A few years ago, my husband got me a Kindle Paperwhite for Christmas. I really did not want it, as it had been many years since I had made time to read. However, my oldest daughter told me about Libby, an app that allows you to check books out virtually from your library for free. The best part is that there are no overdue fees as the books automatically return after 14 days! I am pretty sure I still have outstanding library fees at the Glenvar Library in Salem, Virginia from when I was a teenager. 🙂 I have attached pictures and descriptions of some of my favorite May reads. FYI: I have a personality where if I start reading, I can’t stop, so I allow myself to read from 9:00-10:00 pm each evening.
The Girl Who Came Home: This is a historical fiction book based on the Titanic. It was heartbreaking, but so hard to put down!
Inspired by true events, the New York Times bestselling novel The Girl Who Came Home is the poignant story of a group of Irish emigrants aboard RMS Titanic—a seamless blend of fact and fiction that explores the tragedy’s impact and its lasting repercussions on survivors and their descendants.
Ireland, 1912. Fourteen members of a small village set sail on RMS Titanic, hoping to find a better life in America. For seventeen-year-old Maggie Murphy, the journey is bittersweet. Though her future lies in an unknown new place, her heart remains in Ireland with Séamus, the sweetheart she left behind. When disaster strikes, Maggie is one of the lucky few passengers in steerage who survives. Waking up alone in a New York hospital, she vows never to speak of the terror and panic of that terrible night ever again.
Chicago, 1982. Adrift after the death of her father, Grace Butler struggles to decide what comes next. When her Great Nana Maggie shares the painful secret she harbored for almost a lifetime about the Titanic, the revelation gives Grace new direction—and leads her and Maggie to unexpected reunions with those they thought lost long ago.
If I Were You: Warning! This book is very hard to put down! I finally had to cheat and read the last page so I could go to bed the first night. Again, historical fiction and heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time!
1950. In the wake of the war, Audrey Clarkson leaves her manor house in England for a fresh start in America with her young son. As a widowed war bride, Audrey needs the support of her American in-laws, whom she has never met. But she arrives to find that her longtime friend Eve Dawson has been impersonating her for the past four years. Unraveling this deception will force Audrey and Eve’s secrets—and the complicated history of their friendship—to the surface.
1940. Eve and Audrey have been as different as two friends can be since the day they met at Wellingford Hall, where Eve’s mother served as a lady’s maid for Audrey’s mother. As young women, those differences become a polarizing force . . . until a greater threat—Nazi invasion—reunites them. With London facing relentless bombardment, Audrey and Eve join the fight as ambulance drivers, battling constant danger together. An American stationed in England brings dreams of a brighter future for Audrey, and the collapse of the class system gives Eve hope for a future with Audrey’s brother. But in the wake of devastating loss, both women must make life-altering decisions that will set in motion a web of lies and push them both to the breaking point long after the last bomb has fallen.
This sweeping story transports readers to one of the most challenging eras of history to explore the deep, abiding power of faith and friendship to overcome more than we ever thought possible.
Soundtracks: I am a notorious overthinker. I overthink everything…including this blog. 😉 This book had so many good ideas that I have started to implement and I highly recommend it. The disclaimer I would add, however, is that while the ideas are good, I feel like adding God into the mix helps a lot as well.
Overthinking isn’t a personality trait. It’s the sneakiest form of fear.
It steals time, creativity, and goals. It’s the most expensive, least productive thing companies invest in without even knowing it. And it’s an epidemic. When New York Times bestselling author Jon Acuff changed his life by transforming his overthinking, he wondered if other people might benefit from what he discovered. He commissioned a research study to ask 10,000 people if they struggle with overthinking too, and 99.5 percent said, “Yes!”
The good news is that in Soundtracks, Acuff offers a proven plan to change overthinking from a super problem into a superpower.
When we don’t control our thoughts, our thoughts control us. If our days are full of broken soundtracks, thoughts are our worst enemy, holding us back from the things we really want. But the solution to overthinking isn’t to stop thinking. The solution is running our brains with better soundtracks. Once we learn how to choose our soundtracks, thoughts become our best friend, propelling us toward our goals.
If you want to tap into the surprising power of overthinking and give your dreams more time and creativity, learn how to DJ the soundtracks that define you. If you can worry, you can wonder. If you can doubt, you can dominate. If you can spin, you can soar.
A Life Intercepted: This book was on Libby’s new arrivals and I had read one of Martin’s other books and enjoyed it, so I decided to check this one out. I really enjoyed it as well. It hurt my heart the way people can treat others, but overall a good story of redemption. Bonus! If you are not a Libby user and prefer to buy Kindle books, this one is on special for $1.99 as of the writing of this blog.
Twelve years ago Matthew “the Rocket” Rising had it all. Married to his high school sweetheart and one of the winningest quarterbacks in the history of college football, he was the number one NFL draft pick. But on the night of the draft, he plummeted from the pinnacle of esteem. Falsely accused of a heinous crime with irrefutable evidence, it seemed in an instant all was lost — his reputation, his career, his freedom, and most devastatingly, the love of his life.
Having served his sentence and never played a down of professional football, Matthew leaves prison with one goal — to find his wife, Audrey, whom no one has seen since the trial. He returns to an unwelcoming reception from his Gardi, Georgia, hometown to learn that Audrey has taken shelter from the media with the nuns at a Catholic school. There she has discovered a young man with the talent to achieve the football career Matthew should have had. All he needs is the right coach. Although helping the boy means Matthew violates the conditions of his release and — if discovered — reincarceration for life, he’ll take the chance with hope of winning back Audrey’s love.
The Forest of Vanishing Stars: This book was on Libby’s most popular list, so I placed it on hold. It took about ten weeks to become available, but it was worth the wait. I love Harmel’s writing style. This was another pretty solid historical fiction read.
The New York Times bestselling author of the “heart-stopping tale of survival and heroism” (People) The Book of Lost Names returns with an evocative coming-of-age World War II story about a young woman who uses her knowledge of the wilderness to help Jewish refugees escape the Nazis—until a secret from her past threatens everything.
After being stolen from her wealthy German parents and raised in the unforgiving wilderness of eastern Europe, a young woman finds herself alone in 1941 after her kidnapper dies. Her solitary existence is interrupted, however, when she happens upon a group of Jews fleeing the Nazi terror. Stunned to learn what’s happening in the outside world, she vows to teach the group all she can about surviving in the forest—and in turn, they teach her some surprising lessons about opening her heart after years of isolation. But when she is betrayed and escapes into a German-occupied village, her past and present come together in a shocking collision that could change everything.
Inspired by incredible true stories of survival against staggering odds, and suffused with the journey-from-the-wilderness elements that made Where the Crawdads Sing a worldwide phenomenon, The Forest of Vanishing Stars is a heart-wrenching and suspenseful novel from the #1 internationally bestselling author whose writing has been hailed as “sweeping and magnificent” (Fiona Davis, New York Times bestselling author), “immersive and evocative” (Publishers Weekly), and “gripping” (Tampa Bay Times).
The Winter Rose: I found this on Libby’s new arrival list and it did not disappoint. I love Dobson’s books! This was a great, yet heartwrenching historical fiction read!
In this gripping WWII time-slip novel from the author whose books have been called “propulsive” and a “must-read” (Publishers Weekly), Grace Tonquin is an American Quaker who works tirelessly in Vichy France to rescue Jewish children from the Nazis. After crossing the treacherous Pyrénées, Grace returns home to Oregon with a brother and sister whose parents were lost during the war. Though Grace and her husband love Élias and Marguerite as their own, echoes of Grace’s past and trauma from the Holocaust tear the Tonquin family apart.
More than fifty years after they disappear, Addie Hoult arrives at Tonquin Lake, hoping to find the Tonquin family. For Addie, the mystery is a matter of life and death for her beloved mentor Charlie, who is battling a genetic disease. Though Charlie refuses to discuss his ties to the elusive Tonquins, finding them is the only way to save his life and mend the wounds from his broken past.
If you made it this far, tell me what you have been reading lately! Did you love it or were you disappointed? You can’t go wrong with any of these reads! Have a great day, friends!
Thriving in the Fishbowl 