A Whole Summer of Book Reviews

I’d like to blame a lot of things for having three months of book reviews to post.

The fact that we bought a new laptop for me to use but it has a glitch and now we can’t get it charged.

Having a really fun, packed summer.

Having four kids and getting three of them back to school.

But we all know we have time for what we make time for. (Like reading, for example!) And I’ve made more time for trying to start a little bit of a business on Poshmark instead of writing. And while both are good, I miss writing more! I’m trying to find a happy balance as we work our way back into a schedule.

So I’ve decided I can spend one hour and I will write ALL THE REVIEWS. They can just only be two sentences. I will try to flesh these out over time on GoodReads, so follow me over there. 

June

And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer by Fredrik Backman – I absolutely love Backman’s style. This novella feels more My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry and less Man Called Ove – kind of fantastical and slightly confusing but still beautiful.

Still Me by Jojo Moyes – I’ve heard a lot of people say they loved this third book in the Me Before You trilogy, but I can’t agree. The situations felt super predictable, and I didn’t hate it but it wasn’t love for me.

The Read-Aloud Family by Sarah Mackenzie – See my post about reading aloud with my kids here. Loved this treatise, and it encouraged me to keep on the read-aloud path as my kids grow.

Us Against You by Fredrik Backman – Backman’s intense understanding of human nature and ability to convey it on the page is perfect. Five stars.

The Supremes Sing the Happy Heartache Blues by Edward Kelsey Moore – I was hoping for more considering how much I adored The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat (review here). Enjoyable, funny, and quirky, but not the original.

My Southern Journey: True Stories from the Heart of the South by Rick Bragg – I’d tried to read this maybe a year ago, when it was a new release, but it wasn’t the right time. The right time was at the beach on Tybee Island, where I delighted in the foibles of Bragg and his South (other than the sports essays).

The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan – I’m sorry I haven’t seen this all over the web, because it is a fantastic debut YA novel chronicling the life of half-Taiwanese teenager Leigh after her mother commits suicide. (Not a spoiler – trigger warnings, obviously, but suicide is a MAJOR trigger for me and I did OK with this book.) 

July

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak – Reread for me, and so glad I did. Still amazing, still cried like a baby.

Echo by Pam Munoz Ryan – Excellent, Newberry medal-winning book with intersecting stories from around World War II. Loved the fantastical element in it, and the young heroes and heroine.

Home by Marilynne Robinson – For some reason, this appealed to me much more than Gilead. Heartfelt spiritual struggle, familial relationships, perfect prose.

My Life with Bob by Pamela Paul – Memoir through books, based on the fact the author has kept a running list of what she’s read since high school (!!) (wish I had!). Not my favorite, but some good insights and fun book nerdiness.

To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before / P.S. I Still Love You / Always and Forever, Lara Jean by Jenny Han – I had a really good binge on this trilogy during our Great Road Trip in late July. Thought the first one was great, the other two were pretty good, although what does it mean if you’re rooting for the other guy to win the girl? (Shrug.) (Definitely read the first one if you watched the movie. So much not fleshed out in the movie!) (Also I went to high school with Jenny Han.) (Six sentences because it is three books.)

I’d Tell You I Love You, But Then I’d Have to Kill You by Ally Carter – I had really high hopes for this YA spy school start of a series, because several of my online book buddies have raved about it. Alas, just not for me, and now I know. 

August

Still Waters by Lindsey P. Brackett – Sweet Southern romance on Edisto Island, which reminds me of Tybee and I felt like I was there. Realistic family relationships and romances, while not being too angsty. Looking forward to the sequel. (GoodReads long review here.)

The Crossover by Kwame Alexander –
How can this author
Use so few words
And still make me feel
Right there in the midst of his tale?
Perfect poetry
and I cried, of course.

Attachments by Rainbow Rowell – Two women are sending emails at work, and one man is reading them all … and finding it hard to detach. Rowell is so witty and adorable and I loved this.

I’d Rather Be Reading: the Delights and Dilemmas of the Reading Life by Anne Bogel – A series of short essays from my beloved Anne about books, reading, bookstores, and of course, You’ve Got Mail. My only complaint is that I wanted more in each essay so I could keep reading! (This book was provided to me by the publisher as part of the author’s launch team. Full review here.)

Nice Try, Jane Sinner by Lianne Oelke – Snarky teen finds herself on a low-budget, community college reality show after a life crisis. While hilarity often ensues in this book through journal entries, the underlying spiritual questions are really very interesting.

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Twenty books over three months! It’s amazing what you can do when you just don’t clean your house. 😉 I hope you had a fantastic summer of reading, and I’d love to hear about your favorite title.

This will be added to Quick Lit at Modern Mrs. Darcy.

What I Read: May 2018

Yes, I’m fully aware that it is July 11. I’m playing catch-up (always, it seems), and I read too many books in May and June to squish them into one post! So here it goes. 

Empire Falls by Richard Russo – My short, initial review was that I give this a 4.8 stars. I LOVE Richard Russo’s writing. He does an excellent job building the town of Empire Falls and making you fall in love with its people. I don’t think it’s a mindset-changing book for me, but it’s an excellent example of a great novel. Two thumbs up. (Just beware, there’s an unexpected twist and if certain types of violence are a trigger for you, you might Google what it is before you read. I hope that’s not too spoiler-y.)

Rebound by Kwame Alexander – I didn’t realize when I started reading this that it is a prequel to The Crossover, probably Alexander’s biggest book (and a Newberry medal winner). I picked it up off the YA table at the library because I’ve heard of Alexander but never read anything by him. I started reading the novel in verse while my kids were picking out books and was engrossed enough 10 minutes in that I needed to take it home and finish! Charlie, a young teen who has just lost his father, is sent away to his grandparents’ house for a pivotal summer. I have to say, I love books in verse. They go fast but pack a punch, and this one is so vivid to me. A great read, and I am definitely going to find The Crossover and Alexander’s other books.

The Summer of the Great-Grandmother by Madeleine L’Engle – In this, her second of the Crosswicks Journals, L’Engle writes both about the last summer her mother was alive and the history of her mother’s side of the family. An only child, L’Engle had an exceptionally close relationship with her mother that continued until her mother started suffering from dementia. Raw, open, and lovely, L’Engle writes passionately about her family history and the gaping wound of losing her mother piece by piece.

Occasionally the Kindle set of the four Crosswicks Journals will go on sale for $2.99 or so, and they are so well worth picking up. I have read the first two and just adored them desperately. 

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison – I half listened to this on Audible, half read it on paper (because I am so slow with listening to audiobooks, I always pick podcasts!). It was a fantastic audiobook and I kind of wished I had listened to the whole thing! Much of this is wholly disturbing, but it’s a super important book in the history of books and especially books about race relations in America. Ellison’s memoir follows the disillusionment of one young man, as he travels from the South to Harlem and becomes a public figure. The rhythm of the sentences isn’t quite Jazz by Toni Morrison but it captures the fast pace of the city and the times. I don’t know that I can say I LOVED it but I can see how it is important and well deserving of all attention and awards.

Rich and Pretty by Rumaan Alam – I feel kind of ridiculous even putting this next to a classic. Had I read any reviews before picking this up, I would have stayed far away. It has awful ratings on GoodReads and Amazon and they aren’t wrong. While the idea of this book is interesting – can your childhood friendships grow with you? – and the writing isn’t bad, the book doesn’t seem to go anywhere. It was too racy for me in places, unnecessarily so, and just not great. 

Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman – In a way, this feels a lot like A Man Called Ove (my review here). Odd, misfit, grumpy protagonist. Learns to become somewhat normal socially. But it’s also completely different. Eleanor had a childhood trauma, grew up in foster homes, and is still not sure how to function among normal people. When she falls fast for a musician she sees in concert, she wants to figure out how to make herself more appropriate for him. Through the novel, we see her transformation and find out whether it sticks. It took me longer than I thought it would to sink into this story, but once I did, I couldn’t stop reading. I stayed up late to finish it. Honeyman’s quirky writing voice is a little humorous in places but goes to gut-wrenching really fast.

Wires and Nerve Volume 2: Gone Rogue by Marissa Meyer – I love everything in Marissa Meyer’s Lunar Chronicles universe. This is her second graphic novel that takes place after the series, mostly from the point of view of Iko, Cinder’s robot with personality. In this one, we find a little bit more about Iko’s back story and a lot about the gang of former Lunar mutant wolves making trouble on Earth. It’s a quick, fun read that made my heart happy.

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Those were my reads for May! June coming soon. Hopefully before July is over. I read so much great stuff in June I can’t wait to tell you about.