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Life in the White House

Reviews

What I’ve Been Reading – February 2019

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I have been on a roll the past few months with readings….lots of fiction that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed.

FAVORITE FICTION BOOK

This is a toughie! So many good ones, especially historical fiction! I’m going to say Becoming Mrs. Lewis, although Crawdads and Marilla are close behind!

I just really enjoyed the story of Joy Davidman and the insight into her life and Lewis’, even Tolkien’s. Honestly, I felt this story was more compelling to me than the Narnia stories…I know, I know. Sacrilege.

It stuck with me though, the details of their relationship and how short lived it was. It seriously made me upset. I was constantly wanting to slap people, especially knowing that it would all end too soon.

Before reading this I hadn’t know much, if anything, about C.S. Lewis’ personal life, but this made it all very interesting and I wanted to find out more.

And second though, does this even count as fiction? Seeing it’s a truthful novel about actual people and events…no clue.

FAVORITE non-FICTION BOOK

I’m going with my girl Reese!

Fast fun read! I’m a bit of a geographical confusion, born in Brooklyn, raised in the Catskills, and a southern girl at heart.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Reese’s anecdotes and memories, as well as a variety of delicious sounding recipes (all of which left me wondering just how she stays so slim). If you’re looking for a fun look-through with great ideas and recipes, this was great!

And yes, I still wish Reese and Jennifer Garner would adopt me as their little sister…we could share our love of food and quilts.

The Book I didn’t like

The Shakespeare Stealer. Absolute crap. I had picked it up at the Little Free Library and thought it would be a fun one for me and Avie. It was so lame and unexciting that I finished it and put it in the Salvation Army box. It was that bad.

What have you been reading?

Keep up with what I’ve been reading on GoodReads or Instagram 

(I’ve notated books I’ve read for my book club * and F for Fiction, NF for Non-Fiction, and A if it was an Audiobook).

*This post contains affiliate links. You can read my disclosure policy here.

The Wondering Years {a Review}

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I received this book from BookLookBloggers.com for free, but my opinions are my own. Find my disclosure policy here.

I first heard of this book on the Sorta Awesome Podcast, and I bought a copy for my oldest’s teacher for Christmas based solely on that. When it popped up as eligible to review I jumped at it.

I finished it in a couple of days, and overall it was a good read. It was enjoyable and made me chuckle at parts. I believe the author and I are the same age, or very close in age.

The references to pop-culture made me giggle, particularly when juxtaposed to the “Christian” up bringing of the 90s and all it’s awkwardness.

I flew through the first half of the book, nodding my head in agreement…then something happened, it started to get slow and deeper, not in a bad way…just in an I-don’t-think-this-is-what-I-signed-up-for way. It was still very well written and enjoyable, but it started to deviate from the pop culture parallels.

By the last chapter it was no longer entertaining. McCoy discusses his walk of faith much more and dives into dealing with his father’s cancer diagnosis. What started out as light and humorous made a complete turn around to something much deeper and serious.

Don’t get me wrong, it was still well written, but I felt that the last quarter of the book was a complete redirect from what I thought the book was. If I had known that, I probably wouldn’t have gifted it to my kid’s teacher.