What I Read: July

July was full of lots of great books and an author event which was really good. Since I'm so used to not having anything on my schedule, special events slip my mind. I bought a ticket for the Colson Whitehead virtual author event and forgot about it on the day of the event until it had already started so I missed the first 20 minutes. I really enjoyed it.

Books:

• The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead- I wanted to read this book before the Colson Whitehead virtual event because it seemed to be his most popular book. It was really good although at times super sad. He has a way of telling things like they were without any sugar coating which I think is good but can be hard at times. I liked this one quite a bit more than Nickel Boys.
  

• The Center of Everything by Laura Moriarty- My mom recommended a book by Laura Moriarty (at first I was confused by Liane Moriarty) to me a while back and I already had this one on my list. I couldn't remember which one she suggested and read this one. It was good and very interesting, especially since it was set in Kansas and discussed the school district encountering issues when attempting to teach evolution in science classes.

• Genesis by Bernard Beckett- My mom gave us this one so Ty could read it. Our library bingo has a square for a book with a one word title and this was a short book so I picked it. I was surprised by how good it was and would have finished it in one sitting if the kids hadn't woken up while I was reading.

• Between, Georgia by Joshilyn Jackson- I wanted something really good and a quick read that was hard to put down so I went with my tried and true Joshilyn Jackson! This one was really good. Not my favorite of hers, but still really good. There was a section that was a bit emotional and Ty interrupted my reading to tell me something he saw on the internet and I told him, "A child might be dying right now, can this wait?!" haha
  

• Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk- I bought this book after I saw the movie and realized the movie was based off a book. I tried to read it at the time and just couldn't get into it. I've always wanted to read it so I never got rid of it but I just never picked it up all these years. Our library bingo has 2 spaces for books that were made into movies so I decided to finally tackle the book. I like his writing style because I loved the intro he did for this version of the book, but the book itself was a struggle. I think for me it just goes into too much detail about how to carry out their antics, such as how to make bombs and such. The last chapter was really cool. I liked how he did that.

• The Story of Arthur Truluv by Elizabeth Berg- My mom recommended this book to me and it was so good. I read it almost entirely in one day. I just couldn't stop reading. Arthur's character was so darn lovable.

• The Night Country by Melissa Albert- This was the sequel to Hazel Wood. It was so good and a quick read. I love the idea of the different worlds and the fairy tale aspect. I'm excited for the next book.
  

eBooks:

• Love and Gelato by Jenna Evans Welch- This was our book club pick for July. I started it as an audiobook and just couldn't get into it because I didn't like the narrator. Then I tried it again as an ebook and still couldn't get into it. At our June book club meeting my friends encouraged me to give it another try because they really liked it. I decided to give it one more try and ended up loving it. I think I just needed to be in the right mood for it. When I finished the book I saw in the acknowledgements that Richard Paul Evans is her dad. That made so much sense to me because I have to be in just the right mood to read his books otherwise they are just too cheesy for me and I can't get into them. But when I'm in the mood, I love them so much. That's exactly how I felt about this one.
  

• Fast Girl: A Life Spent Running from Madness by Suzy Favor Hamilton- I remember watching Suzy run when I was a kid and being heartbroken when she looked poised to win or at least medal at the 2000 Olympics and then threw herself to the ground. I feel like I heard about her being an escort at some point but didn't realize how serious it was and was super shocked when I read the first chapter of this book. In my mind there are escorts who get paid to basically hang out with you and others you pay to be intimate with you. I guess I assumed she wasn't the kind who was intimate with others. Not sure if the just hanging out escorts even exist. I know this whole ordeal must've been terrible for her and her family so I almost hate to say this book was so riveting and hard to put down. 

• Next Year in Havana by Chanel Cleeton- This was our book club pick for August. It was good and I liked it but I wasn't desperate to know what happened next and didn't have a hard time putting it down. It felt a bit easy to predict to me. I am excited to read the next book in the series which goes into the life of her great aunt who was an awesome character in this book!

• The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner- When I saw this book, I immediately put it on hold. It took forever to get it as an ebook and when I got the ebook in, I was still #20-something on the wait list for the regular book. It was so good and I loved it. I kept making connections to the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. There were lots of discussions about Austen's work in the book and it really made me want to re-read all of her books, especially Emma and Pride and Prejudice.
  

Audiobooks:

• A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende- I've wanted to read something of Allende's for a while and at some point put this on hold not realizing I'd gotten it as an audiobook. When it came in I decided to go ahead and listen to it. There was a lot of Spanish history that I was unaware of, or I guess just not familiar enough with. This was quite good!
  

• If You Ask Me (And  Of Course You Won't) by Betty White- I was looking for a short audiobook while I waited on one to come in on hold and I saw this one was less than three hours and read by Betty herself. It wasn't amazing, but I really enjoyed it and I love Betty!

• Red, White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston- I loved this at the beginning (maybe first half or so). The main character was the son of the first ever female president! It went into White House history some and just interesting stuff like that that I love. Then it switched over to a bit of a romance part-way through and I got a little bored with it. But the ending came back and was amazing. One of my friends who recommended this said it would make a great movie and I totally agree!
  

• Camino Winds by John Grisham- The first book I read for book club when I first joined the group was Camino Island. So when I saw there was a sequel, I had to read it. I was able to get it a lot quicker as an audiobook so I did it that way. I thought it started a little slow but once it got going it was so good. I was enjoying my audiobook so much I accidentally ran almost a mile past a planned turn during my long run when I was listening to it.

• I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing Brown- I finished Camino Winds and wanted a short audiobook to listen to while I waited for an audiobook I had on hold to come in. I saw this one was pretty short and it was one I was interested in reading so I went with it. It was read by Brown and felt like having a conversation with the author. I really enjoyed it.

• Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander (really J.K. Rowling)- I initially downloaded this to listen to with the kids because Carter was interested in it. We started it and Carter lost interest so I finished it on my own. I loved it.
  

• Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert- Way back in the day when the movie based on this book came out, I saw the movie and loved it so I wanted to read the book. I bought the book and read the Eat and Pray sections. The first section was okay and then I hated the 2nd section and really struggled through it. By the time I got to Love, I was so over it and quit the book. I always planned to finish the book at some point. Then 10 years later I still hadn't finished the book. We read City of Girls by Gilbert for book club and I really liked it so I decided to give this book a chance again. I decided to listen to the last section as an audiobook. I liked it much more than I remembered liking the first 2 sections of the book. Part of me wants to re-read the 1st two sections to see if I'd like them more now, but there are just so many books I'd like to read. So what's the point.