Once again, I am a little late in posting my second update for the Semi-Charmed Summer Book Challenge. And once again I have only read two books. I am slowly but surely making a little bit of progress. I went through my preliminary list again and decided to change it up a bit. I’m excited about the books that I have on my list now and have already pulled a few out so that I can get started. I am currently “reading” (listening to) Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott that will count for the “Read a book that was written before you were born” category and am enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would.
Here are the two books that I read in June:
10 points: Read a book from the children’s section of the library or bookstore.
The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls, by Claire Legrand (352 pages)
When Victoria’s friend Lawrence goes missing, she believes there’s more to it than the excuse his parent’s give, so she starts to investigate the mysterious Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls, where children go in and come back out different, if they come back out at all. I have had this on my to-read list since I read an interview with the author shortly before its release and all I can say is that this book did not disappoint! I loved seeing how Victoria changed throughout the novel and my heart went out to her at times. I loved that there was a bit of spookiness to the story and I would love to see this as a movie one day.
15 points: Read a book another blogger has already read for the
challenge. (Yes, you will have to wait until the first check-in to
choose this book! So no one will be able to finish this challenge in
only one month; sorry!)
The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green (337 pages)
Hazel and Augustus meet in a cancer support group and start to bond over their shared love for a book, but as they become more attached and start to fall in love Hazel is worried that her precarious health will only cause Augustus more pain in the end. What is there to say about this book that hasn’t been said already? Not much. I cried while reading this, of course, even though I knew how it would end ahead of time. My favorite thing about this book is that while it’s about teenagers who have cancer, it wasn’t as depressing as I expected it to be. There was a lot of humor so I found myself chuckling a lot, particularly at the beginning. They do things that I would not have expected when I picked up this novel. I loved all of the different layers and I thought that they added a lot to the novel. While I don’t think the book would have felt like something was missing without them, I definitely think they added a lot to the story. That’s a really vague comment, but I don’t want to say too much. I greatly enjoyed this novel and am excited to watch the movie–although I’m not sure I’ll see it in theaters. I have a feeling that I will be crying in the movie as well.
Previous Total: 20 points
Total for June: 25 points
Current Total: 45 points
Check out Megan’s post for the second update to see what everyone else has been reading.
