Happy September 1st! I, for one…am NOT at all ready for fall. We are having a week of GLORIOUSLY hot weather and you will not hear me complaining one bit! You can find me floating in the pool and trying to soak up as much sun as possible before we are plunged into darkness for the next 6 months haha.
In August, our schedules and routines flipped upside down- I genuinely thought I would get so much more reading in, but it turns out that even as a stay at home Mom with my kids in school two days a week, I’m still busy! Who would have thought?!?
Anyways- I read 6 books this month. 5 were fiction and 1 was non-fiction. Of course, one of those fiction books was the Calamity Club, which absolutely should count as 2 or 3 books since it is SO LONG. So, so long.
The Calamity Club
My Review: I’m sure that you have seen this book everywhere, and if you are like me- you have seen some RAVE reviews. This book is a masterpiece- coming in at 638 pages- it is a whole saga, friends.
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This is the story of Birdie, her family, and an unlikely set of misfits that become her “found family”. This is also the story of Meg, an orphan who is mistreated, adored, and everything in between. Calamity might be too small a word to describe what all these characters go through, and yet somehow I found myself smiling, laughing, and wanting to hug them all. There are “bad guys” and “good guys”, and this book will challenge your thinking on which is which.
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One semi spoiler that I wish I had known before reading is that this book is about a brothel. It’s not open door, but there is a lot of brothel vocabulary and terms!
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Although this book is LONG (it took me forever to read it!), I think it would make a great book club discussion because it brings up a lot of issues of morality. Is there ever a time that wrong becomes right if done for the right motives? Is there ever a time that right becomes wrong if done for the wrong motives?
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One thing is for sure- I won’t be forgetting this book anytime soon!
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Recommended for readers who have time to immerse themselves in a book, and need some good food for thought literature with fantastic characters that you absolutely will fall in love with.
Down with the Shipmans
My Review: I went into this book thinking it was going to be about “rich people behaving badly” (I think I mixed it up in my mind with “The Shampoo Effect”), but it was not at all! It was a sweet story of sisters who are grappling with their Dad selling their childhood beach home. All three sisters have individual lives, and while they “support” each other, it actually turns out that they are judgemental of one another and spending a whole week together brings out some of the family conflict. I actually LOVED this book, even though not much really happens. I thought it was so sweet how everyone worked out their drama and difficulties and came around in the end. Again- this book doesn’t have a big plot or anything juicy, but I just really enjoyed it from page one all the way until the end. It was the PERFECT summer read for a busy summer weekend!
Five
My Review: Ok, this one was…interesting. It is about 5 people who are on a train platform. One of them is going to die. But which one will it be? The book takes place all in the 5 minutes before the train arrives, but it has separate chapters that flash back to each individual person and how they got to where they are today. I thought the premise was so clever and this was a very quick read that pulled me in. However- none of these characters were likeable! I kind of wanted them to all be hit by a train, to be honest. They all had some incredibly dark and awful things that happened to them in the past, and I found myself finishing the book feeling kind of dark in my soul. It was sad. I didn’t love it, in the end, although I do have to give a lot of kudos to the author for a gripping plot and great premise!
A Cruise to Die For
My Review: Two agents go undercover on a cruise to try to figure out who is targeting a tech company. The undercover agents are pretending to be a married couple and they are really, really good at being a couple. Hmmm, do you see where this is going? Once again, I loved the premise here! This seems like the perfect summer read! I even enjoyed the plot, although I felt like it had a lot of holes. But what I had the hardest time with was how *perfect* these two agents are. Oh, they can swim and save someone’s life. Oh, they can shoot a gun from across the ship and hit the target. Oh, they can gamble like a pro now, too. Oh, and look! They can even administer medication because, of course, why not? Oh, and they get drugged by the bad guys but of course they can still fight AND swim AND shoot a gun while everyone else is lying around paralyzed! I found myself rolling my eyes a little bit too much, but I did finish the book, so there is that.
This Story Might Save Your Life
My Review: This one was good!! I really enjoyed it and did not predict the ending at all! I don’t love the plot point of “best friends of the opposite sex”, but the author pulled it off in this one! It does have a lot of trigger warnings for domestic violence and pregnancy loss, so proceed with caution on this one if needed. I couldn’t put this one down and enjoyed reading it from cover to cover!
Capable
My Review: Oh, wow. This book! If you have kids, teach kids, work in education, or work with kids at all- you need to read this book.
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David Thomas and Sissy Goff have spent years counseling children- from preschool age all the way up through young adult. Over the years, they have seen patterns emerge- kids are feeling more and more anxious and less and less capable. Why is this happening, and how can we encourage our kids to continue to feel- and be- capable as they grow and mature.
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Raising capable kids is hard, because it means that they have to grow their discomfort muscles. And as parents, the last thing we want is for our kids to feel uncomfortable. But what if creating comfortable environments is leading to kids who have very low self-confidence and growing anxiety? It sounds backwards, but it turns out that some level of discomfort can actually lead to more self confidence and capability in our kids.
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This book is full of research and Bible based stats, it’s full of great examples and stories, it’s full of truth and sprinkled with so much grace. But my favorite part is the practical questions and lists to discuss with your children and so many great ways to consider implementing capable exercises into the lives of our kids.
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This one is worth buying a copy to underline and re-read! I may even go so far as to claim this as the best parenting book I’ve ever read.