Book Buys – August 2017

The Lehigh Valley area has a plethora of library book sales and we took advantage of quite a few this summer. I’m pretty sure we purchased 25-30 books in July and August : ) Here are some of my favorites:

Emily of New Moon by L.M. Montgomery – Modern Mrs Darcy (one of my favorite bloggers) often mentions this title as the book that captivated her as a child. She describes it as slightly darker but even better than Anne of Green Gables. 

Briar Rose by Jane Yolen – A retelling of the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale set in Germany during WWII. It doesn’t get much more appealing for me than that.

Shopaholic Takes Manhatten by Sophie Kinsella – This series is pure guilty pleasure, summer beach read fun. Kinsella is a master in the chick lit genre, so I’m trying to collect all my favorites.

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd – I read this while in high school and remember being touched by the story. I’m eager to reread and see what I think now. It’s set in the South in 1964 and deals with racism and the power of female friendships.

Cleaving by Julie Powell – Julie and Julia, Powell’s first memoir is an all time favorite of mine. In Cleaving, she swaps Julia Child’s recipes for butchering. I can’t say it’s a topic I’m dying to read about, but I’m hoping her writing style will delight me once again.

Shanghai Girls by Lisa See – This book has popped up on various Goodreads lists and bookish articles, so I decided to give it a shot. In 1937, two wealthy sisters are sold as wives to two American men and embark on a journey across China to Los Angeles. They try to adjust to their unexpected lives and fight against discrimination and Communist witch hunts in their new city.

By the Book by Pamela Paul of The New York Times – Apparently the New York Times has a Sunday tradition of bookish interviews with authors. A sampling are collected in this work. I’m hoping to find lots of recommendations!

Have you read any of these? If so, what’d you think?

*I earn a small commission for any books purchased using the links throughout this post. Thank you for supporting my reading habit : )