Chapter #10: Me, My Shelf, and I

The rain has got me thinking...

Feeling My Shelf is a bi-weekly newsletter about books, life, and well, life with books. Grab your favorite caffeinated beverage and get comfy.

What a rainy start to 2023! Despite what Tony! Toni! Toné! said it does rain pour in Southern California, and the driving gets 10x worse than ever before.

On the upside: The extended time inside (since I also work from home) has given me a chance to think long and hard about the year ahead — and to choose a word of the year that’s pretty fitting given the weather. Bloom.

Another word for flower. But also a verb that means “come into or be in full beauty or health.” To flourish. To become radiant and glowing. And all this can’t happen without what? A little rain.

This year I want to:

Grow. Creatively and spiritually.

Practice patience with myself and others. But mostly myself because I’ve been way too hard on myself for far too long.

Appreciate the small things. Like when I remember exactly where I put my glasses. If you know, you know.

These are intentions (among many others) that feel like the word “bloom” to me. 2023: I’m ready. And I know I said it back in December, but thank you again for being here, and I hope you’ll stick around for this transformative journey of mine.

Nora Goes Off Script by Annabel Monaghan

The love life of a romance screenwriter (Nora) gets a rewrite of its own when a star actor sets his sights on her. My first read of 2023. It was light and funny and irritated me at times. Like why is it so hard for characters to communicate? Nonetheless, I enjoyed and loved how much of a presence Nora’s children had in the story. 

What We Found in Hallelujah by Vanessa Miller

Black women. Set in the south. Family drama. All of these things made this a must-read for me. A family (a mother and her two daughters) plagued by tragedy, typically around hurricane season, reunites to weather the latest storm. There were so many secrets(!), and the story got better and better with every page.

All the Dangerous Things by Stacy Willingham

A mother’s worst nightmare: waking up to find her child missing, taken from her own home while she was sleeping. No signs of forced entry. But there was an open window. The mom, who is a pretty unreliable narrator, hasn’t slept since her son went missing a year ago. With the help of a true-crime podcaster (because why not?), she seeks to uncover the truth about what happened, no matter the personal cost. There were so many twists that I did not see coming. A very good read (albeit a little slow at times.) 

So many good reads are coming out this year! One of my goals is to read at least 75 books, so hoping to devour a bunch of new releases (among some oldies.) Other goals include reading outside of my comfort zone (ahem, romance) and finishing all the books on my shelves. Yup, the ones I’ve been putting off reading for years.

Some of the titles I’m looking forward to the most in 2023 include:

The Survivalists by Kashana Cauley: Follows a lawyer who moves in with her boyfriend and his doomsday-prepping roommates. Out January 10

The Davenports by Krystal Marquis: A historical YA romance set in 1910 and centered around an immensely wealthy Black family. Out January 31

Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld: “A comedy writer thinks she’s sworn off love until a dreamily handsome pop star flips the script on all her assumptions.” Enough said. Out April 4

Homebodies by Tembe Denton-Hurst: A young Black writer loses her media job and goes viral for writing a “searing manifesto about racism in the industry.” Out May 2

Rogue Justice by Stacey Abrams: The sequel to the political thriller While Justice Sleeps — a book that I haven’t stopped raving about since I read it in 2021. Out May 23

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