Books I read this summer

Hi Everyone,

Summer has kept me busy  so I figured I'd take this opportunity to talk about some books  in the past couple  months

First up is A Thousand Splendid Suns  by  Kahleed Hussieni. This book was on my secondary TBR of books that were published during the time that Friends and Gilmore Girls was airing being published  in  the final season of Gilmore Girls in 2007.  This book  is a history of Afghanistian from the 1970s to the Taluban invasion in 2001.   It was a powerful and emotuinal story of  friendship and love amongst the background of all the devastation of war.   I never knew anything about Afghanistan's history  prior to the event of the Taliban invasion so that's what  keept me engaged.  

Next up we have Beach Read   by Emily Henry, Of all Emily Henry's books January is the female lead I connect the most  with because she is a writer and I dealt with the writer's block she deals with many a time.  I love the development of her relationship with Gus and the quote he says to her about being overwhelmed that she exists makes my heart melt.  My favorite scene is on page 131 when they are at the carousel because it reminds me of being down Hull as a kid and going to the hotel and carosuel on the boardwalk.

This book was selected for the TBR because  of the Beach vibes it gives off (even though it is set at a lake)  and  is good to pair up with S 4 Ep 1 The One With The Jellyfish   for a genuine beachy exprerience you should read Happy Place  and this book concurrently with  S3 Ep 24 The One At The Beach and S4 Ep 1 The One With The Jellyfish. Additionally this book was on a reading list  on Insstgram where books were paired up with couples for Gilmore Girls and this  book was paired up with Paris and Doyle.   Haven't seen their episodes yet but my guess for this pairing is that it. was selected for the list because Paris and Doyle are both writers.

The next book   I read was  Mean Baby which is Selma Blair's memoir.   I originally read this book back. in April  and reread again for Disablity Pride Month in July.  Selma Blair is well known for her roles in the  90s WB Drama  Dawson's Creek,  the 1999 film Cruel. Intentions and  the 2001  film  Legally Blonde where she played the (misunderstood) villian Vivian Kensington. Blair  was in the Season 9 episode of Friends The One With The Christmas In Tulsa where she played Chandler's co-worker Wendy.    What especially stood out to me about thus memoir is how candid she is about  her diagnosis of  multiple sclerosis and how she advocates for the disease.  I can connect to her since I am a disability rights activist as well. 

Next up we have Shokho's Smile by  Choi Eunyoung,   I have been on quite the journey this year of reading translated works and this has definitley one of my favorites  following The Memory Police and Hunchback.   This short story collection is a delightful coming of age short story collection about friendship.   Taylor at Diaries Of Creativity  recommended this in her  Books Rory Gilmore would read in 2025 video on Youtube.  My favorite short stories  were  Hanji and Younju because it reminded me of Rory and Lane's friendship. 

Two books I have read the  most recently  are by authors who are new to me this year.

 The first is  The Party Crasher by Sophie Kinsella.   This is my third book by this author following  The UnDomestic Goddess  (which I swear the movie  Maid In Manhattan with Jennifer Lopez was based of off) and  Can You Keep A Secret.  I heard about  The UnDomestic Goddess from Kayla at BooksandLaLa on Youtube who read it for her series about reading  a book forever year she's been alive which this inspired the subset for this TBR where I have read a book from every year Friends and Gilmore Girls was on.   Our man character Effie sneaks into a party at her father's house she isn't invtied to get her Russian Dolls  that are hidden in the Chimney.   The party in this book reminded me of the party that Richard and Emily throw for Rory is S1 Ep 6 of Gilmore Girls Rory's Birthday Parties. 

Finally we arrive at  the book I most recently read The Interestings by Meg Wollitzer,   This author  was reccommeded to me by ABookOlive who I get  a majority of my non ficition book suggestions from. Unfortunately I don't remmeber the book she reviewed by her or the video that she mentioned it in.  This book was set in New York City and naturally the friend  group in this book is very similar to the one the Friends.  This characters are very easy for me to connect to all have jobs in the creative field.   The couple I like the best Jules and Jonah are a comedian and an animator respectively.   The character arcs in this book develop very similar to the charaacters in Friends.

Ratings

5 Stars   A Thousand Splendid Suns,   Beach Read,  Shoko's Smile

4.5 Stars.  Beach Read, The Party Crasher

4 Stars:  Mean. Baby, The Interestings