Nothing like remembering at 8am on a Saturday morning the other thing (besides backup my digital pictures) that I do every month on the 15th. Ohhhh yes, Quick Lit. So here we are, trading some kid free time off with Matt to knock this out before I knock out a bunch of other things over Sam's nap while Luke is playing with cousins.
I've been trying my best to stay back on the blogging band wagon lately, really trying (and making!) two posts a week which feels like a bigger accomplishment than it should. Do any other adults just feel constantly behind at nearly everything? I told Matt I feel like I am giving 50-75% of what I would like to nearly every aspect of my life. At least time with my kids is at least 75% (and time spent helping with homework is closer to 200% of the time I would like to spend...) so at least THAT is being short changed the least! We're in the home stretch for school, we'll see what summer brings. Desperately trying to figure out some semblance of order for that in the next 10 days!
Other book posts in the past month:
{9} Fantastic Picture Books about Actual Women
{9} Fantastic Picture Books about Actual Men
{4} Books that Changed what I Thought About Being Green
And everything else I've been reading!
Good Apple: Tales of a Southern Evangelical in New York by Elizabeth Passarella
This is a memoir/essay book about a woman's journey from growing up in the South to living and raising her family in NYC. I am not Southern, and Evangelical, OR living in New York but I found this hilarious, thoughtful, and educational. It was lovely to read about her love of God and her church while also finding her family's niche in NYC. I don't agree with everything she writes about but I really enjoyed this one. 4 Stars
Good Company by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney
First, fantastic cover, one of my favorites of the year. I read The Nest and I may have given it two stars. I enjoyed this one much more even though the plot details are a bit fuzzy at this point. It's about when friends become like family and who knows what when and when those friends are no longer quite like family but your lives still overlap. And the Company is a reference to a theater company, among other things. I know I liked it when I read it but it apparently didn't have much sticking power. 3.5 Stars
Life's Too Short by Abby Jimenez
I've now read all three in this very loose series (characters from the previous books pop-up here but you don't need to know the details of those books). A lifestyle blogger who all of a sudden has custody of her niece and that interrupts the sleep of her apartment neighbor who, apparently, is very hot but interested in helping with this baby. It's a romance novel, there is romance and some life drama. 3 Stars
Just Like That by Gary Schmidt
First, if you read and enjoyed The Wednesday Wars by the same author (a book I gave my retired teacher mother and she enjoyed), then the first 2 pages of this book will rip out your heart and stomp on it. IF you can get over that (I almost put it down) then this is a really good book about a 8th (I think?) grader dealing with loss and moving away to an all-girl boarding school where she doesn't seem to fit in anywhere. She befriends a loner boy who is around a lot and hiding out from some very bad people. It doesn't seem like it should work but it does and it's so good. 4 Stars
How to Raise an Adult: Break Free of the Overparenting Trap and Prepare Your Kid for Success by Julie Lythcott-Haimes
Parenting books are good for me to read but this one was very dense and while it had a lot of good ideas, a large portion of it focused on the college admission process and how we need to expect less of our kids (they can't all get into Ivy's) and let them do it themselves. I don't know a single person my age who went to an Ivy much less really hoped to go to one. I live in a very different area I guess. It feels like it could have been two books, one about all the college admission stuff and another about just stepping back and giving your kids more responsibilities so they can become good adults or at the very least, competent adults. Some people will appreciate the college admissions part but that's not for me. 3 Stars
Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo
A novel told in verse about two (half) sisters who didn't know the other really existed until their shared parent dies in a plane crash. Then their lives come crashing together. It's amazing how she could tell such a story in relatively few words, truly amazing. I felt like I knew both girls and enjoyed both of their stories equally. 4 Stars
The Social Graces by Renee Rosen
It took me quite a bit to get into this book about warring society queens of Manhattan over 100 years ago. Man, they were CRAZY. And had money that even without inflation would be a lot now (maybe less so in Manhattan). It actually cleared up a few things (all the references to "the 400") in the Molly Murphy books. But, then I finally got interested and astounded at what these women got up to. 3.5 Stars
Everything Beautiful in Its Time: Seasons of Love and Loss by Jenna Bush Hager
It's been awhile since I read a book that made me cry or almost cry as much as this one. Obviously, Jenna Bush Hager has one very famous set of grandparents (the first President Bush) and then set of not famous grandparents. Three of those 4 grandparents died within about 18 months of each other and this is her reflections on that time and her time with her grandparents growing up. It made me sob at parts, remembering my grandparents (all gone) and the time I had with them. Very little politics but very moving. 4.25 Stars
Bookshop by the Sea by Denise Hunter
A fun Christian romance (light on the God talk but also a very chaste romance) about a woman who is trying to make impossible renovations in a week to open a bookshop and then a guy from her past ends up helping. I still refuse to believe all her renovations could get done in time (WHO pulls up carpet and finds near perfect wood floors underneath, ESPECIALLY when on a tight timeline????) and they make very poor choices when hanging drywall (WHO uses nails for that???) BUT, if you can ignore the construction impossibilities, then this was fun and light and made me want to travel to a bookshop by the sea. 3.25 Stars
Our Woman in Moscow by Beatriz Williams
An ARC that I won in a Goodreads giveaway. Beatriz Williams is one of my favorite historical fiction writers but I just was NOT that interested in reading about Russia, getting people out of Russia, time in Russia...it just feel like a cold, dark place. BUT, I read a good 100+ pages of this book in one day (Mother's Day, to be precise) and that helped me get invested in the story. Sisters who haven't spoken in a decade, one who is in Russia and maybe needs help getting out. It's the 1950s or so, post World War II. The other sister is in Manhattan. How does Manhattan sister help Russia sister when they haven't spoken since Russia sister married her husband who turned out to be a spy? Complicated lives. I was very much vested in their story by the end. 4 Stars
Hello, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle by Betty MacDonald
The lone chapter book I finished with Luke this month. The nice weather and late sunsets really have cut into our reading time. The latter Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books have had such long chapters, we had to split nearly all of them into two sessions. And most of the fixes in this book were along the "take this magic powder and that will fix your kids' bad habits" which doesn't really help me with actual parenting dilemmas! I really enjoyed these books as a kid but they were harder to read aloud than I expected. 3 Stars
What have YOU been reading lately?
No comments:
Post a Comment