Guys, I’m currently in a reading slump. I know, I know…I still managed to read 10 books this month…but only one of them was one I adored. I founds myself picking up quite a few books this month that I just felt irrationally annoyed by. I found myself disliking books that I probably would usually like. I have a lot of books checked out from the library right now that I want to get through, but I’m struggling and feeling bogged down by reading right now. I find myself scrolling more than Im reading, which isn’t normal for me.
Here are 7 fiction books and 3 nonfiction books that I completed this month:
Sipsworth
My Review: If you love an old, curmudgeonly main character like Ove or found family like The House in the Cerulean Sea, then this one is for you! It’s really cute- about an old lady who is lonely and broken by life, just kind of waiting for the end of her own life. She befriends a tiny animal friend and through this friend she also makes a bunch of human friends. The first half of this book D R A G G E D- I was SO bored. But I kept on, and it was worth it in the end. I did enjoy this one 🙂
Alphabetical Diaries
My Review: I have never read a book like this before, and my nerdy book-loving heart was delighted by the unique-ness of it! She took decades of her diaries, typed them all up, then put the sentences in alphabetical order. Then she edited a bunch out and kept half of them in. The result is a book with 25 chapters- one for each letter of the alphabet (excluding x). It was fascinating to “read”- the problem is that there was no plot nor could I ever figure out which characters were which. Some chapters were very interesting and some were SOOOO long and boring (I’m looking at you, T). The author also had a very interesting life that seemed nothing like mine. Lots of drunkenness, poor choices in men, and some shockingly explicit sex sentences (they were mostly shocking because they would be in order right next to some completely normal sentence about the weather). Anyways- I loved how the formatting made me think outside of the box (I kinda want to alphabetize my journals now!), but the content was a little out of my comfort zone.
The God of the Woods
My Review: I actually read most of this book in August, but had to return it to the library. I got it back and couldn’t even remember what was happening in the story. I had to do some review and then I was able to pick it back up. However, I think because of my month-long pause, the “plot twist” at the end wasn’t very interesting to me. Overall, I think it was a good story, but I LOVED her book “Long Bright River” so much more.
Why We Read: On Bookworms, Libraries and Just One More Page Before Lights Out
My Review: This was my favorite book of the month! It will probably be in my top ten for the year, too. It was just DELIGHTFUL. I wanted to hug it when I was done with it. The author weaves her own memoir into different anecdotes about why we read. I related so much to all of this, and especially loved finding little “Easter eggs” referring to other books throughout this book. If you read a lot and love to read or have ever been called a bookworm, this one is for you.
My Side of the Mountain
My Review: Yay! We finished our first read aloud of the homeschool year! It took my kids a little bit to get into this one, but once they were able to follow the story, they really enjoyed it! It’s about a boy who runs off to live by himself in the wilderness. It has tons of survival tips and wilderness training stuff in the story, but my kids loved Frightful, the pet falcon, the most.
Happily Never After
My Review: Disappointed. This book had potential. A woman falls in love with the man who was hired to disrupt her wedding. They start to work together to disrupt other weddings and they fall for each other along the way. The problem I had with this book was that the plot was nonexistent. I think they went to two other weddings? And the rest of the time they were just kissing each other and…that’s it.
Sitting Pretty: The View from My Ordinary Resilient Disabled Body
My Review: I learned a lot from reading this book! I really appreciated how the author spoke the harsh truth, but used a lot of grace and encouragement along the way. She gave so many examples of how hard it is to move and function in the world while in a wheelchair. She talked about helpful and unhelpful comments and reactions. But mostly I feel like she just opened the door and let the reader in on her life- the joys and the hardships. I loved looking the author up on social media and finding some fun updates on her life!
Tales from Silver Lands
My Review: Next up on my Newberry Medal list was this one! These older books from the list are so strange haha- reading tastes sure have changed since then!! This one was a compilation of short stories of legends and folktales from South Americans that were collected during that time- at least that is what I gathered from doing a little bit of googling after the fact. Most of these were legends and while I expected some of them to have a little moral at the end, they did not.
No Two Persons
My Review: This is the story of a book- and how a dozen or so different people interact with the book. For some, it was life changing. For others, it was merely a prop or a blip on their radar. I did really enjoy this book, but I wish that the ending was tied up with a neater bow. I loved her previous book House Lessons!
Float Plan
My Review: This is one of those books that appears to be a rom-com, but once you get into it, you realize that it’s primarily about someone who is dealing with great trauma…who then falls in love. Our main character lost a loved one and so she decided to sail a sailboat around. Of course, she isn’t quite as capable as she thinks and needs someone else to help her. I did enjoy this book, but it wasn’t a chart topper for me.
I did not finish By Any Other Name by Jodi Picoult. I was having to physically motivate myself to pick it up and I found my mind wandering while I read it, so it was a DNF. I honestly didn’t hate it, though. So this might be one of those “it wasn’t you (the book), it was me” situations for sure!
And that’s a wrap for September! Here are some books that I have on my October radar:
- I Have Some Questions for You
- The Exvangelicals
- Other People’s Houses
- Selling the Dream
- Worst Case Scenario
- It Wasn’t Roaring, It Was Weeping
- How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water
- You Will Never Be Me
I am having a really hard time making myself pick up By Any Other Name too; I’m enjoying the story fine but I don’t feel compelled to keep reading and I think it’s just okay but far too long and too much time investment in a book I think is just okay.