August is always my slowest reading month, since ALL.THE.THINGS shift and change in August. We go from our summer schedule to our school schedule and all 6 of us have a giant schedule change. I started back in the classroom and then school started for the whole family and I only managed to read 5 books – 3 fiction, one non-fiction, and one read aloud to the kids. I honestly felt very slumpy this month and reading just wasn’t bringing me the same amount of joy that it usually does! Thankfully, I was able to move past that in the month of September, but I was just feeling really annoyed and judgey towards all the books that I did read during August.
The Mostly True Story of Tanner and Louise
Synopsis: Twenty-one-year-old Tanner Quimby needs a place to live. Preferably one where she can continue sitting around in sweatpants and playing video games nineteen hours a day. Since she has no credit or money to speak of, her options are limited, so when an opportunity to work as a live-in caregiver for an elderly woman falls into her lap, she takes it. One slip on the rug. That’s all it took for Louise Wilt’s daughter to demand that Louise have a full-time nanny living with her. Never mind that she can still walk fine, finish her daily crossword puzzle, and pour the two fingers of vodka she drinks every afternoon.Bottom line: Louise wants a caretaker even less than Tanner wants to be one. The two start off their living arrangement happily ignoring each other until Tanner starts to notice things—weird things. Like, why does Louise keep her garden shed locked up tighter than a prison? And why is the local news fixated on the suspect of one of the biggest jewelry heists in American history who looks eerily like Louise? And why does Louise suddenly appear in her room, with a packed bag at 1 a.m. insisting that they leave town immediately?
My Review: This one was cute! I loved that there was an elderly main character and I loved the unlikely friendship/found family between Tanner and Louise. I also liked how even though there was a romance in the book, it was very much a side plot. There was a very cheesy plot twist at the end, but it kind of worked!
My Rating: 4 stars
Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers
Synopsis: Vera Wong is a lonely little old lady—ah, lady of a certain age—who lives above her forgotten tea shop in the middle of San Francisco’s Chinatown. Despite living alone, Vera is not needy, oh no. She likes nothing more than sipping on a good cup of Wulong and doing some healthy detective work on the Internet about what her Gen-Z son is up to. Then one morning, Vera trudges downstairs to find a curious thing—a dead man in the middle of her tea shop. In his outstretched hand, a flash drive. Vera doesn’t know what comes over her, but after calling the cops like any good citizen would, she sort of . . . swipes the flash drive from the body and tucks it safely into the pocket of her apron. Why? Because Vera is sure she would do a better job than the police possibly could, because nobody sniffs out a wrongdoing quite like a suspicious Chinese mother with time on her hands. Vera knows the killer will be back for the flash drive; all she has to do is watch the increasing number of customers at her shop and figure out which one among them is the killer. What Vera does not expect is to form friendships with her customers and start to care for each and every one of them. As a protective mother hen, will she end up having to give one of her newfound chicks to the police?
My Review: loved this book! I loved how Vera was overbearing and annoying and yet you couldn’t help but love her. I loved how each character wasn’t just a “good guy” or a “bad guy” but a little bit of both. I loved the relationships that were formed and how the story stayed mostly light even though it was dealing with big issues. This was one I texted to several friends after I had finished reading it!
My Rating: 4.5 stars
Good for a Girl: A Woman Running in a Man’s World
Synopsis: Lauren Fleshman has grown up in the world of running. One of the most decorated collegiate athletes of all time and a national champion as a pro, she was a major face of women’s running for Nike before leaving to shake up the industry with feminist running brand Oiselle and now coaches elite young female runners. Every step of the way, she has seen the way that our sports systems—originally designed by men, for men and boys—fail young women and girls as much as empower them. Girls drop out of sports at alarming rates once they hit puberty, and female collegiate athletes routinely fall victim to injury, eating disorders, or mental health struggles as they try to force their way past a natural dip in performance for women of their age.
My Review: This one had SO much potential, and there were parts of it that was absolutely fascinating. But overall it fell completely flat. I liked the parts where she talked about how women are trained to peak at the same time as men, but they actually don’t physically peak until much later in life. She spent about half a page talking about how women are expected to run and perform even during the dips in their monthly cycles, but mean don’t have the same cyclical dips and peaks. I wish that she had focused on that much, much more, because I find it a fascinating topic! I just wish that this book had less ranting about “the system” and more focused research and takeaways. Ok, from the book I can conclude that the world of sports and running is unfair to women. But WHAT NOW? That was the question that was never answered. She also weaves a lot of evolution and bi-sexual/LGBTQ references throughout the story, which kind of confused me because the whole point of the book is how unfair the world of running is to women, but then she is clearly pro-men declaring they are women and running with the girls (and vice versa). That confused me. So, skip this one unless you are doing specific research into women’s running.
My Rating: 2 stars
Fourth Wing
Synopsis: Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general―also known as her tough-as-talons mother―has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders. But when you’re smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away…because dragons don’t bond to “fragile” humans. They incinerate them. With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother’s daughter―like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant. She’ll need every edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise. Yet, with every day that passes, the war outside grows more deadly, the kingdom’s protective wards are failing, and the death toll continues to rise. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a terrible secret.
My Review: Ok…..in case you live under a rock and haven’t heard of this one yet….
My conclusion after reading this one is: I get why people are so hyped about it, but it was not for me.
Long version: I liked the world building, I liked the characters well enough, and the plot kept me very interested. If I was more of a fantasy reader I could absolutely see this keeping my attention. However, I’m not much of a fantasy reader and frankly I found this book SO LONG. It just kept going and going and going and it made me tired. That being said, I also couldn’t put it down and stayed up very late some nights just to get in some more reading! My biggest beef with this book is the very, very spicy sex scenes. Ok, so I don’t necessarily have a problem with sex, as I do read the equivalent in romance books. But it annoyed me in this book because I felt like by adding in graphic sex, it left out a whole generation or two of people that I could never recommend this book to! If it had been a little more PG, I would be pressing this book into everyone’s hands (teens, my aunties, etc)! But since it has so much sexy sex I am now hesitant to recommend it to anyone!
I do plan to pick up and read the second book and give the series another chance, but I’m still kind of meh about the whole thing. However, I do predict that Dain will have a redeeming arc and become a favorite character in a later book.
My Rating: 3.75 stars
Prince Caspian
Synopsis: One year after their previous adventure, the Pevensie children return to the magical land of Narnia and find that 1300 years have passed there. War has come to Narnia once again, and the children join forces with Prince Caspian to overthrow the evil King Miraz and restore peace to the land.
My Review: This might be my least favorite of the Narnia series so far….I just found the plot was not as fast moving as the other books in the series. Still, it has been a delight to read the entire series from start to finish! (Since I’m behind in my reviews, we now officially have just one book left in the series).
My Rating: 3.5 stars
And that is a wrap on August! I’ll blog my September reads next Friday and then we should be back on track with my monthly book reviews!