Happy halfway through the year! June was a much better reading month for me, summer break has been giving me some more time to read, particularly on days when I don't run and we don't have anywhere to be early where I am waking the boys up. Also, a few trips where I got in some extra reading. Feels good to be enjoying some books and knocking my TBR down a little (only a little, it's always growing too).
I'm very active on Goodreads here, somewhat active on Instagram here, and linking up with Modern Mrs. Darcy on the 15th!
Just one other book post this month:
And now everything I've been reading!
The Paradise Problem by Christina Lauren
I read their new book every summer and this was fun but isn't among my favorites of theirs. A marriage of convenience comes back to haunt a couple years after they needed it to be helpful. They end up spending a week (ish) on a tropical island around really rich people pretending to be married again (although they technically ARE married). Things don't go all to plan. Fun tropical adventure and family drama. I'd like the all expenses paid trip to somewhere warm and expensive but not the family mess that came with it. 3.5 Stars
Christa Comes out of Her Shell by Abbi Waxman
There is more about sea snails in this book than I expected there to be. A family emergency, a long thought to be dead family member isn't dead (this is in the book's summary and happens very early on). A woman just wants to get back to her sea snails in the middle of the ocean but has to deal with non-dead people first. Should have/could have been a bit shorter. 3 Stars
More All-of-a-Kind Family by Sydney Taylor
This is the third in this charming series about a family with 5 girls and then a boy, living in New York around 1905 or something. It wasn't written back then but is still somewhat old. I've been reading them to myself but would be good read alouds to kids too, maybe slightly more girl oriented than Luke would care to sit through at this point (he likes adventure or survival). But a quick satisfying reading every time I pick one up. 3.75 Stars
The Guncle Abroad by Steven Rowley
A follow-up to The Guncle which I read maybe 2 years ago. The Guncle is taking care of his niece and nephew again while their freshly widowed in the first book Dad is now about to get remarried. I was expecting more romping through Europe but that was really only about the first 25% of the book and then the rest was everyone coming to terms with this wedding. Gallivanting through Europe on someone else's dime also sounds amazing but it was a lot about feelings. 3 Stars
Now and Not Yet: Pressing in When You're Waiting, Wanting, and Restless for More by Ruth Chou Simons
I could not get into this book despite knowing something about waiting and being restless. It felt drawn out and like it just kept repeating the same things over and over. Based on reviews this resonated with many people but just not with me. 2.5 Stars
Summer Romance by Annabel Monaghan
This is one of the few books I bought before reading this year because of how much I have enjoyed Annabel Monaghan's previous books. This one was also a fun, a woman still reeling a few years after her husband died. Her dog pees on a man at the dog park (a reason why dogs are always a problem) and thus leads to a relationship. Also, she's a former accountant turned professional organizer! I like that someone else has seen the connection between those (I am not a professional organizer but I do like organizing my own home). Just fun and didn't drag. 4 Stars
Is Everyone Happier Than Me?: An Honest Guide to the Questions That Keep You Up at Night by Sarah Bragg
I read more non-fiction this June than I usually do in the summer, mainly because a bunch of holds I had set months earlier finally all came in. I related to this one the most of any of them, about a woman in her 40s rethinking a whole lot of things, trying to figure out life in a new stage. She's a few years older than me but that was nice to read about someone who is coming to terms with this life stage. Didn't agree with all of it but with enough of it. 3.75 Stars
The Getaway List by Emma Lord
I should have DNF'ed this. Fresh high school graduate decided to visit her long BFF in New York and doesn't really tell her mom and then gets Mom when her Mom wants her to come home instead of running around NYC with strangers. I mean, sure, you're 18. But if you are living at home maybe you should be more considerate?? Also, a part-time coffee house job can cover an apartment in NYC? I got annoyed with these kids. 2 Stars
In a Not So Perfect World by Neely Tubati Alexander
Another book where someone has a vacation to a tropical location paid for them. Does this happen as much in real life as in books??? Fake romance trope. Lady also gets A LOT of work done to get her dream job when she gets back. Do people work that much on a tropical vacation? Maybe they do if it's paid for??? I appreciated that it was the lady working in the video game field and not the guy (which made me think of Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow solely for the video game aspect). 3 Stars
The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith
Under 300 pages YA on a couple who meet on an intercontinental flight. She's going to her Dad's second wedding. He does not say why he's flying across the Atlantic. The first half made more sense the second, maybe kids just...are braver than me?? Or don't have a fully developed brain enough to keep them from making weird decisions. I've read many books by this author and it wasn't my favorite. 2.75 Stars
Mostly What God Does: Reflections of Seeking and Finding His Love Everywhere by Savannah Guthrie
During Luke's first year of life we watched a decent amount of the Today show. I would give him his morning bottle while we sat on the couch and watched. Since he went off bottles 10ish years ago, I have only watched random clips or very occasionally but that was my introduction to Savannah Guthrie. These are fairly short reflections, each a handful of pages, about different aspects of faith. We're both Christian but different branches so theologically I'm not sure I agreed with it all BUT I got the overall gist of what she was saying (and most of it matched up fine). Mostly about how God loves you. Maybe reading it a little slower would have been better but I was pushing up against a library due date so that didn't leave a lot of time for reflecting. 3.5 Stars
The One With the Kiss Cam by Cindy Steel
Drug a bit in the middle but then picked up. Charming, chaste, just a nice satisfying romance that wasn't too unbelievable. 3.5 Stars
Why We Read: On Bookworms, Libraries, and Just One More Page Before Lights Out by Shannon Reed
Parts of this I could super relate to. Parts of this I really couldn't. Parts made me feel better about not reading some classics. Part of it made me think I should take on a few more of those. Could have been a bit shorter but mostly interesting. 3.25 Stars
Read with Luke and/or Sam
The Story of Diva and Flea by Mo Willems and Tony DiTerizzi
This barely counted but I think Goodreads was telling me I was behind my reading goal when we read this so I decided to count it. An easy chapter book about a cat and a dog who befriend each other in Paris. It was cute. 3.75 Stars
The Cuddly Koala, The Picky Puffin, and The Giggly Giraffe by Amelia Cobb, illustrated by Sophy Williams
Sam just told me this morning how much he really likes these books and how, if I'm lucky, he'll read them to ME some day, after I've been reading them all to his. We've exhausted our library's supply, we've read the ~7 I bought for gifts for Sam on Thriftbooks. Now we are doing Interlibrary loans to get in a bunch of the others. Which, with their short windows, meant we had to read a few rather quickly. Anyways, perfect for reading to my almost 1st grader. And there are like 25 books in the series so these have kept up going for awhile. Sam would give these 5 Stars. I'll saw 3 Stars.
The 39 Clues: One False Note by Gordon Korman
This series was recommended to us by my sister and BIL. They said they flew through them as a family on audio. We are MUCH slower at them since I am reading them aloud to Luke and that's hard to get in a routine of. But we finally finished this one. Takes place largely in Venice and Salzburg I think? I think we need to read them a little faster to keep the momentum going, there are a lot of these too. But now we'll be on a many month break because we started another Harry Potter book. 3 Stars
Read a lot of good but not great books this month but still also got in A LOT of reading time. Hope to read at least as much in July but maybe find more than resonate with me.
What have YOU been reading lately??
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