On the bookshelf -- June

Okay so early on in the month, my youngest sister did a little book swap with one of her friends. I got to read a few of them & one of them was called Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid. The story followed a young African American girl, Emira Tucker, who is trying to navigate her way through young adulthood. Emira is a part-time nanny & is truly smitten with the darling little girl she babysits, named Briar (which like how cute is that name?!). Anyway, Emira's life gets pretty complicated when her love life intersects with her job.

One of the main topics of the book is racism & not the kind of "obvious racism" you'd think of such as name calling or the horrific situations we've been seeing in the media recently. The racism talked about in the book is much more subtle & my guess is that this type of racism happens much more often than we'd all like to admit. I'm not wanting to go too deep into this topic, but I appreciated that the book allowed me to expand my knowledge & to apply what I was reading to the real world. Overall, I rated the book three out of five stars.

I know you're not supposed to judge a book by its cover (or by the title), but you can just tell by looking at this one that it's gonna be dark. & it was, it really was. This Is Where It Ends by Marieke Nijkamp is about a small town school where one of their own becomes a school shooter. He takes his anger & grief out on his peers & teachers because he feels truly alone. Each chapter focuses on the perspectives from four students -- Autumn, Sylvia, Tomas, & Claire -- each one of these students is somehow connected to the school shooter so their thoughts & interactions were very interesting to read.

If I'm being completely honest, this book was difficult for me to read. This coming August will be my first year as a School Counselor. While I pray & pray that I will never be in a situation like this, it is unfortunately a deep hidden fear of mine. This book was pretty graphic & detailed & honestly just so incredibly sad. While I have absolutely no idea what that situation feels like, Nijkamp does a great job of making you feel like you're right there experiencing it alongside them.

Because this is a sensitive topic area & because of how graphic & detailed this book is, I definitely think that it could be a trigger for some. Overall, I rated this book three & a half out of five stars.

On a much lighter note, another book I read this month was Next Year in Havana by Chanel Cleeton. This is a story about a family in Cuba & the love & immense struggles that come their way. The book follows to main characters -- Elisa & her granddaughter Marisol. The chapters flip back & forth between the two perspectives. Marisol discovers family secrets & what true love for one's country really means.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book because it narrated a lot of Cuban history without making it feel like I was reading a textbook. This book covered a wide range of topics & scenarios from love to war, politics & death. I predicted some of it, but there were a few things that happened that totally shocked me! I love a good plot twist. Overall, I rated this book four out of five stars.

There is a sequel to this book that narrates the story of Elisa's sister, Beatriz called When We Left Cuba. My Mom has this book & because of how much I enjoyed Next Year in Havana, I can't wait to get my hands on the second one!

Lastly for me for this month, I read When We Believed in Mermaids by Barbara O'Neal. This book follows main character, Kit Bianci on a wild journey to find her sister. Josie Bianci, Kit's sister, was supposedly killed in a train crash fifteen years ago, but her body was never recovered. Kit was watching the news & fully believes she saw her sister. Kit decides to travel to Aukland, New Zealand where the news broadcast was filmed to search for her "dead" sister. The story also narrates a lot of flashbacks of Kit & Josie's childhood.

I was super intrigued by the book at first, but it honestly felt like O'Neal gave up on the plot about halfway through so that was disappointing. This book is incredibly graphic & narrates a lot of horrific trauma in flashbacks of Kit & Josie's childhood. Overall, I rated this book three out of five stars.

Bethany read The Cupcake Queen by Heather Hepler this month. It's about a young girl that moved from New York City to her Mom's tiny hometown. This mother-daughter duo opens a bakery & the daughter's job is to decorate all of the pastries (hint, the title). Like all books directed at the adolescent population, there's drama. The most popular girl in school has no love for this "new girl from New York City". To make matters worse, both girls end up liking the same boy. Bethany flew through this book because it was such an easy + light read. She didn't love the ending because it left some things up in the air. Like me, she likes to feel some closure when she's done reading a book.

Bethany also read There You'll Find Me by Jenny B. Jones this month. In fact, she read it in just two days which is super crazy because she doesn't consider herself a reader at all! Bethany said the book is about an eighteen year old girl named Finley Sinclair. Her brother dies & she kind of loses herself in partying, etc. Finley decides she needs a change of scenery & ends up doing the exact same foreign exchange program to Ireland that her brother had previously done. While in Ireland, Finely meets a movie star who strikes a deal with her -- he'll show her all of the places that her brother went, if she agrees to being his personal assistant. I'm sure you can guess what happens from there. ;) This book is Christian-based & has good depth -- it talks about grief, therapy, healing, love, etc. Bethany would recommend this book to any teenage girl looking for a good book to read!

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Have you ever heard of the "goodreads" app? It's a free app that lets you track your reading progress, rate books you've read, keep a list of your want-to-read books, set yearly reading goals & follow along with what your friends are reading as well! It even gives you suggestions based off of your ratings & the types of books you read. We both really like it. You should check it out!