Happy mid-September! Honestly, I thought it was September starting about August 20th and now I already keep thinking it's October (maybe because I decorated with pumpkins starting September 4th) so it's really pleasant for once to not be surprised by how fast time is moving. So, pumpkins out, temps still hovering around 90, school has been going for a month. It's many seasons right now! Fully expect to hit that very Indiana time of year soon where we'll have the heat and AC on within a few days of each other (right now it's the AC on).
It feels like my reading has slowed down a bit since school has started. One less kid for 7 hours a day but working my schedule (and never ending running) around school runs just makes time a little more complicated. Also, managing homework. I told Matt last week, when he was headed to the dentist during prime homework doing time, that I would honestly rather go to the dentist than assist in homework. I also told our financial advisors a couple weeks ago that I would also rather go to the dentist than meet with the life insurance agents (which we have! Plenty of life insurance, I am not going to buy more!). I think MANY years of orthodontia made going to the dentist seem like a piece of cake. OR helping with homework AND life insurance agents are just THAT ANNOYING. (Probably both).
What were we talking about?
Books!
I aim for a book post every Tuesday here on the blog (I might be generous in my counting of that). I post about picture books every Thursday on Instagram and occasionally other books too (I have A LOT to say about picture books if you ever ask). I am VERY up to date with my Goodreads here (I always welcome new friends/follows, especially if we have similar book tastes!) and am linking up with Modern Mrs. Darcy!
Other book posts this month:
Here's what I've been reading!
Sea Wife by Amity Gaige
This is not the first "let's quit our lives and sail around the Caribbean" story I read this year. And this was not my favorite of the two "let's quit our lives and sail around the Caribbean" stories I've read this year. However, I did like that it didn't represent Republicans and Democrats as so black and white, where one is obvious right and the other is obviously wrong. There is a lot of nuance in politics and in our own personal feelings. And really, politics had very little to do with this book but it is what I remember the most from it, other than sailing around the Caribbean seems like fun but also really really hard. 2.75 Stars
Theology of Home: Finding the Eternal in the Everyday by Carrie Gress, Noelle Mering, and Megan Schrieber
I had great hopes for this, a Catholic book about homemaking! I am Catholic AND I like homemaking. Alas, I'm not quite sure what the book was trying to say. Maybe that it's ok to be Catholic and be interested in homemaking things? That there can be sacred in the every day? Sure, let's go with that. 3 Stars
Three Words for Goodbye by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb
The first of 2 World War II books I read in this time period, not great to read two so close together! This one had 2 semi-estranged sisters making a trip through 3 European cities on the eve of World War II, fulfilling a wish from their dying Grandmother. They travel by boat, train, gondola, and the Hindenburg, have some romance or at least contemplate their romantic options. Obviously a bit grim with the whole World War thing looming but also, sisters coming together to figure out who they are. 3 Stars
Palm Beach by Mary Adkins
This is the OTHER book I read this month on my unintentional theme of "politics are never completely black and white" which is not what I was expecting from this book and, again, wasn't the point of it, but I still appreciated the message. A journalist follows her husband to Palm Beach (I kept thinking it was Palm SPRINGS, it wasn't) as he takes on a job to work for the uber wealthy. Which is a bit odd since she writes about the downfalls of extreme privilege. I don't see where my life will ever cross paths with people like that so this was interesting but a bit less fun than I was hoping for. 3.5 Stars
101 Ways to go Zero Waste by Kathryn Kellogg
This is not the first book I've read about going Zero Waste but it is maybe the one to spurred me to the most action. She made small changes seem attainable and gave grace for sometimes you just can't be perfect with it. I hope to have a post coming next week with more of what I've learned and changed since reading this. 4.75 Stars
Best Babysitters Ever by Caroline Cela
This is a middle grade book about 3 pre-teens who are inspired by the original BSC to form a babysitters' club, not because they like kids but because they are desperate for some cash. The parts I liked best were the obvious references to the BSC. I would have been better off just rereading one of those. 2.75 Stars
The Women in Black by Madeleine St. John
Historical fiction about a group of ladies who work at a department store in Australia in the 1950s (I think?). It follows them over roughly the month of December, through their working days and their home lives. It's pretty short, I read it on my phone (the only way my library had it) but it was under 200 print pages I think. It was charming and not a time period I read much about. 3 Stars
Meet Me in Paradise by Libby Hubscher
I thought this would be a fun rom-com, especially since the cover strongly reminded me of The Layover. Uptight woman who can't live outside her plans (can't relate to that at all) gets sent on a vacation to a tropical island by her adventure loving sister. Uptight sister befriends the rich owner of the resort (and airline). Things get more serious and not necessarily in a romantic way. I'm not saying this wasn't good but it's wasn't the carefree time I was expecting. 3 Stars
Yours Cheerfully by A.J. Pearce
I really enjoyed the first book in this series, Dear Mrs. Bird, about an aspiring newspaper columnist in London during the Blitz of World War II. This is picking up with the same characters, maybe a few months after that book (it would probably help to read them in order but I also barely remembered the first besides liking it and got along fine). I'm sure living through the Blitz was not a fun time but this was less doom and gloom of the war and more "Keep Calm and Carry On", there still needed to be some joy in their lives. Plus the magazine setting 70 years ago was fun. 3.5 Stars
Midnight at the Blackbird Cafe by Heather Webber
This book made me desperately want pie. Like super want pie. We impulsed bought individual pies at a Walmart in Decatur Alabama in my final 6 hours of being 37 and my blueberry pie was still really delicious. Also, this book was good and I should have read it on that trip since it takes place in Northern Alabama (Huntsville is mentioned, so really not too far off from where we were). A bit Hart of Dixie with a big city college girl who is on her way to med school goes back to rural Alabama for 2 months to run the "magic" cafe owned by her recently departed Grandmother. Then, shockingly, she falls in love with the town and it's people. It's not as frothy as I am making it sound. And also PG, maybe some language but nothing stood out to me. 3.25 Stars
28 Summers by Elin Hilderbrand
This was her summer 2020 novel that I enjoyed, bought myself, and decided it would be my annual Labor Day novel (that takes place over Labor Day weekend) just like her The Island is my annual Memorial Day novel. Premise of Same Time, Next Year (which I've never seen) where a couple agrees to have a once a year affair with each other, every Labor Day weekend for, you guessed it, 28 summers. It follows a bit of their lives between those weekend as life gets more complicated as they age. It's a bit complicated but I enjoyed picking it up a second time! 4.5 Stars
The Sixth Wedding by Elin Hilderbrand
This is a short story that I bought through Kindle (on my phone) that is a 2 year later follow-up to 28 Summers. I really enjoyed reading more about these characters so soon after finishing the main novel, maybe slightly ignored a kid so I could finish reading it while eating a very late breakfast after running one morning. 4 Stars
The Family Firm: A Data-Driven Guide to Better Decision Making in the Early School Years by Emily Oster
The "data driven" in the title is very correct. She has A LOT to data to back up a lot of things she says. My kids are right in the age range she is talking about so some of this felt really relevant to me (dealing with after school activities, thinking about how you want your evenings to go before committing to anything, homework) and some didn't (summer camp, choosing a school). I appreciated having read it even if it wasn't the most compelling book to pick up. 3 Stars
Yoga Pant Nation by Laurie Gelman
This is the third in a series about a slightly older Mom who is first roped into being a class mom, then volunteering and in this one it's leading a committee at school. Honestly, she seems like a pretty good time and is pretty successful at all her volunteering. The first book in the series got a whole post and I have enjoyed the following two too, they are fun and amusing to pick-up. 3.5 Stars
Read with Luke
My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George
This book took Luke & I over a month to get through, many of those days we didn't pick it up but it's also a really dense book for under 200 pages. He really liked the survivalist nature of it. I kept wondering where CPS was. I read it as a kid, I think my Mom had me read it for homeschool, but I didn't remember hardly anything about it so it was fun to revisit. We'll continue with the series after a bit, we need a break from the longer read alouds. 4 Stars
The One in the Middle is the Green Kangaroo by Judy Blume
This is one I read as a kid and DEFINITELY remember being much longer (I've read many a picture book with more pages than this and probably some that took longer to read). Middle child who gets to be a in school play as the green kangaroo, that's really the only story. Luke liked it though and maybe now he can read it to himself. (It's nice to have some quick chapter books after My Side of the Mountain took a month!) 3.75 Stars
That's what I've been reading; I'd love to know what YOU'VE been reading lately!
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