What I Read: May 2023

Where I confess that I am bad at summer.

We’ve been outside and on the go (isn’t everyone in May?), so when I put this list together, I was surprised to see so many titles. Three are middle-grade audiobooks and two are slim volumes, offsetting one book that’s 600+ pages!

I can hardly believe we turn the calendar to June tomorrow. Arthur and I finished our first-ever homeschool curriculum book yesterday (Logic of English Foundations A) and we’re BOTH so thrilled to have made such progress in school this year. I am thoroughly relieved that the curriculum also seems to be working: Arthur is sounding out whole Bob Books on his own these days — hooray! We are less far along in math (not at all surprising to me, the English major), but our Math-U-See book just slipped in some kindergarten-level algebra and I am both astonished and delighted.

The start of summer always holds tension for me. I want to be the kind of person who loves summer: the heightened sense of adventure and possibility and warm-weather adventures and throwing routine to the wind… and I am not that person.

So here’s where I confess that we’ll keep doing school most weekdays this summer. We’ll work with the loose routine we’ve created over the past six months, altering it as needed to fit the weather or the day or the adventure at hand (or, in August, the amount of tomatoes we suddenly need to do *something* with). We’ll read more fun books and hopefully see friends out and about at new-to-us places. But what we’ve got now is working for us, so I don’t see any reason to throw it out and try something new for summer.

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Here’s What I Read in May:

The Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates #1: Magic Marks the Spot

by Caroline Carlson / narrated by Katherine Kellgren

In my last newsletter, I was only two chapters in. As soon as I finished it, I added the next two books to our library holds list, which is to say that it was fantastic. This book has a bit of everything: puns, adventure, suspense, mystery, magic. Hilary is a girl who wants to be a pirate, but can’t on the grounds that her father is the Admiral of the Royal Navy — and the fact that she is a girl. Her best friend is a magical stone Gargoyle. There’s a finishing school and scores of rogue pirates and each chapter features primary documents of sorts — newspaper clippings, maps, excerpts from book on how to be a pirate — that relate to the story and give you information in a way that feels unique and fun. The narrator is phenomenal. I’d adore this book in paper form, but listening brought the whole story to life in the best way. Arthur at 6 really enjoyed it… and so did I as I close in on 36.

Goodreads | Bookshop | Libro.FM

A Prayer for the Crown Shy {Monk & Robot #2}

by Becky Chambers

In March I read A Psalm for the Wild-Built, a serendipitous find at a bookstore. The sequel came in at the library and I’m wondering a) how soon I can justify buying myself a copy, and b) if there will be more (please let there be more!). This second book in the series follows a tea monk named Dex and a robot named Mosscap as they travel through Panga asking the humans living there: What do you need? It’s thoughtful and intelligent and full of heart, just like the first. I’m eager to read more of Chambers’s work, too.

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Olive Kitteridge: A Novel

by Elizabeth Strout

I can’t decide how I feel about this book. It’s exquisitely written (as one would expect from a Pulitzer Winner), layered and nuanced. But also not very fun. It’s a collection of short stories, really, arranged as a novel, and I understand why the vignettes revolve around Olive Kitteridge, but I don’t find her a kindred spirit, so to say. The book feels somewhat similar to the Beartown triology, in that it tells the real stories of real people in a real place, even if it’s fiction. But it’s also wholeheartedly different from Beartown. I think it feels more like reading gossip and less like a mystery that unfolds? I can’t quite sort it out, so if you’ve read this one and want to talk about it, let me know! And I might read the follow-up, just to see if it helps to clarify my thinking.

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The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy {The Penderwicks #1}

by Jeanne Birdsall

This is a book made for summer vacation! The Penderwick sisters are 12, 11, 10, and 4 and when they arrive at the summer cottage their father has rented for the family for three weeks, they discover that it comes with an imposing neighboring mansion and its equally-imposing owner, Mrs. Tifton. The usual summer antics of a large family ensued, and we loved following along on their journey. The distinct personalities of the girls set this novel apart, and the audio version was fantastic. I’d guess it’s aimed more for the 8-12 crowd than Arthur at 6. Still, there was nothing in it that made me hesitate to let him listen.

A small content warning: the book discusses the death of the girls’s mother from cancer, something that happens before the novel takes place. The information is relayed gently, but could be hard for some young kids to hear anyway. My mom passed away when I was 9, so we’ve already talked a lot about mothers dying while kids are young and I felt like Arthur didn’t even have questions when we listened in this context.

Goodreads | Bookshop | Libro.FM

The Lincoln Highway

by Amor Towles

GREAT from start to finish. I’m almost angry I waited this long to read it! I adored Towles’s A Gentleman in Moscow, and my Chasing Creative podcast co-host Ashley Brooks picked this as a favorite back in 2021. The story follows Emmet and his little brother Billy who set out to start a new life for themselves after their family farm is lost to the bank. They hit upon twist after twist after twist in the journey from Nebraska across the country, meeting new friends and bumping into old ones. The story is hard and good and sweet and surprising. I loved every character almost equally, although Sally stands out as a favorite, and I am crossing my fingers that Towles doesn’t leave us where it ends. I think this one on audio could be a blast.

Goodreads | Bookshop | Libro.FM

The Penderwicks on Gardam Street {The Penderwicks #2}

by Jeanne Birdsall

The second in a completed series of five, this audio book was just as good as the first. There’s a longer prologue that describes scenes near the end of Mrs. Penderwick’s life when the girls were quite young, but again, I feel like the topic is handled gently and with care. This second book centers on Mr. Penderwick being guilted into dating again by his late wife via a letter delivered at the beginning of the novel by his sister, Claire. The girls despise the idea at first, but it grows on them when they discover that maybe having a stepmother might not be so bad after all. I’m excited to continue the series with Arthur, and equally as excited to read them in paperback someday, too.

Goodreads | Bookshop | Libro.FM

Goldenrod: Poems

by Maggie Smith

If you like modern poetry, you will likely enjoy Maggie Smith. I heard her interviewed on Kate Bowler’s podcast and then remembered I had this thrifted copy of a recent collection on my shelf. I’m eager to read her latest memoir, and her poem Good Bones is breathtaking. And yet, I struggle to review poetry collections. I really liked some of these poems, others missed me entirely. At only 108 pages, I did read it in one sitting. Which is, I think, how you are not supposed to read poetry. But I do not need to parse any of these lines for an essay, so I’m letting myself break the rule.

Goodreads | Bookshop

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What I’m Reading with the Kids:

Books about summer! And books about elephants, Arthur’s chosen next unit in school. We’re also still in a Bear book phase with Tennyson.

This book is a great blend of information and silliness (if you’ve missed Mac Barnett’s TED Talk up to now, go watch it as soon as you have 15 minutes to spare).

We’re pre-ordering the last(!) Vanderbeeker novel in both hardcover and audio, because why wouldn’t we?!? Ha!

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What I’m Reading Next:

Probably this non-fiction rec from Ashley Brooks. Will report back.

About this time of year, I always get the itch to re-read The Last Summer (of you & me) by Ann Brashares.

And I am saving J. Ryan Stradal’s newest release for a kid-free trip to Door County later this month. If you like literature-of-a-place, his books set in the Midwest will be right up your alley: Kitchens of the Great Midwest and The Lager Queen of Minnesota.

What about you: what are you looking forward to? Share a favorite summer read in the comments!