This has been a big year for me, an even bigger summer. My husband and I left our home of 10 years to move to a new state based on the fact that every time we visited here, we were happy. We left the day after I graduated college to a move-in ready house, unpacked and started a new chapter. This included finding a new church, new friends, and a new grocery store (it’s harder than you would think!), we’ve had to find our place in an entire new community. It’s been a lot of changes. Lucky for me, one other thing that has changed is the amount of time I can spend reading. When I was in school it was hard to read for pleasure when I had so much work to do and then my spare time went to my husband and friends and family. Now though, I have so much free time each day (when I’m not working), and can read whatever I feel like and still have time for others. Did I mention, this town has three independent book stores and a Barnes and Noble. It is wonderful.
I’ve been spending my time trying to catch up on my reading list–trying to hit at least a book a week for the year. As of today, I am still 7 behind but, I am catching up quick!
The books I read over the summer were all very different, Sarah’s Quilt was the sequel to
These Is My Words, which I blogged about in the past (you can read it here: https://sweetteaandpaperbacks.wordpress.com/2015/07/01/these-is-my-words/). The sequel was not as great as the first one, but I loved the time period all the same.
Just Remember to Breathe, is a love story full of drama, centered around the lives of the Thompson sisters who range in age from 25 down to 4. Charles Sheehan-Miles self-published the series, and they are what I would deem “un-put-down-able.” There are two other books in the trilogy: A Song for Julia, and The Last Hour. Additionally, he has written another trilogy about the youngest sister, Andrea.
The Summer List, tells of a friendship gone bad. Two girls who grew up together as neighbors and friends are reunited after a decade of not speaking. This was a fun story and the twist was one I never figured out ahead of time.
Girl Wash Your Face, is written by Instgrammer @msrachelhollis and is an empowering book telling us to quit believing the lies that society, family, “friends,” and satan have made us believe. It’s about waking up each day, believing that you are good enough, smart enough, pretty enough… Just ENOUGH.
Becoming Myself, was read by my women’s group at church. I really enjoyed and hated this book all at the same time. It opened my eyes to several lies that I had been taught to believe, and it also made me reflect on my own decisions and how I could do better in the future. If you’re looking for a change, I recommend starting here.
My favorite book of the summer though, was the last one I read. The Nightingale, had me in tears on an airplane. In front of people. That story was so powerful that I haven’t been able to pick up another book with a WWII setting since (and that’s my favorite time period).
I realize that this blog post was a bit different than my usual. I keep debating on whether or not to keep blogging, or if I want to take a break. But, then I realized that this blog is whatever I make of it. I can write once a week, once a book, once a year… and then I’ll get to comb back through all these memories of stories and what was going on in my life when I read them, and that makes me happy.