Book Post #7 of 2024

It's always so much fun to take a quick look back at what we've been reading!

Read-Alouds
Willodeen by Katherine Applegate: We really enjoy this author, but I felt like this one was the most different of her books & it took us a bit to get into it. We still liked it but definitely not one of our top favorites from Katherine Applegate.

Bob by Wendy Mass & Rebecca Stead: I read this aloud to Brady as part of our homeschool curriculum. We both liked it, but didn't love it.

The Wild Robot by Peter Brown: This was a repeat read-aloud for us, and we loved it just as much as this time or maybe even a little more than we did the first time we read it! We wanted to re-read it before seeing the movie that just came out recently. We loved the movie, but I definitely think the book is better! We read this book aloud for the first time about 5ish years ago when we were living in Helotes. It's so fun to circle back to our favorites as the kids get older. Two thumbs way up for both the book & movie!!

Bunnicula by Deborah & James Howe: Love, love, love! I picked this one to read aloud this month to get us in the Halloween spirit, and it kept all of us entertained! I wasn't expecting us to enjoy this one as much as we did. It is super quick read--highly recommend!

Ra the Mighty: The Great Tomb Robbery by A.B. Greenfield: This book is the second installment to the three-part Ra the Mighty series. I read this aloud to Brady as part of our homeschool curriculum. This series is set in Ancient Egypt, and all of the books are mysteries. We read the first one aloud last year, and Brady was so excited for us to continue with Ra's adventures!


My Reads
I feel like I wouldn't necessarily recommend any of these books, but here we go! 

The Return of Ellie Black by Emiko Jean: Okay, I think this is the best of my reads in this round-up. It's a little on the dark side. This book was selected by the GMA book club. Usually when books make it on these lists, I feel like they get built up and never live up to the hype for me. That was definitely the case for me with this book. I liked it, but didn't love it.

Swan Song by Elin Hilderbrand: This was the finale for Elin Hilderbrand's books, so even though I haven't picked up one of her books in a bit I was eager to read this one! I actually read two-thirds of this book at the beach this summer when I was able to get my hands on my sister's copy. But I didn't get a chance to finish it before we parted ways, so I put it on hold at our library. This wasn't my favorite of Elin Hilderbrand's but I'm so glad I read it as lots of characters from her previous books set in Nantucket made appearances, which was super fun. I always love it when authors have cross-over characters or when I get to read a book about place that I've been--makes the reading experience all the more special!

All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker: I don't like saying negative things about books, but every book isn't for everyone, right?! This was another book that got a lot of buzz on Jenna Bush Hager's book list, and I just did not care for it. It was super long, dark, and sad in my opinion. I wouldn't recommend this one, but I know there are lots of people who love it...so maybe you will?!

The 10 Habits of Happy Mothers by Meg Meeker: I saw this book recommended by Sarah Mackenzie with Read Aloud Revival. Her recommendations are almost always slam-dunks for me, but this book was super blah for me. I hate to say it, but I was glad when I finally finished it.  


The next three books I'm reading are already looking very promising, so I have high hopes for my next reading round-up!