September Reads

 

Top favorites this month: 

Before Green Gables (the cutest prequel to one of my fav series - all 7 of which I reread at the end of last year! - the backstory of Anne, written in such a similar style.)

Queens of Crime (ARC. Love me some MB - this one was so fun about a group of female mystery writers in the 1930s who come together...and solve an actual mystery!). 

Anxious Generation (made me feel more than ever that we need to focus on a play-based-childhood & stay away from technology as long as we can!)

Pink Glass Houses (not fabulous, but hilarious! About the glamorous life and drama of wealthy PTA moms in Miami)

I also really enjoy's Kendra Adachi's newest - The Plan. So pumped to see her in person in a few weeks!

Evvie and I finished another Little House books...another one of my top FAV series!!

May Books

Nothing like a week in Hawaii (and two 12-hour travel days) to give you LOTS of time to read! And the 4 books I finished on our trip were all GREAT!! 

Paradise Problems was probably my top fav of the week. Spicy summer novel set on a gorgeous island...totally perfect as we were sitting at a beautiful Hawaiian resort! A couple has to pretend to be married in order for the guy to get his inheritance....and of course, after much drama, they fall in love for real. A few of my book club gals and I actually met the authors a few weeks ago when they came to Dallas for a book signing event so it was extra fun to read after hearing them talk about the book!

The next three were tied for me. Husbands was such an interesting concept (don't like your current husband? send him up into the attic and down comes a new one! interesting to think about what could happen if you really could turn your life upside down and start over that easily...and all the issues that come along with doing it!). 

Just for the Summer was a cute light read...lots of focus on mental health and family baggage. The characters were a little irritating to me for not being *quite* realistic enough, but in general it was a sweet book. 

Book club picks...The Fury was our May book (my pick! really liked it, didn't LOVE it. The style of writing was probably the most interesting part...written as a Greek tragedy, which was pretty cool.) 
The River We Remember is our June book (serious mystery....a little too serious for me!)

Top favorite book this month is Jodi's Picoult's new's book coming out on 8/20 - By Any Other Name. It was SO good!! It's a historical fiction and apparently a little different than her usual style. Alternated between two timelines, present day and 1500s. Super well researched. Feminist/sisterhood struggles in both times! In a nutshell: did Shakespeare actually write his works!?

Two non-fiction reads this month: Until the Streetlights Come On & Chasing Slow. Both really great reminders on the importance of kids getting enough time to just play outside and be free and unstructured & then just slowing down in life.

Two more in the Hawthorn drama...I'm just hooked on these. They're cute!

Two readalouds: another Poppy adventure (this was one of my favorites in the series so far - Mama Poppy goes on a trip home & takes her teenager with him....learns how to stand up to her family and majorly bonds with her kid by meeting him where he is). And the a sequel to a favorite of ours, In the Year of Ms. Agnes. Miss Agnes and the Ginger Tom wasn't quite as good as the first one, but we still loved it.

April Books

I think my reading highlight of April was getting to attend the North Texas Teen Book Festival! I took Arden and Turner with me and we had SUCH a fun time getting to hear from a bunch of well-known authors, including our absolute favorite: Karina Yan Glaser who wrote the Vanderbeekers series (she was so kind to chat with us and take a picture with the kids!). We also met Kimberly Brubaker Bradley (who wrote The War The Saved My Life, a book that Arden listened to and really enjoyed), and bunch of other authors whose books are now on our to-read list! The kids were pumped to hear from Wings of Fire author, Tui T. Sutherland, and I absolutely fan-girled at a panel that had both Jennifer Lynn Barnes & Katharine McGee!!!

Kid Reads: 

We finished another Dimwood Forest book: Ereth's Birthday (focused on the lovable, gruff porcupine who thinks everyone forgot his birthday & ends up saving a litter of kits - baby foxes). Loved this one! The Tiny Hero of Ferny Creek Library was a recommendation from an indy bookstore in Ft. Worth and it was SUCH a cute story! We are still talking about the tiny green hero, Eddie, and all his adventures - we just love books that talk about books & the love of reading. 

Top reads this month: 

The Inheritance Games - Cinderella-esque middle-grade novel with short chapters, riddles, puzzles, mystery & a love triangle. It's not deep, but super cute and I loved it. Getting to hear from the author at the book festival was SO fun...and I'm already listening to #2 in the series!

Berlin Letters - Cold War, historical fiction, multiple timelines, CIA...espionage...code breaking...this was a great one! I don't think I've read any historical fiction novels specifically around the Berlin wall before - always love digging into a new time in history. I particularly loved the end being tied up with a bow (tho not always realistic, it's my favorite!).

Frozen River - Another historical fiction novel (my fav genre!), this one about a midwife in the late 1700s. Besides the storyline of normal chaos that comes along with midwifery (Call the Midwife anyone!?), there were also plot-points of murder, rape, trials, and lots of other 1700-era drama.

Garlic & Sapphires - I was excited to read another by Ruth Reichl after loving the Paris Novel last month, and this one was great too! So fun reading about her wild disguises she'd put on so she could review restaurants without being recognized. Lots of great (and delicious) food descriptions!

Honorable Mentions:

The Mystery Guest - Pretty similar to the first one, but I have a soft spot in my heart for sweet Molly (I loved Amelia Bedelia as a kid) so I enjoyed it anyway!

The World of Laura Ingalls Wilder - If you’re a Little House fan (like I am!), this is such a great book that dives into the historical details of Laura - and Rose’s life. I loved learning more about what life was like then, for both women. I was fascinated to discover that Laura and Charles traveled so much as they got older, and downright shocked to learn that Rose literally traveled across the country and to Europe - numerous times! In my mind these characters stopped in time where the books ended (& that's so not the case!), and so I loved learning more about them. I also didn’t realize quite how successful Rose was as an author, and how much she helped her mom make the Little House books what they are today. The only warning I’d give on this book is that is super flower/gardening heavy - but the beautiful pictures make up for the occasionally dense agricultural parts. I was excited to see that MM has written other similar books on some of our favs…Beatrix Potter, Secret Garden, etc - can’t wait to read those!