June Books

This is my 3rd Backman. I absolutely loved A Man Called Ove. Beartown I didn't finish; it went down a dark path that I didn't want to follow. This one was okay - maybe even good. It had fun moments, but definitely not my favorite read.

This was great. I loved reading some of the norse mythology, although it turns out I still cannot have a conversation with my brother's about the Thor in the marvel comics / movies, but I'd take Mr. Gaiman's retelling any day.

 This was different enough to capture my interest and I was totally drawn in! Anxious for the heroine and everything! I liked the ending, the growth of characters, and although it was somewhat predictable (at least I think it is - have to keep reading to be sure - which I feel motivated to do) I felt surprised enough by events that I quickened my pace to the end. Highly recommendable. 

I greatly anticipated this one. After a very long wait, this novel - which was suppose to be seeped in early Russian culture and literature - turned into heavily anti Christianity literature. I even found myself trying to talk myself into continuing onward after I had a glimpse where it was going, but then I realized I wasn't enjoying it and there was no way I was going to agree with the philosophy demons are actually here to help us and Christ turns us into non-thinking zombies, and therefore returned the book early. 

It is finished! This took me a long time but I learned a lot. A lot of it read easily and some parts were more tedious than others, but highly recommendable if you want to learn about Queen Victoria and the Victorian era. I spent a lot of time looking through books about Queen Victoria and found much written but not a lot that received high ratings. This one did well on the rating list and rightly so. I think they also based a BBC mini series about Queen Victory off of this book. Just FYI in case you'd rather watch. 

This was on my to read list for a long time and it was also available so I picked it up. It was pretty crass. I wouldn't recommend it unless you are really up for to wade through that but the story kept my interest and I like the way it ended. 

Highly recommendable. I got emotionally involved in this historical fiction about East Berlin after the wall was built. And yes, it was fiction, but still very well written. Quite worthwhile. 

My friend Miss Pamela Morgan suggested I read this book, which happens to be one of her top 5 favorite books. I understand why. Beautifully written and so comforting. I learned so much. I will be reading this again. And most of the others. I highly recommend.

While waiting for some of my other books on hold to come in I picked up this one. It's another book about the Japanese internment camps, this one through the eyes of a child. It was okay. Good first introduction for a middle school student.

Rebekah's books

These are some of Rebekah's favorite series right now:

I believe I've recommended this series before, but we are still reading it and it is still wonderful. There are 13 books in the series so far. We have 4 more to read. They are perfect emotional and mentally for my 6 year old. Even though the main characters are animals, Rebekah still identifies well with them and their stories.

Same follows with this series. The first book was a little "older" - starting with the girls playing a game and talking about a boy (one of the girl's brothers) but we continued on and it turned out okay. I wasn't going to continue on but there was a serious lack of good age appropriate reading material in our life and Rebekah was mildly interested in the cover of book 2, so we tried again and the second book was perfect, as well as every book after. Rebekah loves the four little girls, identifying with each of them in some way.