Kiwiria's June Reads

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This is more like it! After only reading 4 books in all of May, I'm up to a total of 20 books for June!!! Granted, a bunch of these are graphic memoirs as I went on a bit of a spree earlier this month, but it all counts ;)

For once I have more non-fiction than fiction reads in any given month! Again, due to all the memoirs ;)

( All reviews under the cut )

Book of the Month: Definitely Where Are the Lions. I also really loved Pioneer Girl but I see myself rereading the former more frequently.
Biggest Disappointment: Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock. Not bad - just couldn't live up to my expectations. Fun Home comes a close second, but being a graphic memoir, it didn't require the same investment from my side.

June books

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What Alice Forgot - Liane Moriarty
Alice hits her head and wakes up thinking it's 1998 when it's actually 2008. In 1998 she was 29, happily married and pregnant with her first child. Now in 2008, everything has changed, seemingly for the worse. Alice has to be reintroduced to her life, relationships and the person she has become. This was recommended to me by more than one of you. Thank you--I loved it! It's light-hearted and funny, but also touching and sad at parts. I felt like I cried a little every time I listened to it, but that might say more about my lately state of emotions than anything else. :P The book actually switches between three perspectives: Alice, her sister Elizabeth, and their grandma Frannie. Elizabeth and Frannie's perspectives are both shared through their writing to other people--Elizabeth to her therapist in a journal format, Frannie to her late fiance. At first I found the switches kind of distracting, but got used to them. I actually really identified with Elizabeth's thoughts and attitude the most. She is struggling with infertility, and though I don't relate to that specifically, I understood the hopelessness and how it feels to strive for something for so long when efforts keep failing. Anyway, I totally recommend this book, and the audio version is great.

*Penny For Your Thoughts - Mindy Starns Clark
A reread, because I love this Christian mystery series. This book introduces Callie, a 30-something widow who investigates nonprofits before her boss (the very wealthy and mysterious Tom, whom she's never met in person) gives them large grants. There are little annoying/silly things about the characters and dialog--Callie seems older than she is (and the reader for the audio version sounds too old), and there is the usual evangelism scene--but I do like the clean, light story throughout this series. I recommend reading it rather than listening, unless you can forget how old the reader sounds.

The Husband's Secret - Liane Moriarty
Cecelia finds a sealed note to her, from her husband, marked to be read in the event of his death. When she asks him about it, he acts really strange and pleads with her not to read it. But other strange things have been happening in her marriage, lately, and she's very tempted to break her promise. The book also speaks from the perspective of Tess and Rachel, as all three women's stories are loosely connected. I enjoyed What Alice Forgot so much that I wanted to try something else by Moriarty. Wow...this book was much more tragic than I anticipated. It still has some funny, light-hearted parts, but it addresses some serious topics that sometimes really affected my mood. I really enjoy Moriarty's writing, but I think I'd rather avoid this type of story in the future.

Books for 2015: 17

2015 Quarter 2 Books

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Curveball: The Year I Lost My Grip by Jordan Sonnenblick
This book is about a high school freshman named Peter.  He was a baseball player, but an elbow injury prevents him from being able to play ever again, probably.  Now he's not sure what to do since he can't play baseball anymore.  His grandfather is a photographer and gives him a bunch of photography equipment.  So Peter decides to take a photography class at school.  He meets a cute girl in the class and they work on assignments together and start hanging out.  Meanwhile, it seems that his grandfather is in the early stages of Alzheimer's, so he has to deal with that too.  It was interesting enough.  3/5

Mennonite in a Little Black Dress: A Memoir of Going Home by Rhoda Janzen
I really enjoyed this book!  My only concept of Mennonites was that they are "kind of like Amish, but not as strict about stuff."  This gave me a better idea of the Mennonite culture.  I had no idea that they are really into cabbage and beets.  There were a lot of funny anecdotes, and a lot of talk about food that made me want to get a Mennonite cook book and try some recipes.  4/5

The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
This book was hilarious!  I kept telling David about it and referring to it as the "Australian Sheldon Cooper book."  I love The Big Bang Theory and the main character in the book, Don, is almost exactly like Sheldon.  It felt like the author ripped off the character a bit, but that is not my legal battle.  I just got to enjoy the book.  Don is a genetics professor.  He decides he needs to find a wife, so he makes a questionnaire for women to fill out so that he can narrow the selection down to his ideal woman.  Then Rosie shows up seeking Don's help in finding her biological father.  Rosie is not at all what Don thinks he wants in a woman, but maybe she's exactly what he needs.  I could see this being a really funny movie.  5/5

Attachments by Rainbow Rowell
There are no words for how adorable this book is!  I looooooved it so much.  A lot of it is told through emails, so it was better to read it than to listen to it.  Lincoln is an IT guy who is paid to monitor employee emails at a newspaper.  Beth and Jennifer are two employees whose emails get flagged a lot by the system.  Rather than reporting them, Lincoln starts to get wrapped up in what's happening in their lives, and he starts falling for Beth.  But by the time he realizes he wants to find her and introduce himself, it's way past the point of being awkward because he only knows her through the personal emails she sends to her friend.  Such a good story.  5/5

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green
I found this one because I was looking for more books read by Jeff Woodman.  Then I saw John Green and I know how popular he is these days.  I haven't read any of his other books though.  I liked this one.  It's about two high school graduates who go on a road trip together.  Colin is a child prodigy who has dated and been dumped by 19 Katherines.  His friend Hassan is pretty much his only friend.  They share an adventure as they end up spending several weeks in a tiny town in Tennessee.  I enjoyed the book, but I was skeptical about a boy finding and actually dating 19 girls all named Katherine.  It seems like 19 ex-girlfriends with any name would be a lot for a boy his age.  But on top of that, they all had the SAME name?  Far-fetched.  Jeff Woodman is stellar as always.  3/5

Yes Please by Amy Poehler
Amy Poehler is very funny.  I enjoyed reading about her life and experiences.  A couple parts felt like they dragged, but there were enough laugh out loud parts to give it 4/5.

A Course in Weight Loss: 21 Spiritual Lessons for Surrendering Your Weight Forever by Marianne Williamson
The biggest complaint about this book on Goodreads is that it talks about God a lot.  ... But it says "spiritual" right in the title, so I don't know what the complainers were expecting.  I think this book helped me a lot to get me in a better mindset for losing weight.  I didn't follow all of the lessons exactly, but I got out of it what I needed to get out of it.  My biggest complaint is on behalf of any men who might read this book.  Nowhere in the title or on the cover or anything does it say that this book is for women.  And yet several times, the author makes a reference showing that she assumes the reader is a woman, like she always refers to the reader's goal weight person as a "she."  But it's not like the lessons are specific to women in any way.  Men could benefit too, and it wouldn't have been that hard to put the "he" pronoun in along with the "she."  I wonder if any men have read this book or tried to read it and felt left out.  4/5

Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard
This book started out really good, but then got kind of draggy near the end.  I still liked it, and I want to continue reading the series, but the next book doesn't come out until later this year.  In this society, there are people with red blood and people with silver blood.  The Silvers are the elite and they each have a special power, like being able to control water or being able to read minds.  The Reds are peasants who work as servants or are forced to join the military.  Mare is a 17-year-old Red girl who suddenly displays a power that only Silvers are supposed to have.  The king tries to cover up the incident by telling everyone she is a long lost Silver princess.  He makes Mare stay in the palace and she becomes betrothed to the younger of the two princes.  Meanwhile, some Reds are trying to start a revolution to overthrow the Silver tyranny.  3/5

Keeping the Moon by Sarah Dessen
I've caught on to the formula of Sarah Dessen's books.  A teenage girl goes to North Carolina and meets new people, including a boy, and these people help her discover her true self and deal with life.  This one is about Colie, whose mother is a famous fitness guru.  Colie has no self-confidence because she was always teased for being overweight.  She has lost weight now, but she still feels inferior to everyone.  I enjoyed this book, but the next audio book I had on hand was another Sarah Dessen book that sounded pretty much like this one, and I didn't want to listen to two in a row. 3/5