Faves on Friday: Carpool Book Club

Happy Friday friends! Today I’m linking up with Andrea, Erika, and Narci to share my Friday Favorites as always. Also linking up with Narci’s Carpool Book Club to share my July book reviews 🙂

 

On Monday I linked up for Show & Tell: What’s on Your Phone and listed Project Life as one of my favorite apps. I always include my weekly layout, here is Week 29.

 

Last month I decided to sign Hank & Hal up for a subscription box on a whim. The Mini Monthly Dog Box of Awesome is only $9.99 so I thought why not try it!? I was pleased with our first box and decided to keep the subscription for now. We received bully sticks, an ice cream cone treat, and a toy! I loved the ice cream treat because it was SO cute. Hank went crazy over the bully stick and Hal LOVES the toy (he is more of a squeaky dog toy type but this one that you just put empty water bottles in has made him happy).

 

Now for my Carpool Book Club, July reviews! You may remember that I was selected for Melanie Shankle‘s Church of the Small Things launch team. That news had me SO excited this month plus my advanced reader’s copy arrived early in the month, BUT I just had to wrap up all the books I had checked out from my library first. I don’t like to bounce around or continue to extend my library due dates in case someone else might be waiting for the book. So as much as I wanted to skip straight to my new book I held off, plus I received 2 books for my birthday! I’m all set and ready for August 😉

 

I kept this one by my night stand and read a little bit each night. My husband and I listen to NPR during our commute each day and my favorite segment is on Wednesdays, Ask Cokie. Since listening I decided to add her books to my want to read list, this is the first one I grabbed at the library. I loved this book! While it is older I think it is still every bit of relate-able! I learned a lot about Cokie personally and women in general, mostly in politics. It was a feel good read that left me feeling empowered!

 

Whew, this was a big read. I read my first Beatriz Williams book in December and really enjoyed it so I decided to try another. I love how her books bounce between chapters where one is present and the next is past, so you slowly build the story and piece it all together. This one focuses on two women who have very similar life experiences, one in the 1930’s and the other in the 1960’s (I also love that Williams’ book are set back in time).

 

Annabelle is an older woman who takes Penny under her wing to help her out knowing exactly what Penny is going through as she has been there too. Penny, the young lady she is doesn’t think she needs help but is intrigued anyway. Their life and love stories are so perfectly intertwined and the last few pages of the book took a turn I wasn’t expecting at all!

 

I was able to tear through this one pretty quick! Such a good story and a really great read. Emma marries her high school sweetheart Jesse, but on their one year anniversary the helicopter he is in goes missing. While Emma tries to put her life back together and move on from her loss she falls in love with an old friend, Sam, and gets engaged only for Jesse to be found. Now with a husband and a fiance Emma has to decide who her one true love really is. This was a heart wrenching story and I didn’t even want to think about what I would do in the situation, I really loved how the author made it work though and I felt so good about the ending!