Gearing Up for Christmas – Book Reviews & Recommendations!

Hello Hello!!!

I hope you all have been staying safe and healthy. I’ve been fine but mostly lacking time to blog! I’m hoping that once Covid is (hopefully) gone and my daughter is officially in school that I will have some more time to devote to this blog. 🙂

But for now all I can really devote is some time here and there with sporadic posting, but I am pretty active on Instagram so follow me there if you don’t already! My username is @hollywantsitall and there’s a link to it on the bottom of this homepage!

So today I’m reviewing the books that I’ve read recently. And a few of them would make really good Christmas gifts if you are stuck with what to get someone and need a last minute gift!🎁

First Up: I’m starting with the book pictured above since it’s the perfect book to put you in the holiday🎄 spirit right now!

December’s Read:

Christmas Cupcake Murder

By: Joanne Fluke

This book is from a series that follows a bakery shop owner, Hannah Swenson, as she uncovers and solves small-town murder mysteries.  I first got into them a couple of years ago when one of her Christmas books caught my eye at Stop & Shop. The cover was beautifully decorated with a mix of beautiful Christmas cookies with bright colors of red, green, & white! I read the back of it in the store and thought it sounded like a worthy holiday read.  I bought it and loved that it was a mix of recipes and a murder mystery!

I placed a hold at the library as soon as this year’s latest Christmas mystery in the series was released and I really enjoyed it. What I really love about all of the books in this series is that they are hokey and a bit old fashioned. They always remind me of Nancy Drew mysteries in that they are such simple stories  that take place in a tiny Minnesota town.

It’s really just easy leisurely mystery reading that goes perfectly with cozying up with some hot cocoa on a chilly winter’s day. Too often these days I don’t read mysteries because I just know it’s going to be too graphic and scare the bejesus out of me. You never get that with these Joanne Fluke books and I love that!

This time around I even made one of the recipes in the book that sounded so good! I made the German Chocolate Cupcakes from the book and they were delicious!! 👌

Bottom Line:  Worth the read if you are looking for some light reading with a festive touch and delicious sounding recipes!👍

What I Read In August:

Happy & You Know It 

By: Laura Hankin

If you are looking for some good chick lit, then this book is for you! This was a fun read about a group of wealthy playgroup moms in NYC who hire a poor underprivileged female musician to entertain their babies. 

What ensues is a witty plot filled with twists and turns that kept me guessing and intrigued throughout most of this book. Although some aspects of this book seemed a bit unlikely to happen in real life, I enjoyed this book as a leisurely beach read.  Like most things in life, the moms and their personal relationships are not what they seem and the plot that unfolds is fairly riveting and fun to read.

One of the reviews of this book called it Sex & The City during the social media age and I have to agree. Pick this one up if you enjoyed SATC! Get yourself a glass of wine and cozy slippers and you have a good read for the weekend!

Bottom Line: Just some good old fashioned chick lit here! Definitely recommend.

September’s Book

The Answer Is…

By: Alex Trebek

I think a good majority American adults are fans of Alex Trebek. He’s been a household staple and a face that most of us have loved to see on their TVs  for decades.

So when the news broke with his stage 4 pancreatic cancer diagnosis in 2019, I, like most Jeopardy! fans, was deeply saddened.

The good thing that came out of the cancer diagnosis was that he finally wrote a book! In it he writes that he had been asked several times over the years to write a book, but never wanted to until now. He got such an outpouring of love when he revealed that he was undergoing cancer treatment, that he wanted to give back to the fans and decided the time was right for the book.

I loved the way this book was written. It’s told in Alex’s voice in a short story format with each chapter being only a couple of pages long. They used the classic Jeopardy! themed format in that each chapter is titled “What is…” America or whatever topic the chapter is about.

I found this book to be really interesting! I learned about his early life in Canada which details geography and historic facts about Canada that I had no clue about. I also loved the chapters that he wrote about what foundations he has worked with and donated to. He wrote one chapter on World Vision foundation and I found it so moving that I looked up their organization and decided to sponsor a child  – that’s how moving his story was! 

Some may be surprised to read that Alex had no skeletons in the closet and there are no juicy personal details of his life. On the contrary, his life was fairly normal and he had good relationships with everyone in his family – even his ex-wife! So you would sort of expect this book to be somewhat boring and dull, but I really enjoyed it.

It would best be described as a grandfather sitting you down and recounting their life and weaving in little tidbits and anecdotes full of life lessons and takeaways. He’s not preachy – it’s simply his take on life and how it should be lived. I thoroughly enjoyed learning more about him and I think anyone who has watched him on TV for years would also enjoy this book. 

Bottom Line: Bravo to Alex for writing this after being diagnosed with cancer. There is no co-author listed and it really sounds like it is his voice writing the book throughout his battle with cancer. May he rest in peace. 

October’s Book

The Meaning of Mariah Carey 

By: Mariah Carey

As a super fan of Mariah for nearly my whole life, I knew I HAD to read this book immediately!!

Mariah is one of those celebrities that I feel like has always been in the public eye but not a ton is widely known about her personal life. I knew she had a dicey relationship with her siblings from reading tabloid headlines from time to time and of course, who could forget some of her bizarre television appearances on TRL and MTV Cribs back around 2000 and 2001, which then ultimately lead to her “exhaustion” and retreating to a rehab facility.

So this book was very enjoyable because it gave an in depth look at her life and made some of those bizarre moments make sense when you read about how traumatic childhood was and how much she has gone through. 

She also shared a lot of dirt and shade about past relationships which was fascinating to read! Her romantic relationships are thoroughly discussed at times in this book.

She went on and on about how awful her first husband Tommy Mottola was. He must be sooo annoyed over this book because she really raked him over the coals. She also talked a lot about how much she really liked Derek Jeter and that several songs she has written are about him. And she also shaded J-Lo which was great because that’s one of my favorite Mariah-isms is about the time that she claimed she didn’t know who Jennifer Lopez was. She was quoted as saying “I don’t know her.” 🤣

But at times, some of her stories seemed a bit “Mariah” centered. Meaning that she’s really only giving her version of the events and skipping over some major headlines and stories that I was hoping she would shed some light on. I was waiting to read about Eminem because there were reports that her song “Obsessed” is really about him. Also, despite talking for eons about Tommy Mottola, she basically wrapped up her whole relationship with Nick Cannon in about two chapters even though both of those relationships were very lengthy. I would have like to have read a few more chapters of her life after the Emancipation of Mimi but it seemed like she was speeding up those years to finish the book. 

All in all, I appreciated and loved the book. It’s Mariah through and through, and if you loved Mariah before then you’ll love her even more after this book. This book made me appreciate and understand a lot of her songs even more. She’s a queen to me for life! No one can touch Mariah.

Bottom Line: This is a definite must-read for any Mariah fan!

What I Read in November:

The Bright Hour – A Memoir of Living & Dying

By: Nina Riggs

I first heard of this book on the Today Show when it was recommended by Jenna Bush Hager. It piqued my interest because it’s a book somewhat out of my comfort zone.

This book is the memoir of Nina Riggs who is undergoing treatment for breast cancer after having been diagnosed at the age of 37.  It follows her through her cancer treatments and life with her husband and two young sons while trying to still find beauty in life when you know your days are numbered.

Nina faces so many obstacles, but is always conscious of celebrating every day – even the terrible ones. She is the great-great-great granddaughter of Ralph Waldo Emerson and embodies a lot of his thinking and elements of transcendental thinking are present throughout the book.

This was a hard read at times, but a good read. I cried several times, especially at the end when the book abruptly ends because her condition rapidly worsens and she dies roughly a month after her last entry to the book.

Overall, I enjoyed this book because it made me think outside of the box. The transcendental thinking was inspiring and I finished the book feeling more grateful for life and nature than I had when I started. I’m pretty sure that was her whole goal of writing this book and it worked.       

Bottom Line: A sad, but powerful and moving read.   

The Friendship List 

By: Susan Mallery

Lastly, I read this book mostly because my library called and said it was my turn on the holds list! It’s only a couple of months old so I figured I should just read it now since the newer books are always so popular.

This is the story of two friends in their mid-30s who are both going through hard life-changes. They challenge each other to get out of their comfort zones by creating a friendship list of daring things to do. As they complete their challenges, they both learn and grow and end up in new serious dating relationships.

The characters sounded interesting and the general storyline sounded like it had great promise. Being in your 30s IS HARD and there are definitely a lot of life changes going on. So going through it with your best friend and challenging each other to do new things to change and grow sounds like a decent premise to a book. 

But sadly, the premise is way better than the actual book. This book was extremely predictable and at times VERY unrealistic. The sex scenes were literally laughable as in HA HA that would most likely NEVER happen. And the new romantic relationships in this book also seemed very unrealistic. The male characters especially seemed like the stuff you dream about men being. As in that’s a fantasy and they DON’T EXIST. I dislike books like this because all it does is fill women’s heads with crap and fantasies about life being a cakewalk after you go through a hard time. It’s not realistic and I dislike any book that promotes that type of thinking. 

If you want to just lie to yourself while going through life thinking everything is rainbows and butterflies then get this book! OR if you are on a tropical vacation and want to read something that requires zero braincells while slurping down margaritas in the sand then by all means get this book. 

Otherwise, it’s trash. 

I get the enjoyment of casual beach reads and I love a good beach read myself, but this one was way too far fetched to even be enjoyable. I was actually super annoyed that I even wasted my time reading the whole thing hoping that it would get better!

Bottom Line: Don’t bother reading this.

Out of all of the books I read over the past few months, Alex Trebek’s is the one I most enjoyed and the one that I would encourage you to read!

This has really been a big year for celebrity memoirs! I’m not complaining because I feel like everyone should write their own memoir. It makes other people really understand you and why you are the way you are, which is so important!

They also make great Christmas gifts if you know someone of who is a fan of theirs! I enjoyed the Jessica Simpson memoir the most out of the three celebrity ones that I read this year and I think anyone would benefit from reading it, you don’t necessarily need to know anything about her. It was a truly inspiring and touching read!

So with that being said, Happy Reading! And if you made it this far then, thanks for reading this post – I know it was a long one!

And I’m proud of myself that I accomplished my goal of reading 12 books this year!🙌