Bookish Chatter | A Pretty Stack for Late August

Can you believe that we’re nearing the end of August? You know that August is my most dreaded month and yet – it’s nearly behind us. And this year the heat and humidity in New Hampshire has been manageable and I’ve had no complaints! Still – bring on the apples and pumpkins! The mums! The flannels and the woolen hats! And as always, the books!!

Today I’m sharing what I’ve read this week. It’s an eclectic stack: one longlisted for the Booker, one old favorite, and one Toni Morrison that is in a genre of its own. Plus, two readalouds that I finished with my children. So yes, bring on the books!

Books Finished This Week:

How to Build a Boat by Elaine Feeney
This was a beautiful book. The main character in this book is a young boy on the autism spectrum who is on a mission to build a perpetual motion machine in order to connect with his mother who died giving birth to him. It makes more sense in the context of this story! When Jamie is 13 years old and leaves his primary school he finally meets a couple of teachers who take his goal seriously.

The characters in this book are just perfect. They’re written with care and precision and were almost real enough to touch. Feeney is an Irish poet and her writing felt perfect at every turn. What a wonderful addition to this year’s Booker list!

(This book is currently less expensive if you order from Blackwell’s* rather than Amazon, thanks to the free shipping offered to the US!) ((Also, I am now a Blackwell’s affiliate, so I will earn a small commission at no additional cost to you if you order anything after clicking on my link. Thank you!!))

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Thornyhold by Mary Stewart
This was my seventh time to read Thornyhold! I typically read it in September but I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately and decided to go ahead and pick it up. While reading it this time, I underlined every flower mentioned and that made it so much fun. I’ve described this book so many times here and don’t want to bore you, but I had a new realization while reading this time: this book reminds me of Rosamunde Pilcher. The descriptions throughout this book are breathtaking and so completely cozy.

In short: a young woman, Gilly, inherits a cottage from her older cousin. Everyone in the village thinks her cousin, Geillis, was a witch and assumes that Gilly is one too. I adore the scenes of Gilly cleaning up the cottage and making it her own, getting to know the flowers and herbs that her cousin Geillis so carefully cultivated, and all of the supper pies going into the Aga. I’m already looking forward to my next read!

(There is currently no paperback version available on Amazon, but Blackwell’s has a beautiful edition in their store!)

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Home by Toni Morrison
This was my eighth Morrison this year and it was another very good one. This book focuses on two siblings, Frank and Cee Money. Their childhood is hard but they manage to always be there for each other. Frank enlists in the Korean War and comes back with PTSD and struggles to go about his daily life. Cee believes that she finds a good job working for a medical doctor, but the duties for the position are unclear until after she takes the position. When Frank learns that Cee is in a dangerous place, he leaves the love of his life to get to his sister to save her.

As usual, there was a lot to unpack in this novel and I wish I could take a class on Toni Morrison. But I’d want the class to last an entire decade and for us to spend at least a year on each of her novels! So much goes straight over my head and I know from experience that I benefit from rereading her books. And I’ve watched this YouTube video of her home in Tribeca several times. I wish my house looked like this!

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Wishtree by Katherine Applegate
We finished our morning readaloud last week and it was fantastic! The narrator is a an old oak tree named Red who’s branches are full of life. Red has been the local Wishtree for decades and every May 1st it prepares itself for a deluge of people tying messages filled with their hopes onto its branches. But this year is different.

In the days leading up to wishing day, a young boy carves a message into its trunk. Leave. It’s aimed at a Muslim family that recently moved in. We soon see how most people in this community disagree and how they show this family that they’re wanted.

I’ve said it several times, but Katherine Applegate is my favorite readaloud author. Her books are well written and engaging. They give us a lot to talk about!

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Changes for Kit
Bronwyn and I finished all of the Kit books! After reading the Addy books, I didn’t think any of the other girls could compare, but Kit was excellent. She lives in the 1920s in Cincinnati, Ohio during the Great Depression. In the first book, her father loses his job and her family decides to turn their home into a boarding house to help make ends meet.

In this final book, Kit uses her writing skills to help children who are struggling even more than she is. Kit writes a letter to the editor of the paper and includes pictures of the inadequate shoes and coats that the children wore during the extremely cold winters in Ohio. Thanks to Kit, donations started pouring in and people’s lives were immediately improved. What an amazing story arc to experience with Bronwyn! Next we’re planning to read a couple of Ivy & Bean books that we have out from the library and then it will be on to Molly!

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And that’s it for me this week! I’ve been spending every spare moment gathering curricula for Bryce and ordering the books that he needs to get school really kicked off for him in September. He’s enjoyed these last few weeks of just focusing on the basics (reading, writing, and math) but we’re both looking forward to adding history, science, and a few special projects into the mix. So if I’m extra quiet this week and next, have no fear — I am just focused elsewhere! But I do hope to be back on Friday with an update of some sort. Until then – take good care!

*I cannot enter direct affiliate links from Blackwell’s yet but am working on setting something up so that it’s possible. Right now I can only give you my general affiliate link and you can search for the book you’re looking for from that page. Sorry about that!