Welcome to Quick Lit, where I share short and sweet reviews of what I’ve been reading lately on (or around) the 15th of the month, and invite you to do the same.
I’ve been reading up a storm lately, but today’s list is indeed short and sweet: I am knee-deep in Summer Reading Guide prep, but I won’t tell you about those new books I’ve been reading until May 15! But today I’m happy to share two re-reads plus a new book I had to tell you about right away. (I’ve also been working on my German reading, but I don’t have any full-length books to report on there. Maybe someday soon?)
I hope you find something that looks intriguing for your TBR here (and in these comments), and I look forward to browsing your recent reads below. Thanks in advance for sharing your short and sweet book reviews with us!
Welcome to April Quick Lit
I read this for the first time in 2019 after picking it up from the staff picks shelf at Asheville’s Malaprops Bookstore; I’ve been meaning to re-read it for YEARS and finally did so after choosing it recently for my morning reading time. When I read it the first time many of the concepts in it were entirely new to me; this time I went in with a better understanding of trauma and how it impacts the brain and body. Here van der Kolk explores how trauma affects the mind, brain, and body and what can be done to heal trauma, with a heavy focus on somatic therapy. This book was published in 2014, and on this re-read, I found myself quite curious about what an updated edition might look like. More info →
This was our March Modern Mrs Darcy Book Club selection; I re-read it just before our conversation with Monica Wood. This poignant Maine novel—her first since The One-in-a-Million Boy, which I also loved—centers three lonely people, two of whom are in their 60s, all connected by a terrible tragedy. Violet was just nineteen when, drunk and high, she caused the death of a beloved local teacher and was sentenced to twenty-eight months in prison. Harriet runs the book group at the women’s prison, where the inmates spend one precious hour a month finding comfort in tearing apart the classics. And Frank is the victim’s widower, who fills his time by volunteering his handyman services at the local bookstore. This 2024 Summer Reading Guide selection is a deeply moving tale of redemption, second chances, and the power of books. More info →
I’ve been looking forward to this book from my friend Jessica Turner for a long time; it turned out to be an accidental but apt pairing with The Body Keeps the Score. In it Jessica writes about how she was unexpectedly forced to, in a sense, start her adult life over again: Jessica married young, at age 22, but sixteen years into their marriage her husband came out as gay and they ultimately decided to divorce. This book is part memoir and part self-help: Jessica both shares her story and offers encouragement to anyone dealing with major disappointment (or who just struggles with the sense that yeah, wasn’t it supposed to be better than this?). When faced with this unwanted change in the structure of her life, Jessica decided that if she had to start over, she wanted to give it her all, and here she documents how she grieved, made the best imperfect choices she could, poured into relationships with family and friends, had new experiences, and ultimately built a life she’s happy with and proud of. More info →
What have YOU been reading lately? Tell us about your recent reads—or share the link to a blog or instagram post about them—in comments.
P.S. Housekeeping update: because the 2025 Summer Reading Guide drops on May 15, we won’t host Quick Lit for May. We’ll resume our regular schedule—that’s on or about the 15th of the month—in June. Thanks!
