May has been an awesome reading month. In addition to some long term holds coming through, I have also read some random books. For instance, I was flipping through Libby one night and decided to try "The Help":
I think it was in the "bestsellers" section of Libby. I've been reading lots of newer books lately and I should definitely spend more time/effort picking some "backlist" books (as MMD told me they are called!) because some of the best books I read last year were not written last year. I was thinking of
Where the Crawdads Sing, although even that was 2018.
Also, The Help made me really want a maid, or at least a household help person. I know that wasn't the point of the book and obviously I do not want the associated racism of 1960s Mississippi. I often think about how full time working moms today spend more time with their children than stay at home moms in 1950. Although fiction, this book is definitely an insight into how that time may have been spent.
I would just love to not clean two high chairs three times a day, and to not carry two babies up and down stairs all day. I would love to not spend morning nap making dinner. I would love a break from Laundry. Maybe the chance to leave the house in the middle of the day without babies?
[Long maternity leaves are great, but I am going on 7 months of never spending more than 90 minutes away from the twins. Actually once or twice I've taken one twin to something, so I have spent up to 2.5 hours away from twins, but max 90 minutes away from both babies. Not for any real reason - we just have a lot of kids.]
I also Read Just For The Summer by Abby Jimenez
I cant remember what blog person recommended this one. I wasn't a huge fan of The Happily Ever After Playlist (which I listened to on Audio) but I *really* enjoyed this one. I think perhaps it was my life circumstance at the time which made the Happily Ever After Playlist not as good? I wasn't as into this Chick Lit narrative then. It's basically my summer reading staple now. I am already reading Yours Truly because I love me some character crossover.
I also just read The Rachel Incident and The Violin Conspiracy. Both of these have been floating around the blog-o-sphere for a while and both were great. I listened to The Rachel Incident and it was fun and a bit confusing to listen a generally intelligible Irish Accent. Slow and clear speech is not usually an Irish trait.
What a reading month! Also, I did not realize how different book covers are between UK editions and US editions sometimes.
Modern Mrs. Darcy had a post on this recently. I use US Libby but the UK Library so I tend to see a mishmash of covers
I had seen Slow Productivity on Cal's blog:
And was surprised when I got it from my library:
Is that a real lake? I want to go there. But I haven't figured out how to google what that actually is.
May is not usually a huge reading month for me but I guess the endless rain and 2:30-4:30am baby wake ups is really helping keep my reading life active (but my active life is not active. I was in running gear this morning until the babies decided to wake at 4:30 and 5:30 and now I'm back in pyjamas at 5:45. So it is all trade offs!)
Have you read any great books in May?
ReplyDeleteThat is a real lake! I Googled it (you can use either Google Lens or just a Google image search to find it) and it is not specific, but is likely a place in the Canadian Rockies, which is where I am right now! The popular lakes are Moraine and Louise, but it is hard to tell in that pic if it is one of them.
I can't believe you had not read The Help yet; that was so hot for a while and I just assumed that everyone had read it. If you have not read a lot of the past hits, you should check out my long list of favorites on my bookshelf page if you need recommendations: https://travelspot06.blogspot.com/p/bookshelf.html Do you usually listen to audio when you are reading? I am assuming so, although Lisa used to read on her phone a lot while nursing her kids!
Ahh google magic! Andy wondered if it was Joffre lakes. Ahh I'm so excited you are in the rockies, it's soooo beautiful there! I think Bamf is on Lake Louise? It's definitely on my bucket list.
DeleteI only started reading in 2021 - I think I read maybe 10 books between 2010 and 2020 (not including academic stuff). Most of those were The Hunger Games and The Twilight Series. So I am missing a HUGE part of reading life!
I find non fiction easier on Audio, but there are some standout Audiobooks too, it's just often harder for me to get into audiobook fiction. I just gave up on a TJR audiobook because I wasn't picking it over other podcasts etc. I use my Kindle for most of my reading now... They're big enough that I can read while nursing. Although most of my reading time is before bed or when I get woken at night and can't get back to sleep... I had a good hours reading between 1:30 and 2:30 last night listening to Audrey gripe about eating too much dinner (that's my guess, she obviously does't tell me why she's griping)
Thank you for the book list! I am going to check it out for sure!
I would love help like that too! To come home to everything tidied? To have food magically appear? I have read that statistic about moms today spending more time with their kids WHILE working full time jobs and that’s just crazy!
ReplyDeleteMy oldest is 10 and my library didn’t have ebooks available then (and I read too many books to buy them, lol), so I spent all my nursing time reading books on the public domain. I read all of Anne of Green Gables and several other classics. Now when the books come up, it makes me think of holding my tiny baby in the dark (and trying not to fall asleep and drop him, ha)
Oh you managed to read so many cool books. I have a few on my TBR already and am hoping to get to them soon. I can totally see your wish for household help. It must be so tiring doing the same thing multiple times a day. I am already annoyed doing things once a day or week.
ReplyDeleteOur standards of cleanliness are wildly different - I'd be impressed if you cleaned the high chair trays once a day, let alone thrice! Maybe I shouldn't admit that publicly? Eh, another reason I don't have people over to my sty. -rachel
ReplyDeleteHaha.. maybe I am over-stating "cleaning" the trays? Babies don't eat off plates yet so the trays are covered in all their food. And the floors. And the babies. I usually try and clean 2 of 3 of these after each feed.
Delete