It‘s my firmest wish in 2022 that I‘ll be too busy with people IRL to read quite this much again, but I did love having an unexpectedly full reading life in 2021

One of my New Years resolutions is to BookTok more often. I do short humor usually over there. Who is on TikTok? Let‘s be buds! https://vm.tiktok.com/TTPd6Cgj7s/

I‘ve got a humor piece up today about all the little chores that we have to do around the holidays inspired by this classic book https://medium.com/2-ho-ho-hos/the-little-red-hen-writes-christmas-cards-1be247d...

First time in a long time I‘m juggling five books at a time. I‘m likely to finish the tagged one today. I‘m in too many moods at once right now!

Did my annual random item/book recommendation book pairing, this time with a drink and vibe by request. I decided to do my book wrap for the year a little early since the upcoming weeks look so busy 😅

https://rachelmansmckenny.substack.com/p/the-one-with-all-the-books

Happy one year anniversary of the publication to the book that made me an author 🎂 I‘m eating cake today 😄

#weekendreads
1. It‘s in His Kiss and Harrow the Ninth
2. The tagged book
3. Yes! Watched Castle for Christmas last weekend

My library hold finally came in for this and I‘m loving it. Read by the author

Yesss a rom com that gives Good Omens vibes. Funny and fun. I didn‘t know how much I needed this one.
Good on audio!

This new release had been on my radar since it was announced. Setting: a strip club in Ohio during the apocalypse. It‘s really lovely and harrowing. Alison Stine is an auto-read for me and found this on Hoopla!

Just want to share this exciting news 😭😭😭I am so excited. This honor was chosen by librarians and booksellers across the state and means that I‘ll get to share my book across the Iowa next year. I cannot wait!

25 books in October is definitely my most of the year in one month. I relistened to all of HP, so that counted toward 7, then the rest were a pretty wide assortment of lit fic, romance, thriller, and ya. Great reading month for me!

Started this new release yesterday and really enjoying it so far. Great writing, nice pacing.

Jen DeLuca is one of the few authors that will keep me up too late, then have me up again the next morning to finish the last three chapters. This is my favorite in the Willow Creek series. I think it has to be. April is so relatable— a single mom figuring out what she wants as her kid gets ready to leave the nest. She‘s not a “joiner”, but what does she need for her next step?
A friends to lovers with fake dating. Love Mitch. Team kilt 4ever.

Capping off spooky season with this read, which has been on my TBR for years. Home with the kids right now, since two of them have COVID (😓). Not very serious, thank goodness, but it does mean a lot of togetherness time. This is a nice read during their rest time.

Saturday morning and all three kids are reading or playing nicely together!! It‘s a miracle! I‘m finishing this one for book club Monday. I bought it when it came out and am happy to finally have a reason to bump it up the TBR

If you liked Station Eleven, stack this one.
In a series of linked stories, this novel tells the story of a pandemic, but more than that, what people changed afterward in their lives (or didn‘t). I didn‘t know how much I needed a pandemic book, one that didn‘t shy away from the grief and weirdness and awkwardness. A year ago, I couldn‘t have read this book. Now, I needed it. Comes out in January from William Morrow.

This is an #alc from LibroFM this month and I just started it today. Love the kind of witchy vibes so far.

I was so looking forward to this one and I‘m not loving it ☹️ still some funny moments but not quite as good as the original and a little Lovecraftian.

Read 16 books this month! Some favorites: True Grit; Beautiful World, Where Are You?; The Plot; The Intimacy Experiment

I absolutely adored this memoir (don‘t mind my toddler‘s mess around it😂). This memoir follows a man who loses his sight at age sixteen and the ways he tries to fake it to the world around him. Moving, funny at times, I read this in two sittings.
Lots about love and finding a partner and maneuvering through college when the ADA was newish legislation.

I adored this. Maybe my favorite of hers so far? Out in mid-September. Thank you LibroFM for the ALC!

Audio walk with this new book

Last day for $1.99 (or your country's equivalent) price on The Butterfly Effect!

Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/tbezon
Nook: https://tinyurl.com/tbebarn
Apple iBooks: https://tinyurl.com/tbeap
Kobo: https://tinyurl.com/tbekobo

Sipping this one at bedtime and really enjoying it. Who else has read?

Good enough, but I have to admit I had it figured mostly halfway through. Still, strong enough characters and some interesting themes.

Out 8/31/21
Thank you LibroFM for the ALC!

My husband is watching the kids all day and night so I can have a day to edit my finished book project, but I need a quick break from the screen. Masked up and listening to the tagged book on audio. Loving it so far. A young woman takes a job in the early 80s at a Playboy Resort in WI.

I‘ve hit 100 books for 2021 so far! The tagged one was my most recent read, a book about family myth and lumberjacks.

This is just what I needed right now. Not as funny as Dial A, but I like this kind of light murder story lol

I‘m loving this but seriously, it would be a completely different experience on paper. The audio is incredible. Multi voice and I cannot even imagine not listening to this one

Congrats
 @DivineDiana
@tpixie
@peanutnine
@Cinfhen
@BookishMarginalia

Please email me at sendrachelstuff@gmail.com and I'll send you the kindle redemption link!

#migrationtime

I absolutely loved this one! A great romcom about trying to stay casual in the face of an overwhelming attraction. Just the right balance of heat and heart. Out Aug 2! Thanks LibroFM for the ALC!

To celebrate just over six months since the release of my book (which has been called a Midwestern and female-led Man Called Ove) and the annual migration of Monarch butterflies in Iowa, I'm hosting a giveaway! Enter now to win one of five US kindle editions.

Repost this graphic with the hashtag #migrationtime by 12PM EST on 7/21/21 if you'd like to enter. I'll @ the winners then.
#giveaway

My two current reads are definitely connected to Shakespeare! Enjoying them both. The tagged book is a novel by the same author of Bunny, which is a bonkers novel I loved. This one is about a theater professor who suffers from chronic pain and the way her performance/teaching and life are spinning out of control

Watching the sun rise over the neighborhood while walking to this audiobook. It‘s a Libro.fm ALC for July, and I love—love— audio narrators with a good Irish accent. Set at a boarding school in Ireland in the 90s, surrounding the disappearance of a girl and her teacher

Okay so I‘m working on an honest to goodness romance. A romcom to be exact, and I‘m having the best time. The Butterfly Effect mentioned sex but it didn‘t show anything on the page (it‘s more of a women‘s fiction/contemporary fiction). This one— uh, it‘s very open door.

Romance readers: who writes the best sex scenes in your opinion?

This book omgggg very tense. This is an advanced listener copy from Libro.fm and I can already tell this book is going to be a New York Times bestseller.

Thank you @Soubhiville for the incredible notes!! My book got lost somewhere in the ether and she still wrote comments to send to me by note. Thank you and I‘m glad you enjoyed it! I did tol

Picked up this #bookerlonglist pick from the local indie and am diving I

I don‘t think I ever posted my review for this? I loved it. Messy lit fic about a woman with disordered eating habits who works at her family‘s bakery, and how she‘s trying not to cheat on her husband (but not trying very hard).

I'm listening to the ALC of this on LibroFM (because I'm a sucker for Bahn Turpin narrating anything). It reminds me of ROOM meets DEACON KING KONG. Dark, complex narrative structure, mult.POV. Three girls-turned-women confined for 10 years. (More in comments)
Out 7/6

Introducing: Blind Date with a Book!
The only game show podcast that will make you want to read more.

Each lunch break-length episode will introduce you to a person in a reading slump. We use only dating app questions to set them up with their next great read. Every episode includes lots of laughs, six book recommendations of bestsellers and hidden gems, and shout-outs to indie bookstores around the country. More info: blinddatewithabookpod.com

I started this book this morning and can‘t stop help

Meh?? I‘m thankful for the #alc from LibroFM, but this one didn‘t do it for me. Well performed, but unlike The Silent Patient, I didn‘t think the “twist” was earned.

These are my reads for the week. On audio, I just started The Maidens. Adoring Natural Mother so far— absolutely incredible memoir.

This debut came out this month and follows a recent college grad in the aftermath of the 2009 financial collapse. Funny at parts, wise at others, but TWs for self harm.

This might be the most extra I‘ve been about a book 😂 I loved this one when I read an eARC of it and I‘ve known Jesse forever, so I had to get a paper copy.
But I liked the UK cover so much more… so a UK friend and I exchanged copies (she liked the US cover better). Good excuse to send some treats overseas too!
Anyway, happy to have my paper copy of this hilarious book! Pick up whatever version you prefer, but do get this one. I laughed out loud

A kind of wacky, multiPOV novel about a town where all of the dogs are suddenly disappearing (and where they disappear to). Shows the intersection of people in a small community much like a collection of short stories. Like a collection of short stories, there were some POVs I loved and some I skimmed. Recommended as a good small press read, out this month from Word West

I have been looking forward to this debut memoir so so much. From the inside cover: “Krys Malcolm Belc has thought a lot about the interplay between parenthood and gender. As a nonbinary, transmasculine parent, giving birth to his son Samson clarified his gender identity. And yet, when his partner, Anna, adopted Samson, the legal documents listed Belc as “the natural mother of the child.” “

If you‘re looking for a pride month read, stack it!

This is how I‘m celebrating Father‘s Day this year: Donating blood for the first time since my dad died. Blood donors helped him live two years longer than he might have otherwise. If you are able to, consider donating blood this week. There are shortages everywhere.