Wednesday, July 31, 2024

July Book Review

Perhaps no month will have as much reading as June did - but I did pretty well in July too! And I think I listened to/read a variety of books! I made my way through six books this month & I've started a seventh, but I'll save that for August! Can you believe we are already to August?!? This year is flying!


Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty: Nine people gather at a remote health resort. some are here to lose weight, some are here to get a reboot on life, some are here for reasons they can't even admit to themselves. Amidst all of the luxury & pampering, the mindfulness & meditation, they know these then days might involve some real work. But none of them could imagine just how challenging the next ten days are going to be. 

Frances Welty, the formerly best-selling romantic novelist, arrives at Tranquillum House nursing a bad back, a broken heart & an exquisitely painful paper cut. She's immediately intrigued by her fellow guests. Most of them don't look to be in need of a health resort at all. But the person that intrigues her the most is the strange & charismatic owner/director of Tranquillum House. Could this person really have the answers Frances didn't even know she was seeking? Should Frances put side her doubts & immerse herself in everything Tranquillum House has to offer - or should she run while she still can?

It's not long before every guest at Tranquillum House is asking the exact same question. 

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐of five; I don't think I quite knew what to expect from this book but it was a bit of a wild ride! The characters were really diverse & I enjoyed following the story as their time went from tranquil to chaotic... & more! The story wrapped up really nicely & definitely had some twists & turns I wasn't expecting... The book was enjoyable but wasn't my favorite this month... or this year. 

The Hotel Nantucket by Elin Hilderbrand: After a tragic fire in 1922 that killed 19-year-old chambermaid, Grace Hadley, The Hotel Nantucket descended from a gilded age gem to a mediocre budget-friendly lodge to inevitably an abandoned eyesore - until it's purchased & renovated top to bottom by London billionaire, Xavier Darling. Xavier hires Nantucket sweetheart Lizbet Keaton as his general manager, & Lizbet, in turn, pulls together a charismatic, if inexperienced, staff who share the vision of turning the fate of the hotel around. They face challenges in getting along with one another (& with the guests), in overcoming the hotel's bad reputation, & in surviving the (mostly) harmless shenanigans of Grace Hadley herself - who won't stop haunting the hotel until her murder is acknowledged. 

Filled with emotional tension & multiple points of view that characterize Elin's books as well as an added touch of historical reality, Hotel Nantucket offers something for everyone in this summer drama for the ages.  

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5 of five; Oh goodness! I loved this book! The storyline was great, the characters were diverse & interesting & man; I wish I could book a stay at the Hotel Nantucket for myself! It sounds absolutely divine! This was my first time reading Elin Hilderbrand, but I see why she is so popular & I'd love to read a few more of her books! This was a perfect Summer read! 



Middle of the Night by Riley Sager: The worst thing to ever happen on Hemlock Circle occurred in Ethan Marsh's backyard. One July night, ten-year-old Ethan & his best friend & neighbor, Bill, fell asleep in a tent set up on a manicured lawn in a quiet, quaint New Jersey cul de sac. In the morning, Ethan work up alone. During the night, someone had sliced the tent open with a knife & taken Billy. He was never seen again. 

Thirty years later, Ethan has reluctantly returned to his childhood home. Plagued by bad dreams & insomnia, he begins to notice strange things happening in the middle of the night. Someone seems to be roaming the cul de sac at odd hours, & signs of Bill's presence keep appearing in Ethan's backyard. Is someone playing a cruel prank? Or has Bill, long thought to be dead, somehow returned to Hemlock Circle?

The mysterious occurrences prompt Ethan to investigate what really happened that night, a quest that reunites him with former friends & neighbors & leads him into the woods that surround Hemlock Circle. Woods where Bill claimed monsters roamed & where a mysterious institute does clandestine research on a crumbling estate. The closer Ethan gets to the truth, the more he realizes that no place - be it quiet forest or suburban street - is completely safe. And the past has a way of haunting the present.  

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐of five; I was turned on to author Riley Sager through Book of the Month (sign up here: https://www.mybotm.com/idelcipzc0e - if you'd like) & I have read several of his books. He writes thrillers & ghost stories; truly, but they are always so good. This book has both thrilled & ghost story aspects, filled with twists & I have to admit, I wasn't expecting the reveal at the end. This book was great!

One Perfect Couple by Ruth Ware: Lyla is in a bit of a rut. Her post-doctoral research has fizzled out, she's pretty sure they won't extend her contract & things with her boyfriend, Nico, an aspiring actor, aren't going great. When the opportunity arises for Nico to join the cast of a new reality TV show, The Perfect Couple, she decides to try out with him. A whirlwind audition process later, Lyla finds herself whisked off to a tropical paradise with Nico, boating through the Indian Ocean towards Ever After Island, where the two of them will compete against four other couples - Bayer & Angel, Dan & Santana, Joel & Romi & Conor & Zana - in order to win a cash prize. 

But not long after they arrive on the deserted island, things start to go wrong. After the first challenge leaves everyone rattled & angry, an overnight storm takes things from bad to worse. Cut off from the mainland by miles of ocean, deprived of their phones, & unable to contact the crew that brought them there, the group must band together for survival. As tensions run high & fresh water runs low, Lyla finds that this game show is all too real - & the stakes are life & death. 

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐of five; This was the audiobook I "read" this month & it was pretty great. Ruth Ware is also a master at writing thrillers & this book was no exception! The descriptions made me feel like I was on the island with the participants of the reality show... & it certainly wasn't a paradise, ha-ha! I honestly wondered if everyone was going to make it out alive - & you'll have to read it yourself to find out if they do!




The Wish by Nicholas Sparks: 1996 was the year that changed everything for Maggie Dawes. Sent away at sixteen to live with an aunt she barely knew in Ocracoke, a remote village on North Carolina's Outer Banks, she could think only of the friends & family she left behind.... until she met Bryce Trickett, one of the few teenagers on the island. Handsome, genuine & newly admitted to West Point, Bryce showed her how much their was to love about the wind-swept beach town - & introduced her to photography, a passion that would define the rest of her life. 

By 2019, Maggie is a renowned travel photographer. She splits her time between running a successful gallery in New York & photographing remote locations around the world. But this year she is unexpectedly grounded over Christmas, struggling to come to terms with a sobering medical diagnosis. Increasingly dependent on a young assistant, she finds herself becoming close to him. 

As they count down to the last days of the season together, she begins to tell him the story of another Christmas, decades earlier - & the love that set her on a course she never could have imagined. 

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐of five; I haven't read Nicholas Sparks in so long... but he still writes tear jerkers! I really enjoyed this book, although I have to confess I picked up on the twist well in advance of the end of the book. It didn't diminish my enjoyment any & I often think that Sparks' books inspire a person to live every moment to the fullest. 

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig: Between life & death there is a library. When Nora Seed finds herself in the Midnight Library, she has a chance to make things right. Up until now, her life has been full of misery & regret. She feels she has let everyone down, including herself. But things are about to change. 

The books in the Midnight Library enable Nora to live as if she had done things differently. With the help of an old friend, she can now undo every one of her regrets as she tries to work out her perfect life. But things aren't always what she imagined they'd be, & soon her choices place the library & herself in extreme danger. Before time runs out, she must answer the ultimate question: what is the best way to live?

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐of five; This book has been on my list for a while & when I found it at Blue Plate Books for $8, I grabbed it. I'm not sure what I expected it to be, but it was a great read! It really makes you think about living life to the fullest & doing your best to have fewer regrets in life. I also like the point it made about never knowing who your life may be touching without you knowing it. 

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And that's that for July! Seven months into the year and I am thirty-nine books into my reading goal of forty-five; I think I might make my goal this year! Got any good recommendations?

Monday, July 29, 2024

The Last Weekend of July

The final weekend of July is in the books - I cannot believe we are literally less than three days away from August! How did the first seven months of the year fly by so fast? Are you kidding me??


The weekend started off very animal-friendly; ha-ha! I saw a deer just happily grazing when I headed to work on Friday morning & when I came home on Friday afternoon, there were two rabbits snacking on the lawn! The grass is looking pretty sad around here because we haven't had much rain... but I guess the little animals still think it's pretty tasty! 

The BIG news is that we are right about two weeks away from our house being finished & when we popped by the house on Friday evening, it was the first time we've seen the house in two weeks! And man - it has come a LONG way in two weeks! Our front door is in & we have electricity; our outdoor light was lit up when we arrived to peek at the changes - so very exciting! 



We now have lighting in place - I love the pendant lights over our counter/island in the kitchen! Our backsplash is the most beautiful white subway tile; it looks so crisp & clean, & goes perfectly with our quartz countertops with some gray veining. I love that everything is so perfectly white & fresh! We also have toilets & sinks & showers... bathroom fixtures galore! 




The carpet is installed - it's called winter white; & while it's not exactly white, it's a perfect neutral color & I really love it. I did walk around our master bedroom barefoot... which Ryan said was a terrible idea because the house is still being constructed. But *shrug* I survived! I cannot believe we are so close to being in this house & truly making it our own! 




I love the flooring in our downstairs - it will go with so much & I love the look of a wood floor! I cannot wait to put down rugs, hang curtains... do all the things that will make this house into our home! And don't even get me started on plopping our kittens down in the middle of it & watching them add to our home as well! I know it's going to be such a wonderful home for us for years to come! 





We had dinner at Red Robin before heading home after a pretty long day for Ryan! We did our best to sleep in on Saturday morning; we managed to make it until around 8, which is pretty impressive! Our Saturday was both busy & not... we ran some errands & did some packing, we picked out some new plant children for our offices & took a Saturday afternoon nap... we had take-out from TGIFriday's & watched Dune: Part One (I'm still not 100% sure what it's about). It was a good Saturday!


Sunday morning was church & a quick lunch at home before we headed to the pool for a few hours! We have really enjoyed being able to sit up our chairs & umbrellas, stretch out in the sun & just chill for a couple hours - especially since we can hop into the pool when we get too warm! We ended our weekend chilling, getting ready for the work week & watching the Prime Time Olympics coverage - go Team USA!  

Monday, July 22, 2024

Fredericksburg Weekend

Another weekend - another trip out of town! July has been a very road trip friendly month for the Lapp Family; this weekend we scooted over to Fredericksburg, Virginia. We were in the area to celebrate our friends Will & Allison's daughter's first birthday! Our first stop was Freddy's Famous Steakburgers & Custard for dinner; it was a recommendation from a co-worker, & it did not disappoint!


We visited with Will & Allison (& their boys) for a couple hours on Friday night & then headed to our hotel for the weekend to get some sleep. The birthday baby was asleep when we arrived back at their house on Saturday morning, but we hadn't been there long before she woke up & after some initial uncertainty - we all became fast friends - she & Ryan especially! 




We spent the morning playing with all sorts of toys - especially the dancing crab toy that enticed Milli to bop & dance around & we even got to watch some Bluey & Miss Rachel, which are completely foreign to both of us, ha-ha! We basically just had a wonderful time with the kiddos! 




Ryan had a Nerf battle with the boys shortly before lunchtime - because honestly, Ryan is just a big kid himself most of the time! They had a blast & then we ran to grab a bite to eat & freshen up before the big birthday party! Unfortunately - the rain that had been forecasted all day long decided to show up right about the time the party started... thank goodness for tents & rain that didn't come down sideways, ha-ha! The show must go on! 



The party started with delicious fruit dip & snacks - & a bottle for the birthday girl, who decided that her new pal Ryan would be the perfect person to give her that bottle. Apparently this little lady doesn't just let anybody give her a bottle, so he embraced his newfound bestie & got her all fed & ready to party! 




Everyone had pizza & nuggets, games were played & then it was time for the birthday cake... & initially Milli wasn't sure what to think about it all. Especially when the cake was on a paper plate in front of her! But once the slice of cake was plopped onto her high chair, she finally decided to dig in ... which of course meant that the delicious strawberry cake & frosting ended up from the top of her head to the tips of her toes! 



Okay - maybe not the tips of her toes, but she was pretty covered! While she got a quick clean up, we started saying our goodbyes & as you can see, it wasn't just Milli who loved Ryan - he is like a magnet for little people! He gave hugs & high fives to all his newest friends, Milli's Mom made sure we had plenty of cookies to go & then we headed back to our room for a wee bit before grabbing dinner at Kickback Jack's & calling it a day! 



Is this not the cutest picture you've ever seen? Ryan & his new best little friend - Milliana! They are absolutely the sweetest & I think this picture is my favorite one from the whole weekend! We stayed at the Comfort Suites in Fredericksburg this weekend & all in all, it was a good choice of hotel - it was less than two miles from our friend's house & was very neat & clean! The continental breakfast was also quite extensive - so that was a plus! 



After breakfast & a stop at Black Rifle Coffee Co for our morning brew, we headed to Strong Tower Church for the Sunday morning service & it was excellent! Ryan attended Strong Tower some while he was in Fredericksburg & we always enjoy visiting... I think if we lived closed to Fredericksburg, we'd definitely attend church there! My parents met us to go to church, have dinner at Park Lane Tavern & get shown around Teen Challenge before we headed home for the day! 


We were met with souvenirs that my parents brought back from Maine... & laundry! There is always laundry, ha-ha! It was such a good weekend - just like last weekend! However; I have to admit that I'm glad we don't have anywhere to go this upcoming weekend, ha-ha!