What I've Been Reading Lately

It's been forever and a day since I had some quick lit book reviews for you - I don't know what summer has against time going at a normal pace, but summer really zooms by doesn't it? Here's what I've got this time:

The Temperament God Gave Your Kids: Motivate, Discipline, and Love Your Children by Art and Lorraine Bennett

This book was a great read! We all know our kids have unique personalities, and once you start having 3, 4 and 5 kids you see it even more. I really liked learning about the strengths and weaknesses of each temperament because it's true that some things are just more difficult for different temperaments while some things come much more easily for others. The ideas for discipline were also really great, and I feel like I'll come back to this book again and again as my kids grow. After reading I've got some questions for the authors that I'd love to hear them answer like: what happens when a child demonstrates traits from two personalities? What if a child of a certain temperament doesn't respond to the discipline you recommend for that temperament - is he really another temperament or is that discipline just not working for him?

Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold by C.S. Lewis

I talked about this book in depth on an episode of the podcast, and it was a good one to both read and discuss because of the different ways Lewis brings about the ideas of love, being honest with oneself, and ideas of sacrifice and heaven. Just so many ideas and metaphors are explored in this book that is so well written you're pulled into the story so quickly that it takes a while to unpack how great it really is. I think this is a novel that you could return to again and again and keep finding new ideas that make sense to you for the first time. Probably my favourite Lewis novel that I've read. You should probably read it.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

I reread this in preparation for the release of Go Set A Watchman (which you've already seen me write about), and it was even better than the times I've previously read it. This book still makes me cry, still surprises me with it's delightful writing of childhood and family, and still hits you with the injustice of racism. It's really an almost perfect novel to me in it's construction, prose, atmosphere, and of course, characters. Atticus Finch is the greatest.

Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen

This was a Modern Mrs Darcy summer reading pick and I needed some summer reading after these heavy hitters. This book felt fairly fluffy but it's entertainment value - and chick lit value - just wasn't there for me. It was fine. If you want a book that's romanic, but clean, talks about flowers and the South with a bit of domestic drama thrown in then you may enjoy it more than I did. Definitely not terrible chick lit, just not great.

Love Walked In by Marisa de los Santos

More summer chick lit -- and I may be risking my internet life here in saying that this wasn't the greatest chick lit to me either. It didn't really pull me in or make me want to keep page turning, even though it ticked all the family troubles/unexpected romance/quirky main character boxes. I am just really hard to please when it comes to chick lit I think. And yet...

The Royal We by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan

...I keep reading chick lit! This one was a chick lit hit for me though! So high praise. I may be a huge royal loyalist and devoted daughter of the commonwealth so I may be a bit biased towards this piece of Will and Kate fan fiction. I found it quite well done, and I think they took more from Princess Diana's story in a lot of ways than from Kate's. It's pure fun and it delivers. That's what I'm looking for in some easy reading!

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