A brief collection of what East Idaho Moms are reading: The good, the bad, and the make-you-think books. August Edition.
Summer reading for me (Laurel) is generally more “light” reading—books that I can simply enjoy while laying in my hammock—which means a lot of cozy mysteries. Mysteries are always on my list but cozy ones are less suspenseful and less gruesome, and I still become totally involved and don’t want to put the book or Kindle down. Lately, I have been reading Ellery Adams’s Book Retreat Mysteries. Jane Steward (nice play on the last name) is the resort manager and guardian of Storyton Hall. She is a widow with young twins who are quite the handful and discovers her family’s resort is more than just a resort. I am thoroughly enjoying my latest book, Murder in the Mystery Suite, and will be disappointed when I am “current” in the series.
Gigi Ropp is always reading. One of her current reads is Such A Quiet Place by Megan Miranda. “Although I am a huge fan of Megan Miranda, this one fell flat. The character development was shallow and the resolution felt rushed and while it was unexpected, it was also underwhelming.”
Another of Gigi’s reads was Sea Glass Summer by Miranda Liasson. “I’m not a romance reader, but this one was quirky and fun and the characters were delightful. I felt whisked away to a beautiful beach town filled with supportive fitness and community members bolstering a widowed mother. Sea Glass Summer is a marvelous, if predictable, love story.”
Rebecca Harkness recently finished American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins. “I have been recommended to read this book multiple times and by a variety of people. I think the book is well written and the details Cummins provides engage the reader and place you in the book. I feel that Cummins did her best to portray the journey of an immigrant that travels to the US illegally. She writes about the obstacles they are faced with, the triumphs, and also the heartbreak. While I do recommend this book, it gave me anxiety the entire time I read it.”
Ellie Lerum has been reading Becoming a Contagious Church: Increasing your Church’s Evangelistic Temperature by Mark Mittleburg. “Looking at a church (the people, not a building) over the last several years has brought a realization that spreading the gospel is something that happens less frequently than it’s supposed to. In this book, Mittleburg discusses the purpose of evangelicalism and how the church can employ it to ring people closer to Christ.”
Jerica Stacey is like me and enjoys a quick, light read while traveling in the summer. She recently read Every Summer After by Carley Fortune, and Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren. “My recent books share much of the same storyline: young love that ended abruptly for one reason or another and the quest to make it back to each other. Both stories alternate between the past and present, and each reveals a secret from the past that ended an otherwise fairytale summer romance that bloomed over the years.”
Jerica also read The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid and One of Us is Dead by Jeneva Rose. “I loved both of these books for different reasons. Evelyn Hugo is intriguing from the beginning: an old-Hollywood actress with seven husbands and even more secrets is bound to be a page-turner. I loved the character development in this one as well as the lengths Evelyn was willing to go to protect the ones she loved. I found her to be relatable despite her fame and fortune.
One of Us is Dead is a murder mystery told from multiple perspectives. You don’t know until the end which one of the characters is dead or how they died. The characters are some of the cattiest women I have come across and it was easy to come up with multiple guesses on why someone would want any one of them gone from their uptight town.”
