Tuesday, August 4, 2020

What We Read in July

July was quite the reading month for me. I was shocked to add it up and realize I had read 11 books! This is not typical for me! But I read a lot of lighter, page-turners - hence the higher book count for the month. That brings my 2020 total of books read to 55! I am sure my pace will slow down, especially in December when the baby arrives, but I am guessing I'll end up reading around 80 books this year. Not bad!

I figured I'd break my books read into categories and a select a favorite from each since I didn't have any duds this month! 

Lighter Reads


I enjoyed all 5 of these books, but "The School of Essential Ingredients" was probably my favorite. It's about a cooking class that meets at a restaurant each week. We meet a different student in each chapter, but the various characters are weaved together throughout each chapter. It was a short, fast read! 

Fiction with some heft


These fiction reads had enough heft to not quite classify them as light reads. I loved both of them, but "The Boston Girl" was my favorite of the two. It's about a woman growing up in Boston in the 1900s. In this book, she's telling the story of her life to her granddaughter so it reads like an oral history. It's a page turner! I had a hard time putting it down each night!

Nonfiction reads



All of these were great, but "So You Want to Talk About Race" was my favorite, followed by "We're Going to Need More Wine." So You Want to Talk About Race is probably the best antiracist book I've read so far. In each chapter, she tackles a topic such as police brutality, affirmative action, etc. She weaves in her personal experiences and helps you talk about these controversial issues. We're Going to Need More Wine is a memoir by Gabriella Union. She was raped while working at Payless Shoes when she was young, so she talks about her experience with that and how it's impacted her life. She's extremely vulnerable and real in this memoir. 

Paul's reads

Paul has sort of 'graduated' from board books. We still read them but he can now read longer picture books which is exciting for me as they tend to have more of a story.

But first - what  is probably an unpopular opinion: I don't really like most of the Dr. Seuss books. I know they are meant to teach kids rhyming but they are so nonsensical with made-up words and choppy story lines. Like One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish stands out as one we don't like. Plus it's like 60 pages long! But Paul loves it so we continue to read it, but definitely NOT at bedtime!

Now that he's into longer books, I pulled out my favorite book from when I was young - "The Sorcerer's Apprentice." My mom gave me my copy at my baby shower. Gotta love my preschool handwriting. Also, you can see that some of the phone numbers I was practicing only had 5 digits - back in the 1980s, we only had to dial the last 5 digits for local numbers. I told Phil about this and he said that was NOT the case here in the Twin Cities area so I guess it was a rural America thing! Anyways, Paul loves this book! 



Another book he loves is "The Best Nest" by P.D. Eastman. We read this book in the hospital when Paul was getting his tubes back in November of 2018. It's about a bird couple who is looking for a house because Mrs. Bird hates their current house. At that point we were over a year into house search and Phil thought the book was hilarious (Mrs. Bird is kind of bossy and not so nice to Mr. Bird - that is NOT how I am, but I was definitely the one pushing us to buy a different house). So Phil tracked the book down - he had to order a used copy from Amazon as it's out of print. This is one of Paul's favorite books so now we get to relive the process of house hunting from a bird's perspective every day!


He also loves the Laura Numeroff books (If you give a cat a cupcake/moose a muffin/etc). They are cute and a fast read so we always read one at bedtime (he gets 4 books at bedtime so we try to pick shortish books). And lastly, he loves this 8 Little Planets book that my parents got him for Christmas 2 years ago. Phil reads this to him nearly every night and now he can ask Paul which planet we live on/which is red/which is the fastest/which one has rings, and Paul knows the answer. So he knows more about the planets than I do - for real. Science is really not my forte so Phil will be the one teaching him that kind of stuff!

What have you been reading lately? If you have kids, what books are they loving these days?

9 comments:

Jeanie said...

I'm not familiar with any of these. Lately I've read "Commonwealth" (I love Ann Patchett but this one didn't really suck me in so much as most); the Wild Remedy (Emma Mitchell -- about depression and nature); another in James Runcie's Grantchester series, and the third book in Donna Leon's Brunetti series set in Venice.

Grateful Kae said...

I'm definitely going to be turning to your lists for some fiction suggestions! So many that you post look excellent. I generally don't read a ton of fiction, but I'm starting to really enjoy it again lately. I'm (still) reading The Bear and the Nightingale, which I LOVE- I just haven't had (made?) enough time for reading lately. It's a trilogy though, so it will have me covered for a while. After that- I may hit up your lists!

Shoshanah said...

I’m with you on the Dr. Sues books. They’re just so long and there are so many better books I’d rather read. I imagine there are pretty good for an early reader to get through, but we’re not quite there. (Almost though, which is kind of crazy!

Sam @ Eye to Wonder said...

Lately I've loved: The Vanishing Half, The Power of Moments, and Beach Read. Avi's been liking any books with real photos :)

Gracie said...

We're still at the "eat the board book" stage :/
I'm reading As the Crow Flies and I really enjoyed the first half - when the main character was a child - but I find her character as an adult sort of hard to believe. But the plot is great, even if parts are predictable.

Stephany said...

HA - I love your thoughts on Dr. Seuss books. I loved One Fish, Two Fish, though. I don't know why! There was just something so ridiculous about it.

I'm so glad you loved The Boston Girl. I figured you would! That's a book that has stayed with me.

Sarah said...

I’m with you - some of those Dr Seuss books are SO long. And my three year old now notices when we try to skip parts :)

San said...

Dang, you got through a lot of books. I definitely have to pick a few "lighter" reads for August.

Jolene - EverydayFoodie said...

Wow, 11 books!! That's a lot! I absolutely LOVE kids' books. Some of my favourites I unfortunately sold in a garage sale when I was about 12, and cared more about shopping than kids' books, but years later I spent a lot to buy them again on Ebay. I still buy picture books sometimes, and at Christmas I read The Christmas Orange to my class and also to Christopher, hahaha :-) It's such a good one for older kids. Some of my favourites as a child that I re-bought as an adult include, "Henry's Awful Mistake", "Who Put the Pepper in the Pot", "Socks for Supper", and some Bernstein Bear books. I love Dr. Seuss, Bernstein Bears, Little Critter books, Shel Silverstein books, etc. I really should try teaching pre K or kindergarten before I retire, but I don't know if I would have the energy. I'd probably collapse from exhaustion by the end of the day. Haha, I like to use picture books with grade 8s sometimes though, and they love it too.