I’m ignoring the elephant in the room and decided to talk about something besides the election today. But I am hoping and praying for a Biden win in the days to come!! Most stressful election ever for me.
October was another full reading month for me. I imagine my reading will really drop off come December when the baby arrives, though! We'll see! I read 9 books this month, bringing my 2020 total to 82!
Hits:
- Dear Edward was a total page-turner for me. It's about a boy who is the sole survivor of a plane crash. His whole family was on the plane with him, so he goes to live with an aunt and uncle. This is a dual narrative novel - one part tells the story of the day of the flight, the other part follows Edward as he deals with the grief of losing his family and survivor guilt. Definitely not something you want to read on a plane, but who is on planes these days anyways?
- Anne of Green Gables was a delightful re-read from my childhood. My MIL bought and read the entire series this summer and pass it on to me so I plan to read more books from the series and would also like to watch the re-booted show on Netflix.
- The Tenth Muse was another book I burned through. The protagonist is a female mathematician so I especially enjoyed this book since I was a math major/love math. I'm not sure the average person would enjoy it as much as I did, though, since math features prominently in the story line.
- Raising White Kids really made me think. I am looking forward to discussing this with some other moms in November.
Misses:
- Again, Again was a 2-star read for me. The author wrote the book, "We Were Liars," which I loved, so I decided to try another novel by her. It just did not work for me.
- The End of the Day was another disappointing read. I loved the author's first book, "Did You Ever Have a Family," so had high hopes for this one. Most of the characters were very unlikable - I struggle to enjoy books when I don't have anyone to root for!
Paul's Reads:
I knew this Halloween would be a little different this year, so I decided to make it extra special by buying some Halloween books. Every week I'd pull out a new one. A friend also sent Paul 2 Daniel Tiger fall/Halloween books. Of the books I purchased, Room on the Broom and Pumpkin Soup were our favorites!
I want to do something similar this month for Thanksgiving and again in December for Christmas. I rarely buy books for myself but I will gladly spend money on books for Paul because they get read SO MANY TIMES.
We've also been getting a lot of books for Paul from the library. He's very into the Llama Llama books right now, so we have 3 checked out and I'll pick 2 more up this week. We've also checked out a lot of construction equipment books in October. I'm very glad that Paul loves books so much. I'd estimate that we read about 10-15 books/day, and more on the weekends - but he's usually the one bringing books to us to read, it's not us pushing books on him!
Have you read anything good lately?
I just finished Louise Penny's newest and it's fabluous! Can't wait till you catch up to this one -- it's set in Paris and it's fun to know most of the locations! And now reading blogger Kathy McCoy's memoir which is so far both heartbreaking and hopeful.
ReplyDeleteHow was Big Friendship?? I’ve been so curious about it!
ReplyDeleteDear Edward sounds captivating! I'd also like to read Anne of Green Gables. I'm *pretty* sure I read that as a kid, but I have basically no recollection of it if I did! My son is reading The Secret Garden in school and I'd like to read that again too- another one that I read YEARS ago and can't remember at all. I'm sort of simultaneously reading 3 books right now, so I'm moving through them all pretty slowly. Lol. I'm still reading the You're Not Listening you mentioned, the 1st Louise Penny book and am also trying out reading on the Kindle app on my phone now too. I chose Born Survivors about 3 pregnant women whose husbands were killed during the Holocaust and when they were captured, the women had to hide their pregnancies from the Nazis to stay alive..I just started it but so far very good! I had picked it out at the library a long time ago along with another stack but ended up having to turn it in before I read it, so it's been on my list for a while!
ReplyDeleteDear Edward is one of those books I keep seeing everyone recommend. I need to pick it up soon!
ReplyDeleteI'd love to hear more of your thoughts about Raising White Kids! (And if you just want to email them to me, that works, haha.)
I'm just starting The Fifth Season, which is awesome so far! I also finished reading the essay collection "We are Never Meeting in Real Life," which took me a few essays to get into, but then it made me laugh a lot! Hamnet was really good, although pretty heartbreaking. It's a fictionalized imagining of Shakespeare's family and the loss of his son Hamnet (who died two years before he wrote Hamlet).
ReplyDeleteOooh, the other novels by your "misses" sound excellent! I might have to check those out... and I LOVE how much you read with Paul! Start them early, start them right. Also need to look into the Fifth Season... have never read anything by that author, but there's a first time for everything! Thanks for your excellent book lists every month!
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DeleteLOL... I saw Sam’s comment on The Fifth Season and thought you’d referenced it...forgetting that I’d seen it on a different blog! That will teach me to comment on multiple book posts at once... sorry for my confusion.
DeleteI enjoyed Dear Edward as well and really got through it quickly! I read the Anne series when I was young and then re-read the first one maybe 10 years ago and enjoyed it just as much! I remember the story with the ipecac and remember thinking as a kid that she was so brave and smart! I will have to pick it back up again one of these days. I did not know there was a show, but there was a movie back in the day (maybe in the 80s) that I really enjoyed.
ReplyDeleteI read a lot in October, and my favorite was probably Rodham, which was entertaining, or I read two different books about WWII: Wunderland and Last Train to London, which were both interesting. I am currently reading Sigh, Gone, which is about a Vietnamese immigrant, and it is so far catching my interest! I am also listening to Inheritance, which I saw you liked, and am liking it so far as well. I have been listening to a lot more audiobooks, between running and driving and working in the garden/kitchen, so maybe that is what you can do when you are taking care of baby Taco!
I need to bookmark some of Paul's book choices - since we can't browse libraries right now, I have to be prepared with a list of books to request! Much harder than it seems!
ReplyDeleteI loved Anne of Green Gables as a kid!! I am currently reading "The Willpower Instinct".
ReplyDeleteI really want to read Dear Edward. It's on my never ending list. We are also a fan of llama llama books over here. I'm glad Adeline loves books too. I had gotten rid of a bunch of our board books because it had been so long and well they were VERY well loved. So I have been having fun buying new ones.
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