May Reads

So March and April were tough months for me to actually complete any books, but I made up for it in May!

The first book I read was The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate.

I actually ended up reading this aloud to my third graders.  It's a Newberry winner.  My students loved this book (and me too!).  Several finished it ahead of me, even some reluctant readers.  It's based on a true story of a silverback gorilla, Ivan, and how he managed to be captured in the Congo, sent to a shopping mall in Washington, and eventually to the Atlanta Zoo.  It prompted some great discussions on how animals feel about living in captivity, especially considering we read this right as we were headed to the Georgia Aquarium on a field trip.  This article from the author is a few years old, but really great.

Next, I read The One and Only by Emily Giffin.

I actually started this book back in August, and then life happened.  I really loved the book, it was just tough to find time between work and kids.  I finished it the weekend school got out.  Emily Giffin did not disappoint.  It follows the story of a football loving girl from Texas, Shea, and her decisions to branch out from the university she has always loved.  Being an Emily Giffin book, there's a good little love story in there too.

My third book up has been on my to-read list for some time.  It was actually a series of short devotionals on motherhood, Out of the Spin Cycle by Jen Hatmaker.

The devotions are on everything from motherhood, marriage, and money, to comparison and worry.  There were 40 short devotions, but I read it more as one book and finished it in two days.  Great truths and scripture in there!

My final book was Melanie Shankle's latest, Nobody's Cuter than You.

Melanie Shankle is actually the author of the Big Mama blog (which I don't read regularly at all) and has penned two other memoirs as well.  I like her books.  She's funny.  It reads as if she's sitting next to you telling the story.  And, I laughed out loud several times.  Nobody's Cuter than You is several stories based on friendship, that I think all could relate to.  Several of her stories reminded me of Auburn (though I wasn't at the bars in college as she was at Texas A & M), and made me think about my own funny stories with friends there.

Here's to summer break, no where to be for the next two months, and many more books to come!