While James napped Sunday afternoon away, I was watching Fixer Upper and reading. I’ve read quite a few books since December, so I decided to share!

This is a great beach read (if the title doesn’t give it away). Good character development, although a little stereotypical in parts. The story flows well and I liked the development of feel and character of Nantucket as an entity on its own.

This was one of B’s books that I read after I finished one book and was waiting for another book to arrive. It’s the first James Bond book, and it presents the vision of Fleming’s Bond. He’s a flawed character, often a bad shot, and definitely not the perfected ladies’ man that he’s portrayed to be in most of the Bond films. For that reason alone, I recommend it!

Okay, this was a tough one. I’ve had this one on my list to read for almost two years and finally read it over the winter break. As the book is from two different view points, I had two different perceptions of the story. Vivian’s story was heart wrenching and captivating, and I read every word. Molly’s on the other hand came off as a bit contrived. I get annoyed with teenage angst, and while I understood the correlation, it just seemed a bit overdone in that part.

I’m going to preface this book by saying I thought it was different than what it was. I was expecting a marriage memoir applied to Jesus devotional. It was not. You can’t throw in five verses from the Bible and call it that. And no, she doesn’t call it that, so that was a mistake on my part. However, I laughed a lot, and it was a quick read. Although, I’m still kind of mad that her husband stood by watching her paint a shed in their backyard.

You know I couldn’t go a month without reading an Agatha Christie mystery. This one was really complex in the mystery set-up and I liked the storyline. Poirot takes a back role in this book, with two non detectives at the forefront. My only complaint would be the need to have a complete ending, with each character having a definite end role even if it seems unjustified. That’s my best way to say that without including spoilers.

This was my favorite. Told from the viewpoint of a young girl, she goes to live with her Aunt Tootie in Savannah, where she meets a bunch of fierce women. It reminded me of many of the scrappy women in my own life, and I read it in a week turnaround. On a hilarious note, I borrowed this book from my sister and apparently it was missing the last thirty pages. I got to the “end” and thought, “that’s it! This is terrible!” I did some research and realized it wasn’t the ending, then checked the book out at the library to finish it.

And finally, the follow-up to Bob Goff’s book, Love Does, is his wife’s book, Love Lives Here. I found this, like Bob’s book, to be very centering, if that makes sense. It’s about discovering how to refocus, reprioritize, and that is okay to make mistakes, and/or start over.