It’s time for one of the best days of the month, the Show Us Your Books link up with Steph and Jana! My reading life was ALL over the place this month, but looking over this list, I’ve realized that I mostly read books geared towards children and teenagers. Oh well! I did read a couple of adult books too, and I only have one book left to read for Erin’s book challenge 4.0 🙂

Also linking up with Modern Mrs. Darcy for Quick Lit 🙂

Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card (4 stars) I read this book as part of Erin’s Book Challenge and it reminded me of a friend from my university days who was NOT a big reader, and this was one of the only fiction books he’d ever read and he RAVED and RAVED about how good it was. I filed that away and vowed to read it someday, and finally got to it. I’ll probably send him a facebook message to chat about it even though that was 8 years ago. haha. Anyway, this book was faster paced than I thought it would be at first, and it was good once I got into it. I kept forgetting that Ender was so young. It reminded me of some more recent books (The Maze Runner, Artemis Fowl, even Hunger Games a bit) which is funny because it was written in 1985. It’s not a book that would be for everyone, but if you like YA Fantasy, you’d probably really like it. The ending was especially kind of cool to me. Now I’ll have to make Brian watch the movie 😉

Bridget Jones Diary by Helen Fielding (3 stars) I wanted to love this book as much of the rest of the world seems to, but I just didn’t. I’m not sure if it was the format, which I found a bit hard to follow (I have no idea why) or the fact that Bridget couldn’t seem to get it together, or the parents’ relationship, but it just wasn’t my favourite. I’ve never seen the movie (gasp!), but I think I’ll check it out sometime soon because #duhcolinfirth . I can obviously see the ties to Pride & Prejudice, but this just wasn’t the variation for me…or maybe it was just the wrong time. It’s still worth a read if you love British chick lit, though.

Mr. Popper’s Penguins by Richard Atwater (3.5 stars) I found this book the same way as Stargirl, and it passed the time OK while I was running. Unlike Stargirl, I would have enjoyed this book much more at about age 8 than I did as an adult (haha)…however, it was still a unique and cute story and I’ve heard the movie is cute too.

As Good As New by Jennifer Dawson (3 stars) (I was provided with an advance e-copy of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review): There were parts of this book that I really enjoyed, and the characters were cute. It was a fluffy and predictable read, but I enjoyed the escape that it provided me with for the time I read it. If you like contemporary romance, I’d recommend this because it’s part of a series (although it stood alone just fine too).

The Heart of the Fight by Judith Wright and Bob Wright (3.5 stars) (I was provided with an advance e-copy of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review):

This book wasn’t completely what I expected, but there were still some interesting concepts. I wouldn’t say we fight A LOT but I still think there is always room for improvement in any relationship, so I like to read books like this that help to coach you to communicate better with your partner. Some of the concepts here weren’t new to me, but others were insightful.

The Golden Son by Shilpi Somaya Gowda (4.5 stars) This book was extremely captivating, and I enjoyed it MUCH more than I expected to. I read it for an online book club and I would have never sought it out otherwise (or at least maybe not for awhile). I would highly, highly recommend this book. The adversity faced by some of the characters and the cultural descriptions (although fictional) were really interesting and I couldn’t put this book down. PS – how beautiful is the cover?!?!

The Wednesday Wars by Gary Schmidt (5 stars) – One of my favourite book bloggers, Janssen from Everyday Reading, recommends this book HIGHLY and it had been on my radar for awhile. It was a great read. The characters were really entertaining, and it was fun thinking about what it would’ve been like to be in middle school during the Vietnam war. I don’t always love reading books for this age (although my current reading would say otherwise), but this one is worth your time (all of about a day and a bit, really!)

Peaceful Parent, Happy Siblings by Dr. Laura Markham A re-read since I missed a few concepts last year when I read it. I also love Dr. Laura Markham’s website as a wonderful resource for more calm parenting with great results.

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (5 stars) I don’t know why I hadn’t read this book yet, but I selected it for Erin’s challenge and then almost abandoned it AGAIN when I thought I could slot The Golden Son into that category. However, I am so SO glad I read this book. It was amazing. I had a feeling about the ending throughout the book, but I still didn’t see it coming quite the way it did. What an amazing novel about how the past can affect your present and the ties that bond us all. This certainly will not be my last read of his.

Still Life by Louise Penny (4 stars) after hearing this recommended on Anne Bogel’s podcast numerous times, I added it to my Goodreads TBR list but sort of forgot about it. When I came across it at the library, I scooped it up right away. First and foremost, I love that this book is by a Canadian author and it takes place in Canada! (Quebec). I loved the French feel of it although all of the characters were primarily English. Inspector Gamache is a fantastic character and I am already dying to read the rest of the series (fortunately there are a lot of them to keep me busy!). I’d classify this as a “cozy mystery” type book…not too gruesome, but still very intriguing and the writing is EXCELLENT. PS – another beautiful cover.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
I started this book LAST June and just didn’t ever get interested in it enough to finish it, which always surprised me because it is rated so highly and everyone who has read it seems to love it. I got it on audiobook randomly from the library this month and that really seemed to get me into it even more to the point that I wanted to listen to it constantly. I’m not sure why some books just work better for me on audio, but this one was one of them. I absolutely loved this book and the way it was written. I’d say that it starts a bit slow (maybe why it took me awhile to get into it), but it is so, so, so worth the time to read. Such an interesting perspective on an important period of our collective history.

And a few recent favourite kid book loves:

Dinosaurs Go to Sleep by Ellem Wallace written by Brian’s best friend’s sister!! A cute book with adorable pictures of dinosaurs.

Mix it Up by Hervé Tullet we are obsessed with Tullet’s books. As a parent, I totally love to read them because they are really interactive and interesting. Press Here is probably best known, and likely our favourite of all of his. Mix it Up is a good one, and another one we really enjoyed this month was Help! We Need a Title! <–Lucy (aged 2) loves this one SO much.

Stick Man by Julia Donaldson – Her books are all just so good. I love reading books that rhyme 🙂

Little Pea by Amy Rosenthal – This book has a really cute concept about eating preferences 🙂

What have you been reading lately? Up next for me is The Nightingale to finish off Erin’s book challenge, and the last book in Ellie Marney’s series. Plus a potential re-read of all the HP books on the horizon before July 😉