Well, seeing as it’s almost the end of third quarter and I haven’t blogged about books since April, I guess this is as good a time as any to play catch up! I fell out of the habit of writing monthly book reviews because my leisure reading slowed down so dramatically during the beginning of the year! Chalk it up to life with an infant/the holidays/any other number of excuses, but I wasn’t cranking out nearly the number of books I once was. Thanks to audiobooks and improving my reading habits when I saw this depressing dip in my consumption, I really upped the ante in the last few months, so I’m happy to say I have much more to share from Q2 and Q3. There’s a lot of material in here, so I’m going to keep each review short, sweet and to the point. Let’s go!
Hum If You Don’t Know the Words ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️+
This was a beautiful and tragic book about the apartheid in South Africa, a subject I knew very little about. This may have been the first fiction book I ever listened to on audiobook and it was a wonderful listen! It was read by a talented voice actor whose dialect and accent really helped the characters come to life, which can really make or break an audiobook in my experience (I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: always listen to an audio sample before downloading. 14 hours of a painfully boring or annoying voice can ruin an otherwise good book). I would highly recommend this book for anyone interested in the genres of civil rights or historical fiction. 4+ stars for this one!
Wish You Were Here ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Ok, blame it on my poor record keeping if you want, but I actually had to go back to Amazon to look up the description for this book before I could review it. Which is to say, this one didn’t really stick with me. As I was reminded of the plot thanks to the Amazon description, I had an “Oh yeah… that was just so-so” recollection, so I suppose this would be a decent book to take on vacation… like on a beach. Where you may fall asleep. And accidentally leave your book in the waves. Where it gets wet. And you can say “OH well, guess it’s just time for another Mai Tai.” Limited character development left me feeling rushed through this book so I only give this one 3 stars. That third star is a generous one.
Talking As Fast As I Can ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Who here has watched Parenthood? This is where I fell in love with Lauren Graham. While others of you learned to love her for her role as Lorelai Gilmore (I have never watched Gilmore Girls, I know I KNOW!), Sarah Braverman was easily one of the more memorable TV characters I’ve ever watched. She was at least partially responsible for my great Parenthood Netflix Binge of 2016. Just thinking about that series makes me want to go rewatch every season. Lauren Graham wrote this memoir about her life as an actor, how she got her start, how her role as Lorelai changed the trajectory of her career, and so much more in this witty, fast-paced memoir (which I listened to as an audiobook and am happy to report it was immensely entertaining to be listening to the author read her own story, per ushj). I was surprised to learn some really amazing writing tips from listening to her book, which I have steadily been employing on my own memoir-ish work, more on that another time (wink wink). She’s entertaining, she’s spastic, she’s funny, she’s maternal in an oddly sisterly way… what can I say, she’s my kinda gal. 4 stars for this memoir.
The Last Arrow ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This book was actually a resource for a series our church did in the month of April, so truth be told, I only read it (at first) to keep up with the weekend topics. Man am I glad I did. Erwin McManus has a crazy story to tell and I can earnestly say I was changed for the better because I read his book. This book helped me to align a vision for my life that, in and of itself was a good vision, but was just a few degrees off course. After reading this book I realized, my vision isn’t misplaced, but I was focusing on the wrong theme. It taught me about failure; about trying again; about using every morsel of what God has given us and not quitting until we have fired, you guessed it, our last arrow. Read it. Five stars for a book that will give you new vision and new boldness.
The Greatest Love Story Ever Told ⭐️⭐️⭐️
I love Nick Offerman’s character on Parks and Recreation. I loved him on Making It with Amy Poehler. So I figured his memoir with his wife, Megan Mullally, would be hilarious and entertaining. My assumption wasn’t WRONG, per se, but it was a lot of Megan telling everyone how absolutely amazing she is, and Nick sort of just spent his parts of the book fawning over her. There were sections that were slightly perverse (two comedians who are in an intimate relationship with one another, what could possibly go wrong?) so I file this one under slightly spicy. As in, learn from my mistakes and don’t listen to it in the car with children. WOOPSADAISY. All in all, sure I laughed a little. Also, I skipped a couple chapters. Take it for what it’s worth. 3ish stars here.
I Ain’t Doin It ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
So here’s the background. This book got lots of positive backing by the likes of Jen Hatmaker (Christian funny girl extraordinaire), so I trusted it would be chalk full of comedienne gold, you know, if Jen liked it. When I popped over to the I Ain’t Doin It Instagram account prior to my book purchase, I was hooked with the front seat carpool rants of Heather Land where she vents about the most outrageously hilarious scenarios followed by something like “I would rather push out a set of breach twins than do that…. uh-uh, I ain’t doing it.” I mean…. watching her just rattle that off, complete with a ridiculous Snapchat filter’ll make you snort-laugh your coffee right out your nostrils. And her book was funny… ish. Maybe my expectations were too high. There were parts I was rolling on the floor, and parts where I thought, “huh… you seem to be really grasping.” Or “huh… I thought this was a funny book but suddenly we’re talking about a very serious topic…” It jumped around a bit for my expectations. Otherwise, though, a VERY quick read, lots of hearty laughs, and clean comedy is always refreshing to me. I’ll give this one 4 stars because I’m getting sick of giving 3 star reviews.
Rest ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Freaking loved this. Full of science and psychology, so if you’re not into nerding out on research, maybe you’ll be bored, but this was fascinating. All about how we are actually MORE productive when we build times of intentional rest into our lives, and what different types of rest look like. Read it for yourself (or listen like I did!). I really think you’ll be glad you did. FIVE stars because a book that promotes nap time deserves all the stars we can give it.
Parenting: 14 Gospel Principles ⭐️⭐️
Good in concept. Heady in application. Overall, I didn’t find this to be a very helpful parenting book (as evidenced by the fact it took me more than 6 months to read). I love any resource that points to Godly parenting, but unfortunately I can only give this one a 2 measly stars.
Bread & Wine ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This book belongs in every kitchen, right alongside your favorite cookbooks. It has many beautiful and simple recipes in it, but it’s Shauna’s thoughtful and deep writing that always leaves me wanting more. So far, Shauna has produced some of my favorite books in my library and this one is no exception. If you’re a foodie in particular, this is a must read. Five yummy stars.
Finding Holy in the Suburbs ⭐️
Another non-fiction that just kind of fell flat for me. I figured that I would resonate with this one, but I think it was heavily agenda-fueled, arguing there is more opportunity for holy work in cities and at points, disparaging suburban living which felt a bit like an attack to me. Without getting into any debates about where “holiness” can be found (my personal opinion = anywhere), this book just didn’t help me, ergo, 1 star.
Normal People ⭐️
What in the world!? I tried to like this book, but from the very first page I was struggling. First of all, the prose was so confusing. The author took the creative liberty to eliminate quotation marks, normal conversational indentation and paragraph rules, and therefore from just the readability point of view, it was tricky. Willing to overlook that and get into the voice of it, I pressed on only to find this book was sadly twisted and depressing. Spoiler: not normal people. This was my first Book of the Month membership pick, and could have easily been my last had I not pressed on (which I’m glad I did as my subsequent selections have been much better) but really… don’t waste your time with this one.
If you made it this far, you deserve five stars for just being a loyal reader! I’ll be serving up the Q3 book review in just a couple weeks and there are some great books to come! As always, you can shop my books in my Amazon Storefront (I only include the ones I would recommend so nothing with 3 or fewer stars) and you can follow my Instagram story highlights for in-the-moment book roundups as I read them in real time.
With heart.