Reading Through Life

Show notes:

May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month and we thought it fitting to share with you our favorite books by Asian authors. Plus, Mia shares why she has a personal connection to this month. If you’ve been around our show before, you know that we try to read widely and diversely and love checking out “own voices” books especially - and the 10 books on this list do not disappoint. Get your TBRs ready, you know what to do!

Click here to join us on Patreon to get an exclusive bookish goodie every single Friday. With fun bonus episode series like: Books We Both Love, Monthly Overflow Books, Bookish Conundrums, and The New Books in Our Lives plus a private community for RTL Book Nerds only, you’re going to love being a part of our Patreon. Not only that, but you’re helping to support our show by saying I LOVE WHAT YOU DO. 

Find the time stamped show notes below with links to all of the fun things we mentioned.

Bookish Goodies:

[7:18] Mia - Artemis by Andy Weir

[9:09] Sarah - It’s Okay to Be a Unicorn by Jason Tharp

Books by Asian Authors:

[13:05] Mia - Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See

[14:32] Sarah - Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

[16:07] Mia - Songs of Willow Frost by Jamie Ford

[17:53] Sarah - A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

[18:52] Mia - The Leavers by Lisa Ko

[20:03] Sarah - To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han

[20:58] Mia - Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin

[22:07] Sarah - The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan

[23:54] Mia - Saris and a Single Malt by Sweta Srivastava Vikram

[25:31] Sarah - Sparks Like Stars by Nadia Hashimi

[26:48] Bonus books:

Mia - These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong

Mia - The Rape of Nanking by Iris Chang

Mia - In Order to Live by Yeonmi Park

Sarah - The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka

Sarah - The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd

Sarah - Things We Lost to the Water by Eric Nguyen

Sarah - Such Big Dreams by Reema Patel

Sarah - That Kind of Mother by Rumman Alam

Related episode:

Listen to episode 26, 18 Books We Love by Black Authors

Follow us on Instagram: @readingthroughlifepod

Follow Sarah: @thekindredvoice

Follow Mia: @miasutton55

* The books noted above contain affiliate links. This means that we may get a small kickback if you purchase through our links, at no additional cost to you.

Show notes:

We love authors and we love books. We really do! But… sometimes authors do very strange things in their books that just grind our gears. Why do they do them? We have no idea, but we sure want to talk about it and share our bookish pet peeves with you. What do you think, do we raise valid points or are we just picky readers? Maybe don’t answer that. 

Click here to join us on Patreon to get an exclusive bookish goodie every single Friday. With fun bonus episode series like: Books We Both Love, Monthly Overflow Books, Bookish Conundrums, and The New Books in Our Lives plus a private community for RTL Book Nerds only, you’re going to love being a part of our Patreon. Not only that, but you’re helping to support our show by saying I LOVE WHAT YOU DO. 

Find the time stamped show notes below with links to all of the fun things we mentioned.

Bookish Goodies:

[8:50]  The Orangutan Librarian (book blog)

[9:55]  NEW RTL podcast merch (coffee mugs, phone cases, stickers, t-shirts, and more!)

[12:03] Bookish Pet Peeves:

Sarah - This is the passage about the overly complicated language in a sex scene.

(Image not working? Check our website show notes to see the image.)

Follow us on Instagram: @readingthroughlifepod

Follow Sarah: @thekindredvoice

Follow Mia: @miasutton55

* The books noted above contain affiliate links. This means that we may get a small kickback if you purchase through our links, at no additional cost to you.

Show notes:

Time to wrap, wrap, wrap it up! Here are 10 books that we read in the month of April. 5 books from Sarah, 5 books from Mia. Some good, some not so good, but that’s OK. Also, spoiler alert - there will be Colleen Hoover books on this list. #sorrynotsorry 

Click here to join us on Patreon to get an exclusive bookish goodie every single Friday. With fun bonus episode series like: Books We Both Love, Monthly Overflow Books, Bookish Conundrums, and The New Books in Our Lives plus a private community for RTL Book Nerds only, you’re going to love being a part of our Patreon. Not only that, but you’re helping to support our show by saying I LOVE WHAT YOU DO. 

Find the time stamped show notes below with links to all of the fun things we mentioned.

Bookish Goodies:

[3:25] Book Page

[4:38] Brightly

[5:12] What We Read in April:

[8:06 - Sarah]  The Lifestyle by Taylor Hahn (available June 7)

[10:05 - Mia]  A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

[14:23 - Sarah]  Cover Story by Susan Rigetti 

[16:27 - Mia]  Devoted by Dean Koontz

[19:19 - Sarah]  A Hundred Other Girls by Iman Hariri-Kia (available July 26)

[21:51 - Mia]  Hopeless by Colleen Hoover

[24:47 - Sarah]  Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin (available July 5)

[28:37 - Mia]  Things We Never Got Over by Lucy Score

[31:38 - Sarah]  Confess by Colleen Hoover

[34:20 - Mia]  See Jane Snap by Bethany Crandell

[37:37] Overflow Books for Patron:

[Mia]  All the Ugly and Wonderful Things by Bryn Greenwood

[Mia]  The Lucky Escape by Heather Manley

[Mia]  Heart Bones by Colleen Hoover

[Sarah]  If the Shoe Fits by Julie Murphy

[Sarah]  The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune

[Sarah]  The Love You Deserve by Jen Morris

[Sarah]  The Comfort Book by Matt Haig

[Sarah]  Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

Follow us on Instagram: @readingthroughlifepod

Follow Sarah: @thekindredvoice

Follow Mia: @miasutton55

* The books noted above contain affiliate links. This means that we may get a small kickback if you purchase through our links, at no additional cost to you.

Show notes:

We have a confession to make: We hoard books. There! We said it! We’re two bookish nerds, so it makes sense, right? But the problem comes with having many (too many?) unread books on our shelves. Listen in to today’s episode as we shop our own shelves and make a pact (with many exit clauses) to read our selected titles. 

Click here to join us on Patreon to get extra bookish goodies like bonus episodes, end of year rating guides, book club, and more!

Related Links:

• Books mentioned*:
• • Henry and the Chalk Dragon by Jennifer Trafton
  • Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline
  • The Sunflower by Simon Wiesenthal 
  • The Astronaut and the Star by Jen Comfort
  • American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins
  • Heart Bones by Colleen Hoover
  • New Kid by Jerry Craft
  • The Book of Cold Cases by Simone St. James
  • The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka
  • The Extraordinaires by TJ Klune
  • Mother in the Dark by Kayla Maiuri (available August 9)
  • Commencement by J. Courtney Sullivan
• Also mentioned:
• • Follow us on Instagram: @readingthroughlifepod

* The books noted above contain affiliate links. This means that we may get a small kickback if you purchase through our links, at no additional cost to you.

Show notes:

We love books that make us FEEL something, even if it’s a sad feeling. Because let’s face it, sometimes you just need a long, cathartic cry while reading a beautiful story. In this episode, we’re bringing you 10 books that made us cry (plus, some honorable mentions!), so get your tissues ready. Don’t worry, we won’t judge.

Click here to join us on Patreon to get extra bookish goodies like bonus episodes, end of year rating guides, book club, and more!

Related Links:

• Books mentioned*:
• • A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
  • I Would Leave Me If I Could by Halsey
  • My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell
  • The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
  • The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
  • Corrie ten Boom by Janet Benge
  • Reminders of Him by Colleen Hoover
  • The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot by Marianne Cronin
  • All the Lonely People by Mike Gayle
  • Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune
  • The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
  • Take What You Can Carry by Gian Sardar
  • They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera
  • The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls
  • Sparks Like Stars by Nadia Hashimi
  • One Day in December by Josie Silver
  • The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah
• Also mentioned:
• • Follow us on Instagram: @readingthroughlifepod
  • Reacher TV series on Prime Video
  • Jack Ryan TV series on Prime Video
  • Reading Through Life T-shirt and other merch

* The books noted above contain affiliate links. This means that we may get a small kickback if you purchase through our links, at no additional cost to you.

Show notes:

There are a LOT of great books out there, but ones that we would willingly re-read again and again? They are fewer and far between. These special “unicorn” books are the ones we’re sharing in this episode - books that we fell in love and wish we could experience again for the very first time because they are just *that* special. We hope at least one of these books will intrigue you the way they’ve intrigued us. 

Click here to join us on Patreon to get extra bookish goodies like bonus episodes, end of year rating guides, book club, and more!

Related Links:

• Books mentioned*:
• • A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
  • A Spindle Splintered by Alix E. Harrow
  • Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay
  • The Idea of You by Robinne Lee
  • The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
  • Fierce Kingdom by Gin Phillips
  • Verity by Colleen Hoover
  • Wild by Cheryl Strayed
  • Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
  • Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
  • The Push by Ashley Audrain
  • Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
  • It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover
  • A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
• Also mentioned:
• • Follow us on Instagram: @readingthroughlifepod

* The books noted above contain affiliate links. This means that we may get a small kickback if you purchase through our links, at no additional cost to you.

Surprise book nerds! We are back to share what is typically a Patron only episode - our overflow episode that we produce each month. These episodes are the reviews of the other books we read for a month that we didn't get to in our main monthly wrap up. We like to stick with 30ish minutes for our main show episode so any books we didn't get a chance to talk about, they go into these Overflow episodes.

Today, we wanted to bring you this fun bonus so that you could get a feel for what the episodes are like. PLUS, we'd love to encourage you to become a patron of our show.

Being a patron for our show is so important to us. It helps us to financially produce the show - spoiler, running a podcast is not cheap - it helps us to keep it ad free for you because no one likes being interrupted when you’re talking about books, and it just shows us that you really love what we’re doing.

It's just $5 per month and helps us out more than we can say. You can join us by going to: patreon.com/readingthroughlifepod or by visiting our website readingthroughlifepod.com

Here's a look at the other books we're reviewing in this episode:

• The Poetry of Pablo Neruda by Ilan Stavans
• Finding Cinderella by Colleen Hoover
• In the Name of Jesus by Henri Nouwen
• I Dare You by Misti Murphy
• The Storied Life of AJ Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin
• Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka
• The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
• Like a House on Fire by Lauren McBrayer
• The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren
• Smile and Look Pretty by Amanda Pellegrino
• I Hope This Finds You Well by Kate Baer
• In a New York Minute by Kate Spencer

We hope you enjoy this bonus episode and we can't wait to see you hanging out in our Patron community.

Show notes:

It’s that time again! Time to share all the books we read in the month of March. Listen in to hear 10 titles and reviews that span genres like: sci-fi/fantasy, romance, nonfiction, poetry, and more. Whether you’re a Team Sarah or Team Mia reader, there’s something for everyone’s TBR list in this episode. And don’t forget - we’ll be sharing the other 12 (!) books we read in March on the Overflow episode exclusively for our Patrons, so sign up now to hear those reviews as well. 

Click here to join us on Patreon to get extra bookish goodies like bonus episodes, end of year rating guides, book club, and more!

Related Links:

• Books mentioned*:
• • In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl’s Journey to Freedom by Yeonmi Park
  • Everything Must Go by Camille Pagan (available Apr 26)
  • Something Wilder by Christina Lauren (available May 17)
  • Funny You Should Ask by Elissa Sussman (available Apr 12)
  • A Brilliant Night of Stars and Ice by Rebecca Connolly
  • The Cat Who Saved Books by Sosuke Natsukawa
  • The Idea of You by Robinne Lee
  • Unseen: The Gift of Being Hidden in a World That Loves to Be Noticed by Sara Hagerty
  • Reminders of Him by Colleen Hoover
  • Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey
  • Regretting You by Colleen Hoover
  • A Life Cycle: A Guide to Healing and Rediscovering Yourself by Nicole Asherah
• Also mentioned:
• • Follow us on Instagram: @readingthroughlifepod 
  • RBG t-shirt

* The books noted above contain affiliate links. This means that we may get a small kickback if you purchase through our links, at no additional cost to you.

Show notes:

We all have our comfort books - the ones that feel like fuzzy socks and warm blankets on a cold day. BUT what about reading outside our comfort zones? We always strive to expand our reading horizons and explore other genres and this podcast has helped us do that tremendously. Come listen to today’s episode for the books that have stretched our reading lives for the better! 

Click here to join us on Patreon to get extra bookish goodies like bonus episodes, end of year rating guides, book club, and more!

Related Links:

• Books mentioned*:
• • People Like Her by Ellery Lloyd
  • City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert
  • Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
  • Holdout by Jeffrey Kluger
  • Falling by TJ Newman
  • The Last Flight by Julie Clark
  • The Thousandth Floor series by Katharine McGee
  • The Grace Year by Kim Liggett
  • Take What You Can Carry by Gian Sardar
  • The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
  • The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
  • The Idea of You by Robinne Lee
  • Regretting You by Colleen Hoover
  • Dracula by Bram Stoker
• Also mentioned:
• • FREEBIE: Our favorite genres + book recs
  • Bad on Paper Podcast
  • What Should I Read Next? Podcast
  • Follow us on Instagram: @readingthroughlifepod 

* The books noted above contain affiliate links. This means that we may get a small kickback if you purchase through our links, at no additional cost to you.

Show notes:

ARCs or advanced reader copies are a way to get free books from publishers (woohoo!) but there’s obviously more to it than that. If you’ve ever wondered what the deal with ARCs is, you need to tune in as we discuss how to get started, the ins and outs of the process (as well as the pros and cons), and some ARCs we’ve read and enjoyed. Plus, you’ll have to settle a debate for us: how exactly do you pronounce ARC?!

Special thanks to @bottomlessbooks.ct for the inspiration for this episode.

Click here to join us on Patreon to get extra bookish goodies like bonus episodes, end of year rating guides, book club, and more!

Related Links:

• Books mentioned*:
• • Love Thy Neighbor by Mark Gilleo
  • In a New York Minute by Kate Spencer
  • The Unsinkable Greta James by Jennifer E. Smith
  • Truth and Other Lies by Maggie Smith
  • The ARC by Torey Henwood Hoen
  • The Roughest Draft by Emily Wibberly and Austin Siegemund-Broka
  • A Spell of Rowans by Byrd Nash
• Also mentioned:
• • NetGalley
  • Edelweiss
  • BookSirens
  • Kindred Mini Workshops

* The books noted above contain affiliate links. This means that we may get a small kickback if you purchase through our links, at no additional cost to you.