Book Reviews

  • favorite books 2021
    Book Lists,  Book Reviews

    My Favorite Books of 2021

    One of my favorite things to do at the end of the year is look back on all of the books I read. It’s fun to reflect on what I loved reading, what I didn’t, things I learned and ways I grew. I read a lot more than I thought I would (Goodreads says 190 books, but that incudes books I didn’t finish and short stories, so those numbers are certainly skewed).  I tried to branch out and read more varied genres this year. In some sense I was successful. My top genres were still middle grade and classics (the same as 2020), but I also tried some sci-fi and read…

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    Book Reviews

    June 2021 Reading Wrap Up

    Hey, friends! Long time, no talk. Life has been really crazy lately (I will do a life update blog very soon!), so I haven’t been blogging very much. Now that things are starting to settle down a bit, I’m looking forward to getting back into the blogging groove. I have remained fairly active on my YouTube channel, where I primarily talk about the books I’ve been reading, but that’s pretty much all I’ve had time for. I thought my first order of business on the blog would be to update you on some of the reading I’ve been doing lately. I didn’t get a lot of reading accomplished in June (it…

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    Book Reviews

    March 2021 Reading Wrap Up

    I’m a little late sharing my March reading wrap up, but life has been a little crazy lately! March was a very busy reading month. I ended the month by reading 20 books! I participated in a reading challenge during the first week of the month and also enjoyed participating in Middle Grade March. A lot of the books I enjoyed this month were middle grade or YA books, which is why I was able to get so much reading in. On my YouTube channel, I review every single book that I’ve been reading (as opposed to here, where I just give the highlights). If you’re interested in more details, you…

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    Book Lists,  Book Reviews

    February 2021 Reading Wrap Up

    It’s that time again! Time for another reading wrap up! February was a busy reading month for me, despite the fact that it was a short month. I finished 15 books! Most of them were pretty enjoyable, but there were a few duds as well. As normal, I will be including the highlights in this blog post, but if you’d like a full rundown of everything I read, you can watch my wrap up video below. I always discuss every single book in my YouTube videos. However, I don’t mention what Claire has been reading or our read alouds, so there’s unique information found in both sources 😉 Without further ado, let’s…

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    Book Reviews

    January 2021 Reading Wrap Up

    It’s that time again! Time to share what Claire and I have been reading this month. It’s been a few months since I’ve posted a reading wrap up. In December, I was busy and then I decided to post 2020 reading recaps in lieu of a monthly wrap up.  Check out my 2020 reading recap post here Check out our 2020 read aloud reading recap here I also have an exciting announcement! I have started a YouTube channel! For the moment, I’m intending to primarily use it to talk about books, but there will likely be other things interspersed (especially homeschooling). I will continue to post reading wrap ups on my blog,…

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    Book Reviews

    2020 Reading Recap

    One of my favorite thing to do at the end of the year is look back on my reading. In 2020, my goal was to read 100 books. As of this blog post, I have completed 171 books! It was pretty fun to see my stats on Goodreads. Don’t be too impressed, as a lot of the books I completed were middle grade. Some of them were pre-reading for Claire, some of them were reading with Claire (yes, I count read alouds in my Goodreads) and some were just for my own enjoyment. I can normally knock out a middle grade novel in a day, so they’re fun palate cleansers…

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    Book Reviews,  Kids,  Third Grade

    2020 Reading Recap – Read Aloud Edition

    As 2020 is coming to a close, it’s always fun to assess our reading over the year. I keep a log of all the books Claire and I read together – whether it’s for school or just for fun. I tallied up the chapter books we read together in 2020. Our grand total was 34! Most of them fell into the classic or fantasy genre, but we also read some mysteries, contemporaries and funny books. Claire and I looked our list over and thought it would be fun to share our top 10 favorite read alouds of 2020. I’m including the books in the order we read them, rather than…

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    Book Reviews,  Fun,  Kids

    The Ultimate List of Kids Chapter Books

    It’s so exciting when your child starts reading independently! Before you know it, they’re on to beginner chapter books. But what about when beginner chapter books are too short or babyish?  Check out our favorite beginner chapter books here. There’s another category of chapter books called middle grade. They’re supposed to be for ages 8-12, but many of them offer up more mature themes (divorce, loss, abuse, bullying) or an intensity that might not be appropriate for a child on the younger end of the spectrum.  This post is a huge list of books for that in-between age. My daughter is an advanced reader, but she’s not ready for quite a…

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    Book Reviews

    October Reading Wrap Up

    These reading wrap ups are some of my favorite posts! I absolutely love talking about books (in case you haven’t noticed). I’ve been considering starting a booktube channel on YouTube solely to discuss books. For right now, though, I’m going to continue writing about them. Maybe someday I’ll do both. I read a ton of books this month (26!) and a huge reason for that is that I participated in my first reading challenge! The challenge was started by Chantel (you can check out her booktube channel here). Chantel has a free TBR random prompt website called Hey Reader! It helps you pick the next books to read. I’m including…

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    Book Reviews

    September Reading Wrap Up

    Another month of reading is completed! Claire and I love to share the books we’ve been enjoying lately with you all! It’s definitely been a diverse reading month for me – everything from classics to middle grade to fantasy to historical fiction to suspense/thriller and everything in between. I also hit my reading goal for 2020 this month! My Goodreads goal was to read 100 books. I finished my 100th book on September 30th. I set a pretty lofty goal this year, so I was thrilled when I reached it. (This post contains affiliate links. I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you if you purchase…