May Reading List

Real life moment: I am working on this blog post, and I have looked through almost every single picture on my computer, and I cannot find the picture that I took of the books I read this month.

It’s been a little bit of a frustrating day, and one or both of my children have been screaming all day, no matter how much or how little attention I give them. Those of you who aren’t parents are just pretty sure I’m a terrible person, and those of you who are get it. Or maybe not.

Anyways, I’ve been looking for this picture for about 40 minutes, and I finally give up and say, “STUPID. STUPID. STUPID” And somehow over the cries of Little Miss, Tera hears me and says, “Stupid!” with the cutest little grin on her face.

Total fail.

Anyways, I don’t have a picture of all the books I’ve read this month. And I’ve already taken some of them back to the library, so we will just have to do the ‘ol copy/paste from Google for some of these.

May was a pretty big month for reading, especially since I had a week of vacation without kids that included A LOT of car time!

One Hundred Names

This book was super boring. I almost gave up on it (I never give up on books). I was confused by all the characters. Although there is not 100 characters, there might as well have been. I think it was a very interesting plot and I did really enjoy the ending, but I had to drag myself through this one. Bummer.

The Fault in Our Stars

This is my first time reading this book, and I’ve never seen the movie! I have heard tons of people raving about it, so I decided to finally see what it was all about.

Ummm…am I the only person in the world who didn’t really like this book?

I’ll admit it…it sucked me in. It had great character development, great quotes, great plot twists and even the ending was above average. But I just didn’t love it. I didn’t love the sublime messages that it sent out. Messages about where we find love and reasons to live and the interaction of relationships. Maybe I was just being overly critical because I had never heard anyone say something bad about the book. I didn’t hate it, but it wasn’t my favorite.

Anne of Ingelside: I didn’t realize that the Anne of Green Gables series has so many books! The last one I read (I can’t even remember the name), I was feeling a little bit done with the whole series. It was fabulous at first, but then I felt like Montgomery was just trying to draw out more of a story. But I actually really enjoyed this one! It’s all about Anne’s children, and they were almost as delightful and mischievous as mine. This one did take me a loooong time to read through, though!

The Beach Club: A couple other bloggers I know highly recommend this author, and specifically recommended it being a perfect vacation/poolside read! I agree. I didn’t LOVE this book, but I honestly enjoyed reading it and I didn’t want to put it down. I felt like the characters were a bit underdeveloped, and I felt a little confused by the relationships between them, but it was nice and light and fluffy and just what I needed on my vacation! I’ll be picking up some more books by this author! I don’t take many vacations, but I can always use a little escape into a book!

Blue Shoes and Happiness: I’ve read one book from this series pretty much every month, so you know I think they are fabulous! The plots is great, and I just LOVE the detail that Smith adds into his characters and descriptions. It’s literally like I am there and I know these people: their strengths, their quirks, their flaws and their personalities. It’s delightful. Each book in this series contains one or more mysteries, and I’m always chuckling to myself when the mystery is solved.

I also read a lot of magazines this month, especially on our road trip! Did you know that you can check magazines out of your local library? Our library has over a hundred magazine subscriptions, and I can get my fix! Unfortunately, the current editions are usually checked out, but I don’t mind reading articles and news clips from last month, or even last year! It’s still fun to look through tons of different magazines- for free! Some of my favorites are This Old House, Runner’s World, Readers Digest, Real Simple, and Better Homes and Gardens.

The last two books for the months are books I’m still working through, but I will go ahead and leave reviews for them because they are both books that I cannot wait to talk about!!!

The first one is a book that I won in a giveaway from another foster Mom blogger. The book is called Garbage Bag Suitcase and it is probably one of my favorite books relating to foster care that I have ever read.

Theo and I have actually been reading this one out loud to each other- and I think that might be one of my new favorite things to do with him! We started reading it on our long car trip, and we just can’t stop! I don’t want to give too much of it away because I want you to read it yourself, but it’s about a young girl who grew up neglected and abused. At the age of 13, she basically checked herself into foster care. She then went on to get a scholarship to MSU, where she struggled with learning to live in the “real world”. Eventually, she accomplished much, and has since gotten married and had children of her own. This book is seriously incredible because it chronicles so much that can happen in life- the abuse and neglect of children in our nation, the injustices of foster care, the lost-ness of foster children who turn 18 and have never received training on how to live in the world, and how rare and difficult it is for anyone to overcome. And yet Shen did overcome, and she is now sharing her story.

She also writes several chapters on why the system of foster care isn’t working, and gives several alternatives that our nation can consider. This is a powerful perspective, and one that really has Theo and I talking.

Highly recommend.

The other book that I’m currently reading is Orphan Train. I started this last night and I cannot put it down! It’s so good! It’s also about a young girl in foster care, who ends up having to do community service in the home of an old woman who was an orphan in the 1920s, and road on one of our nation’s orphan trains. The orphan trains took orphans from the city to the country, where the children were “adopted”….obviously, that term was used loosely, as most of the children over the age of 2 were “taken in” as maids or field hands. This is a novel, so it’s not based on actual story, but it’s still very compelling and fascinating and it makes me think about the system that we have today and how far we have come!

So that’s my May reading list! What have you read this month? Do you have any great books I need to add to my list for June or July?