A Homemade Life, by Molly Wizenberg
★★★★
I have a whole post about this book here, but here's a quote I wrote down that felt very impactful to me at this time in my life:
"... it's hard to love someone, I've found, when you're preoccupied with holding your entire world firmly in place. Loving someone requires a certain amount of malleability, a willingness to be pulled along, at least occasionally, by another person's will."
Back When We Were Grownups, by Anne Tyler
★★★★★
I have a feeling I'll be thinking about this book for a long time to come. Anne Tyler pays attention to detail, and her writing reflects that. It made me feel like I was right in the middle of the story. Despite the leisurely pacing, this book was hard to put down. It sat on my reading list for years, and I'm not sure why I didn't pick it up sooner. I'll definitely be reading more Anne Tyler books.
"'There is no true life. Your true life is the one you end up with, whatever it may be. You just do the best you can with what you've got.'"
How to Disappear Completely, by Ali Standish
★★★★
This was a sweet Middle Grade story about grieving, making new friends, and facing insecurities. I really enjoyed it!
"Doesn't it bother you, Gram? That those kids think that stuff?"
"Goodness, no," she said. "If I spent my life being bothered by what other people thought of me, I'd never get anything else done, would I? Besides, there's no point in worrying about things you can't change, and you can't change what people think of you."
Master of Iron, by Tricia Levenseller
★★★★
I read the first book in this duology in June and enjoyed it so much that I immediately got the sequel out of the library and read it in July. It was a great wrap-up to the story, but my favorite part may have been this quote:
He swallows. "I made a promise to my ma. The first and only girl I would ever take to bed would be my wife."
I feel my brows drawing together in confusion. "You promised to wait for marriage? Why?"
He laughs at my tone.
"It's what I want," he says. "I don't want this act to be meaningless. I don't ever want it to be a temporary thing. I want it to be with my forever." [Emphasis mine.]
This mindset isn't very common in modern media. The only other example I can think of at the moment is Zack and Lane from Gilmore Girls. Let's normalize this!
The Potlikker Papers, by John T. Edge
★★★★
In truth, I haven't quite finished this one yet. I'm enjoying it and learning a lot about the food history of the South, but for some reason it's been a slog for me. Probably because it's nonfiction 😜
The Weekend Homesteader, by Anna Hess
★★★★
I first read Hess's book Trailersteading on the recommendation of a homesteader friend. When I saw she had another book geared specifically toward homesteading, I knew I had to read it! Part way through my library copy, I decided I needed to own this book, so I bought it from Thriftbooks.
Many farming and homesteading books feel overwhelming, but this one presents doable projects for folks with limited time who want to try out homesteading without too much commitment. Anna Hess makes homesteading very approachable, and I love her brand of humor.
August will be a very busy month for me, as I am getting married, going to a different country on my honeymoon, and then going to a different state for my sister's bachelorette party, so we'll see how much I actually read! My goal for the month is five books.
Comments
Post a Comment