What I’ve Been Reading: July 2024

Hello!

I hope you’ve been having a great week. I’ve spent the past two days at home working on school stuff, finishing up some of my summer “to do” list and watching the Olympics. It’s been fun to watch events like gymnastics “live,” so I’ve been taking advantage of having the time to do that.

Well, it’s officially the last day of the month, so I’m sharing the books I read in July.

Your girl was on a reading roll this month!

Here are the books I read this month:

{As always, book summaries are from Goodreads…}

The Darlings:

Summary:

On a secluded stretch of Cape Cod, a wedding is being planned at a beloved beach house—only for a long kept secret to emerge that hurtles both the wedding and the family off course, in this fresh, lyrical new novel from the acclaimed author of the “charming and warmhearted” ( PopSugar ) The Summer House.

At age ninety-two, Tish Darling is the matriarch and protector of what’s left of the Darling family fortune, including the decades-old beach house, Riptide. Located on the crook of Cape Cod, it’s a place she once loved but has not returned to in decades, since a tragic family accident one perfect summer day. Still, she is determined to keep Riptide in the family. Even if that means going back there on the cusp of her granddaughter’s wedding. Even if it means revealing someone else’s truth.

Her daughter-in-law Cora has her own complicated feelings surrounding Tish’s return as well as doubts about her place within the Darling family. After all, Cora came into the family carrying a secret that her husband promised to keep for her forever. Tish’s sudden return to Riptide may force everything they’ve worked so hard to protect out into the light.

Meanwhile, Cora’s eldest daughter, Andi isn’t exactly looking forward to her little sister’s wedding so soon after her own divorce. To make matters worse, her ex has arrived on the Cape with his insufferable new girlfriend. Andi has no idea how she’ll be able to survive this family reunion…until she bumps into an old friend from the past. A friend who may just offer her a second chance.

As the three distinct generations of Darling women arrive at Riptide, they have no idea that this summer will forever change them. One old secret, kept with the best of intentions, threatens to not only divide the family, but shatter each member’s sense of who they really are. Can the ties that bind survive, when the history you’ve always been told turns out to be untrue?

Quick Thoughts:

This book was one of my summer reading list books. Like Nantucket, I enjoy reading books set in beach towns like the Cape. I appreciated the elements of drama that come with having a large family. Overall, this was an easy read that I enjoyed.

Rating:

A Hundred Summers:

Summary:

Memorial Day, 1938: New York socialite Lily Dane has just returned with her family to the idyllic oceanfront community of Seaview, Rhode Island, expecting another placid summer season among the familiar traditions and friendships that sustained her after heartbreak.

That is, until the Greenwalds decide to take up residence in Seaview.

Nick and Budgie Greenwald are an unwelcome specter from Lily’s past: her former best friend and her former fiancé, now recently married—an event that set off a wildfire of gossip among the elite of Seaview, who have summered together for generations. Budgie’s arrival to restore her family’s old house puts her once more in the center of the community’s social scene, and she insinuates herself back into Lily’s friendship with an overpowering talent for seduction…and an alluring acquaintance from their college days, Yankees pitcher Graham Pendleton. But the ties that bind Lily to Nick are too strong and intricate to ignore, and the two are drawn back into long-buried dreams, despite their uneasy secrets and many emotional obligations.

Under the scorching summer sun, the unexpected truth of Budgie and Nick’s marriage bubbles to the surface, and as a cataclysmic hurricane barrels unseen up the Atlantic and into New England, Lily and Nick must confront an emotional cyclone of their own, which will change their worlds forever.

Quick Thoughts:

This was another book on my summer reading list, and I loved it. I’m not sure if I’ve read any other Beatriz Williams books, but this won’t be the last one of hers that I read. Some of the characters were likable, whereas others weren’t, but that’s something I liked about the story. Also, the story was told flashing back about seven years , and I liked seeing how the story and character progressed. You know I love historical fiction, and this one was my only five star book of July.

Rating:

Boys in the Boat:

Summary:

For readers of Unbroken, out of the depths of the Depression comes an irresistible story about beating the odds and finding hope in the most desperate of times—the improbable, intimate account of how nine working-class boys from the American West showed the world at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin what true grit really meant.

It was an unlikely quest from the start. With a team composed of the sons of loggers, shipyard workers, and farmers, the University of Washington’s eight-oar crew team was never expected to defeat the elite teams of the East Coast and Great Britain, yet they did, going on to shock the world by defeating the German team rowing for Adolf Hitler. The emotional heart of the tale lies with Joe Rantz, a teenager without family or prospects, who rows not only to regain his shattered self-regard but also to find a real place for himself in the world. Drawing on the boys’ own journals and vivid memories of a once-in-a-lifetime shared dream, Brown has created an unforgettable portrait of an era, a celebration of a remarkable achievement, and a chronicle of one extraordinary young man’s personal quest.

Quick Thoughts:

So, I’d heard of this movie, and I remembered that I wanted to see it in the theater but never did. When the movie was out, that’s when I realized it was a book. Anyway, on the flight home from Seattle to Cinci, it was one of the movie options. I rarely watch movies or shows on the plane, but I jumped at the chance to watch it. Anyway, I loved it! I even quietly clapped when the guys won gold. Hayden nudged me because I was “cringey” embarrassing.

Anyway, the book didn’t disappoint either. It went into more detail about the athletes’ lives, their college years, the training, and more. I really loved both the book and the movie. Also, there’s a young adult version of the book. I think Hayden would like it!

Anyway, if you haven’t seen the movie or read the book, I definitely recommend them both.

Rating:

The Summer Pact:

Summary:

Four freshmen arrive at college from completely different worlds: Lainey, a California party girl with a flair for drama; Tyson, a brilliant scholar and law school hopeful from D.C.; Summer, a recruited athlete and perfectionist from the Midwest; and Hannah, a mild-mannered southerner who is content to quietly round out the circle of big personalities. Soon after moving into their shared dorm, they strike up a conversation in a study lounge, and the seeds of friendship are planted.

As their college years fly by, their bond intensifies and the four become inseparable. But as graduation nears, their lives are forever changed after a desperate act leads to tragic consequences. Stunned and heartbroken, a pact is made to be there for each other in their time of need, no matter how separated they are by circumstances or distance.

Ten years later, Hannah is anticipating what should be one of the happiest moments of her life when everything is suddenly turned upside down. Calling on her closest friends, it soon becomes clear that they are facing their own crossroads. True to their promise, they agree to take a time out from lives headed in wrong directions and embark on a journey of self-discovery, forgiveness, and acceptance.

In this tender portrayal of grief, love, and hope, Emily Giffin asks: When things fall apart, who will be at our sides to help pick up the pieces?

Quick Thoughts:

I’ve read quite a few Emily Giffin books, and this one was also on my summer reading list. I was on the library wait list for quite some time, so I went ahead and bought it.

This book covers the serious topic of suicide, but from it the bond between the other three friends grows stronger. I liked how different the friends were and how they were there for each other. I appreciated the setting of Capri, Italy and loved following along on their journey there. There were some parts of the book that just seemed a little odd like some of the plot changed quickly and sometimes I was like, “huh?” but anyway, it’s a good summer read for sure.

Rating:

I continued my new found hobby of enjoying listening to memoirs and listened to two books.

Matthew Perry’s Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing:

Summary:

“Hi, my name is Matthew, although you may know me by another name. My friends call me Matty. And I should be dead.”

So begins the riveting story of acclaimed actor Matthew Perry, taking us along on his journey from childhood ambition to fame to addiction and recovery in the aftermath of a life-threatening health scare. Before the frequent hospital visits and stints in rehab, there was five-year-old Matthew, who traveled from Montreal to Los Angeles, shuffling between his separated parents; fourteen-year-old Matthew, who was a nationally ranked tennis star in Canada; twenty-four-year-old Matthew, who nabbed a coveted role as a lead cast member on the talked-about pilot then called Friends Like Us. . . and so much more.

In an extraordinary story that only he could tell—and in the heartfelt, hilarious, and warmly familiar way only he could tell it—Matthew Perry lays bare the fractured family that raised him (and also left him to his own devices), the desire for recognition that drove him to fame, and the void inside him that could not be filled even by his greatest dreams coming true. But he also details the peace he’s found in sobriety and how he feels about the ubiquity of Friends, sharing stories about his castmates and other stars he met along the way. Frank, self-aware, and with his trademark humor, Perry vividly depicts his lifelong battle with addiction and what fueled it despite seemingly having it all.

Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing is an unforgettable memoir that is both intimate and eye-opening—as well as a hand extended to anyone struggling with sobriety. Unflinchingly honest, moving, and uproariously funny, this is the book fans have been waiting for.

Quick Thoughts:

I loved watching Friends, and like most everyone was stopped in my tracks upon hearing about Matthew Perry’s death less than a year ago. He was certainly a guy who fought demons for quite some time…more than I assume most people realized.

The opening line of the book that’s at the beginning of the summary is haunting. Hearing him tell his life story was also a bit haunting.

His childhood was interesting, and I’d forgotten that he was a good tennis player and that his mother is married to Keith Morrison from Dateline NBC. Of course, I loved hearing about the in’s and out’s of Friends. I felt sad for him in many ways. I think it was difficult for him in relationships, and it was sad when he’d talk about relationships that never worked out…or how he wished he’d had children.

Overall, I’m glad that I listened to this book, and hearing him read it made more of an impact as well.

Rating:

Matthew McConaughey’s Greenlights:

Summary:

From the Academy Award®–winning actor, an unconventional memoir filled with raucous stories, outlaw wisdom, and lessons learned the hard way about living with greater satisfaction.

I’ve been in this life for fifty years, been trying to work out its riddle for forty-two, and been keeping diaries of clues to that riddle for the last thirty-five. Notes about successes and failures, joys and sorrows, things that made me marvel, and things that made me laugh out loud. How to be fair. How to have less stress. How to have fun. How to hurt people less. How to get hurt less. How to be a good man. How to have meaning in life. How to be more me.

Recently, I worked up the courage to sit down with those diaries. I found stories I experienced, lessons I learned and forgot, poems, prayers, prescriptions, beliefs about what matters, some great photographs, and a whole bunch of bumper stickers. I found a reliable theme, an approach to living that gave me more satisfaction, at the time, and still: If you know how, and when, to deal with life’s challenges – how to get relative with the inevitable – you can enjoy a state of success I call “catching greenlights.”

So I took a one-way ticket to the desert and wrote this book: an album, a record, a story of my life so far. This is fifty years of my sights and seens, felts and figured-outs, cools and shamefuls. Graces, truths, and beauties of brutality. Getting away withs, getting caughts, and getting wets while trying to dance between the raindrops.

Hopefully, it’s medicine that tastes good, a couple of aspirin instead of the infirmary, a spaceship to Mars without needing your pilot’s license, going to church without having to be born again, and laughing through the tears.

It’s a love letter. To life.

It’s also a guide to catching more greenlights – and to realizing that the yellows and reds eventually turn green too.

Good luck.

Quick Thoughts:

I was on the library wait list for a bit for this book, but it was worth the wait. I absolutely loved hearing Matthew McConaughey share his story. I usually listen to podcasts or books on 1.5 setting, but I had to slow down to 1.25 to understand Matthew’s words as he read. His accent is great, but even better was the way he told his story. If there was an exciting part, he narrated as if he was telling the story to his best friend. He’d stop and chuckle or change the cadence or inflection in his voice.

I loved hearing about his time in Australia after college…what an experience! How he got into acting, the movies that he was in, how he met and fell in love with his wife, how he walked away from acting for a couple of years to kind of “reinvent” himself, and more.

I really enjoyed listening to his story, his bumper sticker sayings, poems he wrote, and hearing the famous, “Alright, alright, alright!”

I love the idea of looking for “green lights” along the way in life.

Rating:

Do you have any suggestions of good audio books for me to listen to? I just am not sure I can follow a plot on audio which is why I think memoirs have been working for me.

Summer Reading Update:

I’ve done a pretty good job chipping away at my summer reading list.

• Read: This Summer Will Be Different, The Summer of Songbirds, The Darlings, A Hundred Summers, and The Summer Pact
• Ready to Read: A Happier Life and Swan Song – I just got both of these books from the library after being on the wait list for a bit. The Comeback Summer is on my Kindle.
• On library wait list: On Fire Island

Even with what I’m sure will be a busy August getting back to school, I hope to at least read Swan Song and A Happier Life in August.

When people ask if I’m ready go to back to school, my response is always “no” and that I will miss having more time to read. haha

Enjoy this last day of July!