I’ll shoot it to you straight—the reason I blogged less than I initially anticipated last week was because I recently discovered my public library offers free Kindle books. They download right to your Kindle just like any book you buy on Amazon, and my library has no shortage of titles. This discovery has already saved me $50! I plowed through so many titles over my week-long staycation here in Arlington the week after Christmas, and I’m excited to recap them for you today in this installment of what’s on my nightstand.

And after months of y’all telling me how great Goodreads is, I finally took the five minutes to sign up and am loving it. It’ll definitely play into my love of documenting my life. Feel free to friend me here—I’d love to know what you’re reading!

YEAR OF YES // SHONDA RHIMES

This was the perfect book to read as the calendar flipped from 2015 to 2016. A longtime Scandal fan and a commencement speech junkie, Shonda has been on my radar for a while. I loved how conversational her book was, and how she really made herself vulnerable to the reader. I especially loved her chapter on weight loss and the philosophy behind her year of yes, where she said yes to all the things that scared her. As a result, she gave the aforementioned speech at Dartmouth, went to the Kennedy Center Awards and sat in the President’s Box, and did Jimmy Kimmel. She really inspired me to start saying yes to more of the things that scare me, and in the few weeks I’ve been applying this philosophy, it’s really paid off.

THE RUMOR // ELIN HILDERBRAND

I’m going to call a spade a spade—I’m an Elin Hilderbrand groupie right now. After reading Winter Street and Winter Stroll before Christmas, I knew I would love her other books. She writes chick-lit, and The Rumor is probably my favorite title of hers that I’ve read. Like all Hilderbrand novels, each chapter is told from the perspective of a different character in the book. This one focuses on two middle-aged girl friends who both have families on Nantucket. Madeline, an author, and Grace, a homemaker with an extravagant garden, find their summer turned upside down because of a rumor.

THE GREAT ESCAPE // SUSAN ELIZABETH PHILLIPS

One thing I’ve started doing is reading more than one book at a time. This has helped me read more books because I always have a book that fits my mood. The Great Escape is the metro read or if I find myself in a waiting room—it’s always in my bag. From the opening scene where the daughter of the President of the United States leaves her perfect groom at the alter, I was hooked. Phillips knows how you keep you turning the page by revealing only so much about a character before changing the scene.

THE MATCH MAKER // ELIN HILDERBRAND

Another light beach read from Hilderbrand, this one chronicles the life of Dabney, who is paralyzed with fear anytime she has to leave Nantucket. Because of this fear, she has left the island very rarely over the last 25 years while her husband, Box, travels to Cambridge often where he is an economics professor. Things get interesting when Dabney’s 26-year-old daughter Agnes and Dabney’s long-lost high school boyfriend return for the summer.

ME BEFORE YOU // JOJO MOYES

Count this on my “next up” list. I just got off the wait list for it from the library, and am so excited to read it. I’ve heard great things about it, and always love reading books with sequels since you can become more invested in the characters.

So, I’d love to know—what’s on your nightstand?