Nibbles & Bits, Vol. 3

A surprise read that hit the spot

Hi readers,

I was sick last weekend; thankfully, it wasn’t Covid. Since I can’t seem to find time to get a few newsletters written more than a day or two ahead of when they publish, I wound up taking last week’s newsletter off. I hated doing that, but I just didn’t feel like sitting for a few hours writing. I’m back and raring to go with a Nibble about a book I loved and a few bits of bookish goodness.

When I downloaded this ARC from Net Galley, it sounded like a book I’d enjoy reading, but I never got around to reading it before it published in April 2022. It wasn’t until I started hearing buzz about it in the Modern Mrs. Darcy book club that I tracked it down on my kindle and devoured it over a couple of days.

Search: A Novel by Michelle Huneven was a wonderful surprise that I hadn’t expected but was just what I needed last weekend to pass the time while I wasn’t feeling up to par. The book starts with church member Dana, a best-selling author, food writer, and restaurant critic, as she finishes with her most recent book tour and is looking for an idea for her next book. She decides to join her church’s search committee for a new minister and turn that experience into her next book, a memoir about the search process. Who knew a “search process for a minister” could be interesting?

Here is where the fun starts as each committee member has a different idea about what type of minister they should be looking for, and the head-butting begins almost immediately. Everyone on the committee has their own agenda and is keeping secrets; there is a vocal GenZ group and an equally vocal older group on opposite ends of the spectrum on whom they are looking for to lead them spiritually. Neither group listens to the other and this creates the drama from within. It’s about diverse people sharing a common goal with varied reasons why they wanted to be on the committee and how personalities get along and often don’t throughout this process.

One of the parts I really enjoyed was Dana using her food writing job to get to know other search committee members, hoping this would help her understand why their choices differed from hers and how to bring the two sides together. I found these restaurant review jaunts funny and an inventive way the author used to flesh out the other characters’ motivations. Looking behind the scenes at what a food critic does delighted my tastes as I always want to know more about “how the sausage is made.”

Even though it’s based on a church looking for a new minister, I didn’t find it religious or preachy at all; in the reviews, it’s described many times as “spiritual,” and I agree that would be a good definition of it. I also see reviews that say the reader is “as non-religious as can be,” and they truly enjoyed it. I found it intriguing, engaging, and just delightful.

Being a relative “newbie” to listening to audiobooks, I have very few preferences yet in what I like to listen to. I still experiment and listen to many samples until I find one I think I can listen to for several hours. I found this article about “What Makes a Great Audiobook” really helpful; it gave me a lot to think about and look for when choosing my next audiobook.

These pictures make me smile; no other explanation is needed.

Take My Hand is showing up on reading lists everywhere, and readers are giving it high praise. In this article, author Dolen Perkins-Valdez discusses how to write historical fiction. She tells why “inspiration and finding a story you can’t shake” is the key to her success.

Readers always talk about summer reading, and this article from the summer of 2021 is about the history of summer reading. (NY Times gift link)

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How is your summer reading going so far? I’d love to hear about any great books you’ve read. Have a great week, and happy reading!

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