just finished: wow, last week was not a good week. Between the work stress and the Thanksgiving stress, the sinus infection and the bronchitis, I just could not find the words to write thins about books. I am hoping for a much better week this week. This weekend, I did finish listening to the audio book You’re a Mean One, Matthew Price, about a spoiled rich kid who makes a mistake and gets sent to a small town for the holidays. Matthew Prince is humbled by his grandparents’ house and the young man who is staying there, trying to finish his college degree and helping out in the used bookstore they own. Sadly, they didn’t spend nearly enough time in the bookstore in this story, but the rest of the narrative was pretty good. I enjoyed it, and I thought that the narration was spot on.

I also finished reading None of This Would Have Happened If Prince Were Alive, a story about a harried wife and mother who is fighting the weight of everyone’s expectations for her as well as a hurricane. Ramona lives in Savannah with her husband and two kids, and she has to decide whether or not to evacuate. When Ramona has to pick up her daughter early from her babysitter because she is definitely evacuating her family from the island, she takes her daughter home to find out that her husband is cheating on her. With the woman standing in front of the refrigerator, drinking her last coconut seltzer. Things spin out of control from there, with a boss who lacks compassion, lots of gas station snacks, a neighbor with nowhere to go, a mother who refuses to evacuate, and a guinea pig named Clarence Thomas. If you liked Maria Semple’s Where’d You Go, Bernadette, then you will enjoy this one too.

currently reading: Out this Tuesday is Never Ever Getting Back Together, which is so much fun! There is a trashy reality show production company that is making a show called Second-Chance Romance, and brother-to-a-princess Jordy Miller has invited six of his exes onto the show, to see if there is a chance for them to rekindle the romance. The story is told from the perspective of two different women, both exes, and it’s hilarious! If you’re a fan of trashy reality dating shows, you will not want to miss this one! It’s by Sophie Gonzales, who also brought us Only Mostly Devastated.

up next: Thursday is release day for the new Sonali Dev book, the first from Mindy Kaling’s Book Studio, so be sure to watch for that one this week. But also coming out Tuesday is the latest Louise Penny book. I haven’t talked about it much, as I wasn’t able to score an early copy this year (which is fine, I always buy it anyway). But my Audible preorder is in and ready to drop first thing Tuesday morning. I will be spending the second half of the week in Three Pines with Armand Gamache and company, and I can’t think of a better holiday present! A World of Curiosities will open to us all this Tuesday!