I took a long road trip this month which resulted in my busting through a few audiobooks. Surprisingly, I really enjoyed every single book I read this month!

Book #1 – Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by Simon Sinek

Out of the four books I finished this month, this one was my least favorite. It’s also the only one that was professional development focused versus entertainment so that makes perfect sense.

I did not write a review for this book and it’s been a while since I’ve read it so unfortunately, my window for writing a review is closed. I’d have to re-read it and based on the first sentence of this section, I didn’t LOVE it so that’s a no from me.

Book #2 – One of the Boys: A Novel by Daniel Magariel

I think the audiobook is really the way to go on this one and I’ve added it to my “Best Audiobooks” list. The reading is excellent, the characters are relatable and it flows very nicely.

This is a short read (or listen) but it is jam-packed with emotion. For those with a weak stomach or who are challenged with emotionally processing scenes of abuse, this book may not be for you.

In this story, two young boys (teenagers) are in the middle of an ugly divorce and custody battle which ultimately ends in the father taking the boys from their home in Kansas (and ultimately their mother) to go live in New Mexico. The father is extremely manipulative and brainwashes the boys into believing their mother is a monster and they’ll be starting a better life together.

Once they’re settled into their new home, things start to change quickly. Their father starts withdrawing and locking himself in his room for days or weeks at a time and stops taking care of them. They go to school, join sports teams, try to make friends, but realize they have to start fending for themselves and find work so that they can eat which makes them not like the other kids.

They find out later that their father has started doing hard drugs and is so high he can’t function most of the time. When he is lucid, he abuses the boys with a series of praise and defamation. He is a roller coaster of emotion that has the boys walking on eggshells. Strangers start coming in and out of the apartment, the father seems to have stopped earning money, and everything is going downhill fast.

The boys are abused mentally, physically, and emotionally for as long as they can endure before they decide being “one of the boys” isn’t as important as their future and decide to call their mother to come to save them.

During this whole time in New Mexico, the boys band together to take care of one another. Their relationship is challenged when their dad tries to turn them against one another through a web of lies and deceit, but they always end up banding together in the end. Their love for one another is one of the strongest feelings you get while listening to the story. It’s undeniable.

Unfortunately, getting their mother involved was just another rollercoaster of hope and disappointment for their future, which is often what children deal with when being abused by parents. They are shown a little bit of love, which gives them an unrealistic measure of hope and then it’s all taken away in one way or another. It’s a repeating pattern that children can’t pull themselves out of.

The emotions conveyed in the story are so real, so authentic, you can’t help but feel like you’re one of the boys going through one letdown after another with them. Each letdown breaks you down a little more.

As someone who grew up a victim of psychological and physical violence, and had a sibling to take care of, this story was something I could entirely relate to on a profound level. The story felt so authentic, that it could only be one of someone who had endured this type of trauma. It’s a story that never gets better. There’s no happy ending. It’s just raw, and real.

Excellent writing, excellent reading of the audiobook, and overall excellent recognition of the challenges children face when in abusive situations and the adults they’re supposed to turn to for help are unable to provide that to them.

Book #3 – All Your Perfects by Colleen Hoover

This book has a wide range of reviews, but I’m going to have to lean all in on the 5-star review.

I want to preface this by saying I didn’t realize this was part of a series and I did not read the other books in the series. I also listened to the audiobook vs read the actual book, which may have entirely changed the experience.

None-the-less…

All Your Perfects was a story of a couple that met under very unusual circumstances, fell in love, married, and was facing divorce after years of infertility and trying to have a child.

I found that the book moved at a good pace going back and forth between the past and present and allowed us to really get to know Graham and Quinn, the main characters.

Throughout the story, I found a lot of the decisions Quinn made to be irrational and irritating, although she, herself, would agree with me. She is so drowning her in her own self-loathing and pushing her husband away in the process.

When faced with challenges that seem too big to overcome, many people in real life do this too. They retreat to themselves and their own negative thoughts and eventually become almost unbearable to be around. Friends and family eventually give up on trying to pull those people out of their funks over time allowing the self-loather to get what they asked for (despite it not being what they really want).

I thought the book could have done without the part where Graham cheats and kisses another woman. I get how that could “break” Quinn and finally put them in a make-or-break position in their relationship, but I just didn’t like it. I don’t think it matched Graham’s character throughout the story and a kiss is all that happened, which makes it seem more juvenile than realistic. Hoover needed to either draw that scene out a little longer to develop a relationship between him and the other woman or omit it altogether. I didn’t like it one bit.

I would say All Your Perfects is a love story, but not a love story between two individuals, it’s a story about learning to love yourself and allowing others to love you too no matter what life throws at you. Quinn had to learn how to get past her biggest life hurdle and learn to love the life she has and all that it provided her. It’s not easy and it’s not something you can just wake up one day and do. Greif is a process and until your mind decides it can overcome, it’s a constant battle.

I loved that the story reminds us that we only have a finite amount of time on this earth and each day we spend coiled up in our misfortunes is a day we’ll never get back. Things will happen, we will have bad days, weeks, and maybe even years, but getting back on your feet to enjoy what you have left is so important.

Book #4 – Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

Note: I listened to the audiobook versus read it myself and I think that was 100% the best choice. I wouldn’t have gotten the accents/dialects right in my mind and I wouldn’t have related so well to the characters.

Where the Crawdads Sing is a truly emotional thriller. I loved every piece of the book!

It’s a 1950s- 1960s story of a young girl who, against all odds, grows up to be a successful, independent, educated, and respected woman of her time.

Kya, the main character is kind, and so easy to relate to as we start the book off with her as a young girl. As she gets older, it’s easy to understand her decisions and to feel her emotions she is faced with rejection, ridicule, and people trying to take advantage of her.

The way Delia Owens writes about the marsh, the swaying of the trees, the feeling of the sand, the sounds of the birds, the wind, and the sea, are all so vivid you can’t help but feel transported to the Marsh with every detail. Reading this book is almost like a silent meditation that transports you right into the scene.

Due to Kya being a Marsh girl, lacking resources and education, she is faced with multiple scenarios where people try to take advantage of her and abuse her all while she is dealing with being completely abandoned by her own family and struggling to understand that situation. Since she is so young at the beginning of the story and doesn’t have anyone around to teach her about feelings or emotions, she is forced to figure everything out on her own and determine her own way based on the little interaction she had with her mother and siblings before they all left her.

Kya’s story is the definition of not only surviving but thriving against all odds. You can’t help but feel for her, and cheer her on while you read through the story.

My take on the main themes of the book are Women’s Empowerment, Social Justice, Human Connection/Relationships, and the Healing Power of Nature.

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*You can check out my Book Reviews page or my goodreads page to see what else I’ve been reading this year if you missed any of my previous posts*