I don’t know about you all, but this week went by so fast for me. I haven’t even gotten used to it starting and suddenly it’s Sunday! Weird when that happens. What made my week, though, was when a friend sent over a batch of red velvet cupcakes for me to taste-test for an online bakery he intends to set up. The cupcakes were AMAZING, but then again, I could be biased.
Anyway, on to the wrap up!
Posts This Week
- Book Review: Parable of the Sower (Earthseed #1) by Octavia E. Butler
- Book Review: Parable of the Talents (Earthseed #2) by Octavia E. Butler
Books Read This Week
I’ve heard a lot of mixed reviews about Luster, and after finishing it I had rather conflicting feelings about it. On one hand, I found the prose and the narrator brilliant, but on the other hand, it became increasingly exhausting to read. Might have to sit on this for awhile.
Books I’m Currently Reading
- I think Actress is going to sit on my Currently Reading shelf for awhile. The prose certainly is very pretty but neither the story nor the characters are drawing me in.
- I’ve picked up Emezi’s debut novel, Freshwater, because I wanted to read this before the author’s second novel, The Death of Vivek Oji, which was released early this month. I’m loving EVERYTHING about it so far, and fingers crossed this’ll be my first 5-star read of the month!
That’s it for my week! Have you read or heard of any of the books I’ve mentioned? What have you been reading lately? Let me know in the comments!
Gil Reads Books 
Aw, I hope you took a photo of those delicious cupcakes before you ate them! Photo opportunities, lol. How big of a bakery is your friend planning on setting up? We have a new bakery in South Bend that, when you walk in, is super small, but they make the most wonderful treats. Their dark chocolate walnut cookie is my favorite.
Sorry I’m just getting to this now; I was unexpectedly swamped this week since practicum and school are about to start! He plans on selling online, and plans on selling just 3 flavors of cupcakes so far. Dark chocolate walnut sounds amazing—I always enjoy dark chocolate anything!
I never understand what happens to time. Especially the weekend seems to fly by – it just started and then it’s Sunday evening! I am glad, you are at least enjoying one of the books you are reading. Fingers crossed, it will end up being a five star!
I know, it’s so strange when that happens! Thank you, am hoping for a 5-star read for that too 🙂
Enright is a fantastic writer, but I found Actress relentlessly miserable.
That’s a great way to describe it! I find myself struggling to understand what’s going on and caring about it.
I, too, have been enjoying excellent cake this week. It makes everything better 🙌🏽
I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on Luster! I hesitatingly put it on my reading list because of the rave critical reviews it got, though it’s not the usual read for me. And it definitely seems like something new!
Yes it does!!! 💕 Luster is usually the kind of novel I like reading, so I am more surprised I didn’t love it as much. Hoping you’ll get on better with it, though 🙂
felt the same way about luster…there was so much hype around it and it just didnt deliver for me 🤷♀️
I liked the language and narrator overall, but it was just very painful to read. 😓
I’m want to read Freshwater now
Hope you’ll like it as much as I did! 🙂
Oooh personally delivered bakery-quality cupcakes?!?! That sounds amazing! And your mini-review of Luster is the second mixed/lukewarm review I’ve seen recently! At first I was seeing all hype and rave reviews – I’m really grateful to have seen your more balanced thoughts on it before I go into it myself 😮 Also I am SO GLAD you are loving Freshwater so far!!!
It is!!! Overall I did like the narrator and the language, but something about her experiences made it very painful to read. I hope you’ll get on better with it though – I wanted to love it so badly! Freshwater is fantastic. 😁
Yay for cupcakes! My week highlight was getting 2 kid-free nights away with my husband for our 10th anniversary. Just today I decided to DNF the book I was reading and now I’m starting a Canadian book called Molly of the Mall.
That sounds very relaxing – and belated happy 10th anniversary! 🙂 Yikes for the DNF, but I hope you enjoyed Molly of the Mall better – it sounds fun 🙂
Molly of the Mall was really fun! It’s been months since I DNFed a book so it was kind of freeing to decide I wasn’t going to finish The Stationery Shop!
Cupcakes!! 🙂
I’ll be curious to see your thoughts on Luster, I’ve been very much looking forward to reading that one. And I’m glad you’re loving Freshwater so far, I thought it was incredible!
Thank you! And yes, Freshwater is just perfect 🙂