July Reads

Birch Bay Sunset, rainbow hues

July has been hot out here. When you live in the top story of an apartment building, and there's no air conditioning, it can feel just over the needle of uncomfortably warm when the day is above 76 degrees. We've kept blinds shut, windows open, and a fan continually blowing as it's perched in our living room window well.
Just about the only thing I feel like doing after a long day is laying on the couch straight in the fan's air circulation path, and read a good book. I had some unique picks this month.

*#GIRLBOSS by Sophia Amoruso This book was just plain fun to read. Amoruso developed the iconic ebay store NastyGal way back when vintage selling on ebay was a thing. Now she's a millionaire with a kicking website that she started from scratch and didn't owe a dime to anyone else for. It's a great 200 pager with stories on dumpster diving for daily food, entrepreneurship tips, and being the backwards kid that no one thought would amount to anything. She's kicking ass and taking names now, all before 30.

*Atlas Girl by Emily Weirenga I don't know what attracted me to read Emily's book, but it's one of my favorites of the year. I was always trying to find bits and pieces of time to sit on the couch and dive in. I rarely read more than 25 pages or so at a time (I fall asleep!), but on the fourth day of borrowing this book I turned over 75 pages in one sitting and enjoyed every bit. She writes beautifully and the story is very touching. She learns to forgive her family for never loving her by taking care of her mother, who is relearning life due to a brain tumor. This book is full of lazy-river metaphors and piercing cloud sun-ray language. I also loved that every chapter begins with a great quote. I'm looking forward to the second part of the memoir.

*Dorothy Day, A Radical Devotion by Robert Coles (ongoing) I listened to an interview of Robert Coles done by Krista Tippett back on NPR a few months ago, and I was really interested in learning more about Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker. Her life sounded interesting. I found out a friend of mine had the very same book the two were talking about over the radio, and she let me borrow it. I sometimes find biographies tedious and hard to chug along with, but at only 160 pages, I can handle 10 or 15 pages a day and slowly work my way through the lesson I started out to learn.

*Flora & Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo I've already done a nice long review of this YA fiction book on my book review site, The Well Read Sleepyhead, but can I just say that Kate DiCamillo might be one of my favorite YA authors of all time? I'm now reading aloud The Tale of Despereux to the kids, after loving Flora, and I LOVE IT. I didn't preview it, but I know there's a movie on netflix, and when I found out it was from her book I pounced on the opportunity to read it to the kids. Update next month, but so far, it's awesome.

*Pursue the Intentional Life by Jean Fleming I read this book just after the study ended. I like to follow Incourage's book clubs because the hosts do an author interview video with every section of chapters. I like to hear the author's feedback, and the interviewers do a great job. Of all the books I've followed along with, though, I hate to say I liked this the least. The one copy at the library was on hold the entire time the sessions were going on, which could have rained on my parade, but after the last book, this one felt like a B list, even though it had some great thoughts to it. This book is about making the 'second half of your life' just as intentional for Christ as your first, but I didn't find it particularly beautiful in language or especially mind-blowing. It was practical and to the point.