Thanks for joining me again today for one of my 50 by 50 goals – my quest to carve out more time to read, a joyful hobby that enhances each week! My newest reads are 4, 5 and 6 on my goal towards reading a minimum of a dozen more books by the time I turn 50. Pretty cool that I’m already halfway there, discovering three awesome new beach reads that kept me highly entertained!
My number 3 read was SMALL GREAT THINGS by Jodi Picoult. I woudn’t class this as a beach read but I will encourage you to add it to your TBR, it’s incredibly thought-provoking, addressing some very tough topics that we need to be having more conversations about.
What I do consider a beach read is a book that captures your attention and imagination but is a lighter read, allowing you to put it down and comfortably return to later to enjoy. They are book with excellent character development and emotion with compelling plots that are very relationship driven. And generally, they have happy ending… because, really, who wants to be caught crying on the beach?
I picked up THE LYING GAME by Ruth Ware on an airport layover. It’s the story of four high school friends who share a deep love for each other and secret that binds them for life. Years later, their secret is coming to the surface and they must all confront the past and how it has shaped their present.
Friendship is at the core of this novel and I enjoyed how each of the women had their own approach to relationships and life. I also truly enjoyed the air of mystery and suspense throughout the novel. The ending is unexpected, yet oddly satisfying.
THE HOUSE ON HARBOR HILL by Shelly Stratton is a book that I received as part of my Once Upon A Book Club membership. Once Upon a Book Club is a cool mail order club that I discovered where they select a novel and then send it along with gifts that are paired to the story. When you reach a page in the book where the gift is appropriate, you open it. So it’s like getting little extra surprises along the way of reading that help enhance the story and give you a little tangible treat.
I decided to use this service to inspire my 50 by 50 book goals and it’s definitely working! I love the selection I was sent THE HOUSE ON HARBOR HILL, and I loved having the incentives of opening gifts while reading. It definitely had me finding more time to read more often to get to the goodies.
In THE HOUSE ON HARBOR HILL follows the path of a young woman who is estranged from her husband, trying to forge a life of her own. Along they way she makes new friends in an unusual way and when their lives converge, it presents a set of new challenges for all. It’s a very heartfelt story of three individuals who think they need very different things, but what they all truly need is a chance to heal.
THE OPTIMIST’S GIDE TO LETTING GO by Amy E. Reichert was the focus of a special Mother’s Day-themed box from the Once Upon A Book Club. I’d heard of the book before and it is one that was on my TBR, so that was an awesome coincidence. It’s a wonderful novel primarily centered on the complex relationships between mother’s and daughters.
There are secrets, there are sorrows, there are triumphs and there are joys. It’s a wonderful blend of the moments that define our lives and the memories that can stop us from living. I will give a slight forewarning that this is one beach read that could evoke a tear or two as you relate to some of the more powerful moments, so maybe better for the privacy backyard than the public beach?
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What are you reading this month? Please share, I’d love to be inspired by your ideas!
Right now I am working my way through several different light romance series, largely because for some reason I have at least one of them on my shelf, and I seem to be constitutionally unable to read just one! I find it rather fascinating that there can be such a wide variation in the readability and interest grabbing writing in the same series, all by the same author, since some of the books keep my interest all the way through, and others end up being just scanned to get a feel of what the story line is.
I’d like to read Small Great Things.
I would like to read The House On Harbor Hill from your list.
I just started reading a book that takes place in Gettysburg “Though War Shall Rise Against Me”.
I am going to be reading “The Fault in Our Stars”
I’m reading Wives & Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell.
I am reading the Autobiography of Captain James T Kirk
I would like to read The House On Harbor Hill.
I would like to read The Lying Game
I am reading The Widening Circle: A Lyme Disease Pioneer Tells Her Story by Polly Murray
I’m reading the English wife right now.
I just finished “How to Walk Away” and enjoyed it!
I would like to read The House on Harbor Hill sounds like a great read.
I am reading The first Days by Rhiannon Frater. I have read it before just re reading it!
Unchanged is what I’m reading
I don’t have a lot of time for reading but I have about 150 books on my Kindle. I’m a fast reader so I expect to be through all of them by the end of the year. I just finished Cat’s Eyewitness by Rita Mae Brown and she is one of my favorite authors.
Would luv to read The Fault in our Stars
I am reading “Johnny Got His Gun” this month.
I would love to read The House on Harbor Hill.
im reading Pretty Little Liars.
Reading books by Lisa TerKeurst.
I’d like to read small great things
I’m reading The Lying Game. I’m hooked!
I just started Surprise Me by Sophie Kinsella!
I would love to read It”s Your Universe: You Have the Power to Make It Happen the most of all items on your great list.