Hello Beautiful Bookish Friends

5 Short Books You Can Read in a Day Audiobooks Are Not Cheating

Hello Beautiful Bookish Friends

Hello, and welcome to my first newsletter here on Substack!

I started this newsletter because I love kicking back with a book (preferably fiction) and a steaming mug of tea. I also love discussing the books I’ve read, searching for my next read, and writing fiction (although I haven’t done as much of that recently). So, if you love stories and all things bookish, too, you’re in the right place. I’m so excited you’re here!

Today, I’m sharing a little about my background story (let’s be friends!). Then, I’ve got three book recommendations based on March book club selections to freshen up your reading list for Spring! Finally, I’m discussing the latest book I’ve finished, “Hello Beautiful,” with a snippet about its author, Ann Napolitano. Her background story has a few nuggets of wisdom that anyone can apply to their life (not just those aspiring to be authors).

Thanks again for joining me here!

Happy reading!

Audry

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The “AF” in Bookish AF

Audry Fryer holding a book with roses and a clock in the background

Image by Audry Fryer

Hi, I’m Audry Fryer, a.k.a. the “AF” in Bookish AF. (But you can make the “AF” stand for whatever you want - wink, wink!) Before I started all this “bookish stuff,” I put my Bachelor of Science degree in Elementary Education to work as an elementary school substitute teacher and then as a Pre-K teacher for many years.

However, when I discovered I was having boy/girl twins when my oldest son was only two, I decided to stay home with them. It was then that I rediscovered my love of reading (thanks to my mom passing along her books to me!). And it was also then that I realized my new dream of becoming a writer.

So, as my children grew, I wrote and read (and wrote some more) while they were napping or when they were off to school. During that time, I self-published two women’s fiction novels and one short story. Recently, in collaboration with a family, I wrote Until Next Sunday, a true story based on over a hundred-year-old love letters. I’ve also helped many entrepreneurs and small companies through my professional ghostwriting services.

Now, I want to continue the content I’ve shared on my website’s blog for many years in a new and improved format. So, here on Substack, I launched Bookish AF, a weekly newsletter about ways to live your best bookish life. Each week, I’ll share book recs and other helpful bookish content. I promise to change it up a bit from week to week to keep it interesting! As you comment and click on things, I’ll keep tabs and try my best to bring you more of what you enjoy.

In future newsletters, you may see “The Bookish Shop” appear here. When the shop is open, you’ll discover various bookish items and services to make your reading habit even more fun and enjoyable. The Bookish Shop may also feature books from authors looking to connect with readers. Or you may learn about another bookish newsletter to add to your subscriptions!

If you’re interested in having your book or bookish product or service featured, learn more here!

3 Bookish Recs for Spring (based on March Book Club Picks)

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Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall

A Reese's Book Club Selection, this book has been racking up four and five-star reviews since its release at the beginning of this month. One of the main reasons it’s getting so much hype is the “didn’t see that coming” ending. I love it when an author can pull that off! I’m reminded of the last sentence of Jodi Piccoult’s “Plain Truth” when you discover, well, the truth. Anyway, this book also offers readers English countryside charm, a love triangle, family drama, and a page-turning deadly mystery.

Jane and Dan at the End of the World by Colleen Oakley

A Good Housekeeping book club selection, this book also landed on Zibby Owens’ list of most anticipated books of 2025. Pick it up for the humorous storytelling and the clever premise: an author experiencing the book she wrote in real life! It makes me reconsider my next novel. If I’m going to get stuck inside, it better have a setting I’d want to visit and an upbeat plot. But, back to this story … Jane is about to ask Dan for a divorce over a dinner out when she’s interrupted by an activist group that takes them hostage. She soon realizes everything happening to them is exactly the same as the failed novel she’s written. If Jane and Dan can survive this, then their marriage can survive, too!

The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami

This Read with Jenna March 2025 book club pick combines women’s fiction with futuristic dystopian science fiction and horror. This book imagines what would happen if the data from our dreams were under surveillance and their content could be used against us. In the book, Sara Hussein is returning from a business trip from London when she is detained for her potential to commit a crime based on her dreams. Her dreams indicate she’s inclined to harm her husband. (Seriously, she’s returning from a trip and probably stressing how nothing got done while she was away. Just an educated guess!) Now, her incarceration continues with no end in sight. Some reviews share that it starts slow. But don’t fall asleep on this one (see what I did there?) because the suspense heightens toward the end.

Getting Bookish with “Hello Beautiful” and author Ann Napolitano

Image by Audry Fryer

Although I’m about a year late to it, I just finished reading “Hello Beautiful” by Ann Napolitano and gave it five stars on Goodreads. It’s so beautifully written. For those of you who like character-driven stories and emotional depth, this book is for you! Your heart will ache for the characters. Also, it references Little Women, which adds an enjoyable literary layer to the story.

A good friend kindly passed along the hardcover to me after finishing and enjoying it. But before making it my next read, I looked at the reviews to see if “Hello Beautiful” was for me. I like it when people are specific about what they didn’t like about a book. Sometimes, a poor review is less about the author doing a terrible job of writing or story-telling and more about the book not being compatible with a person’s tastes. This was the case for most of the one and two-star reviews this book earned.

So, if you like the levity of a rom-com or the suspenseful, page-turning nature of a psychological thriller, this book isn’t your jam. Otherwise, if you enjoy a slower pace with authentic characters, pick this book up!

The story behind the story

Often, when I finish a book, I read the acknowledgments at the back. As an author who aspires to write more, I’m always looking for “pearls of wisdom” on how the author pulled off creating a novel that enjoyed enough success to find its way to me. Then, if I’m intrigued by the author, I’ll Google them to learn more.

“Hello Beautiful” was Oprah’s 100th book club pick, so it was easy to learn about the author, Ann Napolitano. In an interview with Oprah, Ann shares that she wrote this book at the start of the pandemic, and it was the quickest book she’s ever written, finishing it in two years' time. Ann's two sons were in fifth and seventh grade, so they were home the entire time she was writing. So, how did she ever finish the manuscript, let alone so fast?

That’s the wisdom part that Ann acquired before the start of her career. When she was in college, Ann discovered she had Epstein Barr, an auto-immune disease. She had been studying creative writing because she had discovered at a young age that it was something she truly loved doing. A school writing assignment had inspired an Oprah-like “a-ha” moment when Ann thought she had been working for five minutes, but nearly an hour had passed. It was a “time flies when you’re having fun” revelation.

But in college, Ann had planned on pursuing what she considered a more steady career choice to work in publishing, where she would help develop and edit other people’s work. However, being so sick created a defining moment in her life. “I decided to live the life I wanted to live, not the life I thought I should live,” she says in an author profile, “And that meant being a writer.”

So, when Ann felt inspired to start “Hello Beautiful,” she knew that because everyone was home due to the pandemic, she couldn’t keep a set work schedule. So Ann took advantage of every free moment to write. She kept her computer nearby and ready for her to add more to the story at a moment’s notice. Ann was also no stranger to being persistent. Her first two attempts at novel writing in her twenties ended in rejections. However, she always believed she wouldn’t live a fulfilling life without being an author, so she endured. And thankfully, she did through those failed attempts and the distraction of the pandemic.

It’s a lesson we can all learn and benefit from – not just if you’re an aspiring author. Whatever you truly want to do, whether it’s writing, reading a hundred books in a year, or some other dream, find the time for it. Keep moving forward where and when you can, no matter what gets in your way! As I continue with this newsletter and return to creative writing again, it’s something I hope to remember.