Tell Me What to Read: Spring 2018
Tell Me What to Read is quite possibly my very favorite thing on my entire blog.
It usually takes me FOR-ever to get through the three books because I have book ADHD, but I absolutely love seeing all the recommendations and I’ve read so many amazing new authors and titles over the past eight years (eight years I’ve been doing this! I still remember when I had this idea, when I was traveling with my mom and visiting a local library – the whole thing started with this book!).
I’ve just finished up the three books from the fall edition and I’m ready to roll with a new set of three for this spring!
You know the drill – 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 April, May, and June!
Your job: Comment with the title of a book you think I should read.
My job: Choose three from the suggestions and announce which ones I’ll be reading.
I’ll read one a month (ish) between now and the end of June (hopefully). Feel free to read along and check back every month for my reviews.
And, as always, even if I hate the book, I will not hate you.
And go!
The Last Runaway by Tracy Chevalier
Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh
Banana Heart Summer by Merlinda Bobis
The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner
George and Sam by Charlotte Moore
The Principles of Uncertainty by Maira Kalman
Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson
Scruples by Judith Krantz
A History of Reading by Alberto Manguel
Have you read The Raven Boys? If not, it’s a teen read that I totally fell in love with!
I enjoyed Ruined by Amy Tintera. It’s the first in a trilogy by the same name. Also, The Museum of Heartbreak which is a cheesy title, but a cute YA romance. Good luck!
I’m going to recommend The Reading Promise by Alice Ozma — it came out in 2011, so it’s not new, but if you haven’t read it, I highly recommend. It’s a memoir about a girl and her dad who go on a read-aloud streak — til college! The audio is fantastic too 🙂
(I tried to post from my phone, but don’t think it worked. If you get this 2x, sorry!)
WE WERE THE LUCKY ONES by Georgia Hamilton. I read it last month and am confident it will be one of the best books I read in 2018. It is the true story of the author’s Polish family scattered around the world during WWII. I could NOT put it down, it was just so gripping. I’m recommending it to everyone 🙂
Also, not a book recommendation, but do you follow Reese Witherspoon’s bookclub on Instagram? I think they read a book a month, do interviews with the author, etc. If you don’t, I bet you’d like it. I have a long list of To Be Read books based off of her picks.
I’m just 100 pages into that one and nice to hear you liked it so much!
My favorite book from last year!!
That’s on my request list! I’m 42nd … :o(
Can I recommend a book I haven’t read yet? “The Hate U Give.” It’s about a black girl who witnesses her unarmed friend get shot by the police. I’ve heard about it from pretty much every source imaginable, and every one of them raves about it. I’m picking it up from the library today and I can’t wait.
I read this book last year. It was amazing. It puts you in the mindset of the BLM movement without being preachy. I would give them book a MAJOR language alert, the cursing is pretty intense, but other than that it’s incredible!
Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow. My mom is a children’s librarian and recommended it to me as the next big Harry Potter-esque craze. I read it in less than a day and haven’t stopped thinking about it since (over 3 months ago). It reminded me of that feeling of entering into the world of Harry Potter for the first time, but with a girl character. It was similar to HP in feeling, but different enough that it was still totally new and enjoyable. I’ve been recommending it to everyone I come across!
I just finished Educated by Tara Westover and thought it fantastic. I read somewhere that it was “difficult to read but impossible to put down,” and I couldn’t describe it better myself. It’s about a girl who was raised in a fundamentalist Mormon, survivalist family (and this is the most normal thing about them) who sets foot in a classroom for the first time at age 17. She wasn’t homeschooled – she just wasn’t schooled at all. But it’s more about her family, how she grew up, and how her relationships changed with her family as she got more “educated” on her own. The audio was fantastic. (I’m not sure if you being Mormon would make you hesitant to read this – but this family is so extreme. I’d love to hear less extreme LDS take on this book.)
I just finished this book yesterday and it was so good! FTR, her family is very extreme Mormon (more like fundamentalists, although they are not polygamists), but she never paints Mormonism in a bad light. In fact, she did her PhD on Mormons and how they have impacted history. It was definitely a great book! I didn’t think it was super well written, but I did have a hard time putting it down, it was a very compelling story.
I just bought this one too after hearing her interviewed on NPR and can’t wait to dive in!
Yes, she had a fascinating interview on Fresh Air with Terry Gross a few weeks back. I went home and researched the author and book.
Thanks to your recommendation, I am now reading this and find it very interesting. “Difficult to read but impossible to put down” is a perfect description!!
I just finished “Dark Matter” by Blake Crouch and loved it. It is one of those breathless, seat-of-the-pants books that I plowed through in one sitting. It’s also the type of book that it’s hard to write too much about without giving things away, so I will just say this: there is a little bit of violence in it, but not too terribly much. And it starts out feeling hopeless and awful, but it doesn’t turn out the way you think it will. And it’s imaginative and different from anything I’ve ever read and just a good, action-packed read.
The Outward Mindset by the Arbinger Institute
How We Learn by Benedict Carey
Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore by Matthew Sullivan
Have you read Station Eleven? I just finished it and really enjoyed it.
Another vote for Station Eleven.
Another vote for Station Eleven here too! Loved it.
I loved this one too!
“Before We Were Yours”. It is historical fiction about the orphanage scandal that happened in Tennessee in the 1930’s. It is riveting, intriguing, heartbreaking, and heartwarming all rolled up in one. I couldn’t put this book down and I’ve been thinking about it ever since I finished reading it!
Also “All the Truth that’s in my” by Julie Berry. Another page turner that you just want to know the end of. Plus I think it is a powerful book with amazing lessons about speaking our truths and the power that we all hold.
Snow Falling on Cedars and Beartown! I read both this past winter and they were really well done.
The Alice Network by Kate Quinn
Beartown by Fredrik Backman!
These are always some of my favorite posts you do! Even though I felt it was a bit predictable, “The Woman in the Window” was an interesting thriller. It made me feel things, and I suppose that is what a book is supposed to do. I was moved by Brene Brown’s “Braving the Wilderness” audio book. I am currently reading “An American Marriage” and find it wonderful! Can’t wait to see what you read!
Tell the Wolves I’m Home – Carol Rifka Brunt
The Woman in the Window…..suspenseful and great twist!
The Great Alone-loved it!!
I’ve just finished The Explorer by Katherine Rundell. It’s my first five star read of the year. Won the Costa book award here in the U.K. And is the best MG book I have ever read. I’ll bet you and your bigger girls will love it!
I just looked through your Goodreads and everything that I was going to recommend you’ve already read! Haha! Oh well! However, my next reads are going to be The Hate U Give and The Immortalists.