January Listens!

Yes, this post is a week late, but hopefully you’ll think the playlist is worth it!

January was a wild ride (in the best way), which you’ll see reflected in the wide variety of music I was listening to. The month was full of travel, long drives in the car, and singing with friends.

One of my favorite January memories is seeing Frankie Valli in Las Vegas with two of my best friends and then proceeding to blast his catalogue and Bruno Mars (especially Versace on the Floor) as we drove around Vegas.

Check out the playlist below 🙂

  1. December, 1963 (Oh What a Night!) – Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons
  2. Leave Before You Love Me (with Jonas Brothers) – Marshmello
  3. Versace on the Floor – Bruno Mars
  4. Stay – Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons
  5. Vacation Eyes – Jonas Brothers
  6. Can’t Take My Eyes off You – Frankie Valli
  7. hiccup – Valley
  8. Sherry – Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons
  9. Still Good – DNCE
  10. Out of Excuses – Katelyn Tarver
  11. Leave Me Alone – Brett Young
  12. Working My Way Back to You – Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons
  13. Miracle – Jonas Brothers
  14. Year From Now – Katelyn Tarver
  15. Drive By (From the Vault) – Megan and Liz
  16. Big Girls Don’t Cry – Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons
  17. Summer Baby – Jonas Brothers
  18. Swearin’ to God – Frankie Valli
  19. Never Was – Reaves
  20. Who Loves You – Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons
  21. Street Lightning – The Summer Set
  22. My Girl/Groovin’ – Frankie Valli
  23. Celebrate! – Jonas Brothers
  24. Walk Like a Man – Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons
  25. I Don’t Think That I Like Her – Charlie Puth
  26. Five Minutes to Midnight – Boys Like Girls
  27. Waffle House – Jonas Brothers
  28. Dawn (Go Away) – Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons
  29. Naked – Avril Lavigne
  30. Grease – Frankie Valli
  31. My Eyes Adored You – Frankie Valli
  32. Fools – Jack Gray
  33. Despacito – Luis Fonsi, Daddy Yankee

If this looks like a playlist you think you’d like, you can listen to it here!

Sara Bareilles – Sounds Like Me: My Life (so far) in Song

Sounds Like Me: My Life (so far) in Song – 5/5 ✩

I have long been a Sara Bareilles fan and I am ashamed to admit that I rushed to purchase this book, had Sara sign it after a Waitress show in NYC, and then allowed the book to collect dust for a couple of years. I even purchased the book on Audible and still, I kept making excuses for not reading it.

Today, I finally (finally!) picked up the book and its accompanying audiobook, and I can say with confidence that not only am I ashamed I pushed off reading it for as long as I did, but I’m angry at myself for doing it!

This memoir was one of the most amazing, most candid memoirs I’ve ever read. As I said, I’ve been a fan of Sara’s for years and years, but I was so pleasantly surprised to read and learn more about her life beyond the stage and beyond her songwriting capabilities.

Sara is such a compelling song writer and an even more engaging author. She makes you feel the feelings she’s encapsulating in her songs and she draws you in with her prose. The book had me laughing, had me crying, and left me feeling PROUD to be a Sara Bareilles fan.

The vulnerability she exhibits in this book is admirable and the way in which she writes her story makes it feel like she’s letting you in on a secret only you and her know. Seeing the way Sara was able to seamlessly weave the stories of her life with the backstories of her songs I grew up listening to and loving gave an entirely new depth to her music and fostered a new appreciation for Sara as a person, and not just a talented writer and performer. It sounds silly to say, but you don’t realize how much somebody’s life impacts their craft and I feel lucky to have been let in on the stories she was willing to share.

As somebody who listens to many audiobooks, I’ve never been quite so taken with a narrator before. Memoirs, in my eyes, should always be read by the author, and hearing Sounds Like Me read by Sara gave an additional depth to this book and I honestly feel like it’s a disservice to anybody to only read and not listen to the audiobook as well.

I listened to the audio narration and read along with the book at the same time and I will say, both mediums have their perks. The book is filled with handwritten lyrics to Sara’s songs and beautiful photographs that add so much to the reading journey. The audiobook, on the other hand, made the story feel complete. Sara was able to whisper or yell or mock herself or use inflections as she read her story and I think it added another dimension to an already raw and beautiful story.

I can’t recommend this book (and audiobook) enough! Oh, and if you listen to the audiobook, make sure you listen all the way through the credits!

Ali Hazelwood – Check & Mate

Check & Mate – 5/5 ✩

I am an Ali Hazelwood STAN. This woman knows how to write a hilarious, cheeks-hurt-from-smiling-so-much rom com that you put down and immediately wish you could pick up again for the first time again.

I’ve read all of Ali’s books and I have loved every single one of them – most, in fact, I’ve read in a single sitting because I loved them THAT much – but I was nervous about this one.

The premise seemed great – right up my alley, really – but lately, I’ve had a love/hate relationship with Young Adult books. I’ve always been a YA reader and lover, but I’ve noticed (much to my dismay) that the older I get, the more trouble I have connecting with young protagonists. Their problems seem mundane to me and their emotional reactions can infuriate me. I was also nervous because Ali is such an incredible adult romance writer so I was scared that wouldn’t translate to the page as well in a YA story.

But Ali Hazelwood in Check and Mate slashed away all my pre-reading fears.

I started this book at 10pm on a Sunday night, the night before I started my new position at work after getting a promotion, and I explicitly set an alarm for 11pm to STOP READING because I wanted to be well rested before work.

When that alarm went off at 11 though, I snoozed it once… twice.. three times before just turning it off completely. Next thing I knew, it was 2am and I was closing the book with a goofy grin on my face.

The book is about an eighteen year old girl named Mallory Greenleaf, an incredible chess player who has given up playing the game. She is a strong-willed, independent young woman who puts her family and their needs above her own, and at the beginning of the book, she begrudgingly agrees to play in a charity chess tournament. At the tournament, she beats the current world champion chess player Nolan Sawyer and so begins Mallory’s journey back into the world of chess and toward the romance she least expected.

This book was hilarious, with fantastic pop culture references which were done so seamlessly that it was okay even if you didn’t know what pop icons were being referred to, and what impressed me the most was that the book had DEPTH.

These were fully fleshed out characters who made you just keep flipping the page to see what could possibly happen next.

Ali Hazelwood is a POWERHOUSE, and if I could give this book more than 5/5 stars, I would. If you haven’t read this book yet, grab a copy now!

The Five People You Meet in Heaven Duology

You can never go wrong with a Mitch Albom novel.

Two of my recent reads were The Five People You Meet in Heaven and The Next Person You Meet in Heaven.

Since this is my first review I’m posting here, I’ll let you know that whenever I rate my books, I rate them on a five star scale, so before I dive into my full blown reviews, I’ll always let you know what my ratings were.

The Five People You Meet in Heaven ✩✩✩✩

The Next Person You Meet in Heaven ✩✩✩✩✩

Since I read Tuesdays with Morrie back in my junior year of high school, I’ve called myself a huge fan of Mitch Albom’s, but to be honest, it’s actually the only book I had ever read by him. I stay up to date on his new releases, I always check to see if the bookstore I’m in has any of his novels, I’ve gifted Tuesday with Morrie to people, re-read the novel, bonded with one of my college roommates over the book, but I’ve never picked up any of his other books.

And for years now, I’ve had a copy of The Five People You Meet in Heaven and its sequel, but as I purchased more books, they fell lower and lower on my to read list.

I find that when I read one of Albom’s novels, I have to be in the right headspace for it, and up until last week, I didn’t think I was there.

I find Albom’s works to be so powerful – I feel that even his works of fiction have so many lessons to take from them and I didn’t think I was ready to engage with something like that quite yet. One of my favorite things about reading is the power and ability of a writer to teach its readers something without ever making it a point to shove the lessons in their face and Mitch Albom is excellent at this.

I’ve been making a conscious effort as of late to be more mindful and contentious and I decided that one of the best ways to do this would be to finally pick up these novels, and boy did they match up to the hype I was giving them in my head.

The Five People You Meet in Heaven

The concept behind this novel absolutely blew my mind (in the best way). If you’re unfamiliar, the book explores the concept of the afterlife and what happens when you make it to heaven. Unlike the typical vision of heaven where you pass away and are transported to a utopia-like destination, in this world, Albom takes his characters on a journey where their life is explained to them by five people. The characters may not know the people they’re meeting, or, they may be people they were very close with in life, but they are impactful nonetheless.

This is almost the polar opposite of how I thought about the afterlife, but the more I think about it, the more I feel like this is almost more ideal than what I was thinking. Though the conversations Eddie had with his five people weren’t easy, they also held so much meaning that Eddie, the novel’s protagonist, needed.

This was a short book and an easy read – I was able to read almost the full book in just one sitting – but don’t let that fool you: this novel has such a special, nostalgic component to it and while Eddie experiences such powerful moments of self growth and self acceptance, as a reader, you experience these emotions as well.

Although the book centralizes around death, it has the ability to be uplifting and inspiring while we feel the character grow and we muddle our way through the answering the question for Eddie of “Why was I here?” on earth.

Eddie began the story as a callous man, and throughout his journey, he became someone whom readers could relate and empathize with. He was never dislikable, but he became someone you rooted for, who made you cry when he cried, and at the end of the day, taught you the important lesson of how interconnected all of our lives are.

The Next Person You Meet in Heaven

Usually, I find that sequels have a difficult time living up to the hype of its preceding novel, but honestly, I enjoyed The Next Person You Meet in Heaven even more than The Five People You Meet in Heaven.

This novel follows Annie, a character we met during Eddie’s story. Annie played a pivotal role in Eddie’s life, as it was this little girl he was trying to save when he ultimately lost his own life. Now, in this story, Annie is a young adult and experiences a tragedy of her own.

When the novel opens, Annie has a successful career and has just gotten married, but she and her husband are in a tragic accident and Annie embarks on a journey to meet her five people in heaven.

Annie was such a lovable character – her struggles became your struggles, her fears your fears, her tears your tears. You’re on Annie’s side though every step of her journey, and through careful examination, you’re able to understand why she lives the way she lives and the reasons she surrounds herself with the people she does.

On top of Annie being the perfect protagonist to follow throughout this novel, it was the twist (maybe even two twists) at the end that catapulted this novel to five stars for me. I had tears streaming down my cheeks as Annie met her final two people and the way the Mitch Albom was able to tie the whole story together was outstanding.

Though I could go on forever and ever about how wonderful these novels were, if I say much more, I will end up spoiling what was arguably the best part of the duology and I can’t be the one who takes that away from you.

If you’re on the fence about whether or not to pick up the series, waste no time and pick them up now!

The characters and their unique stories aside, these novels are the perfect example of why we should enjoy the little things in life and they will show you just how much our lives connect to each and every one around us and they may even make a little bit more mindful of how you affect others, even when you don’t realize it.

Boston Harbor

Boston Harbor – that’s what he’s always been. Always there, but endlessly overlooked. His eyes, which are blue to most, are only green to few. He is a boy, captivating and always around countless people, yet he is equally uninviting to her. He has become a man, beautiful, but stagnant and surrounded by so much algae that she sees him as equally off putting.

Now, as the tide drags across the pebbles leading ashore and his orbs trail across her tan skin, his eyes smile a cerulean wave she’s never seen before.

In this moment, the pull between the pair invites her down a forbidden avenue, a road leading into an ocean deemed untouchable.

The water rushes over the green rocks, making everything around them dance in an awe-like wonder except for these two statues in the center, staring into each other’s eyes.

As she lets herself start to smile and give into the way the corners of her lips are starting to turn upwards with the chilly sea breeze, his gaze begins burning a fever on her cheeks, a paralyzing heat that snaps her back to reality.

She knows the current will always pull them in different directions.

Somewhere, somewhere else in the universe, he is the Mediterranean. But here, for her, no matter how hard she searches for cerulean seas, he will always be the Boston Harbor.

A Letter of Gratitude to Goodreads and to Audiobooks

I’ve always been the type of person who has her nose in a book. I’ve also always been the person who could start and finish a book in just one sitting. But when I was still in undergrad, I found it difficult to find and manage the time to read for pleasure. I was finding it tough to stay engaged in some of my assigned texts and finding myself frustrated that I couldn’t find the time I wanted to just sit down and read a book for pleasure.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been the person trying to coax her friends into reading; the person who thought reading was cool before everyone else did. I’d be raving about the book I was reading at home, telling friends (whether they cared or not) what fictional characters had fallen in love or which fictional boyfriend I wished was my real boyfriend. I think at the end of most conversations, the most I’d succeeded in doing was making my friends feel like they’d read the book already rather than going home and wanting to pick it up themselves.

Back in those days – middle and high school – I was staying up ’til all hours of the night blinded by the light of my book light on my paperbacks or from my iPod touch in my dark bedroom as I devoured book after book on Wattpad, starting to explore my own writing a little bit too, hoping one day, I could strike it as big as the writers I was following.

I was lost in a world In fiction and loving every second of it. Sometimes, I still find myself there. All times, I wish I was still there. But with real life and real responsibilities, it’s harder now.

Then, I found a way to begin managing the time in college: take some time at the end of every day to read. I started giving myself hard cut offs at night, where I’d stop all of my schoolwork and focus on reading something for pleasure. It didn’t have to be for long, and I wasn’t reading at the pace I was able to before, but I was still giving myself the opportunity and pleasure I was missing.

When COVID hit and we had months upon months of time at home, I dove right back into reading and was carving out time for my own writing as well while taking my classes.

When I graduated, I thought I would be plowing through books; if I could make it work during the lockdown, shouldn’t I have been able to make it work even better when I had more time on my hands?

I had made inventory lists of all my unread books I had at home, I had written down a collection of books I wanted to read, tropes I loved, authors I followed, and most importantly, now I had all the time to do all the reading I wanted.

And guess what happened? I barely read anything.

It seemed that the more time I had, the more time I had to focus on the fact that I had the time. And all the time I had was suddenly occupied with thinking that I had it, not actually using it.

Now this is just long-winded way of me saying that (1) I’ve thankfully gotten back on track, and (2) I have Goodreads and audiobooks to thank for it.

I keep myself so organized, almost to a fault sometimes, and those lists I mentioned, they were all tracked on Excel spreadsheets. Color coordinated. Dated. You name it. But it wasn’t working. I had the lists, but suddenly, my motivation to read was gone. And that had never happened.

I have a never-ending note on my phone dating back to early high school tracking all of my reading. You want to know what I read on December 3rd, 2015? I could tell you. Catcher in the Rye, chapters 3-6. May 8th, 2021? Beach Read, Chapter 1.

So, I took that note and I took the spreadsheets I made during Covid and I turned to Goodreads.

I input everything (everything I cared about, anyway) into my Goodreads account and discovered the Yearly Reading Challenge.

It was one thing for me to want to set a reading goal, but it was a whole other thing to see it all in front of me and structured in a visual way that appealed much better to my brain.

I wanted so desperately to not only make, but exceed my goal. I succeeded in 2022 and I’m well on my way again in 2023, and that, ladies and gentleman, is what absolutely catapulted my reading.

Goodreads, plus the discovery of audiobooks.

I had listened to a couple of classics on Youtube for school, but I hated them. My mind wandered, and it probably didn’t help that the books I was listening to were books I had little to no interest in. I would listen, and listen, and listen… but if you asked me what I’d just listened to, I couldn’t tell it back to you. My mind was blank.

So, fast forward: I’ve graduated college, I’ve recently quit my job, I’ve travelled so much that I don’t have very much money left, and I remember that I have a library card.

I connect it to Overdrive, find my libraries and its partner libraries, and I find a random book called Again, But Better by Christine Riccio, hitting play immediately.

I remember I was feeling sad when I did it. I was cleaning out the spare room, I was stressed about work and finances, and I just wanted something to pick me up. So, I put my headphones in and I was instantly hooked. I felt connected the characters right off the bat. I was following the story like I was walking in the characters’ footsteps. And I was crazy invested in the love story.

Needless to say, I finished the audiobook in one sitting, and suddenly, I had it back. My fictional world was back. I was calling friends and recommending this book to them, telling everyone I knew or who I thought may be even just slightly like the book that they HAD to read it.

I didn’t create a reading goal for 2021, but I was getting through books like rapid fire, and knowing now how much I liked audiobooks, I took on a challenge I’d been trying to get myself to complete since I first discovered the series back in middle school: I was going to read the entire Shadowhunters series.

If any of you know anything about those books, you know that reading them is no small feat. It’s a minimum of twenty books, plus at least four that have yet to be published. And they are not short books by any means. But I promised myself I’d do it, and I’m currently on the last of the published books thus far and have loved every moment. But I also know I never would have gotten through the books had it not been for audiobooks.

So, in what could have taken maybe three paragraphs and has now taken 25, my point here is this: as an avid reader, I know reading is hard. If you’re reading this and struggling to find the time or find the drive to pick up that book, try looking at the situation differently.

My notes and my spreadsheets, as organized as they were, weren’t on their own giving me what I needed to get myself moving and get back on track. Things like Goodreads and audiobooks really helped me, and maybe they can help you too. Or, there could be other resources out there for you.

It may sound silly, but my gratitude for the two mediums can’t go unsaid, because if you know me personally or you’ve only read this one post from me, I hope that you can see one thing: I love books.

I don’t know if there’s much of anything in this entire world that I’m more passionate about than I am about books. But there was a time when I pushing books away and I just couldn’t figure out how to fit them in my world the way I wanted. Now, I couldn’t push them away if I wanted to (not that I ever would, but I’m sure you know that).

Keep checking the Books tab on my site if you want to see what I’m reading, if you need recommendations, and if I have any reading tips or tricks, I’ll be sure to share them too 🙂