Second Quarter Books

If nothing else, I read some books with beautiful covers this quarter.  But, happily, many of them were also really great books.

Excellent
13. The Wright Brothers by David McCullough - One of my favorite things about reading is that I can learn so much from a book in the midst of my safe, quiet, and often-monotonous SAHM life.  I've been to Kitty Hawk and seen the memorial, but that's about all I knew about the Wright Brothers, who, of course, are fascinating and admirable people.  I especially loved reading about their parents and their sister Katharine, who gave so much support behind the scenes while the brothers were fulfilling their flying dreams.

14. The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton - This was not my favorite of hers, but I just really really love Kate Morton's books.  A little mystery + history + love story + British countryside.

15. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling - I will never ever get sick of of re-reading (listening to) Harry Potter books.

16. The Royal We by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan - This is a fictional story of Prince William and Kate Middleton (kind of, it veers off a bit) and I of course loved it.   It's cute and fun and the perfect summer book.  I read this during our week at the cabin and Bryan gave me a hard time that I was wasting time staring at a book when we had the most beautiful surroundings, but I firmly disagreed- time reading this book was definitely not time wasted.

Great
17. The Life-changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo - I know a million people who read and loved this book so I was thrilled when I got my hands on a copy.  But after the first 8 pages I texted Lisa and said, "please tell me this gets better."  I found Marie Kondo so annoying and a bit kooky at times.  Plus, her ideas don't work very well when dealing with your kids' stuff, which is definitely a huge part of my clutter.  But I definitely see merit in her method.  I love her idea to ask yourself if each item you own brings you joy- and not just keep things because you feel like you should (something I've been very guilty of.)  While I haven't followed her method perfectly, so far I've gotten rid of 5 trash bags full of stuff and that feels great.

18. The Astronaut Wives Club by Lily Koppel - I really loved the premise (behind-the-scenes of the early astronaut's lives, specifically how their wives coped) and I thought the stories were fun and interesting, but this was very hard to follow.  I couldn't keep track of which wife belonged to which astronaut and the author jumped around quite a bit.  I still really enjoyed it (and since reading have been watching the show based on the book.)

19. The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty - This was my least favorite of her books- too depressing!  But still a quick and compelling read.  I'd recommend skipping this one and reading What Alice Forgot.

20. The House Girl by Tara Conklin - I really liked the premise, and I love when a book goes back and forth between past and present like this, but it just didn't pan out for me.  It was a little too contrived and unbelievable and there were way too many uninteresting characters.  This was a book club book, and most of us had the same opinion.  We were a little surprised that it was a bestseller, and not surprised at all that it was her first novel.  It could have been so good with just a little more polishing (in my humble opinion ;) )

Good
21, 22, 23. The Selection, The Elite, The One by Kiera Cass -  The Bachelor meets The Hunger Games.  These aren't the most well-written books but have a fun story and were a quick listen for me.

24. The Mockingbird Next Door by Marja Mills - Marja Mills was a reporter from Chicago that came down to Alabama to interview Harper Lee and ended up living next door to the Lee sisters for 18 months.   It was fun to get a peek into Harper (known as Nelle to her friends) Lee's life, especially her personality quirks and daily life in her later years.  Mills told some neat stories, but I felt like the book was disjointed and repeated itself a lot.  I think she was being careful to protect the sisters' privacy, which is great, but it made the book a little disappointing.

Meh
25. The Heir by Kiera Cass - I was kind of sick of this series and I probably wouldn't have finished it but I had the audio version and I needed something to distract me from packing 18 million boxes so I kept going.

26. The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters - Somewhere I saw this on a booklist and thought I'd give it a try but it was not for me.  I only made it a few chapters before returning it.

First Quarter Books here