I loved most of what I read in May. I gave perfect grades to five of the seven books I read last month.
My favorite books consisted of two nonfiction books and three fiction books. My reviews are below.
The Barefoot Executive by Carrie Wilkerson and The Spiral Notebook by Stephen Singular and Joyce Singular were my favorite nonfiction books in May.
The Barefoot Executive was one of those books that inspired me immediately. In the book, Wilkerson tells about her transition from a teacher to a business owner. She helps you answer questions about why you want to work for yourself, what type of business you should have, and how to set goals and be successful.
Wilkerson’s advice is easy to understand and apply. Plus, her personality is just relatable, making the book fun to read.
I decided to listen to The Spiral Notebook after finding the audiobook in the online library. The book explores why America keeps producing mass killers in their 20s. The book uses the July 20, 2012 shootings at the movie theater in Aurora, Colo., as a sort of case study to reflect on mass killings by young people. It also includes interviews by individuals in the age group about why they think people in their peer age group choose to kill.
While I didn’t agree with everything I read in The Spiral Notebook, the book certainly was worth reading and considering.
My three favorite fiction books in May were Nowhere Girl by Susan Strecker, The First Time She Drowned by Kerry Kletter and What Was Mine by Helen Klein Ross.
In Nowhere Girl, Cady Martino knows something isn’t right. Her 16-year-old sister, Savannah, didn’t meet her after school like they planned. Then Cady has a sort of vision and sees her twin dying. The girl’s body was found shortly after in an abandoned house. The police rule Savannah’s murder a random attack.
Years later, Cady still communicates with her deceased sister through dreams and is more determined than ever to find out who killed her. The problem is that there sometimes are things you don’t want to know about people you care about.
Nowhere Girl pulled me in right from the beginning. It reads a little bit like chick lit, but also has this great murder mystery plot. I read it in just a couple of days because I had to know what happened to Savannah.
The First Time She Drowned is the story of Cassie O’Malley.
After spending more than two years in a mental institution, Cassie emancipates herself and leaves the home. Her mother, who put her in the institution against her will, paid for her to attend college, which is where she goes when she leaves. But Cassie doesn’t understand how to function in the “outside” world and struggles with friendships and her relationship with her mother.
The book explores how Cassie came to be in the institution and her efforts to discover what really caused her problems.
Have you ever wanted something so badly that you thought you might just take it? That’s exactly how Lucy Wakefield feels in What Was Mine. The problem is that Lucy acts on her desire to take the thing she really wants. The even bigger problem is that the “thing” is a baby.
Lucy, who tried unsuccessfully to have a baby of her own, takes a baby girl from a shopping cart. She raises the girl for more than two decades before the girl, Mia, discovers that she was stolen. Mia must then decide who her mother really is and what type of relationship, if any, she wants to have with the woman who gave birth to her and the woman who raised her.
A book that makes you relate to someone who does something horrible always is an interesting read. Interestingly, I also couldn’t always relate to the birth mother character in this book. Either way, it’s a good read.
Those were my favorite books of May. It’s your turn!
