I’m excited to share another couple of months of reads with you today!
In June and July, I listened to:
- The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo by Amy Schumer. I decided to give Amy Schumer’s book a try after seeing her episode of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. So random, I know. She impressed me in the episode, and I was optimistic about her book. It didn’t disappoint. She keeps it real and isn’t overly crude.
- What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures by Malcolm Gladwell. What the Dog Saw is another fantastic Malcolm Gladwell collection. Unfortunately, it’s the last book of his that I had to read. So maybe he’ll publish another one soon?
- Back of the House: The Secret Life of a Restaurant by Scott Haas. I am a huge fan of shows like Chef’s Table and Mind of a Chef and am always interested in the behind the scenes aspects of working in a restaurant. I love that Back of the House is not just about the chef and owner of the restaurant but the entire restaurant staff and the ins and outs of running the restaurant each week.
- How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character by Paul Tough. My background is in education, and I still enjoy delving into the heart of it sometimes. Being a parent adds another layer of interest. For me, there wasn’t a lot of groundbreaking, brand new information here, but it was still very interesting. Tough did a great job with the case study schools and the specific students he followed.
In June and July, I read:
- Dream Team: How Michael, Magic, Larry, Charles, and the Greatest Team of All Time Conquered the World and Changed the Game of Basketball Forever by Jack McCallum. I’ve talked before about how I grew up in Chicago during the Michael Jordan Bulls era. This book is about the 1992 USA Olympic basketball team, which is the same era. Obviously, it was a golden era for the sport. It’s still so interesting reading about all of the factors that contributed to it, even (especially?) more than 20 years later.
- All We Ever Wanted by Emily Giffin. I’m sure that many of you know that I’m a huge Emily Giffin fan. She writes fiction exactly the way I wish that I could write fiction. I still think that Something Borrowed / Something Blue are her best books and best characters. However, I’ve enjoyed everything that she’s written since then. All We Ever Wanted was better than her last two books, especially in terms of characters. I enjoyed First Comes Love, but the characters were so dislikeable. The plot and characters were both a bit (emphasis on a bit, it’s not like this was an entirely different genre for her) of a departure from her usual style. She definitely rose to the challenge. My biggest pet peeve with this book is that her editor okay-ed multiple italicized words on almost every single page. Not an exaggeration. I know that seems picky. But it’s so unnecessary and distracting.
In June and July, I re-read:
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is still so much better than Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. It took me almost as long to read it (partly because I took a week off due to all of the craziness in July). But it went so much faster. Does that make sense? The flow of the book is so much better. It’s also fascinating to see how much J.K. Rowling is already leading up to the end of the series in this book.
I’m taking a break from Harry Potter again to read a few books that I’ve bought in 2018 but haven’t read yet.
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What have you been reading and loving lately?
I’m always looking for new suggestions!