Reading, Writing, and Me

Sorry I've abandoned you all for the summer! I'll talk more about it in my July wrap-up, but I wanted to just put that out there. I've posted a few reviews that I've had ready to go for months when I can remember to. I've definitely dropped the ball, but thank you all for continuing to read my posts and share them with your friends through this time. I've been book blogging since 2017, so I'm trying to give myself the grace that taking breaks when I'm not feeling it is how this blog has stayed alive so long.  Today, we're playing a new game. I'm bringing a habit I have after library trips to the blog. I find it hard to really figure out if I'm going to like the book at the library. If I have a ton of time, I'll bring a stack to the couch and read the first few pages of a book to decide if I want to take it home, but usually, I'm rushing through, tossing familiar or interesting looking books in my tote to sift through later. I'll s...

Common Decency  by Susannah Dickey Overview: Lily and  Siobhán live in the same Belfast apartment complex. Lily works in the hospital gift shop and volunteers for the cancer charity nearby to pass the time. She's struggling to navigate the world without  her mom, who was also her best friend.  Siobhán has bounced through a few apartments and from working in a hotel to finally landing a coveted teaching position. While she's learning how to manage a classroom of kids, she's also navigating an affair with a married man. Lily escalates their relationship beyond neighbors when stalkerish tendencies arise and she becomes desperate to get closer to  Siobhán. Overall: 3 Characters: 3  Here's the fundamental problem with the book. It's a dual narrative where both voices sound the same. Not just the same generic voice—no. The same extremely hyper-specific voice that utilizes the world's strangest vocabulary words shoehorned in left and right. While this would've sti...