Hot Girls Read Podcast

Ayesha

When I read multiple books at the same time, I like to try and do at least one physical and one digital. For my physical read, I’m in the middle of The Inner Game of Tennis. As a former tennis player I was intrigued when I saw this in the Strand and the reason why I justified the purchase is because I thought this updated version would be…well, modernized. I can’t say that I’m finding that. I think my qualm with this book, and it’s one I often have with some non-fiction reads, is that this is a person’s opinion versus fact. Gallwey’s argument is that players should focus more on letting go rather than emphasizing on what they need to fix (i.e., their forehand, footwork, etc.). I can understand this point but I disagree that tennis players shouldn’t find things to fix. Tennis is both a physical and mental game and it’s known that both aspects affect the other. If you’re not performing physically well, that will affect your mental game, and vice-versa. 

For my digital read, I’m actually reading the advanced copy of A Vow in Vengeance. I hate to say it but I am really struggling to read this. I’m short of 50% of the way but I’m finding this another example of a good story concept with failed execution. We love a spunky FMC but when all they do is whine and act arrogant with no concept of strategy, it’s eye-roll inducing. It’s also hard to read as I started it right on the tails of finishing another ARC that I really enjoyed – Silvercloak. One simple reason may have been because the FMC was 27 (yay for someone being over 25). At the heart of it, the FMC wasn’t annoying. Both FMCs in A Vow in Vengeance and Silvercloak are motivated by revenge, a pretty simple and common concept. The difference was that Silvercloak’s FMC actually took time to be strategic and work out her plan to enact revenge. Of course there’s an age difference but it’s great when authors take the time to build out their characters so that readers truly understand their motivations and root for them.

I’ll use that as a segue to recommend adding Silvercloak to your TBR, especially if you’re someone who likes proper morally grey characters, or honestly, straight up villains!

Julia

I haven’t been reading as much as I would like to lately, but I am still very much enjoying my book mentioned in last week’s post, 24 hours in Ancient Athens. It’s really making me want to book another little weekend away in Athens just so I can walk the very streets that the book talks about! I’m learning so much about ancient Athens and it is particularly fun to think that we humans were pretty much the same 2000 years ago. The author of the book has also continued his 24 hours series in ancient Rome, China, and Egypt – I’m very interested in checking them out as well.

Aside from that, the only other book I’m reading at the moment is The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. I am currently on week 3 of the book (I definitely took a week off when I was in Greece a couple weeks ago!) and am trundling along. I’ve been doing the morning pages pretty consistently (though not always very early on in my day – my motto tends to be ‘better late than never’) and have been ok at making time for the artist dates, though I am trying to be better at planning them out instead of walking into them by chance. The actual written content of the chapters and then many questions that are posed as ‘homework’ do take a bit more time for me to get through. As someone who has already committed to a creative life in many respects, I don’t always find all the content super relevant. That said, sometimes I am still surprised by how certain re-phrasing of ideas and questions can help me reframe my own creative practice and journey. And it is fun to have a little homework every now and then, especially if I can get to it while sitting on a park bench in the sun.