I’m pleased to report that May-cember, or May-hem, if you prefer, has not derailed my reading as much as it might have. Not even all the extra work from preparing to release my next book on the 19th (Midfield Meet-Cute, a sweet soccer rom-com, if you’re interested) has kept me from enjoying a stack of good books.
Well, a figurative stack. Only one of them has been a physical book. Most of them are audio or ebooks because this of all months calls for reading on the go. But I digress.
One thing that is a little different is the amount of nonfiction on my list this month. Every year I challenge myself to read two nonfiction books per month, totaling twenty-four for the year. Usually, I procrastinate until about November, then go into catch-up mode and read about six of them in the last six to eight weeks of the year. I’m trying to be better, so I’m doing a mid-year catch-up right now—because yes, I’m already behind.
Keep scrolling to see what I’ve been reading!
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Just Finished:
First up is this biography of Elizabeth Smith Friedman, an incredibly intelligent and humble woman who was instrumental in diciphering covert communications during WWII. She got very little recognition for her groundbreaking work in cryptology at the time, but has somewhat recently been identified as a key contributer. One thing I loved about this book is the story of how she met, married, and worked with her husband William Friedman, also a skilled cryptographer. They had such an interesting relationship, and in many ways it felt so relatable because of the simultaneous romance and real life challenges they faced together. I also learned quite a bit about how American government agencies began and operated in the first half of the century. Two thumbs up for this book!
I’ve had this book about dictionaries on my TBR for years and finally picked it up. It took me a few weeks to get through because while it’s interesting, it also contains a lot of information and I found I needed to consume it in smallish bites. It’s written by a woman who works as a definer for Merriam-Webster and is filled with fun facts and an inside look at how words are defined and how (maybe whether) those words have an impact on culture at large. It’s a witty and surprisingly fun read.
In Progress:
When Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov is found guilty by Russian authorities of having penned poetry that offends their ideology, he is sentenced to live out the remainder of his life in the Metropol hotel. He is summarily relocated from a suite to an attic room and forgotten about. I have mixed feelings about this one so far. While I like the Count Rostov character and admire the way he makes the best of his new existence, I’m reminded that I rarely enjoy books of a literary nature fully. I find myself skimming sometimes, ready to move past the naval gazing and political commentary so we can get back to some kind of action, even if it’s just sewing on a button. I’ll definitely finish it, and I’ll likely give it a decent rating, but I think you could cut out 15% of the words without altering the core story, and I’d like that better.
Oh my goodness, this book! I love a good memoir and this one is one of the best I’ve listened to in a while. Read by Zarna Garg herself, it recounts her life as a child in India and the events and choices that led to her becoming a comedian in America as an adult. She wrote this book with the perfect balance of humor and honesty, describing her early years in a way that is generous without shying away from the really hard things that shaped her. I’m only 15% in, but I’m inventing chores to listen more. So good!
Funny story—I snagged this one as an ebook during a free promotion maybe about six months ago? Then, the other day, a random Instagram reel grabbed my attention. I watched the whole thing and thought, “I have to read that book!” At the very end, the cover flashed up, and I realized I already had it in my library. This is a fantasy story about a dragul (dragon) keeper named Britt, and a soldat (soldier) named Henrik who cross paths and end up forming a tentative alliance to further their individual missions—Britt to find her brother, and Henrik to find the mother he hasn’t seen since he was five. So far it’s full of intrigue, action, and cool world-building, so I’m excited to keep reading it and extra excited that it was waiting for me at just the right moment.
Up Next:
I’ve read two Amanda Cox books in the past and loved both of them. She writes with so much heart and soul, weaving layered stories of love, loss, forgiveness, and faith. This book is about a young woman who gets an unexpected new joint owner in the family apiary business when her father dies. As the two women get to know each other, they discover that their pasts are more intwined than they could have imagined. I love the beautiful cover on this book!
I’m excited and nervous to read this book. I purchased it to share with my girls as a read-aloud because a long-lost memory of reading it myself as a child recently resurfaced unexpectedly. I remember that I re-read it multiple times and loved it, so I have all my fingers and toes crossed that it will live up to those memories and delight all of us. This is the story of a precocious boy named Henry Reed who is determined to make some spending money over the summer and comes up with some inventive and nonconventional methods of doing that with help of a neighbor girl. I can’t wait to revisit this story!
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