Due to a variety of reasons, I hit my worst reading slump in over a decade through the end of July and beginning of August. Even going on a beach vacation for a week couldn't get me out of it and I've frequently read nearly a book a day on those! However, once school started, I got serious about getting back to my reading, starting with some easy YA and middle-grade book that felt good to just get some momentum going. My youngest started kindergarten this year which certainly opened up my days a bit. It's still an adjustment but it is nice being able to prioritize some reading during the quiet school days (also, work, catching up photobooks, running without a stroller, and some good house cleaning/organizing). It has felt good to get back to a normal reading routine, even though that routine looks a bit different from the previous decade plus of my life.
I'm very active on Goodreads here, somewhat active on Instagram here, and linking up with Modern Mrs. Darcy on the 15th!
No other books posts this month, eventually I'll get back to those too!
Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano
I read this immediately after I finished Hello Stranger, which isn't obvious here since it was across two months, but having those titles back to back just delights me a bit. This book delighted me less. I put it on my TBR when I found out it was set in Chicago, around the time we were going to Chicago. Then it took over 3 months for my hold to come in. It was certainly darker than I expected and Chicago didn't have a TON to do with the story. I liked the sisters aspect but they all went through some things. 3.25 Stars
Be the Bus: The Lost & Profound Wisdom of the Pigeon by Mo Willems
Yes, this was a short book but when in a reading slump...they count (or count anytime, your call). Boys & I have loved the Pigeon books and this was an amusing advice from the Pigeon. It made it sound like there would be no more books about him but then I just saw a new Christmas/winter one so I guess not. 3.5 Stars
102 Days of Lying About Lauren by Maura Jortner
This is clearly supposed to take place at a Disney like amusement park (the hidden tunnels under the park and disappear trash are real at Disney) but given that Kings Island is our amusement park of choice...that's what I kept picturing. For 102 days, Lauren lives at this park after her Mom left her there. She thinks she's being super sneaky but turns out there were multiple people watching out for her the whole time. About 75% of the way through it got a little messy and you do have to suspend belief a bit but enjoyable middle grade, as enjoyable as "being abandoned at an amusement park" can be. 3.5 Stars
Pieces of Blue by Holly Goldberg Sloan
Interestingly, the author of this ALSO wrote the script for the 90s baseball classic Angels in the Outfield which we watched this summer (and the boys loved). This one has nothing to do with baseball, just a family who has suffered a tragedy who buy a falling apart motel in Hawaii to fix up and run. And then there is a storm. Learned a bit about raising chickens as well. 3.75 Stars
Hotel Laguna by Nicola Harrison
This was an intriguing book about artists living around Laguna Beach, California, shortly after WWII. The protagonist starts the book helping make airplanes during the war and initially the story flashed between her airplane work and then her post war artist work. But then the airplane parts were over when that really felt like it could have been fleshed out more? It felt too short or too long, I'm not sure. 3.25 Stars
The Firefly Summer by Morgan Matson
More middle grade (it works for getting out of a slump!) about a girl who spend the summer at a former summer camp run by her deceased mother's family, who she has not seen in nearly a decade? While her filmmaker father is off shooting a movie in Europe. Heavy Parent Trap vibes here (which we ALSO watched this summer, obviously the correct one (which would be the Lindsey Lohan one).). Also reminded me a bit of Last Summer at the Golden Hotel where a family is trying to decide if they should keep open their Catskills family hotel (like in Dirty Dancing, a movie we did NOT watch this summer). Anyways, fun family adventure and drama, sounds like a pretty idyllic summer for all. 3.5 Stars
I Survived the Great Chicago Fire, 1871 (Graphic Novel) by Georgia Ball, illustrations by Cassie Anderson
My son had this checked out and then I held onto it longer so I could read it too. Yes, it was a quick read but also, educational. I mean, the fire told from a kid's perspective in a graphic novel...not THAT educational but still interesting to learn a little more about it after we were in Chicago earlier this year. 3.75 Stars
The Second Ending by Michelle Hoffman
When we went to The Bookshelf this summer, this was the book I picked off the shelf for myself. We didn't have a lot of time and I spent most of it chatting to the employees and then helping the boys pick books so I went with about the first thing I saw that I knew was on my TBR. I ended up enjoying it quite a bit, about two piano playing stars, one a younger gentleman, the other an older lady (50ish? She has grown kids). (They do NOT get romantically involved.) The tone reminded me a bit of Lessons in Chemistry although the story was rather different. Just a bit quirkier than most of what I read. 4 Stars
The Beach at Summerly by Beatriz Williams
This was my favorite solo book of hers in quite awhile. The two timelines like many of her books, 1946 and 1954. A woman being asked to spy on on someone she is close to in the earlier time and then it coming back around again in the later one. Reading the description on Goodreads I barely remembered the spy stuff but it must have been important. I enjoyed the other parts more. 3.75 Stars
The Garnett Girls by Georgina Moore
I was expecting this to be another New England set beach-side book...and then it turned out to be England. Where I'd expect the beaches are similar to New England? I might be completely off in that. Three sisters with varying complicated relationships their father who long abandoned them and their mother who did not. It was fine. 3 Stars
Angels of the Resistance by Noelle Salazar
This was our book club pick for the month and maybe it's one I picked? Or one one of my sister's picked from my TBR for one of her picks. World War II in the Netherlands, a place I don't know if I've read another book from! Two teenage sisters who begin working for the resistance during Nazi occupation during the war. Based on two real sisters who did much of the same work which is fascinating and beyond brave of them. I couldn't imagine doing all the things that they do in the book. 4 Stars
The Summer of Broken Rules by K.L. Walther
I think I picked this up because I saw somewhere it was referred to as a Taylor Swift summer book? You all, I must not know anything about Taylor Swift because I did not pickup a single reference to her other than when she was specifically mentioned about twice. Apparently I missed many things. The week leading up to a wedding and the whole wedding party is on Martha's Vineyard on a large private estate, playing a long game of assassin (where each person is given the name of another person they have to "get"). I don't know a wedding party where everyone can take off a whole week before?? Don't these people have jobs??? YA, maybe young people don't care as much. 3.25 Stars
Read with Luke and/or Sam
Frightful's Mountain by Jean Craighead George
Oh my goodness, this book took Luke & I over 3 months to get through. That's partially summer (Sam is usually around when we are reading) and partially because reading so many chapters about birds brooding can get LONG and tedious. I'm glad we saw it through in the end and I know much more about raising Peregrine Falcons now but wow...this is much different than the first book in the series all about surviving. 3 Stars
What have YOU been reading lately?
No comments:
Post a Comment