Today I'm linking up with Modern Mrs. Darcy's Quick Lit to bring you some short and sweet reviews of what I've read in the past month. For longer reviews, you can always find me on Goodreads.
This month I got away for a week of vacation, so my book count is much higher than it has been since I started my new job!
The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis: By now I can see Lewis' pattern of writing a children's adventure story and then haphazardly weaving in both Christian elements and societal commentary. It helps me understand why people seem to most love these books who read them as children, whereas I find these latter books to be fine but not great.
There's Something About Sweetie by Sandhya Menon: As with Menon's other books, this was a sweet YA romance with secondary friend drama thrown in to add more plot. I enjoyed Sweetie and Ashish's relationship, but felt like the writing was weaker in this book, like Menon just had an anti-fat-shaming message she wanted to get across and filled in the plot around it.
Silent Spring by Rachel Carson: Because this book is over 50 years old, reading it is a different experience than reading most nonfiction today that's aimed at raising awareness about modern-day situations. What struck me in the early chapters was just how much Carson sounded like today's conspiracy theorists and pseudo-science peddlers, like the people who believe vaccines cause autism. In the end, though, Carson really does make an irrefutable case about the dangers of mass applications of chemical pesticides.
By the Pricking of My Thumbs by Agatha Christie: Not one of Christie's best, but I do so love Tommy and Tuppence. I'd recommend reading the other Tommy and Tuppence books first and continuing with this one if you like them.
84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff: I could not understand exactly how two decades of correspondence between a woman in New York and a bookshop in London could make for a compelling read, but now I understand. Hanff is a hoot! The book is under 100 pages and made up entirely of letters and postcards that often don't fill a page, so you can get through it quickly. It's worth the read.
The Trespasser by Tana French: Tana French has finally done it — written a Dublin Murder Squad mystery that didn't make me want to throw the book across the room when I was done. Her writing is just so good and I did not want to put the book down, and this time the main narrator isn't a horrible person and justice is, more or less, served. Hooray!
The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery: What a sweet little book! I'm glad this lesser-known work of Montgomery's was recommended to me. I found the plot extremely predictable, but if you don't mind predictability and a neat and tidy happy ending, then it's worth the read.
The Grail: A Year Ambling & Shambling Through an Oregon Vineyard in Pursuit of the Best Pinot Noir Wine in the Whole Wild World by Brian Doyle: I'm not a person who enjoys wine and I might have liked the book more if I was, but also Doyle's style (with long sentences and tangents, and uncomfortable references to sex and women, and lots and lots and lots of lists) is not my favorite. That said, by the end of the book I did know substantially more than I did before about pinot noir and winemaking, which I suppose is what this book was intended to accomplish.
The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict by Trenton Lee Stewart: Although this prequel tells the story of The Mysterious Benedict Society's founder, it is essentially a standalone story, but either way it gave me the same enjoyment as the original series. Nicholas Benedict, 9-year-old orphan, must outsmart bullies and incompetent adults while following the clues of a treasure hunt.
What have you been reading this month? Share over at Modern Mrs. Darcy!
Looking back:
One year ago I was reading: Garlic and Sapphires, Inspired, and Feeling Good
Five years ago I was reading: Island Beneath the Sea and A Suitable Boy
Ten years ago I was reading: Metaphors We Live By
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