It’s been awhile since I have posted a book review blog post, and I have sadly missed February, March and April books 🙁 Maybe I’ll write posts for each of those months sometime later this summer, but for today I’m just going to hop right back into May and post my May books!
I read 12 books in the month of May, but some of those were quick and easy reads. I also had for the very first time in my life two days a week where I was home with just the newborn. I haven’t had that kind of “alone time” in 8 years since I first became a Mom haha.
Exes and O’s
Rating: 3.25 stars
Amazon Description: Romance book connoisseur Tara Chen has had her heart broken ten times by ten different men—all of whom dumped her because of her “stage-five clinger” tendencies. Nevertheless, Tara is determined to find The One. The only problem? Classic meet-cutes are dead, thanks to modern dating apps. So Tara decides to revisit her exes in hopes of securing her very own trope-worthy second-chance romance.
Boston firefighter Trevor Metcalfe will be the first to rush into a burning building but the last to rush into a relationship. Love just isn’t his thing. When his new roommate Tara enlists him to help her reconnect with her exes, he reluctantly agrees. But Tara’s journey is leading him to discover his own new chapter.
The more time they spend together, the more Tara realizes Trevor seems to be the only one who appreciates her authentic, dramatic self. To claim their happily ever after, can Tara and Trevor read between the lines of their growing connection?
My Review: This was a predictable chick flick, just what I needed to sit down and read through in a weekend. But it wasn’t anything super impressive or stand out that would make it different from any other rom-coms.
The Magician’s Nephew
My Rating: 4.5 solid stars
Amazon Synopsis: Adapted from the book by C.S. Lewis. Digory is concerned about his ill mother and about his Uncle Andrew, who seems very strange indeed. When Digory and his friend are tricked by Uncle Andrew into embarking on a series of magical adventures, they are brought into contact with the forces of both evil and good. Digory is set a task, which he completes successfully, and the safety of Narnia and the restored health of his mother are thereby ensured.
My Review: We decided to embark on the Chronicles of Narnia series read-through and decided to start with the chronological order of these books, so this was the first one! We all LOVED it. My in-laws were in town when we started and they had to pick up the book to finish it for themselves since they weren’t here when we did finish it. In fact, I might like this book more than I like the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe!
The Dearly Beloved
My Rating: 4.25 stars
Amazon Synopsis: Charles and Lily, James and Nan. They meet in Greenwich Village in 1963 when Charles and James are jointly hired to steward the historic Third Presbyterian Church through turbulent times. Their personal differences however, threaten to tear them apart.
Charles is destined to succeed his father as an esteemed professor of history at Harvard, until an unorthodox lecture about faith leads him to ministry. How then, can he fall in love with Lily—fiercely intellectual, elegantly stern—after she tells him with certainty that she will never believe in God? And yet, how can he not?
James, the youngest son in a hardscrabble Chicago family, spent much of his youth angry at his alcoholic father and avoiding his anxious mother. Nan grew up in Mississippi, the devout and beloved daughter of a minister and a debutante. James’s escape from his desperate circumstances leads him to Nan and, despite his skepticism of hope in all its forms, her gentle, constant faith changes the course of his life.
My Review: While this book moved very slow, and I had a hard time at first keeping track of which character goes with who, but once the book got going I felt deeply connected to the characters. This book is for sure character driven with very little actual plot, but the thoughts and feelings that it was able to stir up made it feel like this was real life. The way that the characters grappled with God and each other and faith and acts of service just felt very much like conversations and experiences we would be having in real life. There are for sure trigger warnings in this book for infertility, miscarriage, and having a special needs child with a difficult diagnosis.
Cultivate: A Grace-Filled Guide to Growing an Intentional Life
My Rating: 3.75
Amazon Synopsis: Too many of us think we have to have it all together in order to live a meaningful life. Instead of feeling put together, we end up feeling inadequate, overwhelmed, and exhausted as we try to figure out how to do it all.
Author, business owner, and mom to three Lara Casey has been there, too. In Cultivate, she offers this grace-filled advice: we can’t do it all and do it well, but we can choose to cultivate what matters
Written as part encouragement anthem and part practical guide, Cultivateoffers wisdom from God’s Word alongside lessons Lara has learned in her own life–and in her garden–giving you the tools you need to:
- Discern what matters most to you
- Embrace the season of life that you’re in
- Find the joy and freedom that comes with cultivating what matters
Let Lara be your guide as you learn to cultivate what matters, little by little, with the help of God’s transforming grace.
My Review: This was an excellent book, and it was perfect to read it during the Spring when garden season is beginning! Lara draws all of her chapters/life lessons in a comparison with a gardening strategy. I really enjoyed the book and it was so full of great reminders, but there was nothing brand new or life changing in the story for me. I would gladly re-read this one to have some good reminders, though!
Nora Goes Off Script
My Rating: 4 stars
Amazon Synopsis: Nora Hamilton knows the formula for love better than anyone. As a romance channel screenwriter, it’s her job. But when her too-good-to work husband leaves her and their two kids, Nora turns her marriage’s collapse into cash and writes the best script of her life. No one is more surprised than her when it’s picked up for the big screen and set to film on location at her 100-year-old-home. When former Sexiest Man Alive, Leo Vance, is cast as her ne’er do well husband Nora’s life will never be the same.
The morning after shooting wraps and the crew leaves, Nora finds Leo on her porch with a half-empty bottle of tequila and a proposition. He’ll pay a thousand dollars a day to stay for a week. The extra seven grand would give Nora breathing room, but it’s the need in his eyes that makes her say yes. Seven days: it’s the blink of an eye or an eternity depending on how you look at it. Enough time to fall in love. Enough time to break your heart.
My Review: Honestly, this one didn’t quite live up to the hype for me. A lot of people talked about how it was so different from a typical rom-com and how refreshing it was, but I found it to be very similar to many other books that I’ve read. I did like the story and enjoyed reading it, and it was a nice quick read for me. The ending was particularly sweet and I did enjoy the portrayal of the children in this novel. Overall, super cute and fast read, but I just didn’t understand why this one was a top ten for so many people when it seemed to be on par for several other books I’ve read recently.
All My Knotted-Up Life
My Review: 5 stars!!!!
Amazon Synopsis: New York Times best-selling author, speaker, visionary, and founder of Living Proof Ministries Beth Moore has devoted her whole life to helping women across the globe come to know the transforming power of Jesus. An established writer of many acclaimed books and Bible studies for women on spiritual growth and personal development, Beth now unveils her own story in a much-anticipated debut memoir.
All My Knotted-Up Life is told with surprising candor about some of the personal heartbreaks and behind-the-scenes challenges that have marked Beth’s life. But beyond that, it’s a beautifully crafted portrait of resilience and survival, a poignant reminder of God’s enduring faithfulness, and proof positive that if we ever truly took the time to hear people’s full stories . . . we’d all walk around slack-jawed.
My Review: WOW! This book blew me away. I laughed, I cried, and I wanted to give the book a giant hug when I was finished. Beth Moore is an incredible storyteller, and her story in itself is incredible. I have always been familiar with Beth Moore, and have maybe done one or two of her Bible studies/books, but I haven’t followed her too closely. I knew about her breakup with the Southern Baptist Convention and have seen some other internet drama stirred up around her, but I am not heavily invested in her life so this wasn’t triggering for me. I loved how she candidly told her story and let us in to the ups and downs of her personal life, while also still protecting and guarding some of the people in her life who have made some big mistakes. One thing that still kind of bothered me is her relationship with her husband, or maybe her husband’s relationship with the church. In some ways, this made her even more endearing to me because it showed how human she is and how much personal life she has sacrificed for ministry. It also really just revealed to me how God uses broken people and hard situations to bring glory to himself.
Journey to Jo’burg: A South African Story
My Rating: 3 stars
Amazon Synopsis: Mma lives and works in Johannesburg, far from the village thirteen-year-old Naledi and her younger brother, Tiro, call home. When their baby sister suddenly becomes very sick, Naledi and Tiro know that they need to bring their mother back in order to save their sister’s life. Bravely, secretly, they set off on the long journey to the big city to find Mma.
It isn’t until they finally reach Jo’burg that they see up close what life is like for black citizens across South Africa—and begin to really question the unfair and dangerous laws of apartheid.
My Review: This was a quick read- less than 100 pages, so I read it in one sitting. It is written for a 3rd grade level, but the content is very educational and informative. This would make a great book for any class or homeschoolers who are beginning to talk about apartheid, race, and rules around that topic. I did felt like I learned quite a bit even from this short book.
Unexpected Choice: An Abortion Doctor’s Journey to Pro-Life
My Rating: 2.5 stars
Amazon Synopsis: Dr. Patricia Giebink once performed abortions for Planned Parenthood. Now she is a passionate pro-life advocate. How does a pro-choice doctor wind up on the opposite side of such an embattled issue?
Unexpected Choice is the emotional and powerful true story of how one doctor was overpowered by God’s perspective and repented before millions for her part in the abortion industry. Heartbreaking and inspiring, this memoir will give you a new appreciation for the complexity of life and the power of transforming grace.
My Review: Ok, hear me out on this one. I gave it such a low rating not because I disliked the content of the book, but because the book itself was rather…slow. I felt like it would have been a GREAT blog post or magazine article, but I felt like we hit all the necessary points within the first two chapters and the rest was just reflection on the change that she went through throughout her life. The story itself wasn’t written chronologically, so that was also sometimes confusing. The story itself is incredible and excellent, and I’m glad she was willing to write it, but the presentation of the story wasn’t great. I did appreciate so much how she gracefully presented both sides of the abortion debate- why she had been pro-choice and also why she was now pro-life.
The Rose Code
My Rating: 3 stars
Amazon Synopsis: 1940. As England prepares to fight the Nazis, three very different women answer the call to mysterious country estate Bletchley Park, where the best minds in Britain train to break German military codes. Vivacious debutante Osla is the girl who has everything—beauty, wealth, and the dashing Prince Philip of Greece sending her roses—but she burns to prove herself as more than a society girl, and puts her fluent German to use as a translator of decoded enemy secrets. Imperious self-made Mab, product of east-end London poverty, works the legendary codebreaking machines as she conceals old wounds and looks for a socially advantageous husband. Both Osla and Mab are quick to see the potential in local village spinster Beth, whose shyness conceals a brilliant facility with puzzles, and soon Beth spreads her wings as one of the Park’s few female cryptanalysts. But war, loss, and the impossible pressure of secrecy will tear the three apart.
1947. As the royal wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip whips post-war Britain into a fever, three friends-turned-enemies are reunited by a mysterious encrypted letter–the key to which lies buried in the long-ago betrayal that destroyed their friendship and left one of them confined to an asylum. A mysterious traitor has emerged from the shadows of their Bletchley Park past, and now Osla, Mab, and Beth must resurrect their old alliance and crack one last code together. But each petal they remove from the rose code brings danger–and their true enemy–closer…
My Review: Oh no! This was another completely overrated novel for me. People have said that this is their absolute favorite historical fiction novel…but again, it just felt kind of like all the other WWII historical fiction novels. It’s told in a dual timeline with a mystery of what happened to put the characters in the places that they are now. It was a HEFTY book with nearly 650 pages and it was very interesting. I didn’t hate it, but as a book in my least favorite genre (WWII historical fiction), it didn’t win me over like I thought it would! If you love historical fiction, then you will really enjoy this one!
The Key to My Heart
My Rating: 3.5 stars
Amazon Synopsis: Sparkly and charming Natalie Fincher has it all—a handsome new husband, a fixer-upper cottage of her dreams, and the opportunity to tour with the musical she’s spent years writing. But when her husband suddenly dies, all her hopes and dreams instantly disappear.
Two and a half years later, Natalie is still lost. She works, sleeps (well, as much as the sexually frustrated village foxes will allow), and sees friends just often enough to allay their worries, but her life is empty. And she can only bring herself to play music at a London train station’s public piano where she can be anonymous. She’s lost motivation, faith in love, in happiness…in everything.
But when someone begins to mysteriously leave the sheet music for her husband’s favorite songs at the station’s piano, Natalie begins to feel a sense of hope and excitement for the first time. As she investigates just who could be doing this, Natalie finds herself on an unexpected journey toward newfound love for herself, for life, and maybe, for a special someone.
My Review: There was a lot that I liked about this book- the predictable rom-com happy ending, the characters that actually have thoughts and feelings outside of romance, the characters were well developed and there was even a mystery component of which dude she was going to end up with! Overall, though, I felt like this book was SO LONG. I already knew who she was going to end up with, so adding in chapters and chapters of this potential other romance seemed a little bit too much. I also didn’t really enjoy the “mysterious piano music” part of the story. I didn’t feel like the mystery resolved well.
They Called Us Enemy
My Rating: 3.75 stars
Amazon Synopsis: George Takei has captured hearts and minds worldwide with his magnetic performances, sharp wit, and outspoken commitment to equal rights. But long before he braved new frontiers in Star Trek, he woke up as a four-year-old boy to find his own birth country at war with his father’s — and their entire family forced from their home into an uncertain future.
In 1942, at the order of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, every person of Japanese descent on the west coast was rounded up and shipped to one of ten “relocation centers,” hundreds or thousands of miles from home, where they would be held for years under armed guard.
They Called Us Enemy is Takei’s firsthand account of those years behind barbed wire, the terrors and small joys of childhood in the shadow of legalized racism, his mother’s hard choices, his father’s tested faith in democracy, and the way those experiences planted the seeds for his astonishing future.
My Review: So I actually had no idea who George Take was until I got to the end of this book! This is a graphic novel telling the story of the many Japanese families who were interred in prison camps during WWII. I learned so much from reading this book and I felt that the fact that it was a graphic novel really made it come alive. I was so surprised at the end to find that George Takei is actually world famous for acting in Star Trek. I did feel slowed down by some of the lawyer talk and all the executive orders that were listed and expounded upon in this story. I also am not drawn to black and white images, but I understand why they may have published this whole novel in black and white. I would love to also have a color version!
Romantic Comedy
My Rating: 2.75 stars 🙁
Amazon Synopsis: Sally Milz is a sketch writer for The Night Owls, a late-night live comedy show that airs every Saturday. With a couple of heartbreaks under her belt, she’s long abandoned the search for love, settling instead for the occasional hook-up, career success, and a close relationship with her stepfather to round out a satisfying life.
But when Sally’s friend and fellow writer Danny Horst begins dating Annabel, a glamorous actress who guest-hosted the show, he joins the not-so-exclusive group of talented but average-looking and even dorky men at the show—and in society at large—who’ve gotten romantically involved with incredibly beautiful and accomplished women. Sally channels her annoyance into a sketch called the Danny Horst Rule, poking fun at this phenomenon while underscoring how unlikely it is that the reverse would ever happen for a woman.
Enter Noah Brewster, a pop music sensation with a reputation for dating models, who signed on as both host and musical guest for this week’s show. Dazzled by his charms, Sally hits it off with Noah instantly, and as they collaborate on one sketch after another, she begins to wonder if there might actually be sparks flying. But this isn’t a romantic comedy—it’s real life. And in real life, someone like him would never date someone like her . . . right?
My Review: This book has been so buzzy for this summer, and I was so excited to dive into it! One thing that I did appreciate about it is that it’s a romance, but it’s not written like a rom-com- it’s more literary and slow moving. It contained a LOT of political opinions and shed a lot of light on women in the workplace on TV shows, which was useful and fascinating information and a commentary on our current culture (for better or for worse). Unfortunately, this book was just a big miss for me. Perhaps because I’ve never watched SNL or really any skit show, I wasn’t that interested in all the behind the scenes or references to late night TV. I found the book very crass and really quite slow. I also cringed through most of the pandemic references, as life was so completely different for me during the pandemic. It annoyed me that people found the pandemic relaxing and didn’t have anything to do during it. I also found the book fairly slow and a bit choppy with the first part taking place in 2018 and the second part taking place in 2020. I’m glad I read it so that I can interact with discussions on the book, but it was a bit disappointing for me!
Eat a Peach
My Rating: 3.75 stars
Amazon Synopsis: In 2004, Momofuku Noodle Bar opened in a tiny, stark space in Manhattan’s East Village. Its young chef-owner, David Chang, worked the line, serving ramen and pork buns to a mix of fellow restaurant cooks and confused diners whose idea of ramen was instant noodles in Styrofoam cups. It would have been impossible to know it at the time—and certainly Chang would have bet against himself—but he, who had failed at almost every endeavor in his life, was about to become one of the most influential chefs of his generation, driven by the question, “What if the underground could become the mainstream?”
Chang grew up the youngest son of a deeply religious Korean American family in Virginia. Graduating college aimless and depressed, he fled the States for Japan, hoping to find some sense of belonging. While teaching English in a backwater town, he experienced the highs of his first full-blown manic episode, and began to think that the cooking and sharing of food could give him both purpose and agency in his life.
My Review: I love memoirs, and even though I didn’t have a clue who this man was before reading the book, I really enjoyed reading his life story about building several restaurants in New York City. My life is absolutely nothing like David Chang’s, yet I appreciate so much his nods to being human and tackling life’s challenges. I was pleasantly surprised by this one!
And that is a wrap on my May reads! Have you read any of these? What do you think? I’d love to hear your comments on any of the books that I read this month!