Books,  Mama

Books I Read in July

One month ago I posted about the books I read in June, so let’s keep this going with the books I read in July! Should we make this a monthly post? Or maybe a quarterly post? Anyway, let’s get started…

I was in a bit of a reading slump in June and only read three books, which is a little low for me. Typically I read four or five books per month. July turned out to be another slow reading month for me, and I read three books this time around as well. Do you feel like you read more or less in the summer?

The vast majority of the books I read come from the library. If I am going to buy a book, I usually buy it secondhand unless it’s a new release. If buying from Amazon is the best option for you though, I’m including my affiliate links here for titles you might be interested in!

As an Amazon Associate, I earn a small percentage from purchases from the links in this blog post. This comes at no added cost to you, but it helps support me at Learning Mamahood.

The Body: A Guide for Occupants by Bill Bryson

I think this book was actually the main reason I only read three books in July. Technically I started reading it June 30 and finished it August 1, but I’m still counting it as a July book. It’s not an enormous book, but it’s big, and I felt like I needed to read it in small doses in order to take it all in. It doesn’t read like a textbook, but it’s still packed with information. The subtitle, “A Guide for Occupants,” is fairly telling of the tone of this book. I found it very approachable, and it didn’t feel like a book written for medical students—just a guide for anyone with a body who wants to learn more about how it works. I liked it, and I learned a ton from it! Each chapter focuses on a different part or system of the human body, plus a few chapters on diseases, medicine, and death at the end. It was very informative, and I often found myself in awe of the way God designed the human body!

Brood by Jackie Polzin

I heard about this book on the What Should I Read Next podcast, and I really thought I was going to love it. All I heard was that it was about a woman with chickens and that it read like a memoir, and since I’ve loved a couple farming/homesteading memoirs in the past year or so, I thought this one might be a winner for me. Unfortunately it didn’t end up being a favorite for me, despite checking a lot of the boxes of things I normally like. I think it probably was a pretty good book, but it just didn’t really resonate with me because I had a hard time finding any emotional connection to the protagonist. When I read fiction, I need the story or characters to stir up a lot of thinking and feeling for me, but for whatever reason I found myself feeling disconnected from this story.

The Read-Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease

This was my favorite book in July! It spent a lot more time in research and facts than I’d expected it to, but I learned quite a bit from it. I love reading aloud to my one year old, and this book reinforced what I already knew about the importance of doing so. If you’re a teacher or a parent who wants to know more about the benefits of reading aloud, this is a great reference. It also has a “treasury of read alouds” in the back of the book with several book lists geared toward readers of all different ages. I read the seventh edition of The Read-Aloud Handbook from my library, but I’m linking the eighth edition for you here.

Those are all my books for July! I’m looking forward to sharing my August books with you soon!

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