The return post

The one where we shift out of writers’ block

Hi friends, wow. It’s been a good long while now. I’m en route to California, on the heels of a two week-vacation to Portugal where I had the joy of celebrating a very special and outrageously fun wedding, followed immediately by a week-long work trip to New York. Despite the whirlwind travel of the past month, I feel refreshed, reconnected, and grounded, in a way I haven’t felt for quite some time.

I would love to say there’s some great reason as to why it’s been several months since I last posted. I have countless drafts of other entries sitting on my account right now, but I couldn’t seem to actually finish or publish any of them. There have been books I absolutely loved, and then I would sit down to write and… nothing. Then there was a string of books that I felt so disconnected from that I knew I just couldn’t put together a strong review. I missed writing and I missed the connection with all of you, particularly as the news of the day feels increasingly hard and grim, but the act of writing also seemed so incredibly overwhelming. I don’t know if I’ve moved past the writers’ block or am just experiencing a momentary blip, but for however long it’s here, I’m grateful to be back in this community with you all.

I would love to hear from you with what you’re reading or listening to, where you’re traveling this summer, or where you’re cultivating moments of hope right now. It’s good to be back, and as always, wherever you are, I do hope you’re taking good care.

Currently Reading

WHAT A WAY TO GO by Bella Mackie. I picked this one up, knowing nothing about it, in the Paris airport where I had a layover and no reading material (unheard of). It’s a murder mystery set in England, and while it’s still early days, I am intrigued to see where it’s headed and how the various motivations and characters start stacking up. At the moment, the writing style is more sarcastic than I tend to go for (or enjoy), but I’m also ready for a break from romcoms and am giving this one a fair shake!

Recent Recommendation

IT’S A LOVE STORY by Annabel Monaghan (4.5 stars). From the author who gave us Nora Goes Off Script, comes another tender and hilarious romantic comedy. While this one took me some time to get into, it ended up really capturing my heart and striking a chord so I’m excited to share with you all today.

Monaghan’s latest novel kicks off in Los Angeles, where Jane Jackson is a creative executive at a movie studio. She’s just found her passion project, the one she is sure is going to catapult her to steady footing and name recognition within her studio and Hollywood. The one hiccup is that she must sell the cinematographer, Dan Finnegan, and the studio on the script. The studio wants something flashy, headline-grabbing, Blockbuster-worthy, and Dan is already renowned in Hollywood for his high-brow, selective, artistic projects. To convince them both, Jane promises that she can get pop star Jack Quinlan to produce a song for the film. How hard can it be to convince him, considering she and Jack were once teenage stars of a beloved sitcom 20 years earlier? She’ll call in a favor, seal the deal, and land the creative project of her dreams. When Jack’s manager nearly laughs her off the phone, she decides she’ll need to step up her game, and the opportunity comes when Dan says Jack is playing a festival in Long Island where he happens to be headed for a week-long family reunion.

Just by writing that all out, you can see there’s a lot happening here, and to be honest, the sheer number of plot points thrown at the reader within the first few chapters is part of what took me a little while longer to feel invested in this story. The timeline flipped back-and-forth to when Jane and Dan met years earlier for the first time, when Jane was on the sitcom with Jack back in high school, and to present day, and it felt like a lot of details, characters, and dates to keep track of right off the bat. That said, about a quarter of the way through, the story became more clear and chronological, and the descriptions of August in a Long Island suburb induced such nostalgic, summer-camp-like vibes that I could hardly set this book down.

There are a few ways where I find Annabel Monaghan always shines. First, and similar to Emily Henry, she writes hilarious dialogue and that is no easy feat. I had several moments of laughing out loud while reading this novel, and the witty banter makes the characters feel electric and jump off the page. I bought into the chemistry between Jane and Dan just as easily as I bought into their competitive, and at times hostile, working relationship, and that’s a real testament to Monaghan’s writing.

Monaghan has also carved out a space in the romantic comedy genre to write slightly older-than-usual characters (by which I mean 30s and 40s, as opposed to early 20s), which makes for relatable and complex storylines. This is probably her youngest set of characters yet, clocking in at early-mid 30s, but I appreciated that Jane and Dan are dealing with real life, adult dilemmas: what is career success going to look and feel like? How do you balance career with aging parents? What does it mean to follow your dreams if your dreams pull you geographically and emotionally away from your family? These are questions without comfortable or obvious answers, and they are the same questions that can throw an immovable wrench in a budding romantic relationship. If you haven’t caught on in my romcom reviews yet, I like stories where a happily ever after isn’t a 100% guarantee, and where there’s some real tension below the surface, which makes Monaghan’s books a winner for me every time.

Outside of the romantic storyline, Jane and Dan engage in quite a bit of necessary self-reflection, and I liked seeing this side of them. Monaghan gave equal weight to developing them both as whole, complex, deeply imperfect characters, and I would be lying if I said I wasn’t moved to tears in the last quarter of this book because I could see pieces of my own story, insecurities, fears, and aspirations reflected back in Jane and Dan. It’s just plain fun to cheer on the individual success of both characters and to watch them develop in necessary, albeit uncomfortable ways. Even with a slightly bumpy start to the book, I highly recommend It’s a Love Story to anyone looking for a hilarious, relatable, and deeply moving summer vacation read.

Recommend to… fans of Funny You Should Ask by Elissa Sussman, Nora Goes Off Script by Annabel Monaghan, Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld, and The Notebook (movie or book) by Nicholas Sparks

Up Next

MY FRIENDS by Fredrik Backman. This one has come highly recommended by several of my favorite readers so I have moved it to the top of my list. I have loved Backman’s other works so really looking forward to this one (which I’ve also been warned is a tearjerker)!

CARRIE SOTO IS BACK by Taylor Jenkins Reid. I think this marks my fourth (!) annual reread of Carrie Soto, and always during the summer when I am looking for a fierce source of inspiration. My best friend and I are headed to the US Open at the beginning of September so I am really delighted to be picking this one back up in a few weeks.

Currently Listening

The big thing I’m looking forward to in August is a trip to Toronto to cross off my #1 concert/dream artist bucket list, Stevie Nicks! I am truly counting down the days and doing so by exclusively listening to her full catalogue, which I find to be the perfect vibe for every summer trip, excursion, and reading day.

Also, if you haven’t started on the Amy Poehler “Good Hang” podcast train, definitely add to the top of your list. The conversations with guests are hilarious, heartfelt, inspiring, honest, and unexpected. My favorites so far include Tina Fey, Michelle Obama, and Dakota Johnson, but there’s been no misses yet!

Three Words

Reconnecting to community.