Every time I dip my toe back into sharing something on this blog again, I go look at all the old memes (yes, 'meme' used to be the word for all these bloggy link-up things, more or less, instead of just a picture with a funny one-liner. but i digress...). Thursday used to have Thursday Thunks, Thirsty Thursday & Hungry Hearts, Thursday Thirteen and Throwback Thursday (okay, there was on link on those last two - apparently I just used them as excuses to post. i do love a good numbered list...).
Anyway, all I see sort of standing from my old list is Thinking Out Loud Thursday with Penny's Passion. While today she is offering a list and summaries of the books she read in June, my work hours are way up, which brings my reading hours way down. I do have three book reviews to finish and forward to the blog that publishes most of them (hi, BooksIThinkYouShouldRead!), but I figured I could do a bit of chattering here to warm up.
As far as the books I finished in June - here they are!
Next up was The Nature of Disappearing by Kimi Cunningham Grant - I absolutely loved the main character, Emlyn in this one. She was a caring individual who ended up just caring for herself and being amazing at her wilderness guide job after being completely shafted by the people she thought were her tribe in college. As the story progressed, I was more mystified about who was good, who was bad, and how much it actually mattered. I also gave this one 4 out of 5 stars (that seems to be a pretty solid rating from me - guess I'm getting better at just picking books I'll like right away).
The final review already posted was for Walk the Dark by Paul Cody - I was enchanted by the voice of the narrator right away in this one. Oliver was raised by an unpredictable mother who was a sex worker and addict, and he never knew any other life. He was mildly aware that his life wasn't like others, but never expressed much about it. The story is told in alternating chapters between his fascinating childhood, and his current life, where he's just heard he'll soon be paroled from prison. For a horrific story, it is told in a beautiful language and manner. It also got 4 out of 5 stars from me (sorry - the giveaway ended at the beginning of the week).
The last book I finished in June does not have a review published (okay, or written) yet, but it was Jackie by Dawn Tripp. This is a great novel about Jackie Bouvier Kennedy Onassis and talks about her life with JFK, her life with Aristotle Onassis, and her life that she chose to live alone after both men were gone. The writing in this one was also so delightfully engaging. I had to remind myself that it was researched stories of a real person. Her ups and downs and wisdom were so realistic and well-conveyed through the incidents in her life that were shared. I'm sure it's no surprise, but this one also got 4 out of 5 stars from me.
Spoiler alert - I just finished a book this morning that literally had me in tears and earned 5 stars! I'm also hoping to stay on task at my computer this afternoon (still need to finish some accounting tasks for an audit next week, and those three book reviews to send in), and finish (or get close to the end) of the print book I'm reading. That will give me a little more than a month to read the four books in the Adult Battle of the Books I'm competing in with my book club on August 15, 2024.
Other than books, most of my 'thinking out loud' is a staggering, anxiety-ridden place. I'm working limited hours next week while I drive my youngest to and from a theatre day camp for the next two weeks, and taking my oldest to the airport in a few days to spend a week at an acting camp in NYC. My mama heart is already hitting elevated stress levels!
Hard to believe the summer is nearing its midpoint. Luckily our schools don't go back til after Labor Day, but the next three weeks have the kids in three camps, house-guests for a week of one camp, and the West coast muckity mucks hanging out at my work office. Calgon, take me away!
3 comments:
I went through a real phase of reading lots of WWII books and seemed to exhaust myself of them but I am liking some newer ones that have come out and seem to focus on "other" aspects of the war I didn't know about rather than just the horrible camps and the soldier romances... Books like Along the Broken Bay that take place in Manila or The Lost Girls of Paris that looks at a female spy ring working in Paris during WWII.
Thanks for linking up to Thinking Out Loud Thursday! I'm adding the Jackie book to my TBR list. I'm also adding it to our book club list! Thanks for the suggestion.
Walk the Dark sounds very interesting, tho it might be a bit bleak for me at the moment - I seem much more fragile than I used to be....will book mark it and consider. Good tip tho #Shareyourshelf
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