How has your week been? What was are you reading?
What I’m Reading
I finished reading Jamaica Road, Lisa Smith last week. This is one of the few times I don’t recommend the audiobook, because the Jamaican accent was not the best and totally took me out of the story every time I heard it. When I switched to a print copy, I enjoyed it so much more. It’s about two best friends who fall for each other, fall apart, and try to find their way back together in their tight-knit British – Jamaican community. It was funny, cute, hard to read at times, historical, suspenseful at times and just a beautiful book to read.
I’m putting aside The Buffalo Hunter Hunter, Stephen Graham Jones which I started a few weeks ago (for now) and instead turning to non-fiction, Caste, Isabel Wilkerson. I’m only about 1/4 way in, and it has me in it’s grip. I can see why it’s so highly rated on Goodreads (and sad that we are back to the same situation the book is describing – 10 years later).
Signed Books
I was browsing Barnes & Noble online and saw they have a signed books catalog. Love this … because it just makes a book extra special to me if it’s signed by the author. They happened to have signed pre-order copies of Kin, Tayari Jones, her latest novel (comes out at the end of February), so I bought that. I’ve previously read one of her other novels, An American Marriage, and really enjoyed it. Do you have any signed books?
Summer Scares Books Announced
The 8th annual Summer Scares reading list, has been announced. This program is designed to promote horror as a great reading option for all ages, during any time of the year. The 3 titles selected for 2026 in the adult cateogory are:
- A Botanical Daughter, Noah Medlock
- Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology, ed. Shane Hawk & Theodore C. Van Alst
- Maeve Fly, CJ Leede
I’ve already read Maeve Fly – it was one of my Favorite Books Read in 2024 – and that is 1 weird ass book. “Maeve knows she’s got a rage inside her and that she doesn’t have feelings like everyone else, but she fakes the funk on the outside, while we’re privy to her inner monologue. We’re privy to her escalation as her routines start to slide, and with it, her grip on any semblance of normalcy. There are some serious acts of depravity committed against others, so if you can’t handle reading about that – do not get this!”
Book to Screen Adaptations in 2026 and an Audiobook and eBook Partnership
I watched my first book to movie adaptation of the year this week – The Housemaid, Freida McFadden. I enjoyed the book and the movie gets a solid B movie status from me (i.e. is was alright but nothing special). Here’s a good break down of the differences between The Housemaid book and movie, and a review of the movie.
Here’s more New and Upcoming Book-to-Screen Adaptations in 2026. What are you most excited to see? A new Wuthering Heights adaptation has just been released, and there’s been quite a discussion online about Is Heathcliff White? Basically – did they whitewash Healthcliff … again? But here’s a view that I found myself agreeing with – Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights Whitewashed Heathcliff & Honestly, It Was For The Best. More food for thought – As a Black woman, I believe Heathcliff wasn’t Black, and I find this modern conversation about it quite confusing. Agreed.
Audiobooks getting a glow up as Spotify Partners With Bookshop.org allowing users to purchase physical books through the Spotify app. They are also debuting “Page Match” … a first-of-its-kind feature that lets readers seamlessly switch between the printed (or e-book) and audiobook versions of a title. You get audiobook listening time with Spotify Premium – would this feature sway you to sign up?
—- That’s it from me. Cheers to the week ahead!
