Show Us Your Books August 2020
/
July was a slow reading month for me, but between the adoption of two kittens and the new Baby-Sitters Club Netflix release who can blame me?
Favorite Read In July
Blue Highways by William Least Heat-Moon - This is a travel diary from the late 1970’s, and like in Travels With Charley I was struck by how many problems in America then are still problems now. I usually am a fast reader, but took my time with this one so I could savor Least Heat-Moon’s observations. He had a really observant yet non-judgemental way of looking at the people he met on his travels.
“I’d traveled ten thousand miles and had not encountered a single hoodlum. But I’d been taken for one several times. ”
Cool Reads For Hot Summer Nights
In The Woods by Tana French - I FINALLY got around to reading a Tana French book. I really liked this mystery that was really more about the detectives than it was about the actual mystery. The detectives in this book were very different than my favorite series by Louise Penny, but the feel was similar.
The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescot - I love me a good Cold War spy novel, especially when the spy is a woman. The background of how Dr. Zhivago came to be published, and the race to release it as anti-Russia propaganda was also interesting. This was also the first library book I read post quarantine, so it holds a spot in my heart for that alone!
Iron Lake by William Kent Krueger - This was another new to me mystery series that I’m excited to catch up on. The former sheriff of Aurora, Minnesota is at a bit of a loose end when this book starts. A mysterious death and a missing Boy Scout pull him back to his old job.
Audiobooks I Listened To With The Kids In The Car
One Crazy Summer and PS Be Eleven by Rita Williams-Garcia - The three sisters in these books were some of my favorite characters that I’ve read in a long time. These books touch on so many topics I want my kids to think about at a level they can understand. Great, great historical fictions for middle graders, and excellent on audio. I can’t wait to listen to the third one when we have a reason to be in the car again.
The Titan’s Curse by Rick Riordan - I can’t really get into these books, but my kids love them for road trips.
And A Giveaway [GIVEAWAY ENDED, STAY TUNED FOR MORE]
Back in June there was a chain letter going around town where kids tell other kids to buy books and send them and somehow they were supposed to get 36 books each in the mail. My daughter got three of these chain letters, and while I only let her send out one set of extortion letters in return we did end up buying books for four different kids because I felt bad thinking about them waiting for books in the mail that never came. So that’s why when I went to buy some books for myself the address of a member of my daughter’s girl scout troop was in the ship to field instead of mine. And my brain has been kind of mush this year, so I didn’t notice. And because the bookseller was swamped at the time I couldn’t cancel. And the girl in question had just moved a state away. But, happy ending to a long story I ordered myself a second set of books, and the original books made their way back to me last week. So now I have a set to give away! Just enter your email below, and I’ll pick on person to ship the books to! (US only, sorry.)
Note: Links to bookshop.org are affiliate links. Thanks for your support!
