2025 Book Post #4

Life has been coming at us fast since we made it to Texas...it's hard to believe we've been here a month already! I am super behind on organizing pictures & posting things, but here we go! Most of these were books that I/we read in Alaska or on the beginning of our road trip to Texas.

Read-Alouds
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame: I read this one aloud to all three kids. No one was thrilled about it when I started it, but we all ended up enjoying it. Definitely better suited to a younger crowd, but still a sweet, fun little read-aloud that was new to all of us.
The Storm by Cynthia Rylant: This is another one better suited to a younger crowd, but we'd never read it before & I always wanted to! It was a super short, sweet read that we all enjoyed.

My Reads
Before I Do by Sophie Cousens: I am slowly making my way through all of Sophie Cousens' books..so far they've all been a hit for me!
It's a Love Story by Annabel Monaghan: The same is true for Annabel Monaghan's books--they're the perfect rom-com-ish books. This is her newest book that just came out this past summer. This quote from the book resonated with me: "This feels like wealth, I think. This is the thing you save up for. You live your whole life so that you can be surrounded by too many people in too small of a room and tell the story of how it happened." (page 220)
Wait till Next Year by Doris Kearns Goodwin: I would never have picked this book up on my own, but I saw it recommended on a bookstagram account I follow. This book was kind of a flop for me, which kind of tracks since it is a memoir. I always love the idea of memoirs, but when I actually read them they tend to fall short for me..with a few exceptions of course!
Tangled Up in You by Christina Lauren: This was recommended on the same bookstagram account that I found Wait till Next Year, but this one was a winner for me! It was a fractured fairy tale of Rapunzel. Super fun!

Audiobooks
Audiobooks aren't really my jam, but we listened to these in my car at the beginning of our road trip:
Fortunately, the Milk by Neil Gaiman: I had read this aloud to the kids years ago, and it was a fun, quick audiobook for the car! 
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien: Hadley and I have never read this book, so we gave it a try in the car. We listened to about half of it before we decided to throw in the towel. We weren't loving the story line, and it was honestly harder to follow as an audiobook because the accents were so strong. (Shelby & Brady were both with Derek in his truck while we listened to this one.)
Tress and the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson: We listened to the Audible version of this (we get one free Audible book a month with our Amazon Music subscription), and the girls & I loved it! It was an amazing production! I would definitely recommend this one.