July book(s) of the month brought to you by short library loan deadlines 😂. I finished another three books this month, but in comparison, last month’s books were better. I can only say I’d probably recommend one of the three… read more to find out which one. 🥁🥁🥁

Book #1 – Nobody Cares, by Anne Donahue

I’ve always enjoyed books written by adults that address the fact that we are all human and sometimes we just don’t have what it takes to be a full on mature, respectful, level-headed adult. We break. We waver in our ability to be professional and not take things personal. We lose control of our emotions from time-to-time and those are all lessons we’ve had throughout our entire lives. We disappoint ourselves sometimes and just because we KNOW what we’re doing or saying isn’t okay… we still do it sometimes and that’s just how life goes.

Anne took us through a series of essays on her life’s ups and downs and the lessons she learned along the way which were sometimes cringe and I know if I was with her at the time I would be giving her a big “bless your heart, child” and other essays made me laugh, and even made me upset.
I wouldn’t say this is a fantastic, must read… but it’s a quick read that I’d say is worth a beach weekend.

One of my favorite quotes came at the end of the book and it said “The thing about looping back is that it doesn’t mean you’re not moving forward.” In her situation, she was talking about moving back in with her parents in her hometown as an adult who tried something that didn’t work out and she needed a fallback.
I know a lot of people who moved back home after their attempt at adulting in the way they wanted to didn’t pan out and I think EVERY one of them felt like they were going backwards… that they had failed, and that’s just not always the case. Maybe you tried to start a business, you went to college, you invested in something and then it didn’t work out. Just because you’re moving back home or onto your plan B, doesn’t mean you aren’t moving forward. If you have 3 ways to make yourself happy and one doesn’t work out, that just means you’ve shorted your list of things to do to get to the ultimate goal.
I appreciated that.
Although the book was entertaining, I think Anne is exactly the kind of person I, personally, would probably stay away from at all costs. *laughter*.

Read the book and you’ll know why.

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Book #2 – I Might Regret This: essays, Drawings, Vulnerabilities, and Other Stuff, by Abbi Jacobson

First things first, I had no idea who Abbi Jacobson was when I picked up this book. It wasn’t until I was reading it and she mentioning her career in the book that I found out she is a comedian, writer, actress, producer and more in the realm of “Hollywood” so my opinion of her has no weight in my review of this book. It was only after reading the book I looked up her work/accomplishments.

After going through a breakup, Abbi decides she needs to refocus, reset, and restart herself in order to get back on track because things just aren’t the same in her life anymore.

To do this, she decides to take off on a solo-road trip across the country.

While reading, you really feel like you’re in the passenger seat of the car having access to every thought that runs through Abbi’s head, unfiltered. As anyone who is experiencing a life restructure, Abbi goes through a series of emotions on her journey. She cries, she gets angry, she finds moments of self-appreciation and tries to ultimately find peace and clarity.

This type of book is right up my ally. It covers self-reflection, freedom, women’s empowerment, travel, exploration, trying new things AND YET I still had trouble connecting to the writing. By reading the back of this book I thought it could possibly be written FOR ME. My exact kind of story… but it wasn’t.

I feel like the road trip was rushed, Abbi only mentions a few spots she stopped at along the way and none of which were wildly remarkable or memorable. The “turning points” for her self-reconstruction didn’t come across as substantial, and the ending really didn’t give me warm fuzzies (nor did it invoke any negative feelings), it was just mediocre.

It was an easy read, maybe a road trip accessory or a quick beach read, but not one I’d probably recommend to my friends.

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Book #3 – A Very Typical Family, by Sierra Godfrey

I wrote about the app I use, Libby, in my January 2023 Book of the Month post and that app is the reason I ended up reading this book. I typically use the app for audiobooks since I don’t have an E-reader (yet, maybe soon!) and reading on my phone is difficult.

I logged in to see what books were available and I noticed there was a promotion for a new book titled A Very Typical Family as part of the Big Library Read (BLR) program, which I hadn’t heard of before. Basically the program allows unlimited readers to access the book online without any waits.

Despite Libby being a digit book borrowing system, they still have limited numbers of copies and if someone else has it loaned to them, you have to wait until it is returned, just like any other book at the library. This way, people from all over the world could choose the book of the month to use for their bookclubs if they so wanted and no one would have to purchase the book or be excluded due to inability to gain access to it.

Being selected as the book promoted for BLR can also help writers get attention and readers, which is what happened for Sierra Godfrey who has just two books out at this time.

Now, on to my review:

The main character of the book, Natalie, is a little over 30 years old, had moved from California to New York and is working a job she doesn’t love, living with a man she doesn’t love, living a life she isn’t excited about – but she doesn’t really know all that due to a lack of self-reflection and inability to move on from her past.

As the book promises, this is a story about a family that was torn apart in minutes when Natalie called the police to come to their home when her older siblings were hosting a party. She had called the police in an attempt to help her sister, who she thought was injured, but the call landed both her siblings in prison for years.

That specific event tore the family apart, and lead to Natalie moving. to New York – all the way across the country. She spent years feeling awful about how things played out. She never reached out to her siblings because she was the reason they ended up in prison and she doubted they wanted to hear from her. She lost contact with her mother because it was too hard for her mother to look at her knowing she was responsible for her other two children being in prison.

Natalie eventually (over 10 years had passed) forgave herself through years of counseling, but she never mended or even tried to mend her relationships with her family and she wanted to so bad that it hurt.

Ultimately, her mother ends up passing away and leaves her cherished family mansion to the three children but writes in her will that she will only hand it over if all three of them are there in person to meet with the lawyer. Natalie is scared, but she drives out to California and begins her healing journey with whats left of her family.

There are some other side stories in the book that critics have made clear were not necessary for the story to be good, and I’d say I have to agree, but I’m also not mad about them. They may have been insignificant in the long run, but the book wasn’t too long or dragged out in my opinion so itI didn’t find it to be annoying.

I won’t spoil the ending, but you may have already guessed it as it’s a feel-good, family trauma and repair story.

This book doesn’t reach my favorite books list, but it wasn’t bad.

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To see what I else I’ve been reading and reviewing, check out my Book Reviews page and connect with me on Goodreads.