May Reading List

I’m not sure how this happened, but I somehow managed to read seven books during the month of May! I started to have some good days here and there, but not good enough to be back entirely to my old self, so I still did a lot of laying around. Theo also started a new shift and he doesn’t get home until way past midnight, so I find that after all the kids go to bed I like to sit down and read. I also just picked up some fun books and was on a total roll! It’s been a good reading month.

Paper Towns 

After last month, I knew I that I needed to pick up a novel that was a little less weighty and could just let me relax. I picked the next novel on my shelf and it was this John Greene book. I gave it three stars, because while it was catchy and I enjoyed reading it, it was also kind of strange. It’s set in high school, and I just couldn’t relate to any of what these supposed high schoolers do. These kids are driving around town trying to solve a mystery with clues left for them by their rebellious (and super popular) peer. Eventually, they drive halfway across the country to find her, even though she apparently didn’t want to be found. Overall, the plot was intriguing and it kept me entertained all throughout.

Sophie’s Heart 

A friend loaned me this book, which I haven’t read in YEARS (I think it was published back in the 90s). It’s such a sweet and beautiful story that I loved reading it over again. Sophie moves from a foreign country and finds herself trying to adjust to life in America. She eventually finds a job as a nanny for a family who had lost their mother/wife. Of course, everyone falls in love with Sophie, including the young widower. It’s a sweet story and I enjoyed reading through it again.

The Lake House 

This book was not at all what I expected. It was LONG and had a lot of details, but throughout it a mystery unfolds. A young boy (named Theo) had gone missing 70 years before, and a young detective (on leave from work) dives into solving the mystery. It flips back and forth between olden days and present day and several times I though the mystery was solved only to have a new plot twist. The end was kind of cheesy but I didn’t hate it. I was a bit nervous that it would be heavy since it deals with the kidnapping/death of a young child, but in the end it wasn’t heavy at all and it was an overall great novel that kept me reading.

One Crazy Summer 

I think I heard this one recommended on a podcast, and I breezed through it in one day. It’s actually a young adult book and is the first in a series of three. I’ve been working on trying to diversify the authors that I read, and this one really hit the nail on the head. Delphine and her sisters spend the summer in San Fransisco with their absent “mother” who is a member of the Black Panthers during the civil rights movement. I will admit that I don’t know much about this period in history, and reading this book just referenced these events without giving me details, so now I am very interested in learning more details about this time. It was refreshing to read a book from an African American perspective and I will for sure be picking up the next two in the series.

Salt to the Sea 

This book was SO GOOD. I was hooked and I couldn’t put it down. WWII is winding down, and Germany is falling. Refugees are fleeing and a small band of them come together to make the characters in this story. Throughout the story, we learn more about their past, their present, and how intricately woven they become. They all board a ship which was hit by Russian torpedoes and the ship sinks with over 10,000 passengers on board (a more tragic ship sinking than even the Titanic, yet no one has heard of it). Several of the passengers live, but several are killed. It’s a tragic and raw look at what war has done to so many, and yet, the story also portrayed so much beauty in the relationships that were built. The chapters were also really short so I just kept reading and reading and couldn’t put it down!

Made to Crave 

I found that I couldn’t relate personally to Lysa Terkuerts struggle with food, but I found the book very encouraging/challenging towards anything in my life that I crave more than God. Lysa was very raw and honest and it felt like I was sitting down with her to just chat, not like I was reading the pages of her story. If you have ever struggled with turning to food for comfort (not even necessarily an “eating disorder”), then you must read this book. It was encouraging, challenging and I found that I could relate in so many ways outside of food.

The Queen of Hearts

I really liked this book. The entire book is a medical drama built around two friends who have known each other since medical school. They are now adults with thriving practices and families, and then a man turns up that they have known since medical school. This man could tear their friendship apart if he reveals their secret…which he does. Overall, it’s very dramatic and unfortunately quite a bit of the plot is built along a sexual relationship, but I do appreciate that there were ZERO raunchy scenes in the book. For some reason I really enjoyed all the medical descriptions, and I could tell that the author was a doctor herself. She put a lot of personal experiences from her life that really came alive in the novel (the death of her first patient, making a medical mistake, doing rounds, some HILARIOUS encounters with strange patients in ER rooms, etc.). It was a page turner and I really liked it!