July Review

 It is August - my birthday month!  I am excited to celebrate all month long, which hopefully means a lot of reading.  As I look ahead to my schedule for the month, it looks like I have two work trips on the horizon and an overnight soccer tournament with one of my kids - that means a few hotel nights, which usually means time to read!!  I am excited and want to be a little bit more organized about my reading this month.  We will see.

In the meantime, here are the books I finished in July:

1. The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd (Fiction/Library)

2. The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker (Non-Fiction/Library/Book Club)

3. I Kissed Shara Wheeler by Casey McQuiston (YA Mystery/Shelves)

4. Roman Stories by Jhumpa Lahiri (Short Stories/Library)

5. Somebody's Daughter by Ashley C. Ford (Memoir/Library/Book Club)

Happy Reading,

Anne

June Review

 

Spending two weeks in Italy this month did allow for some good reading time - on the plane, by the pool, on the beach, in many cafes!  But, still I didn't finish that many books. It made me realize that perhaps I am becoming a slower reader in my old age, or maybe reading a couple longer books!  But, it was a good month for reading books I enjoyed, so I am trying to focus more on quality versus quality!  

In July, I seem to have a lot of book club books to get through and I'm finding that I need to plan my reading time to ensure that I get it all done!  I will have to evaluated whether I like that approach, or whether the "requirements" of book club are feeling too stressful.  But, I do like the idea of setting aside time to read that allows me to really dive into a book instead of just catching snippets here and there.  We'll see how it all goes!

Books read in June

1. Class by Stephanie Land (Memoir/Book Club/Library)

2. Zero Days by Ruth Ware (Mystery/Shelf)

3. Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo (Fiction/Shelves/Book Club)

4. One Perfect Couple by Ruth Ware (Mystery/Shelves)

5. James by Percival Everett (Fiction/Borrowed)

I have a lot of book club reading to do this month, so hoping that will motivate me to get through a few and keep my reading up for the summer!

~ Anne

May Review

I don't know what happened in May - a lot always going on with the end of school, but I just couldn't get my reading legs.  I started about 10 books and ended up just returning them.  And one book I finished never quite got off the ground.  I'm hoping to re-orient myself as summer is starting and find some good page turners to get things going again!

Books Read:

1. Bitter by Akwaeke Emezi (fiction/library)

2. How to Know a Person by David Brooks (nonfiction/library/book club)

3. Paris by the Book by Liam Callanan (fiction/shelves)

Happy Reading,

Anne

April Review

 

Books Read in April:

• More: A Memoir of Open Marriage by Molly Roden Winter (Memoir/Shelf)
• Tom Lake by Ann Patchett (Fiction/Borrowed)
• Accountable by Dashka Slater (Nonfiction/Borrowed)
• Aloha Vietnam by Elizabeth Nguyen (Fiction/Gifted)
• The Fury by Alex Michaelides (Fiction/Library)
• The House of Hidden Meaning by RuPaul (Memoir/Gifted)

March Review & April Preview

 

Books read in March:

1. Real Self-Care by Pooja Lakshmin (Non-Fiction/Library)
2. Come and Get It by Kiley Reid (Fiction/Library)
3. The Running Body: A Memoir by Emily Pifer (Non-Fiction/Shelves)
4. The Future by Naomi Alderman (Fiction/Shelves/Book Club)
5. The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk (Non-Fiction/Library/Book Club)

April is also shaping up to be a month that is going by too quickly with work taking up my reading time - or at least the mental energy I have to read!  I'm looking forward to some time off in the summer to really tackle my TBR stacks!

Happy Reading!

February Review & March Preview

 

January seemed to move at a snail's pace, and now I feel the year is already flying by.  I don't even know where February went and I already feel like Easter and Spring Break are upon us!  I am in the middle of about 10 books right now and trying to remind myself to just slow down and enjoy each one, rather than feeling anxious about getting through MORE each month!  Someday, I will make a TBR list for the year that only includes books over 600 pages.  Then I will read 10 books that year and force myself to feel satisfied!  Remembering that reading is a purely hobby - meant to bring me joy and never stress - is a strangely hard thing to do sometimes.  But, a fun thing to keep working on!

Books read in February:

1. The Art Thief by Michael Finkel (Non-Fiction/Library)

2. The Passing Playbook by Isaac Fitzsimons (YA/Library)

3. The Wake Up by Michelle MiJung Kim (Non-Fiction/Book club/Library)

4. Blackmail and Bibingka by Mia P. Manansala (Mystery/Shelves)

5. The Wife App by Carolyn Mackler (Fiction/Shelves)

6. Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore (Mystery/Library)

7. The Bullet that Missed by Richard Osman (Mystery/Shelves)

I don't have any specific goals for March.  Just trying to clear the decks a little of the books that I have been meandering my way through, and we'll see what happens!!

Happy Reading,

Anne

January Review and February Preview!

 

Despite T.S. Eliot's view, January seems like the longest month.  I finished a lot of books this month, and it's hard to believe that the week I took off at the beginning was even in the same year, much less just a couple weeks ago!  I know I won't be able to keep it up all year, but it's a solid start!

Books Read in January:

1. Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood (Romance, Library)

2. Attachments by Rainbow Rowell (Romance, Library)

3. Pet by Akwaeke Emezi (YA Sci-Fi, Library)

4. Men Without Women by Haruki Murakami (Short Stories, Library)

5. The 5 AM Club by Robin S. Sharma (Self-Help, Audio)

6. The Racism of the People Who Love You by Samira Mehta (Non-Fiction, Library)

7. I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai (Mystery, Library)

8. Reading People by Anne Bogel (Non-Fiction, Library)

9. Alone Time by Stephanie Rosenbloom (Non-Fiction, Travel, Library)

10. The Tradition by Jericho Brown (Poetry, Audio)

11. A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas (Fantasy, Audio)

12. The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict & Victoria Christopher Murray (Historical Fiction, Shelves, Book Club)

13. Mother-Daughter Murder Night by Nina Simon (Mystery, Library)

14. What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast by Laura Vanderkam (Self-Help, Audio)

15. The Truth About Stories by Thomas King (Essays, Shelves, Book Club)

16. The Buddhist and the Ethicist by Peter Singer & Shin Chao-Hwei (Philosophy, Library)

17. My Murder by Katie Williams (Mystery/Library)

It's taking me awhile to get my February goals in order.  I'm feeling overwhelmed about reading and may need to give myself a little break to remember to enjoy it.  I'm looing forward to being on vacation so that I can only read one book at a time and won't be faced with an incredible number of options!  We'll see how it all plays out.

Happy Reading!