Reader Turned Writer

Book: The Help Author: Kathryn Stockett Genre: Historical fiction (adult) My rating: ***** 5 stars Page count: 444 I first picked up The Help in high school and once I read it, I loved it! I have also loved it each time I have reread it and love the movie as well. This is one of my favorite historical fictions. It's definitely a five star book for me! Summary The Help is an historical fiction set in 1960 Mississippi, during the Civil Rights movement. Mississippi was the worst state for blacks during that time and this book follows two black maids and a white young woman and their relationship together as they work on a project together. There is obviously a lot of history throughout the book, just because of the time it's written about and the characters we follow. There's also so much more, really focusing on the relationships between the women in the book and the things they go through in their lives. Review The book is one for older teens or adults, becaus...

Wow, I've neglected this blog since I started it. I was focusing on my YouTube channel, but I want to start doing more with this as well. Here is just a little bit of an update. Last month, I got into a bit of a reading slump (and BookTube slump). I was having a little bit of an emotional hard time because of pregnancy hormones, which made it hard for me to feel motivated to do anything at all, so I went a little bit into survival mode where I was just doing the minimum. I was able to get out of it and reach my monthly goal of seven books a month (and my midwife helped me get my hormones more balanced). This month, I've started doing a readathon! It's my first one and I'm excited for it. It was created by another BookTuber and she's calling it the TBR Readathon. Here's my video on what I'm reading for it. I am making progress in The Count of Monte Cristo. During my reading slump, I kind of abandoned it, but now I've started reading in it everyd...

I already have disregarded my goals for reading certain types of books each month. I think it's great to read a variety and I am often reading those types of books still, but I found it too constraining. Here are my new goals (being tracked in my bookish bullet journal, which I may do a post about another time, because I love it!):  -Read at least 7 books a month, read 90 books total this year  -Read at least 1 nonfiction book a month (the average millionaire does this)  That's it! I have lists of books that I'm choosing from for my reading material (for example, I have a list of books I really want to get to this year from my TBR and I have a list of Ebooks I own that I haven't read yet that I want to get quite a bit smaller before the end of the year) and I also want to use the library more often for books for myself, something that I've already started doing!  And now, here are the books I read this last month!  Because You Love to Hate ...

I remember in high school being super busy--I was, obviously, in school all day, then I had work right after each day, I was highly involved with a dance company and my church, and often had family and friend events planned. I had (and mostly hit) some highly ambitious goals and felt that my life was busy. I looked forward to adult life, when I would "have more time" to simply read. As a young mother of an almost two year, three and a half year old (while pregnant), I laugh a little at this. Nevertheless, as I've gotten older, I've found reading has become more important to me in my life, and so I have worked hard to make it a priority. This has been a process for me and, like I believe most people, my passion for reading often comes in phases or waves. At some times in my life, I don't have that ambition to read and at others, it's all I want to do. Regardless of phase, here are some of the ways I have found in my own life as a stay at home mother to ...

Whispers in Autumn by Trisha Leigh  This is a dystopian novel, where some aliens have come and taken over the humans by smothering their emotions. It follows a girl who is different from the rest (she feels emotions, etc.) and has to hide it. It was an interesting premise and the plot kept me interested in what was going to happen next, but I wasn't impressed with the overall book. The plot felt forced, as if the bad guys should have caught the main character ages ago but doesn't for some reason. I also never grew super attached to the characters; the plot drove me forward, not any care I had for the character's well being. That's a pretty big deal for me. There are four books total in the series (one book for each season), but as of right now, I'm not going to be continuing it. The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo  This was a charming read! I had before from other moms how fun this book was (and how much their kids liked it). It follows a mouse who falls in lov...