What I Read: August

This month was pretty random. I had some amazing books, some so-so books, and all kinds of topics along the way! I loved Ty going back to normal hours so I got to run in the early mornings, before it got too hot, but I missed my hour or more of reading in bed at night because Ty had to go to bed so early with his weird hours!

Books:

• How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi- I really liked that this book addressed all the combinations of racism like sexism and racism for black women and homophobia and racism. Every other book I have read about race and racism only addresses racism. I thought it was so important that he looked at all the forms of racism in that way.

• An American Sunrise: Poems by Joy Harjo- I have heard a lot about Harjo because she lives in Tulsa and is the Poet Laureate of the United States which is a big deal. I've wanted to read a book of her poetry for a while and the library bingo space for a book of poetry gave me the push I needed. Poetry is hit or miss for me, some I love and some just goes right over my head or I just don't take the time to think about it enough to enjoy it. I absolutely loved this book of poetry. There were a couple poems in particular that I read at the perfect time.
  
  
  

• Night of Miracles by Elizabeth Berg- This was Mason #2 but I wouldn't really call it a sequel to The Story of Arthur Truluv. It involved many of the same characters but introduced plenty of new characters as well. I loved this book and am now reading the 3rd book in the series. The neat thing about this series is you don't really need to read the previous books to enjoy one of the books, they each stand alone pretty well.

• Quidditch Through the Ages by Kennilworthy Whisp (J.K. Rowling)- I enjoyed Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them so much, I decided to buy it with money I got for my birthday. Then as I looked online for the book I found a set of 3 books called the Hogwarts Library and each book is a book Harry, Ron, and Hermione either had to get for Hogwarts or read in one of the books. I was so excited and ordered the whole set. I liked Fantastic Beasts a lot more than this one, but I did enjoy this one as well. I think it would be so much fun to read Gilderoy Lockhart's book, even though he's so lame, since all the stories in the book were stories that happened to other witches and wizards. She should do that one if she decides to write another Hogwarts Library Book!
  

• The Confession Club by Elizabeth Berg- This was the 3rd book in the Mason, Missouri series. It was really good, but I'd say probably my least favorite of the 3 books. I did find myself not wanting to finish it toward the end because it's the last one I had to read and I didn't want to be done with the series, at least for now, I'm sure she'll write more!
  

• The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling- This was in my Hogwarts Library set I ordered with birthday money. It was a collection of wizarding fairy tales, essentially. It was cute and I liked the comments by Dumbledore.

• #IMomSoHard by Kristin Hensley and Jen Smedley- I saw a Facebook post about a Little Free Library that was running out of books due to the huge influx in usage during the pandemic. I had a stack of books I didn't want and my mom had either already read or also did want and decided to drop them off at the free library. When I was there I decided to peek at the books and saw this one. I love these ladies' videos on Youtube so I thought I'd grab the book. I left 10 books and took 2 so I figured that was a good trade. I'm going to return this one when I have others to drop with it because I don't want to keep it. While the book wasn't as funny as their videos, I did enjoy it quite a bit and they had some great points.

• The Accidental Book Club by Jennifer Scott- I'm always getting roped into reading books because they have book in the title. I'm a sucker for books about book clubs, book stores, and book store owners or librarians. I was so excited to read this book because of the title and the cover was really pretty. As many times as I've learned don't choose a book by it's cover (or the title), that was exactly what happened here. I was pretty disappointed and struggled through it a bit. It didn't help that I read it pretty close to when I read The Confession Club and the books were similar with this one being the lesser of the two.

• The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix- And here we go with another book about a book club, haha! That combined with vampires as well as being set in the south (I love a good southern book) in the title and a cute cover to boot. I just couldn't help myself! I had this book on hold for over 2 months before I got it and I was super excited to pick it up! At first I loved it and was so into it. Then I lost interest a bit and then the end was a bit gory for me. So overall, I didn't love it but I still liked it. I was mostly super frustrated how the main character was belittled and ignored just because she was a housewife. I'm pretty sure that was the point but it just made me so mad! It may not have helped that I stopped reading Rage Becomes Her to get this one done so I could turn it back in quickly because there were lots of people waiting on hold behind me. That wasn't the best backdrop for reading a book about a woman who is silenced by her own husband and friends. 
  
  
  

eBooks:

• Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte- On of the boxes on my library bingo was to re-read an old favorite. I wouldn't say this book is actually a favorite but I've wanted to re-read it for a long time. I read it a long time ago, either in high school or college, and didn't like it that much. I've always wanted to read it again to see if I liked it more. I started it as a regular book and then 3 books I'd been waiting on came in at the library at the same time so I decided to switch to reading this as an ebook. So I read the first half as a regular book and then switched to ebook. When I had finished my books from the library I went back to reading this as a regular book. I enjoyed it A LOT more than when I read it before but I still wouldn't consider it a favorite.
  

• Open Book by Jessica Simpson- I saw this listed as being pretty good on a few book lists. Jessica Simpson's DreamChaser Tour was the first concert I ever went to and my favorite maternity jeans I ever had were from the Jessica Simpson clothing line. So I wouldn't say I'm a huge fan, but I do like her. I'd also seen some episodes of Newlyweds back in the day so even with good reviews, I didn't have high expectations for this book. I got pretty frustrated with her that she has all these great accomplishments and a wonderful singing voice, and she spent a lot of time focusing on men and her relationships with them. I felt like they should have been secondary to the story until she met her husband but they were the main focus of the story. I think it showed a lot about her priorities and may be part of the reason why other singers with less talent had better careers than she did.
  

• Cupcakes at Carrington by Alexandra Brown- This was another one I was really excited about that I just couldn't really get into. I think part of the problem was that I was reading it at the same time as I was listening to Just Mercy so it was really hard to care about this character's mostly self-inflicted and 1st world problems. I just can't feel sorry for a character who is in debt yet buys a cupcake at a bakery nearly every day. Come on, people, what a waste of money!

Audiobooks:

• Dracula by Bram Stoker- I've wanted to read this book for a while because it is mentioned multiple times in The House of Night books. My library bingo had a space for a book written before 1900 so I figured this one would be perfect for that. It was faster to get it as an audiobook so I went with that way and was so glad because the narrator's voice for Dracula was perfection! I loved this book so much. 
  

• American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House by Jon Meacham- I wanted to read a book about Andrew Jackson and chose this one because I liked Meacham's book on Thomas Jefferson so much. I felt like he went into so much detail in that book and gave a good idea of who Jefferson was as a person, not just a president. I was disappointed in this book. So much of the book was spent discussing the controversy with Major Eaton and his wife. Then Jackson's Native American policies were just glossed over. I really wanted to learn more about his beliefs and rationale on the treatment of Native Americans. So that was disappointing for me. 

• Inside Out by Demi Moore- I was waiting to get American Lion back because it took me over a week to finish it and someone had it on hold when I was listening to it. I do not understand why I get 14 days to finish an ebook but only 7 days to finish an audiobook and American Lion was 17 hours long! I decided to pick a book that was short and I didn't think I'd mind switching away from when I got American Lion back. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this book and when I got American Lion back, I was disappointed to have to move away from listening to this one. It was so good and definitely made me a fan of Demi. I remember her relationship with Ashton Kutcher and it made no sense to me at the time but listening to her talk about him, it was obvious she really did love him. I also remember her pregnant photo on the cover of Vanity Fair and what a big deal everyone made of it. I love that she did that and really made way for pregnant women to showcase their adorable baby bumps! 
  

• The Night Tiger by Yangsze Choo- This book was so interesting and I loved learning about the beliefs in the story, particularly involving weretigers and fingers. It wasn't until part-way through that I made the connection between weretigers and werewolves. I like to imagine how different things are spelled, especially names, when I'm listening to an audiobook set in a different country. I focused on the spelling of the names at first. Once I felt like I had them figured out I moved on to weretigers. When I started thinking about how weretiger would be spelled, I finally realized it was likely "were" like in werewolf. I was excited when I looked it up and saw I was right. I also correctly spelled all the characters' names in my head. It's something I do when I'm listening to an audiobook while running, to entertain myself, I spell out all the possible ways of making a name and decide which one I think is correct. Usually I write the words across my mind is cursive or spirally writing.

• Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson- I read Red to the Bone by Woodson a few weeks ago and enjoyed it. I recognized her name from some absolutely beautiful children's books of hers I read to my classes as a teacher. I thought this was a chapter book for upper elementary based on what I knew of her as a writer and the picture on the cover. I didn't realize this was a book of poetry and was delighted when I started listening to the audiobook. It was read by Woodson which I felt made it even better because she read with the inflection and pauses intended in the poems. I thought this was as wonderful as her children's books.  
  
  
  

• Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson- Oh my goodness. This book is one that I think everyone should read. I have been learning so much about our justice system through reading books that involve it and I am so let down by what it actually is compared to what it's made out to be when you learn about it in school. This book was so important and so powerful. It changed my mindset in huge ways, similar to reading Evicted did. It was tough material and I liked that the audiobook was read by Stevenson. He did a wonderful job of reading it in a way that kept it from getting too emotional and heart breaking where it otherwise would have been hard to read. Even so I cried a few times while listening to it. I have no idea how he does his job, but I am so thankful there are people like him in the world who dedicate their lives to helping the most desperate.