Kimberly Hirsh

Some notes on my reading year 2023. I read 47 books. I overwhelmingly read romance, much more than any other genre. I have no regrets about that. There wasn’t a single book this year that stood out as more of a favorite than the rest.

We Could Be So Good is the one that grabbed me from the first sentence.

Mr. & Mrs. Witch is the one that set me on my path of reading mostly romance.

Dept. of Speculation is probably the one I read fastest.

I don’t finish books I wouldn’t recommend, so try whatever on this list looks good to you!

Finished reading: For Never & Always by Helena Greer 📚

I love it so much. Finished it in under 48 hours. Helena Greer has given us a lovely place in Carrigan’s Christmasland and a host of delightful people to populate it. I keep seeing different bits of myself in each of her characters and it makes me happy. Highly recommend.

Me: I started this book last night and read only one chapter before bed. Now I’m on page 214.
W: Sounds like my wife.
📚

It is not humanly possible for Helena Greer to write fast enough to meet my desire for Carrigan’s content. It’s generous of her to give us a book a year. Yet I’d read however many she wrote as quickly as I could.

📚🗨️ “I want to live my life being irrationally hopeful. Loving people and fish and cities with my whole heart.” Jake Maia Arlow, How to Excavate a Heart

Finished reading: How to Excavate a Heart by Jake Maia Arlow 📚

Lovely and sweet. Made me cry when the main character’s mom really shows up for her. Also kinda makes me want to travel to DC.

Yesterday my mom, who in April 2022 was told she would probably never walk again, walked (with a walker and people around to spot her) up my front steps, into my house, and over to the couch. This is the result of months of hard work and physical therapy. ♥️

🍿 Watched Hats Off to Christmas.

This is the most paradigmatic Hallmark Christmas movie. It has everything:

• a struggling small business
• a suit guy
• who is going back to his small hometown after life in the big city
• a wheelchair-riding moppet
• who miraculously recovers from the injury that made him need a wheelchair
• a woman being stupid because of a conversation she eavesdropped on
• who is a young widow
• two chaste kisses
• a happy ending

Is it a good movie? No. But is it a laughably bad movie? No. Haylie Duff is incredibly winning and the reason I kept watching. Her chemistry with her costar is non-existent but she’s so cute, I didn’t care.

🗨️📚 “the emptiness was the absence of myself.” Alison Cochrun, Kiss Her Once for Me

Finished reading: Kiss Her Once for Me by Alison Cochrun 📚

This one was so lovely it made me cry. I can’t even sum up. Go read the description if it sounds good to you, try it out. Highly recommend.

I made this Funko Pop of myself using this Microsoft Designer prompt and I love her so much.

My little family is in the production of A Christmas Carol honoring the retirement of the director of the theater where W & I met. At rehearsal last night I looked at a particular spot on the floor of the theater & thought, “That’s where I fell in love with W.”

In today’s issue of Happy Dancing, Charlie Jane Anders writes about how to fix GoodReads to avoid people review-bombing books to lower their ratings.

I haven’t used GoodReads in a long time but Anders brings up a point that has me wanting to share how I write about books online. Anders shares an anecdote about losing a bunch of star ratings on songs in iTunes and then switching to a simple love/don’t love system, then says:

And I feel like with books, it’s pretty similar. Did you like this book or not? Would you recommend it to your friends? Would you look out for more books by this author in future? The important questions are all yes or no.

And this is how I tend to share books when I’m writing about them quickly.

If I loved a book, I’ll end my short post with “Highly recommend.” If I like it, I’ll just share that I finished it and maybe a brief description. If I don’t like it, I probably didn’t finish it, and I probably won’t post about it at all.

When I write a full review, I share a summary, what I loved, what I wanted more of, what I need to warn you about, and who should read the book. I only write this kind of review about books I would recommend.

Since 2007 I’ve had a policy of only publishing positive reviews on my website and I don’t see that changing anytime soon.

Bringing back The PhD Story’s predictive text New Year’s Resolution:

My resolution for 2024 is to be a good time.

Finished reading: You’re a Mean One, Matthew Prince by Timothy Janovsky 📚

Oh my goodness I love it. Matthew Prince starts out as a spoiled party boy but Janovsky slowly pulled the onion layers back until I loved him. And his love interest Hector is wonderful. Highly recommend.

Finished reading: Eight Kisses by Mindy Klasky 📚

Eight Hanukkah romance stories. I read one each night. My favorites are the one with the Frisky Bean coffee shop and the one with empty nesters reconnecting.

Finished reading: In the Event of Love by Courtney Kae 📚

A lovely place-based friends-to-lovers second chance. As often happens, the third act breakup made me want to yell at the main character but the book had me happy-teary by the end.

📚 Listening to Patrick Stewart read A Christmas Carol and it’s just feels like having Jean-Luc Picard read it to you. 😍

📚🗨️

When people who don’t have fibromyalgia ask me how it feels, I tell them to imagine the last time they had a bad flu, then to picture going shopping, cooking, or exercising while feeling like that.

• Ginevra Liptan, The FibroManual

🔖📚 Read How To Get Started Reading Romance Novels by Stephanie Fallon (The Good Trade).

This is an excellent guide. Also? If you have unkind things to say about romance as a genre, please say them somewhere else. They’re not welcome in my replies.

Me: My heel hurts.

My doctor: Have you tried using that ointment I told to use for pain on it?

Me: I will now.

I just don’t feel like writing a year-in-review post, y’all. So I might not.

I have 3 one -month gift subscriptions to Jami Attenberg’s Craft Talk to give away. Let me know if you want one.

Me: I’m going to take a 20 minute nap (sets alarm)

Narrator: She took a 90 minute nap. She did not hear the alarm.

🍿 Watched Home Alone and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.

My kid’s first time seeing both. Home Alone is, of course, a classic. Home Alone 2 isn’t a revelation but is super fun.