Tell Me What to Read: Summer 2015 Edition
I seriously love reading book lists and book recommendations.
One of my favorite ways to spend down time is searching through book lists and putting as many books on hold as I can until I max out my library card.
So obviously Tell Me What to Read has long been one of my favorite things. I can’t tell you how often I go back to look at your recommendations on the previous posts.
I’ve read about five books in the last ten days (hello, vacation), so I’m ready to kick off my summer reading again.
Suggest something fun (although that doesn’t need to mean chick-lit – I’m up for non-fiction, memoirs, young adult, middle grade, AND chick-lit), and I’ll pick three to read in June, July, and August.
So! Your job: Comment with the title of a book you think I should read.
My job: I’ll choose three from the suggestions and announce them next week.
I’ll read one a month – June, July, and August. Feel free to read along.
I’ll write a review of each one here. Even if I hate the book, I will not hate you.
And . . . go! My library card is at the ready.
Smart Money Smart Kids by Rachel Cruze and Dave Ramsey.
Great ways to teach your kids about money and how to work. It's also practical and works in the real world (I have 5 kids).
Oh and one more. Born to Win by Dr. Kevin Leman. I'm an oldest child and I kept saying things like "oh, that's totally me!".
And obviously I'm a non- fiction junkie! 😉
I just finished The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo. Short enough for summer reading and I personally thought the author was cute and quirky. I know the reviews are mixed but I loved it.
I'd second this vote. I loved this one too!
Kind of hard to find sometimes, but . . . "The Old World Kitchen" by Elisabeth Luard. It's relatively old–from the 80s. It's a cookbook, a huge compendium of peasant recipes from all over the world. I probably won't actually cook from it, but the anecdotes and history in the intro. to each recipe are fascinating. Mark Bittman called it, "The best cookbook you've never heard of." I think he's right.
The Boston Girl by Anita Diamant. I just finished it and I loved it.
The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski. YA nonmagical fantasy–which I did not know was a genre until I read this book about a teen girl in a Rome-like fictional country who is physically weak, but has a mind brilliant enough to guide military strategy and shape international politics with her father, a celebrated general…but then she has to live with the consequences of the policies she suggests.
Astonish Me by Maggie Shipstead or The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
This Song Will Save Your Life by Leila Sales – Contemporary YA
The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley – Middle Grade Historical Fiction
I didn't notice the coincidence in the titles until I typed them 🙂
Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End
by Atul Gawande
Flyboys by James Bradley, David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell, Food: A Love Story by Jim Gaffigan. (I laughed myself to tears with the last one!)
Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson.
"All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr. Just won the Pulitzer Prize. It was a compelling novel that gave me a different, more personal view of WWII.
All of A Kind Family by Sydney Taylor is the read-aloud I'm doing with my kids right now and we are all enjoying. ..next up for us is My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George. For myself, I always read your recommendations and I've been working my way through your blog reviews and lists so don't have any new to add 🙂
Papa Married a Mormon, if you can find it. It is such a fun and sweet story.
I just read "The Royal We" by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan (aka the Fug Girls), and it was delightful. And I'll second "The Girl on the Train" by Paula Hawkins because I'm reading it right now and it's a page-turner. 🙂
I really really enjoyed "The Royal We"!
The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd
I love mining the comments on these posts for recommendations!
Most of what I've read and loved lately you'd already read! If you haven't already read it, I highly recommend 12 Years a Slave.
I haven't yet read the following, but I've heard good things about all of them:
Creativity Inc – Ed Catmull
Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin – Jill Lepore
In the Kingdom of Ice – Hampton Sides
I just looked more closely at your photo and since you have To Say Nothing of the Dog in your stack (I LOVE that book), I have one more recommendation. You might want to check out Doomsday Book by the same author. It's actually the first book of the Oxford Time Travel Series.
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr! So good!
I second this!
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah! Historical fiction set during World War II – a page turner and a beautiful story.
I second this one!! LOVED it!
One of my recent favorite reads is Being Mortal. Although, I hesitate to suggest it because it is a deep read and not necessarily ¨fun¨. I found myself really thinking about quality of life and aging in ways I hadn't before. I consider a book especially good if it challenges me to think outside my comfort zone.
And on a happier note, my sister in law won your baby carrier giveaway. She was showing it off at my brother's wedding this past weekend with her 13 day old baby #3. She loves the carrier! 🙂