I'm very active on Goodreads, follow me over there!
First, a few other books posts on the blog in the past month!
And for any kids in your life, I had a lot of fun putting together this list, I want to go and reread them all with my son this summer!
And now onto what I've read in the past month-ish!
Wild and Free: A Hope Filled Anthem for the Woman Who Feels She is Both Too Much and Not Enough by Jess Connolly and Hayley Morgan
I really liked the message of this book but for some reason struggled to get through it. I don't know if my focus just wasn't right or maybe it just wasn't the right book at the right time for me. I do think it was well done and I'd still recommend if it sounds intriguing to you (I'd summarize...but it's pretty much all there in the title). And maybe it'd read better for me at a different time. Still...3.5 Stars
When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon
This was a charming book about two teens who meet in that strange/wonderful summer between high school and college. They are taking part in a 6 week summer program (at a college neither of them plan to attend...). The twist: they have an arranged marriage but only one of them knows it. Drama follows. This was a fun and enjoyable summer read. I really enjoyed it! 4 Stars
How to be Married: What I Learned from Real Women on Five Continents about Surviving My First (Really Hard) Year of Marriage by Jo Piazza
I picked this up having enjoyed a book the author co-wrote, The Knockoff (one of my favorite reads of 2015). Then realized I had a full decade of marriage experience on her so I wasn't sure I'd get much out of this. But I did! She had some struggles (health mainly) in her first year of marriage and spent a lot of time traveling the globe to see how marriage is done and looked at in other places. That was the really interesting part of this book because I did learn a lot. And it made our first year of marriage with us working opposite shifts seem a little less bad. 3.5 Stars
Summerlost by Ally Condie
A middle-grade novel about a young girl and a young boy who befriend each other while working at a Shakespeare festival together. Her brother and father were semi-recently killed in a car accident, he's trying to save for a trip to Europe (not at all the same things here) and they bond over a mutual interest in a famous, and now dead, actress from the festival. It felt so perfectly summery, how summer felt as a kid. Those long, hot, lazy, hazy days. 3.5 Stars
The Island by Elin Hilderbrand
This is the third year in a row I've read this over Memorial Day weekend and I've enjoyed it every time. Chess' ex-fiance dies in an accident and she escapes to Tuckernuck, a small island off the coast of Nantucket, with her Mom, sister, and aunt, all of whom have their own dramas, romantic and otherwise. It just seems so perfectly summery, as most of Elin Hilderbrand's books are but this one more than most. Perfect read to kick-off summer. 4 Stars
The Names They Gave Us by Emory Lord
The cover for this is really pretty and the book is pretty good. YA. Lucy's mom has a recurrence of cancer and Lucy spends the summer being a counselor at a camp for kids going through tough stuff. A whole host of issues are covered, or at least touched on here, and at times felt like too many issues for one book but for the most part was an enjoyable read. It took me back to my (brief) overnight camp days when I was 9 and 11 and the happy memories associated with those. 3 Stars
My Not So Perfect Life by Sophie Kinsella
I haven't had the best luck with this author (although I did enjoy Finding Audrey last fall) and this didn't do much to sway me either way. I honestly had forgotten I read it until I looked at Goodreads. A woman is fired/let go from her job. She moves back home, lies to her parents about it, helps them start a camping/B&B/yurts thing, takes revenge on her boss, they end up on the same side, life is good by the end. It was enjoyable but forgettable. 3 Stars
Rise and Shine, Benedict Stone by Phaedra Patrick
I picked this up because of how much I liked The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper (one of my favorite reads of 2016). I didn't like this one nearly as much. Benedict Stone's wife recently left him and his life feels pretty upside down when his estranged brother's daughter shows up on his doorstep and helps him revamp his life. There were some conversations about adoption that rubbed me the wrong way and I just couldn't get invested in the characters. Bummer. 2.5 Stars
The Nordic Theory of Everything by Anu Partanen
Super short review: don't read this. Hygge and all this Nordic are kinda a thing right now but this book was a waste of time and I really should have given up on it. I get it, those Nordic countries do things different than America. We certainly have our problems here but constantly being told we are old-fashioned and backwards isn't going to convince me. 1 Star
Summer Promise, A Whisper and a Wish, Yours Forever, Surprise Endings, Island Dreamer, and A Heart Full of Hope by Robin Jones Gunn
I haven't reread this whole series in 7 years and it was loooooooong overdue. The references are dated (No cell phones! No social media! VCRs! Pay phones!) but I read these books SO. MANY. TIMES. growing up that rereading them is like visiting old friends. I still have over 20 books to go and I'm going to enjoy them all. (full post about the series here) 4 Stars
Clutter Free: Quick and Easy Steps to Simplifying Your Space by Kathi Lipp
I love a good simplifying book, especially when in the middle of garage sale purging. Nothing really stands out from this one over others I've read but I still enjoyed it, was motivated after reading it, and it helped me get rid of a few things so definitely worth the time. 3.5 Stars
What have you read lately? Anything to recommend?
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