Reading for Me

The Books I Have Read…..Just for Me

Mar 31

Back to the Grind (March 31, 2025)

by kennithfreeman

Last week was a whirlwind. From the second I landed back in Amarillo after a much needed Spring Break in Arkansas, it felt as though everything needed immediate attention. As a result, I didn’t post an update here. So….this week’s post will reflect two weeks’ worth of reading. That doesn’t mean it will be a robust post because….yeah…..life has been busy!

What I Finished

Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery. I have heard all of the praise for this 1908 children’s classic. It is certainly a charming concept. A red-haired orphan is taken in by an unlikely pair where she grows into her own and realizes her potential as a student. I struggled with this one. I don’t know if it was because of the feeling that each chapter was more of a stand-alone vignette than actually propelling the overall story ahead or that I just found the writing dated. I finished, but I won’t be returning to Green Gables any time soon. 2.75 stars.

What I’m Currently Reading

The Last Bookshop in London by Madeline Martin (p. 201 of 314). Once I got back to Plainview and finished reading Anne of Green Gables, I needed something much different. I made a change to my plans and picked up the other book scheduled for March and put Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister back on the shelf. I’m really enjoying this tale of survival that includes the protagonist developing a love for reading against the backdrop of World War II London. It’s a fast moving read and really dynamic historical fiction. This book will fulfill prompt #28 (A Crossover) of The 52 Book Club 2025 Reading Challenge.

Dream Girl Drama by Tessa Bailey (6:11 of 9:14). With the return of driving to opera rehearsals, I needed to start another audiobook. Since I have enjoyed Tessa Bailey’s other stories in the series, I decided to keep going. The topic is a little more risqué and can be uncomfortable for some readers. The jury is still out on how I feel about this one, but I have to give Bailey credit — I’m still listening and plan to finish the story.

March in Review

As anticipated, my reading numbers have gone down in the month of March. Still, I am already nearly halfway to my goal of reading 52 books in 2025….so I’m not that upset about not meeting my complete goal for the month. Here’s what I accomplished in March, 2025.

  • Books read in March: 5 (down 2 from February)
    • 2 audio
    • 3 physical books
    • 5 fiction
  • Pages read in March: 1,830 (down 231 pages from February)
  • Highest rated: Fangirl Down by Tessa Bailey (4.75 stars)
  • Lowest rated: The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket (2.0 stars)

What’s Ahead in April

I still need to tie up a few loose ends from my March reading plan. I’m definitely finishing The Last Bookshop in London this week. That will just leave Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister to round out March’s reading. However, I have a sneaky suspicion that I may push this novel back into the summer. Since the children’s opera I am currently playing is a retelling of a Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale, I really don’t think this is the best time to read a retelling of another classic tale.

Here’s what is planned for April. I’m really excited about a few of these….and there are a few that are causing me a moment of pause.

  • Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy
  • Paradise Lost by John Milton
  • Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
  • Department of Speculation by Jenny Offill
  • The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris

Next Monday is the beginning of opera week. It may take me a day or two to get my post written, but I promise that you will hear how things are going as I continue Reading for Me.

Until next time,

Kennith

2025 Reading Challenge audio Children’s literature historical romance Series The 52 Book Club

Leave a comment »
Mar 17

The One with All the Wind (March 17, 2025)

by kennithfreeman

This has been a week for the record books. Lots of activity at school with auditions and mid-term exams….resuming rehearsals for the children’s opera….a wild wind storm that nearly blew us away….and preparations for Spring Break travel. In all of that, I got to finish an audiobook this week and finally finished the last of my February reads once my feet were on the ground in Arkansas. Just a few more weeks of the really busy season of the semester. At this point, I’m just trying to stay in the routine of reading something each day and keeping some forward progress.

What I Finished This Week

The Au Pair Affair by Tessa Bailey. I absolutely loved this rom-com! It was a fun read that also pulled at the heart strings. Burgess is a single father and a professional hockey player. He needs some help with his precocious 12-year-old daughter. That’s where Tallulah comes in. A graduate student, she is always looking for an inexpensive living arrangement and extra income; the job as Lissa’s au pair — a glorified nanny —- fits the bill perfectly. Complications arise as Tallulah and Burgess develop romantic feelings for each other….and Lissa finds out! Bailey does a tremendous job of exploring the dynamics of non-traditional families while also exploring topics such as May-December relationships and forced retirement. While this was a bit more graphic than the previous Tessa Bailey novel I read, I still found myself really enjoying the writing and fell in love with these characters. 4 stars.

Waiting for the Moon by Kristin Hannah. I think Kristin Hannah is one of the rising stars of contemporary fiction today. With recent favorite reads such as The Women, True Colors, and The Great Alone, I was pleased to find an early novel that would fit one of my reading challenge prompts. I used this for prompt #10: author’s last name is also a first name (but you could also use it because it has a moon on the cover – prompt #12). As I’ve already mentioned, this book was a little different from Hannah’s other books that I have read. The story opens with a young woman being brought to an asylum after a tremendous injury to her head. Ian, a retired doctor, cares for the residents of the coastal Maine facility and reluctantly takes in the injured woman. Since she is unable to recall her name, Ian begins to call her Selena. Over the course of her recovery, Selena discovers that the asylum’s residents are not all insane; instead, many of them suffer from past trauma that they have not learned to deal with. Not surprisingly, Ian and Selena fall in love. Everything seems to be perfect until Elliot arrives, claiming to be Selena’s husband. Out of honor and loyalty, Selena returns to her former life with Elliot although she has no memory of it. What we find there is shocking! When Elliot is injured, Selena decides to bring her husband back to Ian, the only man who can possibly save his life. This is a beautiful story that has many similarities to the Frankenstein narrative while exploring definitions of marriage, family, the God-complex, and selfless love. As much as I enjoyed the story, I felt that the novel suffered because it was one of Hannah’s first attempts as a novelist; her immaturity shows. 3 stars.

What I’m Currently Reading

Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery (p. 144 of 373). I find it very hard to believe that I have never read this classic children’s book. So far, I am finding Anne’s imagination intoxicating and I have fallen in love with this character’s wit, verve, and boldness. Originally, I had planned to read this for prompt # 6- set in Spring, but I really think that I’m going to use it for prompt #2 – a character with red hair.

What’s Ahead in March?

Now that we are halfway through March, I wanted to take a moment to remind us all of what I still need to read this month to get back on track with my reading plan since April’s schedule is also quite full. Two books remain for the month.

  • Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister by Gregory Maguire. This book is currently sitting on the table in Arkansas. I should finish Green Gables in the next day or so and will dive right into this novel. The writing doesn’t look dense on the page, so I’m hoping that I can move through it fairly quickly while on Spring Break.
  • The Last Bookshop in London by Madeline Martin. I hope to start this one shortly after returning to Plainview next week to finish out the month strong.

I’ll be back next Monday to let you know how things turned out!

2025 Reading Challenge audio Children’s literature romance The 52 Book Club

Leave a comment »
Mar 10

Opera Gala, Migraine, and Time Change (March 10, 2025)

by kennithfreeman

The week started out lovely and full of promise. By the weekend, however, I was ready to see the week in the rearview mirror and move forward to something new. The week started out with a lovely piano recital here on campus and culminated with an exceptional Opera Gala supporting Opera of the Plains. (If you are interested in contributing to a worthy cause, click the link above. Even the smallest contribution helps us as we strive to introduce children to this amazing art form.) Once the gala was over, it was time to get back to work in rehearsals for OotP’s upcoming children’s opera.

After a productive rehearsal on Saturday morning, I drove home through snow and sleet. Apparently, I was stressed while I was driving — and when combined with the drop in temperature — that was the perfect recipe for a migraine. It was a bad one too! Reading or listening was not an option for the rest of the day.

Then the time change arrived on Sunday and threw off my entire inner clock. I was extremely tired all day Sunday and then didn’t sleep that evening. This was not the ending to the week that I had hoped would greet me.

Needless to say, I got minimal reading done this week. But I did manage to knock out one of my books for my March goals (even if I am still working my way through the last book for February.)

What I Finished This Week

The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket. Having spent a lot of time working in children’s ministry over the years, I have been very aware of the Series of Unfortunate Events books. Somehow, I’ve never read one of the books. There was just something about a story that focused on the awful circumstances that plagued three children that simply did not appeal to me. Now that I have actually read the first book in the series, I can firmly say that my instincts were correct. There was nothing redeeming about this book and I found myself just ready to get to the end. I won’t be reading more of Snicket’s stories. I read this book to complete prompt #25 in The 52 Book Club 2025 Reading Challenge — breaks the fourth wall. 2 stars.

What I’m Currently Reading

The Au Pair Affair by Tessa Bailey (7:50 of 12:33). Now that I find myself traveling about 6 hours each week for rehearsals and lessons, I am making progress in my audio selections more easily than my physical reading. Once again, this rom-com is compelling and the characters are extremely loveable. I am finding myself rooting for Burgess, an aging hockey player and single father, to find love with his daughter’s live-in nanny. Really cute story and funny!

Waiting for the Moon by Kristin Hannah (p. 194 of 374). As you can see, I didn’t make a lot of progress in this paperback this week — only reading 80 pages this week. I think the cause was that I knew I had already missed my self-imposed deadline for completing this work (end of February) and I wanted to make sure everything else got on track. I’m not overly concerned. I’m reading another work of children’s literature this week for my March goal and Spring Break is coming up. The flight and layovers should allow me plenty of time to get this book read and out of my TBR pile.

2025 Reading Challenge audio Children’s literature The 52 Book Club

Leave a comment »
Mar 3

Good Books and the Open Road (March 2, 2025)

by kennithfreeman

The open road is a great place to get some reading done — by audiobook, that is. This week, I traveled to Wichita and was accompanied by one of the novels that I needed to complete to reach my February goal for The 52 Book Club 2025 Reading Challenge.

My goal was to finish a paperback as well while in the recruiting booth and in my hotel. Sadly, that didn’t happen. Well…not really sadly. I was too busy in the booth talking to high school students to get much reading done. By the time I got back to the hotel each night, I collapsed in the bed.

Even though I didn’t reach the goal of completing four books this week, I’m very pleased with where I am at the moment.

What I Finished This Week

Diamonds Aren’t Forever by Connie Shelton. I read this book to fulfill prompt #5 of the challenge – plot includes a heist. In the first half of the book, I struggled to get into the story. A priceless necklace was stolen from a museum, recovered by a hired private investigator, and returned to its rightful owner. Only problem? The returned necklace was a forgery and the true piece of jewelry is about to hit the black market. That is until the victim begins to tell three other women about her experience. This unlikeliest of quartets work together to track the jewels, find the thief, and steal the necklace back. As the plot brought all of the involved characters together and the chase intensified, so did my reading pace. Still, the ending could not redeem the slowness of the book’s beginning. 2.75 stars.

Book Lovers by Emily Henry. This was such a fun audio read! A literary agent teams up with a cranky book editor to push through the latest novel written by the agent’s most challenging client. As the unlikely pair begin to work on the novel, they discover that they have many things in common. Sparks ignite and the fun begins. Even though the enemies-to-lovers trope is overdone, I still found this book funny and quite enjoyable. 4 stars.

Fangirl Down by Tessa Bailey. This book fulfilled prompt #34 of the challenge – direction in the title. I had intended to read the paperback, but I am so glad that I opted for the audiobook. Josephine has been the #1 fan of professional golfer Wells Whitaker through all the ups and downs of his career. When Wells quits in the middle of a tournament and insults Josephine in the process, the golfer manages to lose his last remaining fan. No one could be more surprised than Josephine when Wells asks her to serve as his caddie as he attempts to return to the tour. Filled with lots of sarcasm, insults, and witty repartee, this book was a perfect fit for me. One of my favorite Rom-coms that I have read in a very long time. 5 stars.

What I’m Currently Reading

Waiting for the Moon by Kristin Hannah (p. 114 of 374). I have grown to love Kristin Hannah’s books almost as much as those of Jodi Picoult. When I needed a book with a moon on the cover for the reading challenge, I decided this was the perfect time to slip back and read one of the author’s earlier works. Published 30 years ago in 1995, this work is proving to be very different from Hannah’s current output. Don’t get me wrong, I am enjoying the book very much. It just has a different flair that I wasn’t expecting.

The Au Pair Affair by Tessa Bailey (00:36 of 12:33). I learned this week that Fangirl Down was the first book in the Big Shots series. I added this audiobook to my library figuring that I would read it later. As I was driving back to Plainview yesterday, I found myself with many miles to go after finishing my latest read….so I just dove in. I’m not very far into the plot at all, but already know a little bit about the main characters since they were first introduced to the reader in the previous book in the series.

February in Review

What kind of blogger would I be if I didn’t include at least a few stats at the end of the month to keep myself accountable and to see my progress.

  • Books read in February: 7
    • 3 audiobooks
    • 3 ebooks
    • 1 physical book
      • 6 fiction
      • 1 non-fiction
  • Pages read in February: 2,061
  • Highest Rated: Reminders of Him by Colleen Hoover
  • Lowest Rated: Diamonds Aren’t Forever by Connie Shelton

2025 Reading Challenge audio ebook romance The 52 Book Club

Leave a comment »
Blog at WordPress.com.