Between the Pages

   There were 2,635 pages under the tree just for me this Christmas. Pages full of analysis, reviews, history, pictures, fiction, and true crime. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction; I also, as any normal person did, gave books this Christmas. Not quite 2,635 pages worth, but enough to hold my status as the reader of the family. Here lie the highlights of what this booklover was gifted this Christmas.  #1: The New York Times Book Review    125 years of literary history all bound into one beautiful book that combines my two passions, literature and journalism, is a collection of 368 pages I found myself gawking at on multiple occasions. All alone, on its pedestal in a warmly lit bookstore, stood my one true love: the one and only New York Times Book Review . Over the past couple of months and over the course of 6+ visits, at least three Parnassus employees said some version of, "That book is amazing. Inspired, really," as I stood drooli...

Hello readers! Happy Holidays from BTP! Exams are finished, gifts are wrapped (mostly), and extended family members have arrived - we are ready. While I completely and fully believe that every season is a "reading season", I contend that the most romantic time for readers is the holiday season. Fire crackling, lights twinkling, my reading session two days ago by the fire, in a cozy chair with a knit, chunky blanket, with a cold glass of ice water with just a smidgen of lemon was the peak of my existence.  I have finished a book thus far and am already into three more. I bought books, I recommended books, I borrowed books, I lent books, and I am certain I am receiving books in the coming days. I have been enjoying texting about books with friends, as we all have more time to read. I have been participating in #TistheReadson reading sprints (which are a great excuse to put that phone away and do some reading!). I love being part of bookstagram, and I am grateful for that commun...

Well, hello there! I have SO many things to write about, but NO time to write about them. Here's a post, though. Y'all, I did it! I finally read it - after months.  Finlay Donovan is Killing It by Ellie Cosimano.  SUMMARY Finlay Donovan has no stability. She is recently divorced, has two small children, and is an author with a mental block. Not only is she failing to put any words on the blank document that she sits in front of every night but she cannot even manage to keep her daughter from cutting tragically jagged bangs. Struggling to pay bills, Finlay meets with her agent at a local Panera (where else?) to discuss getting yet another advance on the book she is failing to write when an unidentified, despondent-looking woman slips a piece of paper into Finlay's diaper bag. A piece of paper that read - "I crumpled up the note and held it over the bin. But the dollar sign - and all the zeros that followed - piqued my curiosity. Who was Harris Mickler? Why did he have s...

I am immensely behind. That's just a fact. I have read so many books over the past couple of months. As we all know, I have not reviewed them. But here's a review:  The Royal We by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan! SUMMARY Rebecca Porter isn't the fancy twin. She isn't the girly twin or the popular twin or the 'pretty' twin. Her sister Lacey is the one who should have all this. The one who should have this seemingly glamorous life. The one who should be in all the magazines and the topics of everyone's conversations. Nonetheless, Rebecca, Bex, found her prince charming. No really, she fell in love with Prince Nicholas, future King of England, when she found herself living down the hall from Nick at Oxford.  Dating Nick introduces Bex to a whole new world: one of lavish events, cocktail dresses, chasing Nick, his friends, and his charming brother Freddie around London, and learning to keep her legs together when getting out of cars to prevent unwanted paparaz...

 Hello readers! I have not posted in a while as you are all aware. Junior year is no joke. Between making time to read or making to post, I have chosen reading for the past month. I have not stopped reading/listening to audiobooks but I have not written a review in quite a while. I'm back! SUMMARY "Part The Westing Game , part We Were Liars , completely entertaining." -- Kirkus Reviews Avery lives out of her car. She is very close to her sister and is a top student, but has a strange life to an outsider looking in. With her mother dead and her father missing, Avery lives a complicated and hard, but routine life. One day Avery is barely making ends meet, the next she is on a plane to the Hawthorne House, the mansion and estate of Tobias Hawthorne the Texas billionaire. One day Avery doesn't have a house, the next she is the beneficiary of the late Tobias Hawthorne's fortune. The list of questions/'catches' is long. (1) Avery doesn't know and has never k...

Hello lovely readers! This week was my first week of school, so please excuse the lack of posts as of late. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote changed my life. I believe I posted on my story that if you did one thing, reader, just one thing for me (besides reading this blog) I want you to read this book.  SUMMARY In November of 1959, New Yorker Truman Capote read an article run by The New York Times . The story was of the Clutter family in Holcomb Kansas. "This is apparently the case of a psychopathic killer," said the Sheriff in Holcomb. Intrigued by the case, Capote impulsively traveled to Kansas with Harper Lee (yeah, that Harper Lee). Capote visited the site of the massacre. The massacre where an unknown killer or killers shot four members of the Clutter family, Herb, Bonnie, Nancy, and Kenyon, execution-style. In Cold Blood is the journey - Capote's whole journey. Remember the Clutter family.  REVIEW I simply love this book. I am a huge crime junkie and murderino. While ...

Hello everyone on this lovely day! I hope you all enjoyed my halfway recap. I have since finished three more books Just Mercy , It Ends With Us, and The Inheritance Games . That makes 26 books on the year! Sorry I have been MIA lately. Things are getting BUSY. Now, for the review of the first audiobook that I listened to on my recently acquired library card. (Yes, I know I know, I should have gotten a library card sooner. BUT, I have one now!) SUMMARY Charlotte and Jamie are back! (And I have never been happier!) Charlotte thought she was finished. She thought she could leave the Holmes family behind. The "Holmes Way" of sleuthing and hyper-attention is still as stuck to Charlotte as it was at Sherringford.  Charlotte and Jamie are both taking Oxford Summer Pre-college courses to get ready for their upcoming first semester in college. Just when their shot for a "normal" experience arrives, Charlotte (and by extension Jamie) gets asked to investigate a mystery in the...

 Oh, what a reading year 2021 has already been! I am so excited to share what I have read in 2021 thus far (whether I shared it on here with a review or on my Instagram or not!). I always enjoy seeing what others have read for two main reasons. The first being that I am genuinely interested in what books other readers gravitate towards in my favorite genres. And secondarily, I love organization and comprehensive reports on a lot of different topics. Readers' reading reports always hold a sense of such accomplishment. Please enjoy my stats as of today in the slides below!

 The Minerva House gang is back! This is NOT a drill. I repeat this is NOT a drill! SUMMARY Stevie Bell is back and better than ever (literally) in The Box in the Woods by Maureen Johnson, but this time, with another mystery. For three books, we have been riveted by the Ellingham Academy murders. Now that Stevie has solved those, she begins the summer before her senior year working in a deli - not exactly the perfect job for a mystery-solving teenager but it is a safe job (unless you count the deli-slicer as a dangerous weapon...).  In 1978, four prominent teenagers at summer camp in Barlow Corners went into the woods together to smoke after camp curfew. Sabrina, Todd, Diane, and Eric were never seen alive again. They were seen, however, stabbed to death in the woods. 43 years later, still, no one knows why. Cold. Case. When Stevie gets an offer to solve the Box in the Woods murders, she takes it - posing to everyone (even her parents) except her friends and the camp owner as ...

SUMMARY Dr. James Sheppard is a (the) well-known doctor in a wealthy town called King's Abbott. Dr. Sheppard wakes up on this particular Friday morning to a normal day (is there really such a thing as a "normal" day in the life of a doctor?) - his sister Caroline spilling out all of her most recently acquired gossip while he sips tea or coffee over a light breakfast. But, Dr. Sheppard's day doesn't stay normal. Mrs. Ferrars - a citizen of the extremely small town - has died. Sheppard is sent to give her medical attention, but he was too late.  One of Dr. Sheppard's best friends in King's Abbott - Mr. Roger Ackroyd - was seeing Mrs. Ferrars before her ultimate demise. As the amateur sleuth he is, Sheppard goes to pay a call at the biggest house in King's Abbott: the Ackroyd residence. Upon his visit, Sheppard is immediately ushered into Ackroyd's study where he is informed that Mrs. Ferrars was being blackmailed. Perhaps Caroline was right when she ...

In January, I shared a list of Bookish Pet Peeves . Well it's July, and I am back with more pet peeves but this time relating to romance books. Let me know if you think any of these things are nerve-shredding too.  Romance is a genre with many tropes (enemies to lovers, friends to lovers, forced proximity, etc.). A very frequently used theme for romance books is the classic "opposites fall in love" or become really good friends in the beginning. While I have read books with this trope and liked them, I don't fully understand how this is supposed to work. If two people "are polar opposites" (as some back covers report), how did they meet or become friends (much less lovers)? Shared experience is how I've met almost everyone I know, so if two people "have nothing in common," they couldn't have become even acquaintances.  If the protagonist has a "unique name" - I'm out. O-U-T. Any Pepperidges, Zeldas, or Evies, and I can't g...

 I hope you all enjoyed the airport books piece! I honestly LOVED writing it. Today, something a little simpler and shorter is on the agenda - a conglomeration of details about my literary life right now. An update, if you will, about what books I just bought, I am reading, and what I've got my eye on.  What I Just Bought Box in the Woods  by Maureen Johnson (yes, the same author of the Truly Devious trilogy! This book has some of the same characters too!) Finlay Donovan is Killing It   by Elle Cosimano (an adult book, but when the words "a mystery" are on the front - MUAH...) I made both of these purchases on my weekly trip to Parnassus. Yes, I usually get one book, but I had to get these two this week. Had to.  What I'm Reading I chose to start with Johnson's book this week. Look for updates on my Instagram (@betweenthepgs) story! My nails match this cover - just thought I'd point that out. (DIY manicure, if you couldn't tell.) What I've Got my Eye O...

 As was mentioned at the beginning of my last post, I just got back from summer vacation (the first one in a WHILE - thanks COVID). While waiting for 5 hours on a layover in the Houston airport, I finished my book, and I finished it quickly. I brought two books on this trip: In Cold Blood by Truman Capote and People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry. With two books down, I was on a roll - I needed to find another book. This began my Airport Book Odyssey: the hunt for a book I (1) wanted to read and (2) wouldn't be too heavy for my tiny little travel backpack. I, along with my siblings, marched up to the handy-dandy interactive map and clicked "Books/Magazines/Newspapers". Several results surfaced (5 of which I visited).  I visited the CNBC smart shop, Houston Chronicle, Southern Living, Shady Lane, and Texas Monthly News. Through my journey, I wanted to answer the questions: Why am I so selective about where I buy my books? Should I be selective? What are the pros of air...

 Hello everyone! I am back from vacation with a review of a book about vacations. (Also, can we all just notice how nicely both of Emily Henry's books go together!?) SUMMARY Poppy Wright isn't happy. The question, though, is why? Why is she unhappy? Should she be unhappy? She has her dream job. She lives in New York City - away from her tiny hometown in Indiana and all of her childhood bullies she still holds trauma from. She has made great friends in NYC including her best friend Rachel. Well, not her best friend of all time, that's Alex Nielsen. Alex and Poppy met their freshman year of college and had nothing in common (except not liking when people call boats "she"). But, nonetheless, they became best friends. He was the pair of khakis to her sequined top. She was the extrovert to his introvert. They began going on trips together every summer, as Poppy was an aspiring travel writer and Alex desperately needed a little adventure whether he wanted it or not. The...

SUMMARY Two completely different people. Isn't that how every adult-fiction love story starts. Optimistic, love-believing woman meets sulky, socially awkward, but deliciously handsome man. Woman changes man to be a little happier, and man changes woman to be a little more realistic. Yada yada yada. Not in this one, my friends. Not in this one.  January Andrews is a broke and broken romance writer that no longer believes in love after her father's recent death. In her eyes, he was always the perfect father and supporting husband, but she learns upon his demise that he had a long-term affair with another woman. Oddly enough, January decides to move into their house , her father and his mistress', in North Bear Shore Michigan for the summer hoping to sell it. Augustus Everett writes literary fiction books that always end in literally death and destruction. He and January could not be more different. OK, they do have two things in common: (1) They are both in North Bear Shore f...

  SUMMARY Until now, Nora Seed's life has been one big regret. Well, not actually. Nora has many regrets - not getting married - not continuing her teenaged band with her brother - not majoring in another field of study. From big to small, Nora Seed's regrets are more numerous than her friends. Nora Seed, after a particularly horrendous day (worse than the rest of her days), decides to end her life.  Upon overdosing, Nora Seed arrives in The Midnight Library, a place between life and death. Each book on the shelves holds a life Nora Seed could have had if she had made one decision, small or large, differently. Not every life is a more opportune one either. With the help of an old friend and mentor, Nora Seed tries hundreds of lives on for size. She's a rockstar, a pub owner, a winery-wife, a cancer patient, a glaciologist: Nora tries to sort out her perfect life. But things aren't always as they seem. Before her time runs out, will Nora find the best way to live? REVIEW...

   Hello readers! How is everyone? I am back with another Bookmark Place (boy, it has been a while, hasn't it?)! This Bookmark Place happens to be close to me (what, something is close to where I live?). Parnassus Books is my Shop Around the Corner (without Kathleen Kelly...eek - To all those that have not seen You've Got Mail,  humor me.). Owned by Ann Patchett (yes the New York Times and New Yorker columnist and award-winning author) and Karen Hayes, Parnassus is adequately named for the home in Greek mythology of literature, learning, and music.     Aside from being denied internships and jobs there during a pandemic (I mean, who wouldn't want me in their place of business?), Parnassus is a lovely place! I love that I can call it the independent book store that I frequent. Enjoy the rest of the pictures I took upon my visit yesterday. Next time you are in Nashville, definitely stop by. There is a great chance that I will be there.  Romance shelves...

Hello readers! Happy Sunday! I have not posted in a while (I am well aware.); however, I have been working on something really exciting. Introducing BOOKISH BEATS - a series of playlists for your next read. I have created some playlists, three so far, on Spotify that are themed by genre. Listening to music in the background while reading to set the mood makes reading more fun. While I understand that music with lyrics while reading can be distracting, these playlists can also be used to stay in the mood of and connect to your book.  Also, side note, I created the covers of the playlist! (Searching for the pictures was one of the best parts of creating the playlists!) My favorite genre: mystery reading. This playlist was the easiest to make (and I suspect will be the easiest to actually read to) because most of the music is instrumental. I feel that instrumental music (1) is vibey for mystery and (2) lyrics are simply not mysterious enough. I also included some creepy gramophone mus...

Hello friends!! It has been a WEEK. Sorry for the delay. I started my literary jobs this week! Here is a new review for you! SUMMARY    Josie Pie peaked in high school. And it is the WORST. Josie was a rising star. Sent to Broadway when she was barely seventeen. Josie moved to New York expecting greatness. She was confronted was the opposite. After her first audition (aka her first rejection), Josie's massive ego took a massive hit.     Rejection after rejection, Josie finds herself in Montana. Josie's time on the stage is traded for being a full-time nanny for a new-ish mother who is ALWAYS gone leaving her daughter, Mia, behind with Josie. Josie is not happy. Sure, Mia makes her laugh and Josie makes fairly good money but she misses the stage. Mises her friend, Nina. Mises her boyfriend, Justin (or not...? This is complicated, especially because Justin lives back in Arizona and attends high school whereas Josie left early and now lives elsewhere.).  ...

   If you have not read the American Royals series by Katharine McGee - GO NO FURTHER! This post is chocked FULL of spoilers (the 's' word is very taboo in the book community - my apologies for using it so willy-nilly in the past couple of posts). This post will include three sections. (1) The section where I unpack all the relationships I love and why I raced through other chapters to get to details about them. (2) The section where I discuss a relationship I HATE (hot take) and why it simply does not work. (3) My frustrations with the ending (in more detail and with specific reasons from the text also known as SPOILERS).  Welcome to episode #2 of the American Royals series on BTP: the spoiler-filled, dramatic episode (the probably more fun one though!).  Section 1: The BEST relationships Beatrice + Teddy    You've got a HUGE Beddy or Teatrice fan on your hands. While their relationship was painful at best in the first book (this was McGee's point), the se...