July Book Review

Wow, July!! I ended up reading a total of 12 books this month. It was one of those months that ALL of my library holds for summer reads came in at once, so I put quite a bit of pressure on myself to fly through some of those “hot” books of the summer before the due date came around!

I read 5 nonfiction books and 7 fiction books. A lot of these books were fast and breezy, and one of my nonfiction books I have been working on since early June, but just now finished so it counted as a July book haha. My star ratings ranged from 2.75 stars to 5 stars.

Just as reminder, I have changed my format a bit in order to keep these book review posts a little bit shorter. I no longer write the synopsis of the book, but instead just include my review.

Nonfiction

Growing Seasons by Kristin Johns

My Review: I really enjoyed this one! I love me a good coffee table book with pictures, recipes and short smatterings of thought from the author’s life. I really enjoyed her reflections on surviving a hit and run accident as well as many of her thoughts of living life fully. I have never heard of this lady and after perusing her on social media, I probably wouldn’t follow her, but I did enjoy this sweet little book of hers!

You’re Not Enough (and That’s Ok) by Allie Beth Stuckey

My Review: I have been enjoying listening to Allie’s podcast- I DO NOT agree with everything she has to say, but I find a lot of her episodes to be really thought provoking. I picked up her book, but I think she does a better job with public speaking/podcasting than she does writing. This felt like someone with a platform being asked to write a book, and so throwing together some of their top thoughts and feelings. I didn’t disagree with any of the book, but just didn’t find it well written or overly compelling.

The Hands-On Ranch Book by Mary Hefferman

My Review: Here’s another social media person who does their day job so well: ranching! And sharing on social media! And this book was a total miss for me. I thumbed through it and didn’t find anything that made me want to buy the book and keep it around. There was one page that listed different breeds of chickens and Tera and went into a deep dive rabbit hole of some STRANGE breeds of chicken from there haha.

Class: A Memoir of Motherhood, Hunger, and Higher Education by Stephanie Land

My Review: Buckle your seatbelts, this review isn’t very positive. I read Stephanie Land’s first memoir Maid and had similar feelings as this one. I LOVE memoir and my favorite part of it is when someone overcomes insurmountable obstacles to get somewhere in life. And while Stephanie Land absolutely did that, it feels like she complained about every single circumstance every step of the way. I find her tone incredibly off-putting, and I find that some of her perspectives really seem one-sided (for example, she claims her friends would do nothing for her, but when it’s time for her to give birth, she has a team of about 10 people dropping everything to help her). I understand that life dealt her some incredibly hard blows and reviewing memoir is TOUGH because this is someone’s actual life and I cannot judge how to she felt, or even to some extent, how she acted in each circumstance. But this book was full of complaining, some really erotic and detailed sex scenes with multiple different boyfriends (not sexual abuse, just details of how they had sex), and a lot of language. She spends chapters focusing on a professor who seemed to be out to get her and made a couple rude “single Mom” comments, but then mentions in passing in one sentence a different professor who went out of her way to help her out in multiple different circumstances. I was really nervous to rate/review this one because I felt like it was pretty awful, but when I browsed Goodreads, I found that I was not the only one who felt that the tone was completely off, and frankly quite depressing.

Punished by Rewards

My Review: After that last review, you thought it would surely get better, didn’t you? Ha! Well, this book was recommended to me by someone in education and I just have to say that it took me through the ringer. His premise is basically that we should not punish students/kids and we also should not reward them. Instead, we should create an environment where they are intrinsically motivated to learn anything that is put in front of them. Now, he goes on for 400 more pages expounding on these ideas, so if you have an argument forming in your mind, you probably should read the book because he probably does address whatever you are thinking. In the end, I still disagree with his approach, BUT I did glean some helpful ideas, tips and tricks to use in my classroom.

Hard is Not the Same Thing as Bad by Abbie Halberstadt

My Review: This is a beautiful book full of gospel truth and some fantastic tips on raising kids and living in circumstances that feel hard. You might need to know that I have mixed feelings about Abbie Halberstadt – first of all, I think that she speaks truth, and speaks it well! I think she is truly gifted and it’s wonderful that she parents 10 children :). Unfortunately, I cannot follow her online because she makes me feel highly inadequate. I don’t disagree with what she is saying, but she often has the tone of “I do this successfully, so it should work for everyone as long as they try hard enough and just do the same amount of work that I do”. However, I picked up and read and really, really enjoyed her first book, M is for Mama. I was hoping that I would love this one as much, but unfortunately, it made me feel some negative feelings about my own parenting/marriage/money status and I didn’t enjoy that part.

Fiction

Swan Song by Elin Hilderbrand

My Review: Elin is hit or miss for me- sometimes I love her books, and sometimes they are just meh. I was hoping for a bit more with this one, and it landed somewhere in the middle. I kept waiting for a big plot twist and there wasn’t one, it kind of ended with more of a belly flop than a swan dive. Still, I did enjoy reading it and it was a nice, fast read for a summer weekend.

The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center

My Review: Katherine Center is a favorite auto-buy author for me! I adore her work- it embodies my favorite genre- the rom-com with a happily ever after, but some trauma and hardship to get there (kind of like real life, but with a guaranteed happy ending). This one was a delight, although not my favorite of hers.

Jackpot Summer

My Review: I LOVED this book! Absolutely loved it. File “lottery” under a micro-genre/subject that I am extremely intrigued by! I will probably read any fiction about the lottery. This is about a (mostly functional, but they have their troubles) family who wins the lottery and…it effects them in unexpected ways. I just LOVED this. The focus on how money can actually cause more problems than help, and how family and love trump money every time. I just loved it!

Lunar New Year Love Story

My Review: This is probably the first graphic novel I’ve read that I LOVED. I could not put it down and read it in one day (two sittings). It reminded me of To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before + Mulan…it was clean, sweet, and such a delight! Loved it!

The Soulmate

My Review: Sally Hepworth writes books that toe the line between thriller, domestic suspense and literary. I know that some readers would say that she does NOT write thrillers, but her books are about as suspenseful as I can get- and I do really enjoy them! This one was about how we know we are soulmates and how far we will go to love and protect those that we are bound to for life. It had a couple twists that I dnd’t see coming, and I was compelled to keep on turning the pages! It did have a big focus on mental health, suicide, and how sometimes loving someone can actually hurt/harm us. It gave a lot of food for thought.

Banyan Moon

My Review: Although this book was very character driven, I actually did enjoy it. One of the main characters seems to be the house and while that isn’t usually my favorite trope, this one did keep me reading. I wanted to know what was going to happen to the third generation of women to become single Moms and live in the house, and there was a couple plot twists that actually really surprised me in the best sort of way! I recommend this one for anyone who likes a slower book that focuses on character development and family relationships.

DNF

Slow Productivity

My Review: I really thought this one would be for me, but 60 pages in I had only read references to people who work in “information”, or basically get to make their own to-do list/productivity list each day. Since I work in a classroom and the rest of my time is dedicated to raising my children and managing my home, my time is very dictated by other people and I found that most of his tips didn’t even come close to applying to me. I didn’t disagree with any of them at all, but I just felt like it was not the book for someone who spends 98% of my days with small children.

And that’s a wrap for July! Don’t worry…August will be a much slower reading month for me because we are heading back to school! At this exact moment in time, I AM NOT READY…but I think the hype of the next few weeks will lead me to feeling very excited!