September 2017 Book List

I am currently a teacher with no classroom. I am only working until the baby comes, so my principal has me in more of a coaching position for the new teachers in my department. It was sad at first- especially when all of the sweet, new 6th graders came in for Back to School night. BUT it turns out not having to deal with grading or discipline is quite ideal at 9 months pregnant! I get home after work and the evenings are all mine for nesting, resting, and reading.

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The Cafe by the Sea by Jenny Colgan

Sometimes you just need some good chick-lit to cozy up with on the couch. That's Cafe by the Sea. I read and enjoyed The Bookshop on the Corner by the same author, so I knew that putting this novel on my to-read list promised a little get-away and a little romance, because who wouldn't want to get lost in a book set by the sea in Scotland about a woman who rediscovers her love of cooking and baking?

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Boy by Roald Dahl

This sweet childhood memoir was practically thrust into my hands by a fellow book lover. I started it thinking it might be useful as nonfiction for my students, but ended up falling in love with Dahl all over again, as the same voice who narrated so many a childhood brought to life his very own through words and stories that took me to another time and place. I often laughed out loud, reading passages aloud to Matt that were too good not to share. And I especially loved coming across the story of "The Great Mouse Plot," which before now I only knew from You've Got Mail (although it is so clearly Dahl, I had always assumed it was an excerpt from one of his children's books!).

"His theory was that if the eye of a pregnant woman was constantly observing the beauty of nature, this beauty would somehow become transmitted to the mind of the unborn baby within her womb and that baby would grow up to be a lover of beautiful things." -Ronald Dahl | 39 weeks on Monday :)

A post shared by Casey Jo Robertson (@caseyandmatt) on Sep 30, 2017 at 7:00am PDT

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Are You Sleeping by Kathleen Barber

I guess I was expecting this book to be a suspenseful thriller. I was drawn in by the idea of a book looking at the lives of the people on the other side of these phenomenons like Making a Murderer and Serial. But unlike those viral sensations, this book absolutely lacked a compelling question and interesting characters. I never really cared if the police had caught the right murderer. I didn't find the fictitious podcast at all captivating. And the characters were all too stereotypically typecast. There was no suspense and, if anything, the story was painfully slow. I kept reading, hoping something would hook me, and only finished the book because of the investment I'd already made in the story. Too bad!

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Now to figure out what book(s) I'll take with me to the hospital!