July Reading List
Happy July!!
Did you read any of the books on last month’s reading list? I managed to read them all except for THIS one, which I recently started. I’d had it on hold at the library for a few weeks — I’ve been reading so much lately that I’ve been making good use of FREE books. If you purchase books often, the expense really adds up. Luckily we have a large, beautiful library in town with great online resources which is perfect for someone like me. It’s nice to be able to renew them online. Returning books has never been my strong suit!
I already shared my thoughts on THIS book last month, but I wanted to share my thoughts on the other two on the list. I really, really liked Orhan’s Inheritance. It reminded me a lot of The Kite Runner in style. It was sad but I also had trouble putting it down. It was also really interesting — I ended up looking up the Armenian Genocide online and doing quite a bit of reading on it.
I also really enjoyed The Bookseller. It was fun and a little bit romantic but also kind of sad…just one of those books you find yourself immersed in. There was also a twist that I wasn’t expecting, and I love when an author can pull that off without being disappointing.
Here are my books for July:
The Rumor by Elin Hilderbrand
I never miss the new Elin Hilderbrand novel, and this was my favorite in quite some time. The story wasn’t necessarily heartwarming or life changing, but it sucked me in wondering what was going to happen next. It was hard to put down and very entertaining! Definitely a great beach read.
Via Amazon:
Madeline King and Grace Pancik are best friends and the envy of Nantucket for their perfect marriages, their beautiful kids, their Sunday night double dates with their devoted husbands. But this summer, something’s changed, and if there’s anything Nantucket likes better than cocktails on the beach at sunset, it’s a good rumor.
And rumor has it…
…that Madeline, a novelist, is battling writer’s block, with a deadline looming, bills piling up, and blank pages driving her to desperation–and a desperately bad decision;
…that Grace, hard at work to transform her backyard into a garden paradise, has been collaborating a bit more closely that necessary with her ruggedly handsome landscape architect;
…that Grace’s husband, successful island real estate developer “Fast Eddie” Pancik, has embarked on quite an unusual side project;
…that the storybook romance between Madeline’s son, Brick, and Grace’s daughter Allegra is on the rocks, heading for disaster.
As the gossip escalates, and they face the possible loss of the happy lives they’ve worked so hard to create, Grace and Madeline try mightily to set the record straight–but the truth might be even worse than rumor has it.
Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin
This is an older book that just recently came on my radar. The reviews are great and it sounds suspenseful, which I love.
Via Amazon:
Edgar Award-winning author Tom Franklin returns with his most accomplished and resonant novel so far—an atmospheric drama set in rural Mississippi. In the late 1970s, Larry Ott and Silas “32” Jones were boyhood pals. Their worlds were as different as night and day: Larry, the child of lower-middle-class white parents, and Silas, the son of a poor, single black mother. Yet for a few months the boys stepped outside of their circumstances and shared a special bond. But then tragedy struck: Larry took a girl on a date to a drive-in movie, and she was never heard from again. She was never found and Larry never confessed, but all eyes rested on him as the culprit. The incident shook the county—and perhaps Silas most of all. His friendship with Larry was broken, and then Silas left town.
More than twenty years have passed. Larry, a mechanic, lives a solitary existence, never able to rise above the whispers of suspicion. Silas has returned as a constable. He and Larry have no reason to cross paths until another girl disappears and Larry is blamed again. And now the two men who once called each other friend are forced to confront the past they’ve buried and ignored for decades.
Five Days Left by Julie Lawson Timmer
This book was recommended to me by a friend with similar tastes in books. It sounds SO sad, but sometimes the best books are!
Via Amazon:
Mara Nichols is a successful lawyer, devoted wife, and adoptive mother who has received a life-shattering diagnosis. Scott Coffman, a middle school teacher, has been fostering an eight-year-old boy while the boy’s mother serves a jail sentence. Scott and Mara both have five days left until they must say good-bye to the ones they love the most.
Through their stories, Julie Lawson Timmer explores the individual limits of human endurance and the power of relationships, and shows that sometimes loving someone means holding on, and sometimes it means letting go.
Eight Hundred Grapes by Laura Dave
We all need a good chick-lit during the Summer months, and this one sounds pretty good. Also, there’s wine in it! ;)
Via Amazon:
There are secrets you share, and secrets you hide….
Growing up on her family’s Sonoma vineyard, Georgia Ford learned some important secrets. The secret number of grapes it takes to make a bottle of wine: eight hundred. The secret ingredient in her mother’s lasagna: chocolate. The secret behind ending a fight: hold hands.
But just a week before her wedding, thirty-year-old Georgia discovers her beloved fiancé has been keeping a secret so explosive, it will change their lives forever.
Georgia does what she’s always done: she returns to the family vineyard, expecting the comfort of her long-married parents, and her brothers, and everything familiar. But it turns out her fiancé is not the only one who’s been keeping secrets….
That’s it for this month — I want to hear what good books YOU’VE read lately!
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