Wednesday, September 1, 2021

What We Read in August

Another month, another great set of books! I read 9 books, bringing my 2021 total to 93! I am shocked by this number!! I don't expect to repeat this pace of reading in 2022, but we'll see! I get most of my reading done from 8:30-9:30 at night, and then fit some in during naptime on weekends and when nursing Will, although he is a very fast eater now so that doesn't amount to much anymore.

Mom's books:

This first picture features my favorites. 


Of these 6, my 2 favorites were The Plot and Mother May I, both of which were total page turners that came from the Modern Mrs. Darcy Summer Reading Guide (MMD SRG)! The Plot is about an MFA teacher who hears a (very unlikable) student's idea for a plot. A couple of years later, he realizes the student never published a book and discovers the student is dead. So he writes the book which ends up being a best-seller. Then he starts to receive emails - someone knows he stole the plot. There is a book within a book element to this, too. It got off to a somewhat slow start but quickly picked up. Mother May I is about the kidnapping of an infant. I knew this going into the book but I wrongly assumed it would be resolved early on. Wrong! So as the mother of a baby, this was a stressful read and I did something I never do - I read ahead to find out what happens as I needed to mentally prepare myself. So I would NOT recommend this to a parent of a young child, unless you really think you can handle it. But even with the difficult plot, I flew through this book and really enjoyed it. 

This pictures includes "just ok" to "meh." 


Brood was my least favorite by far - I gave it 2 stars! This book came highly recommended by one of my favorite book podcasters. But it missed the mark for me. I know there was a connection between the protagonist’s devastating miscarriage and caring for her chickens but the connection was a bit elusive for me and I found myself continuing to read to just get to the end - a sure sign I should have abandoned. It was written by a local author so I appreciated all the references to places I knew of. But all in all, not the right book for me. The other 2 books also came from the MMD SRG - so not everything is a fit for me, but more often than not, I love what she recommends. 

The boys' reading:

We ran out of Mo Willem books and I don't know that anything can compete with those books! I have terrible luck with randomly picking books from the kids picture book section so I need to do some more research and find a good author or series for us to check out next. I look forward to a time when Paul is interested in chapter books as I know of so many that I want to read to him but that is still a ways away so I need to improve my picture book selection skills!

Will is interested in whatever Paul is reading! Which is good because most of his reading is "second hand" reading. I change up his bedtime/naptime books every month. This month we are reading "Dinosaur Dance" and he gets the biggest smile on one page with a tyrannosaurus rex stomping. 

We are entering fall/Halloween season so I'm looking forward to pulling out all the fall books today! I'm most excited to read "Room on the Broom." Best fall/Halloween book ever!

What have you been reading lately? Anything you would recommend?

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4 comments:

  1. JeanieSeptember 1, 2021 at 11:10 AM

    I've been reading more mystery series by authors I've talked about before. Haven't felt like taking on anything too intense lately.

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  2. JennSeptember 1, 2021 at 3:48 PM

    If you haven't checked out the 100 picture book lists on Everyday Reading's blog, these have almost all been hits with my kids (who are boys a bit older than yours -7 and 3). I usually go down the list and put whatever ones my library has on hold - 20 or so at a time. There are always lots of winners!

    Thanks for sharing your reading. I have similar taste in books I think and similar aged kids so I really enjoy your blog.

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  3. StephanySeptember 2, 2021 at 9:10 AM

    I'm moving The Plot up my TBR list with your review. It sounds really great, but I wanted some trusted opinions before considering it one I should read. :)

    My favorite book last month was The House in the Cerulean Sea. I really didn't expect to love it as much as I did because there's a huge fantasy element to it, but those kids just stole my heart completely!

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  4. Grateful KaeSeptember 3, 2021 at 9:06 AM

    Ooh, The Plot sounds really good!! Sounds like it maybe has a "spooky" aspect to it?? So maybe it would be a good one for fall/ Halloween season? :)

    I, as usual, have been reading a fraction what you do, but still reading! Haha. We finished the book about drug lord El Chapo on our road trip in August (which we had started on a road trip LAST August and never finished....fortunately we both remembered well enough what was happening.) I read out loud while Ivan drove and the boys had headphones in :)

    I also read The Lazy Genius book on our trip. Now, I have been reading The Glass Castle, which had been on my list for years and years. I started the audio version earlier this summer, but for some reason I didn't like the audio version (even though the author herself read it!). Something about her voice kind of annoyed me! I ended up requesting the hard copy from the library and have been enjoying it MUCH more this way. I'm almost done now with that. I have a couple other fiction books at home waiting- one is I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, and the others are....can't remember, they are upstairs in the living room! Haha! Just a couple I picked from the Hot Titles shelf. I'll let you know when I read them ;)

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