On Becca’s Bookshelf // May Edition

Recently Updated3 Well hi! It’s been a while. How’s your summer so far?

You know how when you slack off on something — writing in journal, vacuuming your floor, updating your photo album — it becomes absolutely intimidating to think of getting back to it? And catching up so it’s fresh and clean and up to date again?

But I’m back again… as I always am eventually! I love this little record of our lives in this little corner of the internet, and I love connecting with you all here. I know a lot of you see our everyday updates on Instagram and Facebook, but some of you don’t (I’m thinking of you, Nicole!). So here we go with a little update…

… and let’s start with books!

May was not a great month for reading, I guess. Elliott was gone for three weeks of May for Airborne School in Fort Benning, Georgia, and my parents were here for two weeks of that time, so the month felt more busy than usual. Here’s what I thought of these four books:

  • Love Walked In by Marisa de los Santos I chose this because it was on Modern Mrs. Darcy’s Minimalist Summer Reading Guide, but I was underwhelmed. It’s the story of Cornelia, lover of silver screen movies and classic literature, whose ho-hum life as a coffee shop manager turns on its head the day she meets a Cary Grant-lookalike and his young daughter. Sweet, literary, and romantic, but fell short of being enchanting. All the characters felt superlative, rather than truly human. — 3 stars
  • Sparkly Green Earrings by Melanie ShankleSo many fun quotes about motherhood in this book, such as: “There is really no better indicator you’re a mother than acquiring the ability to catch throw-up in a plastic bag, disinfect your hands, and immediately ask your friend to pass the beef jerky as you put on another Taylor Swift song and act as if nothing has happened.” But overall my takeaway was… meh. It was ok. I like the Big Mama blog (her Fashion Friday posts are a guilty pleasure), but I guess I was hoping for more substance here. I haven’t chosen to do a lot of the things she did in parenting, which maybe made it harder to relate to.  3 stars
  • The Accident by Chris Pavone Another one recommended by Modern Mrs. Darcy, this time in her 2015 Summer Reading Guide. I was excited because I loved Pavone’s first novel, The Expats, which I read in about 24 hours last September. This second novel includes some of the same characters as his first dark-side-of-the-CIA thriller; it’s page-turner about publishing a book of incriminating secrets. A little wordy, and not the tightest plot, but still hard to put down and seriously entertaining.  3 stars
  • The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande Being Mortal blew my mind in April, so I had to read the fourth Atul Gawande book, the only one I hadn’t read. This book touched on a subject near and dear to Gawande’s research and life goals: getting surgeons to use a simple procedural checklist before each surgery… all over the world. He used many engaging stories to make his point. In the end, I thought it was good, but probably the least gripping of his four books. The stories and the theme are just not as engaging. That said, however, it is a crucial topic, and I want to use more checklists in my life after reading this.  3 stars

Four books and all of them got a so-so rating of three stars! Yikes. Thankfully my June reads were much better. I’ll be posting soon with a summary of those… maybe this week if I’m lucky. ;)

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

10 Responses to On Becca’s Bookshelf // May Edition

  1. Poppy June 30, 2015 at 11:10 am #

    Love reading your book reviews. It makes me so grateful for the books I get to read. What a pleasure, this gift of reading.

    • Becca June 30, 2015 at 2:28 pm #

      Amen to that! 38 so far this year… many more to good. Thank you for giving me a love of reading!

  2. Amy @ Sunlit Pages June 30, 2015 at 11:35 am #

    I just reviewed Love Walked In on my blog today, too! Like you, I was less than impressed. I’d love to hear about how your thoughts compared: http://www.sunlitpages.com/2015/06/love-walked-in-by-marisa-de-los-santos.html

    Oh, and I totally agree with you about superlative characters. I kept thinking, “There’s no way this Teo is a real guy.” She totally set you up to fall madly in love with him and hate Ollie. Not a fair way to write at all.

    • Becca June 30, 2015 at 2:32 pm #

      I agreed with you completely and loved your review! Such a disappointment. I hesitate to say this, but so far 3 of the 5 books on the minimalist reading list have been disappointments. Maybe she was playing it safe with those 5? Waiting to read “Americanah” to see…

      • Amy @ Sunlit Pages June 30, 2015 at 9:09 pm #

        That’s disappointing to hear. I was hoping those five were the best of the best.

  3. Courtney Lynn Harris June 30, 2015 at 12:15 pm #

    I’ve missed your blog, Becca! And I *loved* “Being Mortal,” too. So fun to get some fresh reading ideas from you!

    • Becca June 30, 2015 at 2:32 pm #

      So glad you enjoyed that one, Courtney, and there are more and better books to come soon. :)

  4. Eden July 1, 2015 at 9:11 am #

    Someday I hope to dig into a good novel for a few hours again! Will be going back through your reviews then.

    • Becca July 1, 2015 at 8:54 pm #

      Could you read a novel while you’re nursing? That saved my sanity in the early days with Gil when I would otherwise just be sitting there… metaphorically twiddling my thumbs… or surfing the internet on my phone! Which are nice things to do, too. ;)

  5. Karen July 2, 2015 at 1:15 pm #

    It’s nice to see you back on your blog! I just read Unbecoming by Rebecca Scherm. I’m not sure how I feel about it. It kept my interest, but the morally ambiguous characters made it hard to root for anyone or to connect with the main character. I’m curious what you think about Everything I Never Told You. I really liked the book, but it was so sad.

    My brother leaves for Airborne School soon. He’s really looking forward to it.

Leave a Reply

Powered by WordPress. Designed by WooThemes