Reading Profile

Reading has always been a part of my life.  My mom was an elementary school teacher and I was surrounded by books growing up.  We took frequent trips to the library and I have memories of roaming the stacks and selecting books off the shelves as child.  There weren't a lot of kids my age in my neighborhood, so I frequently could be found with my nose in a book while my brother and sister were outside playing.  I remember reading the Boxcar Children, Nancy Drew, and Babysitters' Club books, but really I would read anything I could get my hands on.  As an adult, I read less for pleasure in my 20's and early 30's as I was starting in my career and my leisure time was limited by work or spent on adventures with my husband.  However, since my daughter was born, we are constantly aware of how much screen time we all are consuming, and thus everyone at our house is reading more these days.  We spend a lot of time at our local library, and I tend to check out more books than I purchase.  A few years ago when I started tracking my books on Goodreads, I set a goal to read a book a week, and in 2019 I read 65 books. My goal is to read at least 60 books this year.

I would say my reading tastes lean towards more mainstream picks.  The majority of the books I have read lately fall into three main genres - nonfiction, contemporary fiction, and romance.  For nonfiction, I enjoy reading about current events as well as memoirs.  I like books where I can expand my understanding of events, issues, and people and where I can challenge my beliefs by exploring a topic from a new perspective.  I don't have a lot of nonfiction authors that I follow (with the possible exception of Brene Brown), but I have been reading a lot about the current political situation in our country and about the Me Too movement.  I also enjoy reading memoirs by chefs and pop culture figures.  For new fiction, I like to read novels that center around relationships (family dramas, complicated friendships, etc.) and/or strong female characters.  I tend to read best sellers here, such as popular picks from national book club lists, and I enjoy books that others are reading around the same time so that I can talk about what I'm reading with my friends and fellow readers.  I enjoy authors like Liane Moriarty and Jennifer Weiner.  As far as romance, I prefer contemporary romance stories that fall in the "mild romance" part of the spectrum.  I enjoy books that focus more on the emotional pull of the will they/won't they battle and where one character has to overcome an issue from his or her past for the couple to end up together.  I enjoy romance as a "palate cleanser" between books about heavier topics or when I'm dealing with a lot of stress because while a good book will take you on an emotional journey, you're guaranteed a happy ending.  My favorite romance authors are Sophie Kinsella, Emily Giffin, and Christina Lauren.

I tend to avoid books with graphic depictions of violence and/or books containing violence against children.  I am too practical to read a lot of fantasy, especially fantasy books that devote large sections to description settings and characters without much plot development.  Authenticity is important to me as a reader.

I am old-fashioned in that I prefer physical books over ebooks or audiobooks.  I abide by the "Rory Gilmore Rule" of always having a book on my person so that I can read no matter where I am.  

I joined a book club at the end of 2018 with some fellow moms from my daughter's school.  We joke that we are a book club where everyone actually reads the book, but we spend as much time talking about other books that we have read or want to read as we do talking about that month's selection.  We tend to read a lot of women's fiction and nonfiction books related to our age group.  We decided as a group at our first meeting of this year that we want to expand our reading horizons and are hoping to branch out into some older books and lesser read genres.

I tend to have recency bias whenever someone asks me what my favorite books are, so I will share my top picks of last year instead.  My top 3 books I read in 2019 were all nonfiction: "The Only Plane in the Sky" by Garrett Graff, "Maybe You Should Talk to Someone" by Lori Gottlieb, and "Know My Name" by Chanel Miller.  I would have added "Catch and Kill" by Ronan Farrow to that list, but I didn't read it until the first week of 2020.  For new fiction, I was less impressed with my choices, but I enjoyed "Nothing to See Here" by Kevin Miller" and "The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo" by Taylor Jenkins Reid (although it was a 2017 release).  As far as romance, I really enjoyed "The Bookish Life of Nina Hill" by Abbi Waxman and "The Friend Zone" by Abby Jimenez.

I look forward to expanding my reading horizons this semester and exploring some new to me genres.

Hi! My name is Rachel Strong and I am a Masters of Library and Information Science student at IUPUI.  I have created this blog as a requirement for my Reader's Advisory course this semester and look forward to interacting with you all.

A little bit about me - I graduated from Hanover College with a BA in Business Administration and worked first in market research and then transitioned into nonprofit work.  I have a passion for lifelong learning and community development which led me to pursue a second-half career as a public librarian.  I am married with a daughter who wants to be an author and a spoiled Westie.  My hobbies include traveling, reading, and running.