What I Read: June

Summertime means more time for reading! Our trip to Minnesota with all the driving gave me lots of time for reading which was much appreciated. I also carved out some time to read in the hammock while the kids watched a movie in Topeka which was glorious! I finished my 4 books for our library's summer reading program really quickly and I'm working on finishing books for the library's summer bingo card. I'm close to multiple bingos!

Reading in the hammock in Topeka.

Love this view!

Books:

• The Book of Charlie: Wisdom from the Remarkable Life of a 109-Year-Old Man by David von Drehle- Tom Hanks promoted this book when we saw him in May. I bought it there and the author was autographing copies. I was super excited about it and built it up to be something like Tuesdays with Morrie. I knew that was a mistake because Mitch Albom is such an incredible writer. Obviously this book wasn't nearly as good as Tuesdays with Morrie. It was good though. I loved how he included so much history into the book.

• All Boys Aren't Blue by George M. Johnson- This was my first Pride Month pick. I got it in a Little Free Library. There wasn't anything earth shattering in it, but I could see how it would be a helpful book for teens struggling with gender identity and sexual orientation. The writing style was definitely very young adult which made it less enjoyable for me, but it was a young adult book, so I couldn't expect anything else.

• The Soulmate by Sally Hepworth- I've loved all her books I've read so grabbed this when I saw it on the Quick Pick section at the library. It was sooooo good! It was probably my favorite I've read of hers, but that may have been in part because I had more time to read (thanks summer break!) so I finished it in 2 days. I loved the story being told from different perspectives. It gave you empathy for multiple characters and kept you on the edge of your seat.

• The Wild Robot Escapes by Peter Brown- Before we even finished the first book, Elise said she wanted to read the sequel. So what did I do? Head straight to our local bookstore to pick it up. We were split on which book we liked the better, the original or the sequel. We loved it!

• Lore Olympus: Volume Four by Rachel Smythe- I didn't even know the 4th volume was out until we were in an indie bookstore in Minnesota and I came across it on the shelf. I was so excited and read the whole book on our drive to Minneapolis. I love this series!

• Infamous by Lex Croucher- I saw this book on a list of books for Pride month and it sounded exactly like something I would like. I really didn't and had a hard time getting through it. It was mostly boring with some interesting sections mixed in sporadically.

• Mañanaland by Pam Muñoz Ryan- This was another one I read with the kids. I thought it was going to involve a fantasy land and it didn't, so I was a little bit disappointed by that. It was good but not a huge favorite.

• Another Appalachia: Coming Up Queer and Indian in a Mountain Place by Neema Avashia- The perspective of growing up with Indian parents in a white area was very interesting. It was also interesting to read about her slowing figuring out her identity.

• The Color Purple by Alice Walker- I took the kids to see the new Little Mermaid movie in theaters and we saw a preview for a new version of The Color Purple coming out which made me really want to read the book again. Re-reading an old favorite is a square on my bingo card and this fit the bill! It's interesting to re-read a book I first read in middle school now as an adult. There are so many things I understood this time around that went completely over my head before.

eBooks:

• Normal People by Sally Rooney- This was such an odd book. I wasn't really sure what the point was other than to show how frustrating it is when people don't share their thoughts and feelings and then make assumptions about how others are thinking and feeling. The ending left everything up in the air which I actually kind of liked but I was also like, what the actual f?! We struggled through all these pages with these characters and they still hadn't resolved their issues by the end?!

• Tokyo Ever After by Emiko Jean- This was a cute book. It was kind of like The Princess Diaries but set in Japan/America instead of England/America. I'm excited to read the 2nd book in the series.

• Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton- Carter was asking to read this book and I wasn't sure it was appropriate for him. I told him I would read it to see if it would be okay for him. After reading it, I decided he would be fine reading it. It was fun having just read it when he started it because he asked me so many questions about it as he was reading.

Audiobooks:

• The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times by Michelle Obama- This wasn't as good as Becoming, but I still liked it. I wanted to listen to it as an audiobook since it was read by Michelle. I found out she read the audiobook after I'd already read Becoming and was a bit disappointed I missed out on having her narrate that book for me.

• The One and Only by Emily Giffin- I like Emily Giffin so when I saw this one at Goodwill, I pulled it down to look at it. When I opened it, I discovered it was a signed copy, so I bought it! This wasn't my favorite of her books, but I really enjoyed it. I saw some really low ratings on Goodreads which led to me listening to it as an audiobook instead of reading it, just in case I didn't like it. I'm not sure if people just didn't like the premise and it having so much football in it, but I didn't mind that and enjoyed that it was set in Texas. She attempted to tackle some big issues with football players and girlfriend/wife abuse. I didn't feel like she quite hit the mark with that, but she did a decent job showing the psychological side of the abused.

• An Invisible Thread by Laura Schroff- This was a book club pick. It took me a really long time to get through it because it was the one I was listening to when we went on vacation so I didn't listen to it much at all on our trip. It was a wonderful story and my favorite part of the book was the letter from Maurice in the epilogue.