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.