What I Read in May and June 2022

One of my goals for 2022 has been to spend more time reading. As of August 1, I have read 32 books this year. I have tried reading different genres instead of just the ones I typically gravitate towards. So I am pleased with that for myself. This batch included a lot of really great books. Also, a few that were not much for me to write home about. I could *not* put A Woman is No Man down. That book is easily a top pick for me now, not just for 2022, but in general as an all time favorite book. I also really enjoyed One Italian Summer. Also, I am daydreaming about an Italian getaway next summer and I have never rooted so hard for a con artist than when reading The Lies I Tell.

By the way, here is everything I’ve read so far in 2022, plus a sneak peek at what’s on my reading list for August.

Photo by Tabletop Media for Renaissance Raleigh North Hills Hotel

What I Read in May and June 2022

What I Read in May 2022

One Italian Summer by Rebecca Serle

While I would consider this magical realism and not a genre that I normally gravitate to, I really enjoyed this book. Katy’s mother died and left her reeling. They also had planned a trip to Positano together, so Katy decides to go on the trip alone. While she is there, she begins to experience why her mother fell in love with the Amalfi Coast, where she lived for a summer right before she met Katy’s father. However, while she is there, she runs into her mother, who is 30 years younger and healthy. Over the course of one Italian summer, Katy gets to know Carol, not as her mother, but as the young woman before her. She is not exactly who Katy imagined she might be, however, and soon Katy must reconcile the mother who knew everything with the young woman who does not yet have a clue.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Like a Sister by Kellye Garrett

This was a good read for me and I flew through it. Desiree Pierce, a disgraced reality TV star, is found dead on a playground not far from where her grandmother and estranged half sister live. The media and police are quick to claim that it was an overdose, but her half sister does not believe that to be the case. Despite the bitter truth that the two haven’t spoken in two years, torn apart by Desiree’s partying and by their father, Mel, a wealthy and influential hip-hop mogul, Lena becomes determined to find justice for her sister, even if it means untangling her family’s darkest secrets–or ending up dead herself.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Yerba Buena by Nina Lacour

I really enjoyed this read, too! It is such a heart-warming love story of two people who are both carrying a lot of baggage and questioning of choices that they have made. At times, their timing seems off when Sara’s old life catches up to her and upends everything she thought she wanted just as Emilie has finally gained her own sense of purpose. At once exquisite and expansive, astonishing in its humanity and heart, Yerba Buena is a testament to the healing qualities of a shared meal, a perfectly crafted drink, a space we claim for ourselves.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Breathless by Amy McCulloch

I picked Breathless as one of my choices for Book of the Month because it was listed as a thriller and I love a thriller. This book was at times difficult to follow for me because I am not super familiar with the world of alpinists; however, the author is clearly knowledgeable. In 2019, she became the youngest Canadian woman to climb Manaslu in Nepal, so it was interesting to see her passions come alive in her writing. All that to say, the story is about a journalist, Cecily Wong, who is in over her head. She’s come to Manaslu, the eighth-highest peak in the world, to interview internationally famous mountaineer Charles McVeigh on the last leg of a record-breaking series of summits. She’s given up everything for this story–her boyfriend, her life savings, the peace she’s made with her climbing failures in the past–but it’s a career-making opportunity. It could finally put her life back on track. However, while she is on her trip, one climber dies, who was there seeking answers about a friend who had died on a different climb with the same group of people. While it was not necessarily one I would jump up to recommend, I was entertained while reading.
⭐️⭐️

Bloomsbury Girls by Natalie Jenner

This book was so fun for me! Historical fiction is one of my go-to genres for a quick read, and despite the length of this one, it was a relatively quick read. This book is set in post-World War II London in a century-old bookstore where three different women are determined to work together and find their way in this fast-changing time. As they interact with various literary figures of the time–Daphne Du Maurier, Ellen Doubleday, Sonia Blair (widow of George Orwell), Samuel Beckett, Peggy Guggenheim, and others–these three women with their complex web of relationships, goals and dreams are all working to plot out a future that is richer and more rewarding than anything society will allow.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

What I Read in June 2022

The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix

I saw this book described as Steel Magnolias meets Dracula and that is a really great description for this book. It also touches on gender roles, racial disparities, and white privilege all while weaving in horror with comedy. I read this for a new book club that I joined and I really enjoyed being able to talk through this book and really dive into it. It’s a great read; though, there were times I could only read it during the day time. It’s set in Charleston and their book club is formed because of their love of true crime. I definitely say add this one to your TBR list!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Taste Makers: Seven Immigrant Women Who Revolutionized Food in America by Mayukh Sen

I borrowed this book from my friend, Clarke, to read alongside some of the fiction I have been reading. This group biography from an electric new voice in food writing honors seven extraordinary women, all immigrants, who left an indelible mark on the way Americans eat today. Taste Makers stretches from World War II to the present, with absorbing and deeply researched portraits of figures including Mexican-born Elena Zelayeta, a blind chef; Marcella Hazan, the deity of Italian cuisine; and Norma Shirley, a champion of Jamaican dishes. Weaving together histories of food, immigration, and gender, Taste Makers will challenge the way readers look at what’s on their plate–and the women whose labor, overlooked for so long, makes those meals possible.
⭐️⭐️⭐️

A Woman is No Man by Etaf Rum

Whew. I cannot recommend this book enough. And for full disclosure, it left me wrecked at the end. I would definitely say that this book is in my all-time favorite reads. This book takes us to Palestine in 1990, where Isra marries and moves to Brooklyn to start her life with her new husband and his family. It also takes us to Brooklyn in 2008. This was when Isra’s 18-year-old daughter, Deya, is starting to meet with potential husbands at the insistence of her grandmother. Deya’s parents died when she was only eight. She wonders if things would have been different if her parents had not died in that car accident. Fate has a will of its own, and soon Deya will find herself on an unexpected path that leads her to shocking truths about her family–knowledge that will force her to question everything she thought she knew about her parents, the past, and her own future.
Also, the author owns a bookshop in Rocky Mount, NC, Books and Beans, which is located in Rocky Mount Mills.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Lies I Tell by Julie Clark

Ooooo buddy. This book was a good one. Meg Williams has a variety of aliases depending on the job and the town. She is a con artist who erases herself to become whomever you need her to be. Kat Roberts, a journalist, has been waiting for a decade for Meg to return to expose her after Meg upended Kat’s life. As the two women become closer, Kat’s assumptions are challenged and Kat is left wondering who Meg’s target actually is.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

The Chiffon Trenches by André Leon Talley

loved this memoir so much. André spills the tea, y’all! André chronicles his life growing up in Durham who moves to NYC to work with Andy Warhol at Interview Magazine before moving to WWD, where he moves to Paris, then back to NYC to work at Vogue. André’s world was so glittery and wonderful and yet full of personal trauma and struggles that impacted him for decades. He also shares tales of those he turned to for inspiration and friendship, and his Southern roots and faith. It is really lovely and I cannot recommend enough!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

For more of my book recommendations, check out this page that lives under my Lifestyle tab. You can also follow along on my Instagram here and my Bookshop Page here. I recently switched to using Bookshop as every purchase supports local bookstores. Here are some of my favorites in North Carolina.