Split Second

 Book 50 of my 2025 Reading Challenge

read from June 16 - 27

Split Second by Kasie West

published 2014

Summary (via the book jacket)

Addie hardly recognizes her life since her parents divorced. Her boyfriend used her. Her best friend betrayed her. She can't believe this is the future she chose.

When Addie's dad invites her to spend her winter break with him, she jumps at the chance to escape into the Norm world of Dallas, Texas. There she meets the handsome and achingly familiar Trevor. He's a virtual stranger to her, so why does her heart do a funny flip every time she sees him? But after witnessing secrets that were supposed to stay hidden, Trevor quickly seems more suspicious of Addie than interested in her. And she has an inexplicable desire to change that.

Meanwhile, her best friend, Laila, has a secret of her own: she can restore Addie's memories...once she learns how. But there are powerful people who don't want to see this happen. Desperate, Laila tries to manipulate Connor, a brooding bad boy from school - but he seems to be the only boy in the Compound immune to her charms. And the only one who can help her.

As Addie and Laila frantically attempt to retrieve the lost memories, Addie must piece together a world she thought she knew before she loses the love she nearly forgot...and a future that could change everything.

My Opinion

4 stars

The second half of this book massively exceeded expectations!  I wasn't in love with the first book but had enough interest to read this one immediately after, especially since it was presented as more of a 'tandom reading' than 'sequel'.  The first half of the book took me days to read and I wasn't fully invested but then some sort of switch happened and I was surprised by everything that happened.

There was still some eye-rolling 'teens professing love quickly' but I think I'm just old and jaded.

Wintering

 Book 49 of my 2025 Reading Challenge

read from June 16 - 24

Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times

by Katherine May

published 2020

Summary (via Goodreads)

Sometimes you slip through the cracks: unforeseen circumstances like an abrupt illness, the death of a loved one, a break up, or a job loss can derail a life. These periods of dislocation can be lonely and unexpected. For May, her husband fell ill, her son stopped attending school, and her own medical issues led her to leave a demanding job. Wintering explores how she not only endured this painful time, but embraced the singular opportunities it offered.

A moving personal narrative shot through with lessons from literature, mythology, and the natural world, May’s story offers instruction on the transformative power of rest and retreat. Illumination emerges from many sources: solstice celebrations and dormice hibernation, C.S. Lewis and Sylvia Plath, swimming in icy waters and sailing arctic seas.

Ultimately Wintering invites us to change how we relate to our own fallow times. May models an active acceptance of sadness and finds nourishment in deep retreat, joy in the hushed beauty of winter, and encouragement in understanding life as cyclical, not linear. A secular mystic, May forms a guiding philosophy for transforming the hardships that arise before the ushering in of a new season.

My Opinion

2 stars

I checked this out from the library after seeing it in Bookpage.  I'm disappointed because the title and concept seemed like such a good one.  As I started to read, I realize it wasn't global clinical information mixed with personal narrative.  That was my misunderstanding but I adjusted and continued reading.  But the personal narrative wasn't really there either.  For example, she starts with an illness of her husband's but by the end, I'm not even sure they're still together (he's no longer mentioned and isn't thanked in her acknowledgements).  If that's the case, wouldn't that be a major example of a difficult time to winter through?  The reader isn't owed more than the author feels comfortable sharing but also...if the author is choosing to write a book about difficult times and personal struggles of her husband, son, and herself, wouldn't some sort of conclusion about wintering and if it was effective would be a reasonable expectation?  I think so.

There were threads of concepts there but nothing fully formed I felt I could grab onto.

When My Husband Ran for President...

 Book 48 of my 2025 Reading Challenge

read from June 16 - 23

When My Husband Ran For President...and Other Short Stories

by Ruth Harkin

published 2024

Summary (via the book jacket)

Mention the Harkin name in Iowa and most will recognize it because of Iowa's long-time US Senator and Congressman Tom Harkin. However, Ruth Harkin has an incredible legacy of her own. In fact, she was the first one elected to public office during their marriage. She has been a force since she was a little girl helping and learning alongside her Grandmother in Minnesota. In When My Husband Ran for President and Other Short Stories it's her turn to share lessons, memories, and parts of the lasting influences she has provided her family, Iowans, and the Nation.

My Opinion

3 stars

I'm an Iowan and I have a sister with Down Syndrome so Tom Harkin's impact on my life, especially through his work on the ADA, can't be overstated.  As I grew up the teamwork/counterbalance of Senators Harkin and Grassley was comforting.  

But this book focuses on his wife, whom I wasn't as familiar with but has many accomplishments in her own right.  I picked up a signed copy of this book at Prairie Lights in Iowa City.

It's a niche book that was fine to read but not something I would recommend to a wide audience.  She jumps into stories without backstory, leaving the reader to have to make assumptions and glean details.  I was able to do so because of my familiarity but even I was looking some things up as I read to try and put a timeframe on events that were happening.

I think it's really cool they found a vacation spot so randomly and have been able to make family traditions out of continued visits there.  I also didn't realize Tom Harkin won the caucuses of 3 states and not just Iowa.

I Will Judge You By Your Bookshelf

 Book 47 of my 2025 Reading Challenge

 read on June 11

I Will Judge You By Your Bookshelf by Grant Snider

published 2020

Summary (via the book jacket)

It's no secret, but we are judged by our bookshelves. We learn to read at an early age, and as we grow older we shed our beloved books for new ones. But some of us surround ourselves with books. We collect them, decorate with them, are inspired by them, and treat our books as sacred objects. In I Will Judge You By Your Bookshelf, a lighthearted collection of one- and two-page comics, writer/artist Grant Snider explores bookishness in all its forms - the perfect gift for bookworms of all ages.

My Opinion

4 stars

This caught my eye while browsing at the library.  

I'm especially impressed with the illustrations; there was so much variety in the style and everything looked crisp and clean.

Pivot Point

 Book 46 of my 2025 Reading Challenge

read on June 8

Pivot Point by Kasie West

published 2013

Summary (via the book jacket)

Addison Coleman's life is one big "What if?" As a Searcher, whenever Addie is faced with a choice, she can look into the future and see both outcomes. It's the ultimate insurance plan against disaster. Or so she thought. When Addie's parents ambush her with the news of their divorce, she has to pick who she wants to live with. Addie loves her life just as it is, so her answer should be easy. One Search six weeks into the future proves it's not.

With love and loss in both lives, it all comes down to which reality she's willing to live through...and who she can't live without.

My Opinion

3 stars

I received this book for Christmas but not the sequel so I waited until I could get Split Second from the library because they were presented as tandem reading.  I'm glad I did because I will jump right into it now that I've finished this.

I read it in a day but that was more from wanting to keep up the pace and see what would happen rather than "I love this and can't put it down".  It felt like the stakes were lower as I was actually reading because I knew it was a Search.  I understand why she made the decision she did at the end but I also think the choice shouldn't have been so agonizing...teens deciding they're in love after a week and all the dramatics that go with it make me roll my eyes.

So it's readable and I want to read the sequel to finish it out but I also have a headache from over-the-top emotion.

The Lying Woods

 Book 45 of my 2025 Reading Challenge

read from June 2 - 5

The Lying Woods by Ashley Elston

published 2018

Summary (via the book jacket)

Owen Foster has never wanted for anything. Then his mother shows up at his elite New Orleans boarding school cradling a bombshell: His privileged life has been funded by stolen money. After using the family business, the single largest employer in his small Louisiana town, to embezzle millions and drain the employees' retirement accounts, Owen's father vanished without a trace, leaving Owen and his mother to deal with the fallout.

Owen returns to Lake Cane to finish his senior year, where people he hardly remembers despise him for his father's crimes. It's bad enough dealing with muttered insults and glares, but when Owen and his mother receive increasingly frightening threats from someone out for revenge, he knows he must get to the bottom of what really happened at Louisiana Frac...and the cryptic note his father sent him at his boarding school days before disappearing.

Owen's only refuge is the sprawling, isolated pecan orchard he works at after school, owned by a man named Gus who has his own secrets - and in some ways seems to know Owen better than he knows himself. As Owen uncovers a terrible injustice that looms over the same Preacher Woods he's claimed as his own, he must face a shocking truth about his past - and write a better future.

My Opinion

4 stars

I chose this book from the library after reading 10 Truths and a Dare by the same author.  It was a quick read and I was completely shocked by a plot twist.

I will definitely read more from this author.

Murder on Several Occasions

 Book 44 of my 2025 Reading Challenge

read from April 30 - June 3

Murder on Several Occasions by Jonathan Goodman

published 2007

Summary (via Goodreads)

A new look at some gruesome and riveting murders In this grisly and gripping collection of essays―some revised and updated, some never before published, but all new to American audiences―prize-winning English crime historian Jonathan Goodman turns his attention to a variety of British and American crimes from the 1820s to the 1980s, some high profile and others not. With the author as detective, each of Goodman’s essays examines a particularly notorious murder and subsequent trial. 

He introduces the readers to the 1923 shooting at the Savoy Hotel in London of Prince Ali Kamel Fahmy Bey at the hands of his wife, Madame Marie-Marguerite Fahmy; he revisits the “Crime of the Century,” the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby in March 1932 allegedly by Bruno Richard Hauptmann, and his subsequent execution for this crime, even though this case against Hauptmann has come under scrutiny; and he explores the 1980 serial killings committed by Michele de Marco Lupo, a gay man who coaxed other homosexuals to meet with him, then strangled and savagely bit them. 

Goodman’s careful research and “forensic” work, together with his lively and engaging prose and fascinating subject matter, make these tales of murder a valuable addition to the field of true crime history.

My Opinion

2 stars

I really tried but couldn't get into this read.  I bought it from a little bookstore/cafe downtown and will be donating it immediately.  Maybe a different reader will enjoy it but I was bored and any interest the varied cases might have brought were bogged down by too many words and extra details.

One thing I did find interesting: using feet as a clue in a 1930s body identification.  Her feet were unblemished with no corns and well-trimmed nails, leading them to believe she had some money because they assumed she wore shoes that fit well and could visit a chiropodist regularly.