As I shared a few weeks ago, I’m taking a break from the Saturday Weekend Read book reviews. The main reason is I’m not making time to write the individual reviews, and I would start stacking up books to write reviews over, dread it, and then not write anything at all (even other posts) because I would see this stack of books waiting to be reviewed.
This is not the only reason I haven’t been writing recently, but it’s one of my many excuses. Email me for a list of my other, just as lame, ones.
So now I’m just writing a post to wrap-up what I read during a given month.
We’ll see how long this lasts.
July was full but relaxing. Is that possible? I got some good reading time in.
Read this book. It’s YA fiction with an unreliable narrator and such a great twist! It started off a little slow, but when it finally got interesting, it got reallly interesting. The main character is a rich high school girl from a Kennedy-esque family on the east coast. Her and her cousins spend a month each summer with their families and grandfather on their own private island near Martha’s Vineyard. One summer something bad happens and Cadence can’t remember exactly what it was or why everything is so different now. That’s all I can say, but read this book and then tell me what you think! (I’m actually using this book as my first book club with students this school year, and I can’t wait to read it again with them.)
Kill You Last by Todd Strasser
This is the summer I tried to stop buying more books and made a pointed effort to work through my to-read list. It had gotten a little out of control and so I started requesting all of them from our local library and just working my way through them all. Kill You Last was on the list and I actually have no idea why. What I’m guessing is a student told me to read it. It’s a YA mystery-thriller book and sorta cheesy. It’s something I would have loved in middle school, but it was just silly as an adult. Give it to a middle level reader–but don’t bother with it yourself.
Oh, man. This one is good. Really good. It was on my to-read list and I borrowed it from the library, but I liked it so much I want to buy my own copy so I can read it again and write in it. Bolz-Weber is an atypical woman minister in the Lutheran church. Her path to Jesus follower is broken and bumpy but it is so good. She doesn’t shy away from things she doesn’t understand, worries she has about our witness, and loving people the traditional Christian system has said we shouldn’t. I found a whole lotta Jesus and a whole lotta Jesus in this book. I highly recommend it for anyone who struggles with what Christianity looks like or questions what the Church is doing. This book will make you think even if every single thing she writes isn’t something you agree with.
The Chronology of Water by Lidia Yuknavitch
The majority of the time I read The Chronology of Water, I was afraid to tell anyone. This book is rough and, in a lot of parts, really horrific. Yuknavitch has had a really painful, horrible life that started with a father who sexually abused her and her sister. And from that place of absolute brokenness, she goes on a rampage of self-destruction. At times, I could only read a chapter and then I’d have to let it sit for a few days. What kept me going was Yuknavitch’s AMAZING writing and the hope that she could recover her life. I recommend this book but with caution. It’s hard to read the things she lives through and so many of the choices she makes as a young adult. This book is full of heartbreak and misery–but stick with it. It’s worth it.
The Aviator’s Wife by Melanie Benjamin
Historical fiction isn’t normally my jam, but I picked this up at a thrift store and it sounded interesting. The Aviator’s Wife is a fictional look at the life of Anne Morrow Lindbergh and her famous husband, Charles Lindbergh. It covers their unconventional marriage, the kidnapping of their first baby, their children, their adventures, and their struggles. The Aviator’s Wife is such an interesting book. The shadow Anne had to live in, the distant Charles who was never around, and the secrets revealed as his life nears its end are engaging and compelling. Reading this book makes you want to go get a biography of Charles and read more about Anne. Their story probably isn’t what you think it is. (If you like historical fiction, I’d also recommend The Paris Wife by Paula McLain about Hemingway’s first wife Hadley; these books felt similar to me.)
Read any good books in July? What are you currently reading?
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