July Reads

Because we've had so much rain this month it's given me more opportunities to read than I usually would get in the summer months. I threw in some strange selections this month but got to strike 2 books off my 501 Must Read list so that's always a plus.

1. Emil and the Detectives - Erich Kastner:  This was such a sweet little book! I randomly selected 3 new books to order based on my 501 Must Read list and this was one of them and certainly my favourite. I would say this book would be perfect to read to about 6-8 year old. Even though it was meant for a younger audience I really enjoyed it and thought it was super sweet :)

2. Bossy Pants - Tina Fey: Loved it! I love her sarcastic humour and thought it was really well written. I liked finding out more about how she got started and her years at Saturday Night Live. She's brilliant and it was fun sneaking a peak into her life.

3. Tom's Midnight Garden - Philippa Peace:  This was another one on my 501 Must Read list though I can't say I'd agree to its presence on the list. It was geared to kids maybe 10ish? The idea was decent but there wasn't anything stunning about it. My favourite part was the last page of the book which gave me a few tears in my eyes as there was 1 really sweet, memorable sentence.

4. Blood Meridian - Cormac McCarthy:  This is a dark, dark book. Cormac tends to write dark books but I found this one to be in a different category. Many people say they can't finish reading The Road and yet I found that book to be really engaging. I liked the characters and felt that I had stock in what happened to them. In Blood Meridian I felt that we never really got attached to any of the characters, instead you just floated around watching what was going on and what was going on wasn't pretty. This probably isn't a book I'd recommend to many people, just a select few I know would find it interesting.

5. The Time Traders - Andre Norton: this was book 3 I purchased from the 501 Must Read List.The one thing I found most interesting about this book was that it is Sci Fi and written by a woman in the late 50's. How uncommon is that?!? She wrote under several male names as she figured no one would buy her books under her real name. The concept was decent but I found the actual book to be a bit of a mess with no fluidity. Granted I'm not a huge Sci Fi fan but the few books I have read have been more compelling.