Guys, I read 11 books in March! WHAT? I can't believe I read so many books and that they ALL counted for the book challenge and several of them were EXCELLENT. You'd think I'd be in the lead, right? Nope - Allison traveled for work for a week and read SIX BOOKS IN A WEEK. Womp, womp. She's ahead of me by 2 or 3 books, ugh. It's getting more challenging as we are getting down to the prompts that are hard to find books that fit, so I think it's still a tight race.
Glory Over Everything by Kathleen Grissom - When I read The Kitchen House in February, I was so sad to see it end. I felt like there was more story there to be told...and then I found Glory Over Everything. It is the story of a minor character, Jamie, who is the son of a slave on the plantation when he is an adult living in Philadelphia passing for a white man. When one of his young, black servants is kidnapped and sold into slavery, Jamie must face his past to save the boy. Another fantastic yet heart-breaking story by Kathleen Grissom! There was 1 thread from The Kitchen House that I didn't feel was tied up and I was disappointed, and I was hoping for a resolution here, and there was one, so I can say I am completely happy with both of these books!
Surprise Me by Sophia Kinsella - I read almost all of the Shopaholic books back in the day and most everything by Sophia Kinsella. Most of her books I've really liked, if not loved. Surprise Me is about a couple who finds out their life expectancy is well-above the average and they are looking at another 70 years as a married couple, so they decide to surprise each other to spice things up...and hilarity and disaster ensues. It was a pretty typical Sophia Kinsella book, and I enjoyed it.
Turtles All the Way Down by John Green - Aza has OCD, and she and her best friend are investigating the disappearance of a billionaire in their city as Aza knows his son. This story shows Aza struggling to live day-by-day with her OCD as she also navigates her relationship with her mother, best friend, and her renewed friendship with the missing billionaire's son. This book was so good and so heartbreaking as we watch Aza battle her demons. I was captivated from the beginning and read this very quickly. I read after I finished the book that John Green also battles OCD which shed a lot of light on the story.
When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr - I found this book randomly in the children's section at our local library, but it fit a prompt for the book challenge {a title with your favorite color in it}, and it was about WW2, so I couldn't resist. This is a semi-autobiographical story of a Jewish family in Germany who leaves before Hitler takes power and their journey to Switzerland and then France. I read an interview with the author after I read this that she wrote this book - and some follow-ups I want to read! - when her children asked her questions about her childhood. Her family ended up in London, and she still lives there today - very cool!
Goodnight from London by Jennifer Robson - Probably my favorite read of the month! Ruby is an American journalist that is sent to London at the start of WW2 to write about her experiences for an American paper. I loved reading about her finding her way in London, making friends, falling in love, I couldn't put it down!
Bleachers by John Grisham - This book reminded me what a great writer John Grisham is! I used to read everything he wrote but haven't read anything of his in a long time. A H.S. football coach, who was like a God in his small town, dies and his players come back to mourn him.
Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth - This was our book club selection for the month and was a study of how 'gritty' we are - how much we stick to stuff. I can't say I loved this book, but I did find the section on parenting interesting and actually used the theory recently. Trent wanted to quit his Ninja class, and I thought about what this book said when making my decision - was I letting him just give up/quit? I decided he wasn't letting down a team, he had been trying it for a while, and had been asking for a long time to stop, so we let him quit. Fun that I wasn't really looking forward to reading this book and I actually put its principles into action!
Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins - My Overdrive app recommended this to me, and it was right! Anna is spending her senior year at a boarding school in Paris and quickly falls for the most popular boy in school, blah, blah, you know what happens. It was cute, fun, and a quick read!
The Lying Game by Ruth Ware - This is the 3rd Ruth Ware book I've read, and I still can't decide overall how I feel about this genre - where you spend the whole book slightly confused until everything comes together at the end. 4 friends from an England boarding school played a game where they lied to people and earned points for having the lie believed. Years later, a mystery they were a part of comes back to haunt them. I thought this was slow to start, but I enjoyed everything once the mystery unraveled. Which is probably what I'd say about all of these books...sigh.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams - Yuck. This book was weird and annoying. Arthur Dent is taken from Earth seconds before it is destroyed and he spends the rest of the book interacting with aliens and escaping harm, and I spent the book speed-reading and rolling my eyes, ha.
Whew, writing all this down was tiring - I hope you made it through!
5 comments:
Okay I need to look into the Kathleen Grissom books. I LOVED the Anna and the French Kiss series, although the second book not so much. And yes, I agree about Ruth Ware -- I can't decide if I like her or not...
I'm so glad you loved Goodnight From London. You should check out Jennifer's first series which starts with Somewhere in France. (And yes, I call her Jennifer because she is a friend of a friend and came to our book club so we're basically besties! Hahaha!)
Wellll I'm about to add a lot of books to my Goodreads list!! Whew!! I still need to read Glory Over Everything. I haven't read any Sophie Kinsella in a long time, but that sounds pretty hilarious. Goodnight in London sounds right up my alley!! I've always suspected Hitchhiker's Guide wouldn't be my cup of tea, and this confirmed it, so thanks!! Haha.
Oh, ooops. So do you think any of these would be good book club discussion picks?? I'm thinking particularly that Turtles, Pink Rabbit, and Goodnight London would be things my group would naturally lean toward (and Glory over Everything, but most have already read it, haha)...would any of those lend toward good discussion?
You were a busy bee! The french kiss one looks good and Bleachers. I've never read a John Grisham (i know) so that looks like a good one! The liar book looks interesting too!
I’ve had “when Hitler stole pink rabbit” on my list for years and actually considered deleting it recently, but perhaps instead I’ll finally read it! I’m kind of interested in that Grit book. A year or so ago, I saw an online talk where they determined the one similarity between successful people no matter walks of life (rich, poor, loved, abused, race, gender, etc) was “grit” but no one could find a consistent successful method to “create grit” in a child. I’ve wanted to find that speech again and blog about it because it was so fascinating. Lastly, the hitchimders guide: lol. It was one of those popular books that Adam read and I’ve had ZERO interest - which is now doubly confirmed by your assessment.
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