Hello, all!
This month was a fairly even mix of random books I found using my library’s apps, more books I’ve been meaning to read for a while but didn’t get around to last month, and some re-reads. I also have at least five books on the go that I wasn’t able to finish before the end of the month, so I’d anticipate hearing about those in next month’s post.
1. Our House by Louise Candlish / Read by Elizabeth Knoweldon and Elliot Hill / Read: May 28-June 5, 2019 / ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This story has a great opening–one of our main characters arrives home to the house she is taking turns sharing with her estranged husband to give their kids stability during the separation and finds new people moving in. They are under the impression she knew about the house sale and her husband and children are nowhere to be found. The story goes back and forth between the husband’s and wife’s points of view as well as different time periods so that the reader gets a bigger picture of what’s lead to this point before the characters do. A great British narrator rounds out the enjoyable reading experience.
2. Don’t You Cry by Cass Green / Read by Lisa Coleman, Anna Bentinck, Huw Parmenter & Richard Trinder / Read: June 6-13, 2019 / ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This was an excellent suspense novel, though I will say I guessed the twist fairly early on and ended up being right. Even despite the lack of “OH MY WORD” in that moment, the story was still very enthralling. The main character is a middle-aged woman who has been recently-ish divorced and is taken hostage in her own home by a waitress from the restaurant she went to earlier in the evening. They are joined by the girl’s brother and the baby he has apparently stolen. I appreciated that only the first part was about that event but the main character was so consumed by the situation that she kept bringing herself back into it and sleuthing around to figure things out which did not sit right with her afterwards. Great narrators, too!
3. Keeping the Moon by Sarah Dessen / Read by Stina Nielsen / Read: June 14-16, 2019 / ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Dessen was one of my fave YA authors when I was a teen and this book was my favorite of hers. Like many teens, I felt like I related to Colie and her issues as an overweight misfit and wished that I too could learn to own my weirdness and be happy with who I was (spoiler alert: I did and I am!). When I read recently that Netflixes has optioned three of Dessen’s books (one I enjoyed, one I read but can’t recall, and one she’s published since my reading tastes changed) I decided to revisit my favorite. My sister let me know she had a bunch of them on Audible so I listened. The narrator was not my favorite but wasn’t so annoying that the story couldn’t make up for it.
4. Living with Rheumatoid Arthritis, 3rd ed. by Tammi L. Shlotzhauer, M.D. / Read (parts): June 20, 2019 / ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (for now)
Because I don’t actually know if what’s causing my pain is RA, I am not going crazy with researching. The description for this book said it included practical exercises for sore joints so at this point I skimmed the other topics and mainly read those. I’ve implemented the hand stretches whenever I’ve thought to, especially when driving long distances. I think it helped? I may borrow this book again if I do get a diagnosis of RA because it seemed like it could be helpful and informative.
5. Divided Soul: The Life of Marvin Gaye by David Ritz / Read by Dion Graham / Read: June 23-?, 2019 / ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Do yourself a favor and read about Marvin Gaye’s life and death on Wikipedia. That’s what I did recently while visiting my parents after my dad casually mentioned that “Marvin Gaye’s dad shot him.” Every detail I read got crazier and crazier so I wanted to read a biography about him and get more details. The narrator of this audiobook has the Mr. Moviephone thing going on (a little monotone/automated but still very dramatic) but the author started the book when Gaye was alive so it has quotes from him right before he died and from others who were in his life. As I said to my parents, learning about his life makes me thankful for my boring life. As I listened to his story, I realized that my life was boring compared to his because I was raised as a middle-class white girl by loving parents and was blessed/privileged with a better start in life than was afforded to Gaye.
•
2019 Reading Challenge Update
Books: 5 (32/96 total)
Re-read: 1 (9/12 total)
New diverse author and/or genre: 1 (5/12 total)
Audiobooks: 4 (13/12 total)
Books dropped: 0 (5 total)
-Katie
Chronically KD 