Whatcha Readin'? in Summer and September

I went the whole summer without doing book reviews, which you may not care about at all, but it gives me something non dog related to post about so I am going to take advantage of the opportunity to change the subject, so here are my books for June, July, August and September. Don't worry, I didn't read nearly as much in the summer so the list shouldn't be too out of control.

*The Great Gatbsy by F. Scott Fitzgerald
This is my brother Jeff's favorite book and I read it years and years ago and liked it but I definitely liked it much better this time. I had all kinds of specific things I wanted to say about it in June but now I don't remember what they were so I will have to read it again and give it a proper review.

*The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
I re-read this one for book club and then never got around to answering the assigned questions about the book but it was good to give this one another glance. It has a simple message but one that everyone can relate to.

Then I started reading BOTH War and Peace and The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich and got about a quarter of the way through each of them before I realized that they were not summer reading. I moved both of them back in to the queue and took a summer kids book detour instead since I got a whole bunch for about a dollar or two on Kindle Special.

Gossamer by Lois Lowry 
I have been reading lots of her stuff and realizing that I totally missed out on a great author when I was a kid. The only books I read by her as a kid were the Anastasia Krupnik books and A Summer to Die and I am loving delving in to the rest of her work. If you are a fan of The Giver, her fourth book in that series came out on Tuesday and I am excited to jump in to that one this month.

Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell
I remember picking this from our in class library in 7th grade English and my teacher telling me it was too advanced for me and to choose something else. I have always been a good reader and I was so offended that I never bothered to pick it up again until now, and now I am even more offended than ever. I forgive you Mrs. Levert but I totally could have handled that book. I am glad I finally shelved my pride and gave this book a chance because I did enjoy it, but not one of my faves or anything.

*Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
Loved it then, love it now, although Jacob Have I Loved is my favorite by Paterson.

Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech
I love Newbery books and I enjoyed this one but it reminded me of several other books I have read so it never felt terribly original or new.

Divergent and Insurgent (kind of) by Veronica Roth
This one has been recommended to me 100 times over but a few people told me it was like Matched, which I did not like, so I was debating whether or not I wanted to get in to another dystopian trilogy that would leave me cold. Alyssa loved Matched though so I asked a couple people (should have asked a couple more) if this was kid friendly and when they gave me the green light I bought it for her. She loved it and then gobbled up the next book in the series, Insurgent and told me I had to read it. The first book was decent. I didn't love the characters or the story but it was less been there, done that than Matched was so I gave it credit for that, but I did not intend to go on to book two. However, there was a make out scene and some sex talk that had me worried about what was in book two since I had already let Alyssa read them both. I read book two just to make sure it didn't get any worse but I admit that I skimmed a lot because the story line in book two really did nothing to hold my attention. And in case you have a daughter who loved Matched or The Hunger Games, this one is a little more grown up and in my opinion not for a 10 year old.

Aside from children's books the other theme this summer was dogs. I read many books about raising a puppy, including How to Raise a Dog you Can Live With by Clarice Rutherford, How to Housebreak your Dog in 7 Days by Shirlee Kalstone, The Cockapoo Owner's Handbook by Edward Sweet, The Art of Raising a Puppy by The Monks of New Skete, and all of the following by Cesar Milan, Raising the Perfect Puppy, Cesar's Way and Be the Pack Leader. I also read many, many articles and message boards and have way too much info on how to raise a dog in my head now but I will say that it helped a TON. I am kind of OCD and if I am going to do something I have to know everything about it first. It did get to a point though, where every time something went wrong with the dog or every time he was resting I would be studying and Seth told me it had to stop. Quoting the experts and trying to dissect every move the dog made was not helping me anymore, I may have gone too far but in the end I am very grateful for all that I learned.

So when Seth cut me off from dog books I went back to reading stuff I wanted to read and that helped me start feeling like I was living a somewhat normal life again. Oh the power of books!

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
This was one that Kindle recommended to me and I am so glad I found it when I did. It is about a former Olympian (and USC alum) who went down in a plane in the ocean in WWII and then floated on a life raft for 40 something days before being found by the Japanese and becoming a prisoner of war and YIKES did he have a rough go. It made me so embarrassed about the whole dog debacle. It was a great story about the will to live, the strength of the human spirit and the power of God to ultimately help us overcome. My grandpa flew in the war and I wish I knew more of his story but when I read books like this I completely understand why he never talked about it.

The Time Keeper by Mitch Albom
This is Albom's brand new book and you know I am a fan of his writing so I had to check it out. This was a good story about appreciating the time we have and it was right on the edge for me but didn't quite go there. And then at some point it just got strange so in the end I liked the concept but not the execution and I think I prefer his more autobiographical stuff.

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
This whole book is a little too simple and spelled out for me. Every point he was trying to make was put in simple words in case we missed it and sometimes letting the story speak for itself had more power, in my opinion. I liked the first half of the book but the second half not as much. Love the message but the writing just didn't pull me in.

Yellow Star by Jennifer Roy
Holocaust stories always suck me in and leave me stunned. No matter how many times I read them I never get used to the fact that this actually happened to people. This was told very simply as though through the eyes of the small child who lived it and that was very effective in parts but I did not get why the author wrote it all broken up like a poem, yet it did not read like poetry to me at all. That was distracting to me and didn't add anything.

And I finished a good one today, but you will have to wait until next month to hear about my October books.

How about you? What have you read in the past 4 months?

*means I had read it in the past as well.