Books I read in August of 2024!! Wow, I'm so late! (I've had this post up for weeks trying to finish it... AHH!)
My goal this month was to finish up the Big Book Summer challenge, and then participate in YA'ugust. I think I succeeded! Two for each challenge!
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver: amazing story, heart wrenching story about a kid who suffers through the foster care system in rural West Virginia and ends up in the drug abuse cycle that plagues his family and everyone else. This book has an amazing voice and you really feel like you are living this crazy life right along with Demon. I thought it was just a nod to the themes and etc in David Copperfield, but am told that it in fact does follow some plot lines and so is a sort of re-telling too. I need to re-read David Copperfield I guess! But I loved it this one despite the harshness of the subject. Demon was hard not to love, even if he makes some crazy bad choices.⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Way You Make Me Feel by Maureen Goo: A needed light and fluffy after Demon, and this one was perfect. Our girl gets in a fight with her nemesis at school and they are both "punished" by having to work in her dad's food truck all summer. She ends up loving it, making friends with the other girl, and falling love with the adorable dude who is working at the coffee shop near where they park their truck. I loved reading about so many places I've actually been. Cute and fun book, just what I needed! ⭐⭐⭐
Love and Luck by Jenna Evans Welch: This is a companion book to Love and Gelato, one I read years ago and really enjoyed. I didn't like this one quite as much. I was looking for a fluffy road trip romance, but there wasn't much of a romance. This one is more about the relationship between our main girl and her brother. It takes place in Ireland after they are there for a family wedding. Our girl is supposed to meet her friend, the main character of Love and Gelato, in Italy, but stuff happens, and she doesn't go, but ends up driving around Ireland with her brother and his cute Irish friend. It was fun and easily readable. I have the next book (Love and Olives) up and ready to read any day! ⭐⭐⭐
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir: I kept hearing things about this book so put it on hold and became available, so then I devoured it. I thought it was a newer book, but I guess I'm several years behind! This one is about a guy who wakes up in space, alone on a space ship, and can't remember why. Slowly his memory comes back to him ( we get to see flashbacks as that happens) and he realizes he has a huge problem to solve. Now, if only he had someone to help him.... oh my word, I loved it! So so so much science that went right over my head, but it didn't matter because the HEART of this story is what's so great. I do love the space stuff though. Anyway, pretty sure this author can do no wrong and I'll read all his stuff. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Plans for September are to re-read Eleanor and Park for book club, and then to get to all the books that are becoming available from holds I've made, and maybe read some banned/challenged books. There's just so much I want to get to!
How did your month go?
I read Demon Copperhead last year and that one was hard to forget! So different (IMHO) from her other books. And then I tried to read David Copperfield soon after, and just couldn't get through it. I've also read Project Hail Mary, that one was great! A lot of the science went over my head too, and I didn't care at all.
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