Reading Report :: June 2015

June is here! We finally wrapped up our school year, VBS is behind us (it was wonderful, but it's a crazy full week where not much else happens), and we are into our true summer break. Finally. There has been much swimming, many late nights, and more time for reading!

In June, I read:

• The Little Prince by Antione de Saint-Exupéry
• This was for the Reading to Know bookclub for June and since it was a short classic I had never read, I managed to fit it in this month. Honestly, it was just okay for me. I haven't done a lot of reading about this book so I'm guessing there are deep hidden meanings that I have missed.
• A Girl's Guide to Best Friends and Mean Girls by Dannah Gresh and Suzy Weibel
• I pre-read this one with the thought of handing this off to my older two girls and/or using it as a Bible study / mama dates with them this summer. Dannah Gresh is a solid author when it comes to raising girls and issues of purity and relationships and this one was short, simple, and well done.
• Over Sea, Under Stone by Susan Cooper, the Dark is Rising Sequence book 1
• The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper, the Dark is Ring Sequence book 2
• Greenwitch by Susan Cooper, the Dark is Rising Sequence book 3
• The Grey King by Susan Cooper, the Dark is Rising Sequence book 4
• I'm lumping these four books together because I was absolutely sucked into this series the last two weeks! I had never heard of this fantasy series before, but my friend and fellow book enabler Amy pointed out that books two and four would qualify for her Newbery challenge. (The Dark is Rising was an honor book in 1974 and The Grey King was the Newbery winner in 1976). The battle between Light and Dark and the search for five objects that will help defeat the darkness are the backbone of these stories, complete with a little Arthurian legend thrown into the mix. I would say that these are a shade darker in the writing than a fantasy series like The Prydian Chronicles, but I would have no problem handing these off to N1 to read if she were interested! As I read them, Susan Cooper's writing style consistently reminded me of Madeline L'Engle's Wrinkle in Time series - not A Wrinkle in Time as much as the other books in the series, as well as some of the books in her Austin family series. I don't know if that's because of the time that they were written or just her writing style, but the tone and feel of the story were similar though the actually story was completely different. (If that makes sense?) Anyway, loved these and glad for the Newberry challenge's prompt that made me aware of them!

For July, I'm hoping to tackle:

• book 5 in the Dark is Rising Sequence, Silver on the Tree ... it's waiting at the library for me and I'm guessing I'll have that read in enough time it could probably make the June list once I pick it up. : )
• Same with The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin. This was another in my stack for the Newbery challenge and when I didn't have book 5 in the Dark is Rising Sequence, I picked it up. I'm about 1/3 of the way through this and so far so good.
• All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr is my summer road trip book of choice. Last summer I read Unbroken so this book has big steps to follow.
• Also, for the first time in a LONG time, I signed up to be on a book launch team. Simply Tuesday arrived in the mail yesterday and I'm eager to dive in. I've thoroughly enjoyed Emily Freeman's other books and I'm hoping this one follows suit.

After those three I'm just going to let July take me where it will! I'd love to reread The Core by Leigh Bortins as we prepare for jumping back into school next month as well as her second book, The Question. Really, there is no shortage of things to read around here, so I guess I'll just see what I gravitate towards this time next month!



Our first few slow days I did some major cleaning and purging and these were some of the to-be-read books that I gathered and stacked in my bedroom. There is not shortage of things to read around here!