I'm linking up with Modern Mrs. Darcy. I'm active on Goodreads here, friend me if you'd like! And I post about book at least once a week on Instagram here!
Just two other book posts in the past month:
And now everything else I've been reading!
Becoming Us by Robin Jones Gunn
I have deep affection and a long history with the Forever Friends, going back to Summer Promise when I was about 11 years old. This is the start of a new series that follows a new friend, Emily, as she befriends Christy, Sierra, and two others to form their own little Mom group they call "Haven Makers" in Newport Beach. It was different reading about Christy and Sierra from an outsider's perspective but also refreshing to read about them in approximately the same life stage I am at. I've read the whole 30+ book saga spanning 5 series to get to this one and I don't know what it would be like to pick this one up without reading all those. But I really enjoyed spending time with these friends. 3.75 Stars
Leap Year: How to Make Big Decisions, Be More Resilient, and Change Your Life for Good by Helen Russell
This is a book that I waited for my library to get years ago, then took it off my TBR when I gave up hope. Now my library has it and I was excited to finally read it. It's the same author as A Year of Living Danishly, which I really enjoyed. This one was similar to The Happiness Project, in that she's taking a different aspect of her life to slowly improve over the course of a month, each month for a year or almost a year. She's talking to experts and studying research and it made for an interesting read but it's barely memorable a month later. 3.5 Stars
Beyond the Point by Claire Gibson
I really enjoyed this one, just posting about it on Instagram last week. It's about three friends who meet on the basketball team at West Point, shortly before 9/11 (I think they are just starting their second year then when that happened). It continues following these ladies in their post-college life as the military has different things in store for each of them. I enjoyed reading about life at West Point (I basically knew nothing going in and it was eye opening!), about how their friendship changes through the years, and how 9/11 impacts each of them. It was fantastic. 4 Stars
Juliet's School of Possibilities: A Little Story about the Power of Priorities by Laura Vanderkam
I believe I've read all of Laura Vanderkam's non-fiction books and this one was a little different in that it was a time management fable but also covers a lot of her same ground. It was barely 100 pages and a quick read but, even having read the rest of hers, still gave me a few new things to think about, or at least think about my time a little differently. Worthwhile read if you are interested in better time management skills. 4 Stars
Weird Parenting Wins: Bathtub Dining, Family Screams, and Other Hacks from the Parenting Trenches by Hillary Frank
This was a funny book, literally at times. The author covers a bunch of different parenting topics with true stories and hacks from a plethora of people. I laughed and nodded along to the crazy things we do to get our toddlers and younger kids to eat, sleep, and poop in the correct places. Made a lot of mental notes in how parents of older kids dealt with things like curfews and screen time. Sometimes it nice to know you aren't alone and helpful to learn from people who have gone before you. 3.75 Stars
Introverted Mom: Your Guide to More Calm, Less Guilt, and Quiet Joy by Jamie C. Martin
This might be my first 5 star read of the year. I am definitely an introvert and have long said I need some semblance of quiet and order to my day to feel like a sane person. This book made me feel better about needing that. I keep thinking I'll write a whole post about it but that hasn't happened yet. But if the title alone speaks to you, I highly encourage you to pick it up. (I even bought it, not having read it yet, and it was well worth the money). 5 Stars
Anne's House of Dreams by L.M. Montgomery
I've been slowly rereading this whole series, about a book a month. I like Anne as a character but I think my problem with the later books in the series is that they are mostly just Anne hearing or repeating stories she's heard about other people. When I think Anne is an interesting enough character to warrant her own stories about her, she's the one I really care about. I plan to read the last 3 but not until after summer. 3 Stars
The Island by Elin Hilderbrand
I have read this book, every Memorial Day weekend, for 5 years straight. It doesn't feel like summer until I've started it. Two sisters, one having just gone through a tragedy, their mother, and their aunt go to Tuckernuck (an island off the coast of Nantucket) for the month of July. Their caretaker is cute. They all have secrets. It's just delightful. Every year I think this will be the last year I'll reread it...and then by the following May I'm ready to pull it out again. 4 Stars
The Organized Home: Simple Stylish Storage Ideas for All Over the House by Julie Carlson
I love a good house organizing book and this one certainly scratched that itch. The first couple chapters had me rolling in ideas for projects. It was a quick and easy read but very inspiring. 4 Stars
Fame Adjacent by Sarah Skilton
This book kept making me think of Fireworks, really in just that it involved boy band and boy band adjacent characters. It seems to be based off the revival of the Mickey Mouse Club from the early 90s that spawned Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears, and Ryan Gosling. And I could pick out who each of the book characters were based on those people (and a few others). There were 7 kids on this not really Mickey Mouse Club but based on that tv show and 6 of them went on to become famous. One did not and when they are preparing for a 25th reunion special the non-famous one thinks she wasn't invited and is offended. Things happen from there. It was a pretty light book, perfect for summer. 3.5 Stars
As Kismet Would Have It by Sandhya Menon
This is a short story that I read on the Kindle app on my phone. It's the characters from When Dimple Met Rishi (I've now name dropped two books from my Backlist Reading Guide), in the time after that book. Also some of the characters from There's Something About Sweetie. It was nice seeing Dimple and Rishi again and it was a quick read. 3 Stars
Evidence of the Affair by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Another short story, again on the Kindle app, and this one was FREE through Amazon Prime. Free books = my love language. I've read all her books except her newest (on the library hold list). This one is about a man and a woman whose spouses are having an affair. The jilted spouses form their own friendship over letters, trying to figure out what their affair having spouses are up too. It takes place in the 1970s and is all told through letters which means sometimes they are writing about things they probably wouldn't have written about but some explaining needs to happen for the sake of the story. It was a little heartbreaking but a worthwhile read. 3.5 Stars
The Mother-in-Law by Sally Hepworth
This is a domestic thriller of sorts, in a similar vein as Big Little Lies, even taking place in Australia. What really made me want to read it is that the titular Mother-in-Law is named Diana which made it extra enticing. This Diana is found dead and while it looks like a suicide, some things aren't adding up. And there are multiple people, including her daughter-in-law, who look suspicious. I breezed through this in about two days and it was a perfect summer read, as much as book about possible murder can be. 3.75 Stars
There's Something About Sweetie by Sandhya Menon
I was excited to read this one, by the same author as When Dimple Met Rishi which I really enjoyed. This one is about Rishi's younger brother (who I honestly didn't remember from Dimple) and a girl he starts dating partially because his parents think he's not connecting with his Indian heritage and they could do better setting him up than he's been doing picking girls to date. Sweetie is fat (as she says herself and there is a whole lot of talk in the book about this not being a negative thing, just a fact) and her mother has issues surrounding that. I just got a little eye-rolly at these teen's infatuation with each other. Maybe I don't spend enough time around love-struck teens but it just seemed over the top. 2.5 Stars
I was able to breeze through a couple extra books this months thanks to some short stories and quick reads. Hoping that momentum keeps up through the summer. What have YOU been reading lately?
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