What I Read: July

July was a great month for reading. I did end up with a couple books that were stinkers, but I got to read a lot which was awesome! There were a few days the kids were gone and I wasn't in trainings so I got my classroom all set up. While I worked in my classroom I listened to audiobooks most of the time so I got through more audiobooks than normal. 

 

Morning snuggles in bed while both reading? Yes, please!

Books:

• The Emma Project by Sonali Dev- I was super excited about her newest installment in the Raje series, especially since it was a retelling of my favorite Austen book. I absolutely loved it, just like the others. I was super disappointed when I finished it and read in the acknowledgements that it was her last book in the series. I expected 2 more books retelling Mansfield Park and Northanger Abbey. I wasn't ready for the series to be over!
  

• Whereabouts by Jhumpa Lahiri- This was Lahiri's newest book. I liked the character and I also liked that the book was situated around the setting, I'm guessing that's why it had the title it did. I didn't like it as much as her other books, but it was good.

• Teaching for Deeper Learning: Tools to Engage Students in Meaning Making by Jay McTighe and Harvey F. Silver- This came highly recommended by our IB (International Baccalaureate) Coordinator. It had lots of great information in it and some things I can take away from it and use right away in my classroom. 

• Willodeen by Katherine Applegate- Applegate is my favorite children's chapter book author and I stumbled across a website to order autographed copies of her books. I didn't even realize she had a new one out and excitedly ordered this for the kids. It came while they were on vacation with my parents and I couldn't wait to read it, so I read it by myself. It was so good and I loved it. I think it would make a beautiful animated movie. I love, love, loved all the magical animal characters! Of course, I also loved the theme that everything in nature is interconnected and you can't remove one species without disturbing others.
  

• Empire of Wild by Cherie Dimaline- I picked this one up at a Little Free Library. I loved the Rogarou myth/fairy tale aspect of the story. I couldn't put the book down and was loving it. Then I felt like the end was super abrupt and a bit confusing. I googled the ending to see if other people thought the same thing I did. Everyone else had the same take away which makes me think it was set up for a sequel. It left me feeling frustrated and disappointed but I loved it leading up to that.

• Lore Olympus: Volume Two by Rachel Smythe- I loved volume one so was stoked for this one to come out. I even pre-ordered it! Nothing much really happened and it felt like this one was more setting up what is to come later which was a little disappointing, but I still liked it. Carter was really excited to see me reading a graphic novel.
  

• How the Penguins Saved Veronica by Hazel Prior- My mom recommended this one without realizing it was the same author as another book she had recommended. It was so good and I loved it! Funny side note: Carter's favorite animal is penguins and every time he saw me reading this, he asked if he would like it and if he could read it. I told him I didn't think he would like it that much.

• The Younger Wife by Sally Hepworth- I've read a couple of her other books and loved them both so was excited when I saw this one! It reminded me of a Liane Moriarty book and specifically Apples Never Fall. I could not put it down once I started reading. It was so good. It was probably my least favorite of hers I've read, but still very good.

• Feathers by Jacqueline Woodson- I love Woodson so much and was thrilled when I was at a garage sale and they had this book. It was beautiful.

• Billy Miller Makes a Wish by Keving Henkes- Henkes is one of my favorite children's picture book authors so I was really excited when I came across this one. I read it with the kids and it was okay, but not very exciting and there wasn't much action. I was disappointed in it, but Elise wanted to read the other Billy Miller book after reading this one, so they liked it. His children's chapter books have been just okay in my opinion.

• Mockingbird Songs: My Friendship with Harper Lee by Wayne Flynt- I picked this one up at a Little Free Library. It was interesting. I didn't learn a lot about Harper Lee, but I did learn some. Seeing the correspondence between herself and friend really showed how isolated she kept herself.

eBooks:

• Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder by Richard Louv- The principal at Carter and Elise's school recommended this book to all the parents at a PTA Meeting so I decided to read it. There were some interesting points, but for the most part it was incredibly boring, drawn out, and lacked research and data to back it up. Most of the information was anecdotal which annoyed me and put me off from the start. I would almost go so far as to say I hated the book. I think Louv's heart was in the right place, although you could tell he was slightly sexist as well as prejudiced against younger generations as well as technology, but he just couldn't put together a well thought out and interesting book backed by actual data. I think nature is a very important part of childhood and am what I would consider his target audience and I just couldn't get behind this book, so I'm not sure who he's reaching with this one. I'm sure you can tell how much I disliked the book by how long it took me to read it. It was the only ebook I read the entire month when I got through so many books and audiobooks during that time. I just kept powering through, little bits at a time, hoping it would get better. It never did. 
  

Audiobooks:

• The Guy at the Wedding by Katherine Center- I was adding her newest book to my want to read shelf on Goodreads when this showed up as one of her books I hadn't read. I got really excited when I saw it was a short story with the characters in Happiness for Beginners. Not only that, I could get the audiobook for free. It was really good! It wasn't until looking for a picture of the cover for this post, that I realized Duncan (the younger brother from Happiness for Beginners) was the same guy in What You Wish For. Now I want to go back and listen to this again.
  

• The Girl in the Plane by Katherine Center- I found out about this one at the same time as I found out about The Guy at the Wedding. This was a short story with the characters from How to Walk Away. I absolutely loved that she pulled in a character from Things You Save in a Fire as well. This was a delight and also free!
  

• The Last Tudor by Philippa Gregory- I thought this one sounded interesting but it was kind of boring and just dragged on. I would not have finished it as a regular book. I'm more likely to power through an audiobook than a regular or ebook. 

• Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments by T.L. Huchu- This was book 2 in the Edinburgh Nights series. It was decent but I didn't love it. I did like doing the audiobook since there was a narrator with an accent. 

• The Only by Katherine Applegate- This was the last book in the Endling Trilogy. I bought it as a downloadable audiobook to listen to with the kids but they never really wanted to listen to it and I wanted to know how things ended, so I went ahead and listened to it alone.
  

• The Language of Kindness: A Nurse's Story by Christie Watson- This was really interesting and there were some shocking facts in it. There were a few stories from her time as a pediatric intensive care nurse that had me working not to cry while running which was tricky.

• Arrival Stories: Women Share Their Experiences of Becoming Mothers edited by Amy Schumer & Christy Turlington Burns- I stumbled upon this while searching on Libby for my next audiobook. I hadn't heard anything about it before which surprised me. I loved this book so much and I loved that the women narrated their own stories. There were some eye opening stories that bring light to why women of color experience higher maternal mortality rates in our country.
  

• Emma: A Modern Retelling by Alexander McCall Smith- I love a good Austen retelling, as you know, and Emma is my favorite Austen book, but this one was terrible.