August Reads

Happy Friday! I'm closing out this first week of September by talking about books! August was another super strong month of reading for me. I read 10 books. Surprisingly, I did not read all that much during my vacation since I played cards in the evening instead of reading and then (unsuccessful) tried to nap when Paul napped since I had bad insomnia at the lake. But I still got a ton of reading done since I read from 8:30-9:30 nearly every night and also read during some of Paul's naps when I couldn't nap. All of that time adds up!

Here are the 10 books I read. The picture on the left were my favorites from the month.

Hits:

- The Wedding Party by Jasmine Guillory was a fun read! It's the 3rd book in her romance series, so I suggest starting at the beginning because each book includes characters from a previous book. This is a romance series so it can be a bit steamy at times. I never used to read romance novels, but I've been drawn to lighter comment given the state of the world!

- The Guest Book by Sarah Blake was another great read. I almost didn't read it because a friend on goodreads gave it 2 stars. But I gave her last book 5 stars so I decided to give it a shot. I'm glad I did because I really enjoyed it. It is a slower moving book so if you need a fast read, this is probably not the book for you. It's about adult siblings who inherit a home after their parents pass in a sudden/tragic manner. They have to decide what to do with this vacation home on the cape. There are family secrets and challenging family dynamics.

- The Lost Art of Mixing by Eric Bauermeister was the 2nd and I believe final book in this author's series. These books are incredibly cozy and so well written. The first book is about a cooking class at a restaurant. This 2nd book follows the lives of a couple of participants in the class. I'll be reading more by this author as she has a way with words!

Misses:

- Strike Me Down by Mindy Mejia was a big miss for me. It was recommended by Modern Mrs. Darcy in her summer reading guide. Her recommendations are usually a home run for me, but that was NOT the case with this book. It's a thriller that features forensic accounting so it seemed up my alley as a gal who loves all things finance. But nope. I didn't like any of the characters and I struggle to enjoy a book when I don't like any of the characters. I need someone to root for! One fun aspect of this book is that it was set in downtown Minneapolis so I was extremely familiar with the setting.

Paul's Reads:

My friend Erin sent Paul this "Things That Go" indestructible book and that's been a big hit for him as he loves anything with wheels! I'm going to buy more of these books when baby #2 comes around. I love that they are impossible to destroy - they can be chewed on/drooled on/you name it!

He still loves lift-the-flap books, especially this farm one. He loves to pretend to eat the foods on the farmer's market page. If only he would eat these things in real life! It's been fun to watch him experiment with pretend play. When he looks through this book, he likes to give Phil and me bites of the food.

His new favorite book for the month was Corduroy! I remember loving this book as a child, too. Initially we grabbed a beat up copy of it in the little free library by our house, but we accidentally took the pristine copy my parents had at the lake home with us and my mom said to just keep it. My mom read that book to him a number of times as well as lots of other ones. I love that Paul is enjoying longer books with more of a narrative! He still reads board books, but is definitely more drawn to bigger kid books!

Did you read anything great this month?