’t together she would love to un-mold herself from this place but she unfortunately has and loves her dream job of being a children’s librarian. Miles, the other ex-fiancee, took her in after the breakup, since he clearly had the space, and they form a tenuous friendship and hatch several plans that may or may not be the best ideas for moving on and revenge and all that after their terrible breakups. I certainly thought I had this book figured out after reading the first chapter but I’m halfway in and it’s surprised me a couple of times already! Where does Funny Story rank on your Emily Henry hierarchy?
Just Finished Reading
Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Read if you like:
Boring books
Amazon-$10 | Barnes & Noble-$17 | Bookshop-$16
I want to first formally apologize to anyone who recommended this book to me or told me they liked it when I mentioned it. This is a story about a band in the 70s that basically had lightning strike them. Everything came together at once, they were on the path to hugeness and then because of bandmate drama broke up and never played together again. I had a few commenters on TikTok that saw my ‘not so great’ review and then asked, “Do you know what it’s based on?” Yes, I do. That doesn’t change the fact that it’s boring. I think the interview style made it really difficult for the story to emote. That’s my fancy way of saying that there was just no feeling behind their words. They made statements like, ‘this was important to me’ and ‘I really enjoyed that’ but those don’t convey deep feelings. If there had been som additional element of diary entries or the interviewer’s point of view, we might have been able to connect with the characters more. Unfortunately the book was a big old miss for me. *And it has one of the worst covers I’ve ever seen.
Then I watched the series. And that was a near complete 180. Glances, expressions, touches all give the depth that the written story was so lacking. This was a book that wasn’t supposed to be a book, in my opinion, it was meant to be on the screen.
Vintage Read
Happy Place by Emily Henry
Read if you like:
To be disappointed
Amazon—$12 | Barnes & Noble-$17 | Bookshop-$18
So, I wasn’t disappointed with a capital D. I really did like it up until about 75% of the way through. This is the story of ex-fiancees who are forced to spend a weekend with all of their mutual best friends one last time and their friends have no idea they’ve broken up. This book is great if you love witty banter and funny writing. I found the depth of the story and the characters to be a little lacking. I felt the ending was cute but again lacked some depth. BUT a great first start to my Emily Henry Marathon. On to the next!
For the Kids(and sometimes adults, too)
This month I want to highlight a series that my kids LOVE. We stumbled upon the first Pig the Pug kind of by accident. I think we found it in a used book store and my kids wanted it so I got without reading it. And girl, was I delighted by what we read! Pig the pug books are fun and funny and quick! We most recently read Pig the Stinker and it was also great!
Snacks To-Go
🍫 I listened to With A Little Luck by Marissa Meyer. I thought it was cute! A charming little YA novel that’s fun, a little mysterious and a little nerdy. It’s the story of a boy named Jude who is suspiciously gifted with some serious luck. He gets to go on a date with his crush, find something unbelievable for the family business, but not everything is as wonderful, or as lucky, as it seems.
And that’s it! So happy you made it here this month.
I’ve decided to keep BookSnacks free for now! If you’d like to support me and my little newsletter, you can for about $5/month or about $4/month if you contribute yearly. To those already contributing, thank you so much for supporting me and this letter`—I really appreciate you.
Don’t forget to subscribe so you don’t miss the next one!
Talk soon,
Adri
“read if you like boring books” about daisy jones made me feel so seen 😂
I’ve only read Funny Story and don’t really intend to read any others of hers, just not my thing 🤷🏼♀️