The Bookish Life of Nina HillCurrent fiction read

The Bookish Life of Nina Hill
By Abbi Waxman
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Published July 9th, 2019, by Berkley

This is my first time reading Abbi Waxman, but it’s her third book. I bought this because it looked like something fun and cute to read while I was on vacation. I ended up not reading it on vacation, but after a couple of literary novels and a thriller, I was in the mood for something a little lighter.

It probably isn’t surprising that many of us bookish types are drawn to Nina, a single 29-year-old who works at a bookstore, lives alone with her cat, and is perfectly happy to stay at home and read most nights. When I was single, I lived alone and was perfectly happy to stay at home and read most nights. (Just so we’re clear, I’m now married and still perfectly happy to stay at home and read most nights.)

Description from Amazon:

The only child of a single mother, Nina has her life just as she wants it: a job in a bookstore, a kick-butt trivia team, a world-class planner and a cat named Phil. If she sometimes suspects there might be more to life than reading, she just shrugs and picks up a new book.

When the father Nina never knew existed suddenly dies, leaving behind innumerable sisters, brothers, nieces, and nephews, Nina is horrified. They all live close by! They’re all — or mostly all — excited to meet her! She’ll have to Speak. To. Strangers. It’s a disaster! And as if that wasn’t enough, Tom, her trivia nemesis, has turned out to be cute, funny, and deeply interested in getting to know her. Doesn’t he realize what a terrible idea that is?

I’m about 20% in and really enjoying this. It’s light and funny, but smart, and contains lots of literature references (obviously). Waxman’s voice is witty and conversational and fun. This should be a quick read, which is good, because there’s a book coming out on Tuesday I am definitely going to want to start right away.

Average rating on Goodreads at the time of this writing: 3.88.

SignsCurrent non-fiction audiobook

Signs: The Secret Language of the Universe
By Laura Lynne Jackson
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Published June 18th, 2019, by Spiegel & Grau*

This one appeared in my Audible recommendations and although I wasn’t familiar with the title or the author, it looked like it was right in my wheelhouse. Jackson is a psychic medium and this book is all about signs that people have received from their loved ones who are on what Jackson refers to as the Other Side. Not gonna lie, I’ve already teared up a few times.

Description from Amazon:

Laura Lynne Jackson is a psychic medium and the author of the New York Times best seller The Light Between Us. She possesses an incredible gift: the ability to communicate with loved ones who have passed, convey messages of love and healing, and impart a greater understanding of our interconnectedness. Though her abilities are exceptional, they are not unique, and that is the message at the core of this book. Understanding “the secret language of the universe” is a gift available to all. As we learn to ask for and recognize signs from the other side, we will start to find meaning where before there was only confusion, and see light in the darkness. We may decide to change paths, push toward love, pursue joy, and engage with life in a whole new way.

In Signs, Jackson is able to bring the mystical into the everyday. She relates stories of people who have experienced uncanny revelations and instances of unexplained synchronicity, as well as others drawn from her own experience. There’s the lost child who appears to his mother as a deer that approaches her unhesitatingly at a highway rest stop; the name written on a dollar bill that lets a terrified wife know that her husband will be okay; the Elvis Presley song that arrives at the exact moment of Jackson’s own father’s passing; and many others. This is a book that is inspiring and practical, deeply comforting and wonderfully motivational, in asking us to see beyond ourselves to a more magnificent universal design.

Since the sudden death of my close friend Carla six years ago, I’ve talked to mediums a few times and received some pretty incredible messages. Like when my grandpa said he had the puppies that we had recently lost, and they were with him and he loved them. And several messages from Carla over the years, who I still talk to and who has often appeared in my dreams.

Some of the signs that I consider to be from Carla are butterflies and dragonflies. She had several butterfly tattoos, and one of a dragonfly, which she said represented me. So I thought it was pretty cool that this book appeared in my Audible recommendations and it’s all about signs from the other side and it has both a butterfly and a dragonfly on the cover.

This is what I was thinking as I was listening to this book yesterday, and then I got to Chapter 5, which is called Dragonflies and Deer. So that got my attention, and then Jackson started reading, and the chapter is about a woman named Carla.

Believe what you want but I don’t think anything is a coincidence. Synchronicity is all around us, and as Jackson says, synchronicity shows our innate and active connection to one another and the world around us.

Average rating on Goodreads at the time of this writing: 4.24

*I had to look this up. It’s a Penguin Random House nonfiction imprint that looks like it’s been shut down.

What are you reading this weekend?