This has been a short week after a long weekend. I don’t know how the weather was in your neck of the wood, but there was quite a bit of rain during my long weekend. That meant lots of great reading time, and the books were SO. GOOD.
I’m still making my way through too many holds coming in at the same time from the library and I’m about to hit up against book club night. Can I read all of these books? Maybe we need a little bit more rainy weather to make sure. Just kidding. I have a 10k this weekend, so I’d REALLY like it to not rain.
And with that, let’s get into what I think you need to read…
Reading Social Media News
The chances of TikTok truly getting banned are low, but they’re not zero. Because of that, we need to have a plan of what to do if it does in fact go away. PR Daily gives a you a look at where people might spend their time if TikTok does get banned.
With fewer resources to create our own content, you will find more marketers relying on content from others. Get to know the difference between being a curator and an aggregator from this Content Marketing World article.
Reading Books, Books and More Books
Past
Doris Kearns Goodwin’s An Unfinished Love Story was everything I wanted it to be and more. I learned so much from the first-hand accounts of the sixties from two people who were in the Oval Office at different times making history happen. I once wrote a paper in college about the civil rights legislation that came from President Lyndon Johnson’s work, and I’m sure if I read it now, I would be mortified by the naïveté. This book brought a lot of that optimism I felt in that paper back to me. I said last week that Goodwin commanded me to read it slowly. It also didn’t want me to finish it, because I knew what was to come. I cried. We are so lucky this woman has given us so much of herself, including her love story. Score: A+
Wives Like Us by Plum Sykes took me by surprise. When I started it, I thought, “Hmmm… maybe this is too light.” It was just the right amount of lightness. In fact, I’d describe it as champagne with a pleasant amount of bubbliness. And boy did I enjoy every single bubble. With so many vain, superficial characters, I can’t believe I cared about most of them and wanted them to find their happiness, but I did. This is truly a triumph and a perfect summer read. Score: A- (only because it didn’t challenge me in the least and I like a challenge)
Present
I have book club on Wednesday, so welcome to my mad spree to read two books in one week for it. The first is Ann Napolitano’s Within Arm’s Reach. I’ll admit that I’m not excited about this one. I am coming off of two fantastic books and it just isn’t feeling like it’s living up to that impossible standard. I could totally be wrong, but I didn’t like one of her other books either so… I’m probably not wrong. How is that for optimism?
Future
Real Americans by Rachel Khong is my other book club book. We started reading two every month so we can share some of our favorite books with each other as well as the latest picks. It’s been a great system that we have all enjoyed. I like the description of this book, but I just can’t get myself excited about it. I don’t know why. Maybe going into it with low expectations is the right call? We shall see.
So what are you reading? What books are you looking forward to?