June Books

In June, I embraced the easy summer beach reading style (even more than usual, haha). I barely made it through one non-fiction book, and only two of my fiction books had much substance. (Thank you, Wendelin, for keeping some sense in my literature!) I don't have much else to say about my June reading--no epiphanies or deep thoughts. Not even any shallow thoughts. These books gave me what I needed at the time!

Fiction:

1. An Unexpected Love Story by Ellie Hall: the childhood best friend crush who deeply wounded her feelings is back in town wanting to make amends. The writing was all over the place with lots of glaring typos... sometimes hard to follow. Weird! Somehow I wanted to know what happened to the best friend though, so I checked out book 2.
2. An Unlikely Love Story by Ellie Hall: way better (and funnier) and more coherent than the first book in this series. Made me want to read the next book. Plot: in an NYC apartment building, girl lives across the hall from a guy and they fall in love in a sweet way: he gets her favorite cookie recipe from her roommate and then practices baking cookies until the smell makes her knock on his door.
3. An Accidental Love Story by Ellie Hall: accident-prone dog trainer and doctor fall in love while helping his grumpy grandma. The ice skating elements were sparkly and fun. Ellie Hall's writing improves with each book.
4. Only Ever Friends by Shaela Kay: recently dumped by her fiancé right before their wedding, college senior girl goes home for the summer and reconnects with an old high school buddy. Such a sweet well done story with lots of fun elements: library, cooking, nostalgia, friendship, family drama, self discovery, etc.
5. -*Sammy Keyes and the Wild Things by Wendelin Van Draanen: I listened to this beloved mystery with Rose. Sammy goes on her first hiking trip and ends up rescuing a wounded condor with her friends and figuring out who hurt the endangered bird.
6. Ace High by Heather Moore: the 6th and final book in the Lost Creek Rodeo series. I loved this one, possibly the best in the series. Definitely in the top 2. Divorced owner of a therapy ranch falls in love with a rodeo cowboy she's known for years. Very sweet, and no lame fight where they storm off and pout till one of them realizes this is true love. That's the #1 thing I liked about the Lost Creek Rodeo series: no dramatic angry parting before the "actually-we-do-love-each-other" finale.
7. Love Redesigned by Jenny Proctor
8. Love Unexpected by Jenny Proctor: favorite. Anxiety-plagued web designer girl with a crush on a YouTube star gets a job at his headquarters, chickens out over in-person friendship and becomes friends with him over Instagram messaging instead, hides her identity, and goes on a road trip with him across the country so he can meet the mystery Instagram girl, aka herself. This was adorable. Loved it-- the characters, the writing, the story.
9. Kiss Me Now by Melanie Jacobson: Weird, not very related title, but ok story. Girl escapes DC politics to small town Virginia and becomes friends with the sweet old lady next door; big shot investigator guy investigates her to protect his grandma and falls in love. Sweet and fun with a compelling plot.
10. An Impossible Love Story by Ellie Hall: cute, unlikely European travel love story, but tons of mistakes-- like missing words and messy punctuation. This one was so-so. The travel element wasn't detailed enough for my liking. They kept getting on trains and wandering cities, but what did they do with their bags? Carry them everywhere? The main character brought at least four outfits (mentioned specifically), so her bag was not tiny! Also, the author still favors long sappy endings with lots of "reasons I love you" declarations that go on long enough to make me wonder when it will end, haha. Soooo maybe not a repeat read.
11. The Mostly Real McCoy by Julie Christianson: I loved this one! It was a single dad and independent runaway teacher love story that made me smile.
12. -*Sammy Keyes and the Cold Hard Cash by WVD: Sammy for the win yet again! Rose and I love listening to these audiobooks together.

Non-fiction

1. A Black Woman's History of the United States by Daina Ramsey Berry and Kali Nicole Gross (finished on July 6th, but put it with the June books because I spent all of June reading it). History books are always hard for me to get through, but I persevered because this one had a unique perspective. I liked how it centered the experiences of Black women from the beginning of the European colonization of America. The writing itself was pretty average, but the authors' goal was to write an accessible history, and that tends to dampen zest and voice. But the stories were solid. It was refreshing to read a history that didn't involve what white men said and did. In fact, there were barely any historical context markers in the book beyond brief mentions of years and sometimes wars. I understand why they did that but it also made it hard to anchor what was happening in the wider world during the events written about in the history. I'm not great at summarizing or critiquing history books because I'm no historian and I don't really love history books, but this was a worthwhile read. I'm all about learning history from different perspectives!

Quotes from fiction:

"I'm drawn to him like a booklover to a bookstore." --Ellie Hall, An Unexpected Love Story

"It's Sunday, which means tomorrow is Monday. I don't want to Monday." --Ellie Hall, An Unexpected Love Story

"People think they always have to be happy. A little sadness from time to time is good for the soul. It tells you who you are, what you're made of, and reminds you that you're strong. It tells you what is important and washes away what isn't. It shows that you care about something." --Ellie Hall, An Accidental Love Story

"Even if it ends up being the worst day of my life, it can only last twenty-four hours." --Shaela Kay, Only Ever Friends

"Ugh. I really hate small talk. I should have found a way to get out of this, like tripping down the stairs and breaking my ankle. That would have been far less painful--and embarrassing--than this." --Shaela Kay, Only Ever Friends

"Sometimes I just have to grin and bear it. Or frown and complain about it. Either works." --Shaela Kay, Only Ever Friends

Non-fiction quotes: 

Actually, just one quote from A Black Women's History of the United States--I thought the final sentence in the book was a stellar conclusion:

"We owe a debt to the Black women who came before us, those who persevered and those who did not, because the totality of their history is what informs our present and readies us to continue to demand justice, for ourselves, and by extension, for all."

In lieu of a book picture: visual poetry from my early morning bike ride last week.