Hi! Welcome to Part 4 of my Mega Book Catch-Up post. In case you missed them, here’s Part 1 , Part 2, and Part 3.

As a reminder, I’m using the GoodReads rating convention here:

• One star – Did not like it.
• Two stars – It was ok.
• Three stars – Liked it.
• Four stars – Really liked it.
• Five stars – It was amazing.

• The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2019, edited by Edan Lepucki – I picked this book up at Book People when Husband and I visited Austin Christmas 2019. It’s full of essays and stories selected by high school students in San Francisco. Three stars.
• Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why by Lawrence Gonzales. This book walks through different disasters and examines the science and psychology behind survival. Three stars.
• K2: Life and Death on the World’s Most Dangerous Mountain by Ed Viesturs. Ok, confession – I have zero interest in extreme mountain climbing, but I looooooove reading stories about it (do not get me started down the Mt. Everest rabbit hole). This book, by famed mountaineer Ed Viesturs, examines stories of survival on K2, as well as his own experience with climbing it. Three stars.
• Nest: Poems by Paul Soupiset. I bought this collection of poetry in San Antonio, when Husband and I met up with some friends there days after our wedding. Reading it brought back memories of happier times. Three stars.
• Watch Me Disappear by Janelle Brown. This book delves into the lives of a Berkley husband and his daughter dealing with the aftermath of his wife’s disappearance. The book is told through several perspectives, including a book the main character is writing about his love story after his funeral speech about his wife went viral. Those chapters are pretty cringe-inducing. I sense a trend in mystery novels -manic pixie dream girls who go missing and return in flashbacks telling characters to BE BOLD AND BRAVE, but are also revealed to be terrible people. It’s a cliché I don’t enjoy at all. Two stars.
• The Sun and Her Flowers by Rupi Kaur. I’ll admit I opened this collection a little skeptically. I’d previously read an interview with the author that I thought was a little pretentious. The first section of the book deals with heartbreak poetry, which, I’d admit – I don’t know if it’s a cliché in these collections, or I’m not in my 20s anymore, but I don’t really enjoy those poems and can’t relate to them at all. But the rest of the collection was engrossing and enjoyable. Four stars.

Stay tuned for Part 5, the last part of my MEGA BOOK CATCH-UP POST.