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As August comes to an end, it has me looking forward to cooler weather where I can read on the deck at night after the children go to bed. School is back in session and I have books to read along with my children and a to-read pile in my house that is getting smaller. I still read a lot in August …
Here’s what I read:
Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robin
Anyone looking for financial advice should read Your Money or Your Life. Vicki Robin tackles how you can take control of your money by focusing on what your life priorities are and make your money work for you. I found it to have great points and good discussion questions for people to ponder and refocus their financial goals.
Carnegie’s Maid by Marie Benedict
A young woman seizes a chance to make a better life for herself when she lands in America and ends up being the maid for Andrew Carnegie’s mother. A friendship develops between Clara and Andrew that has lasting effects for both them – and America’s future. A great historical fiction read!
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
Two families lives’ become permanently intertwined by a single friendship. As secrets are kept and uncovered, the truth can either tear them all apart or bring them together. The town’s focus on being the perfect dwelling place adds more pressure than can easily be dealt with. I had a hard time putting this book down.
What makes people come up with great ideas or become successful entrepreneurs? Adam Grant explores the science behind how people think originally in this book. I found it fascinating and definitely will push myself in different ways after reading this book.
Day After Night by Anita Diamant
In this historical fiction book, four women are waiting to make a new life for themselves after surviving the horrors of being Jewish in Europe during World War II. They have left their home continent to live in the new state of Israel. Without identity papers, they are stuck in a camp for illegal immigrants called Atlit, run by British soldiers. Life is better than it was before, but living in another camp has them yearning for more.
Last month, I read Call of the Wild by Jack London and realized I had intertwined that story with White Fang in my head, as I read them a long time ago. I decided to re-read both so I can have the stories straight. It’s definitely a classic and I’m glad I re-read it!
Set during the potato famine in Ireland, Kelegeen focuses on how a village tries to survive. The first year isn’t so bad as most have pigs or services they can sell to have money for food and rent for the land they work. As each year passes with failing potato crops, starvation, disease and death take over the countryside. A young couple, engaged to be married, set plans in motion to do anything to help their two families survive. Hope is often found in the eyes of the local priest or visiting British doctor, but is hope enough?
Joining the Dots by Alex Mathers
In a world of blogs, Etsy and social media, creative people have more avenues to express themselves than ever before. However, it can be hard to navigate these areas successfully. To be successful at using creative skills – to have people buy what you are creating – takes some thought, planning and work. Joining the Dots: The A-Z Handbook for Making a Success of Your Creative Skills gives creative people 26 tips on how to practically make money off their creativity.
Three Hour Dad by Adam T. Hourlution
Some days change your life so completely that you never forget them. For Adam, his day was when he got a call that his girlfriend was in the hospital – about to deliver a baby. Neither of them had any idea that she was pregnant. They had about three hours to wrap their heads around the idea of being parents before a little girl entered their world. Three Hour Dad: Reading is Believingis Adam’s account of their quick journey to parenthood.
This book takes readers to a place of magic where people can travel into books. Twins visit the castle TwoSpells and find more about their past and themselves.
Heartsong by Anne Douglass Lima
Sarah and Jon are taken by their mother to visit their grandparents in Wales for summer vacation instead of somewhere fun, or so they think. Near their grandparents’ house looms a castle called TwoSpells that seems to call to the twins. Mysterious things start to happen as they wait to be taken to TwoSpells – gnomes that wink, questions that the grandparents refuse to answer and her mother and boyfriend taking off very quickly without saying where they are going. They guess the land they are in is strange, but their visit to TwoSpells confirms it.
Rising Tide Series by Lynn Steigleder
The ocean waters have risen, leaving very little livable land on Earth and only one source of oil out in the oceans. Ben Adams works out on the rig doing a few weeks at dive duty clearing the underwater equipment. His shift ends and during the days it takes to rise to the surface, a hurricane hits and destroys the equipment and he can’t reach any survivors, if there are any. Yet, a ship finds his submarine just a day or two after he reaches the surface. He is taken aboard and then things take a strange turn.
Share on the blog – I’m always looking for books to add to my to-read bookshelf!
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