July was such a whirlwind month with 3 work trips and the start of the Olympics which took a large bite out of my reading time. Many nights, I sacrificed 30-45 minutes of reading time in favor of watching the Olympics but that was a worthwhile shift in time usage! Here is how my reading shaped up for the month. I read 7 book and nearly all of them were great!
Best Books:
Summer Romance (5 stars) by Annabel Monaghan was an excellent romance featuring a single mom 40-something protagonist. Conflict in romances can stress me out but that wasn't the case with this novel.
Sandwich (4 stars) by Catherine Newman was an excellent book about the sandwich generation, meaning the middle-aged years when you are caring for your offspring and your aging parents. I loved this book but would have loved it even more if I was in a different stage of parenting. The protagonist is nostalgic about the young kid stage of parenting and sometimes it was hard to wrap my mind around missing the things she misses - like my current "touched out" stage of parenting. I do recognize that I'll miss these cuddles someday but I do yearn for more personal space. I still love the book, though, but if you have older kids and/or are menopausal/post-menopausal, this will really speak to you!
Same As It Ever Was (4 stars) is the sophomore novel by Claire Lombardo. I really liked it but felt it was a bit long at 512 pages. But I am amazed that this single, childfree author so accurately captured the challenges/emotions of raising small children. This is very character-driven so avoid this if that is not your jam.
Margo's Got Money Troubles (4 stars) is what I would describe as a "voicy" book meaning that the protagonist is quirky and she does not hide it. It's about a single mother that is impregnated by her college professor. Her father is involved with the WWE and has a history of opioid abuse. It's a book that made me think about how situations that look terrible on paper are actually not so terrible when you examine them more closely.
I would love to know who recommended Wandering Souls (5 stars) to me. I mostly use a TBR tag in Libby to keep track of what I want to read. I wish I could make notes about the recommendation source - but to my knowledge, that is not possible. This is a slim novel (I think less than 250 pages) about 3 teen siblings who flee Vietnam during the war and eventually settle in the UK. The story is told from numerous points of view, including the siblings' deceased younger brother. It's heartbreaking but such a well-told story.
Pretty good and did not work:
The Wealth of Shadows (2 stars) sounded like it would be right up my alley as it was about the economic warfare that was deployed during WWII to end the war - like cutting off supply lines for Germany, for example. I wanted to like it but dear God, I was so bored at the end that I debated abandoning the book at 90%! If I do not complete a book, it goes on my abandoned shelf, so even if I read 90%, I do not count it as read - and I did not want to do that so I slogged through the last 10%. I know of people who will mark something as read even if they abandon it at 25% but my enneagram 1 personality can not wrap my mind around that. Nonetheless, this was not a fit for me, but I am an outlier as it has high reviews on Goodreads! What really set me off was the reaction of the economists when Pearl Harbor was bombed - they were thrilled because that meant that the US would get involved in the war which meant there was a higher likelihood to the war ending. But how can you celebrate something that resulted in a catastrophic loss of lives???
Wavewalker (3 stars) was a solid 3-star book but it got a bit long for me. It's a memoir about the author's childhood spent sailing around the world with terribly neglectful parents. I did not need detail about all of the different stops they made during the voyage - I think she could have trimmed 50+ pages and still done their voyage justice. All that said, we had a great book club discussion about this book.
The boys' reads:
The boys' reads have been a bit lackluster lately because we have not gone to the library as often. Instead we are often doing something outside. But the library will be there waiting for us when cooler weather hits. Paul and I have read a few more of the "Dragon Master" books which he really enjoys. We are on book 10. Taco has been really into the Bruce books by Ryan T. Higgins which I adore!!
Did you read anything great in July?
8 comments:
Margo was my favorite book of July. I'm excited to read her other books.
Yes I promise that someday you will miss the little kid things. I mean, sure it's nice that I can just pick up a book or my laptop without a tiny human wanting to look on with me, or just hang out with the fam without being asked to explain nuclear fusion...but at the same time I do have nostalgia for those days.
I've heard a lot about Sandwich -- that intrigues me.
I think one of my goals for next year is going to be trying to figure out a way to track book recs. I get so many from bloggers and podcasts and I just put them on hold and tell myself I'll remember who recommended something and then I never remember. Maybe I'll have a tab on my spreadsheet and if I order a library book, add it to the list with the person who recommended it. That's not ideal if I am (hypothetically, of course) listening to a podcast while walking the dog and I get a book rec. I'm already stopping to pull up my library app. I think pulling up a spreadsheet would be a step too far. Maybe a voice note for myself? Hmmm...something to think on.
I'm in the process of reading All the Light We Cannot See. Love it. I am probably the last person on the face of the earth to read it. I'm almost done. I usually only have time to read the books that my book club reads, but I was ahead of the game this year and picked this one up because we take the month of July off. I hate it when I read a book that I don't like but I feel compelled to finish. Ugh. I look forward to reading a few of these books. I don't know how you find the time. And, yes - we've been enjoying the Olympics. We record it on Youtube live, so we can pick up wherever we leave off. The little girls are really enjoying it. We don't watch a lot of tv with them, so it's been a fun all-in family things. Although, I'd be lying if the older kids aren't sometimes texting me asking/requesting that the little girls go to bed so we can watch a movie that isn't rated PG, usually when they've already seen enough Olympic coverage.
I really enjoyed sandwich, it kept me thinking after I finished it. It is a heavy topic but reads like a comedy at the time, which is really nice reading experience for me. I can relate to her more than you as my girls are growing so fast and changing, even now, 7 and 10 years away from them leaving for college, I am already nostalgic of that day in the future. It makes me savor daily mundane interactions with them more.
I'm reading Margo's Got Money Troubles now! It's a fun book - I wasn't sure if I would like it, but I really do!
The best book I read in July is a tie between This Spells Love and Part of Your World. I also really loved Supercommunicators.
No kids, and (fingers crossed) my parents are currently doing well, but Sandwich sounds so interesting. Have you read her other books?
Love Margo and the Lombardo— I can;t wait for Sandwich!!
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