a sweet nyc-based romance + a book on embracing winter + a heart-racing survival novel
books from the past, present, future vol. 03 🔙📖🔮
Note: This issue of books from the past, present, future is free so you can get a taste of what to expect!
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Welcome back to books from the past, present, future! In this series, I recommend books from the backlist, what’s out now, and what’s coming soon.
The past. The present. The future.
My definitions, however, are a little different:
🔙 Backlist: Books that have been out for over 3 years
📖 What’s out now: Recently published books, or ones that have been out for less than 3 years
🔮 What’s coming soon: Books that aren’t published yet
Here’s what I’ve got for you today: A sweet romance based in NYC, a book on how to change the way you think about winter, and a survival story that takes place after a devastating earthquake (it’s more character-focused, which I enjoyed a lot).
🔙 Love, Chai, and Other Four-Letter Words by Annika Sharma
Published on: September 21, 2021
I tend to have a soft spot for romances set in NYC. This one is about Kiran, a biomedical engineer who’s tried to be a perfect Indian daughter, and Nash, a psychologist whose career was influenced by his childhood that left him thinking that people don’t stick around.
The two meet when Nash moves into Kiran’s apartment building (from Nashville! heyy) and he doesn’t have his key to get in. Empathetic Kiran offers Nash chai while he waits for their landlord, kicking off a friendship that slowly turns into something more. Complicating matters is that Kiran is hyperaware of the consequences of marrying someone her family doesn’t approve of. Someone who looks a lot like Nash.
Bucket lists also come into play in a fun way. In college, Kiran and her friends created lists of all the things they wanted to do in New York, like A boat ride on the Hudson and Dance under the stars. Of everyone in her friend group, Kiran has yet to check much off. Cue Nash, who helps Kiran work through her list (while also getting to get to know his new city).
This romance has a great friend group, lots of character growth, and a sweet romance that pushes against the boundaries of what others have established for these characters, all set against a sparkling NYC backdrop.
Read if you’re into: Stories set in NYC, interracial romances, closed-door, complex family dynamics, forbidden love, and creating (and doing!) bucket lists.
A line I ❤️: “Friendship had always served as an energizer for her, a burst of spirit to a worn-out soul. And quite frankly, she had begun to feel as though every day was following the same pattern, a little gray in a phase of life that she’d hoped would be full of color. Nash was a sudden firework on a slow, hot night in New York City, a break in the monotony.”
📖 How to Winter: Harness Your Mindset to Thrive on Cold, Dark, or Difficult Days by Kari Leibowitz, PhD
Published on: October 22, 2024
I can’t stop recommending this book. Anytime someone mentions the weather, how dark or cold it is, or how spring is almost here, I drop this book into the chat. (At this point, I’m well aware I’m annoying.) Do you struggle with how dark it gets between December-March? Are the gray skies and ice and snow getting to you? Are you finding yourself more tired when these days hit? I get it. But if you don’t want an entire season of your life to be filled with moaning and groaning and grumbling about it, do yourself a favor and read this book.
How to Winter delivers on its promise of a premise. Leibowitz moved above the Arctic Circle – where the sun doesn’t rise for two months each winter — to research the season’s negative effects on mental health. What she discovered instead was that people who lived there looked forward to it. They found delight in it! She also visited places like Tromsø, Norway, Yamagata, Japan, and the Isle of Lewis off the coast of Scotland to study how people make the most of these days and what their mindset it around them.
Leibowitz shares her learnings and observations on how to reframe winter, and they’re all backed by psychological and behavioral science research. I love learning the why behind what we do and how our brains work, and this book delivers on that around the context of winter. I did a lot of underlining and bookmarking in this one; I’ll for sure be referencing/re-reading it every time winter rolls around.
Read if you’re into: Learning about psychology, changing your mindset around winter, and actionable tidbits on how to cultivate coziness.
A line I ❤️: “Beliefs about winter matter: the stories we tell ourselves are consequential, and the interpretation of how we feel in the winter can determine whether dark days feel gloomy and monotonous or cozy and restful.”
P.S. I’ll be sharing on Friday how I’m using what I learned from How to Winter and applying it to my own life.
🔮 Tilt by Emma Pattee
Publishing on: March 25, 2025
What would you do if you were shopping at IKEA when a massive earthquake hits, you have no phone or car or money, and you’re nine months pregnant? That’s what Annie in Tilt faces when this happens to her in Portland, Oregon. She’s crib shopping on her own, and after the earthquake settles, she’s on a mission to go find her husband. We get to learn about Annie and her husband, Dom, as she talks to the baby inside her, who she calls Bean. Annie comes across different scenarios and people on this brutal walk through wreckage and heat and exhaustion and dehydration.
Tilt is a suspenseful a well-paced survival-adventure-meets-character-portrait set over the course of a day, interspersed with backstory from the past leading up to the present. I had full-body chills reading this one, imagining the horrors—real life and imagined. (Being from Seattle and having lived in LA, I have thought about the Big One a lot.)
Though as rare and horrific as these events are, this story is incredibly relatable, as we learn more about Annie’s pregnancy anxieties, her unfulfilled dreams, how she feels stuck in her life. She’s also a 35-year-old, which means a lot of the references she makes (i.e. “Mary-Kate and Ashley are so old now. It scares me to look at them.”) are ones I understand on a cellular level. (Including the one below.)
This story is reflective and haunting, peppered with humor, demonstrative of how sometimes it takes a big shift in our lives to make decisions or go after what we really want, and a reminder not to let our desires slip past us (and, of course, to have that earthquake kit ready even if just to feel in control).
Read if you’re into: Survival thriller/adventures mixed with character studies, a somewhat accurate depiction at what Day One of the Big One might look like, and compulsive reads.
A line I ❤️: “Lately, time seems to move like that, like as soon as I get my hand firmly around a moment, it has turned to dust and there’s a new moment to try and grasp.”
Another relatable Millennial reference: “Without a phone, I’m like an animal without legs. You have to understand about people my age that we got phones before we had sex, we got phones before we had credit cards, before we started therapy, before we started drinking beer and coffee and two-for-one margaritas at the shitty bar down the street. I learned to drive by following the glowing blue arrow wherever it took me.”
Have a great week! See you back here on Friday.
From me to you, in the present,
Lauren
About me: I’m Lauren Kung Jessen, author of Lunar Love, Red String Theory, and Yin Yang Love Song. Connect with me on Instagram for more on books and food.
Can't wait to read these! (I adore Love, Chai And Other Four-Letter Words