Reading Roundup 📘 [Personal + Homeschool Books]

Hey fellow book-loving friends!

I know, I know. This post is embarrassingly overdue. Between moving across the state of Florida and our epic trips back up to the Pacific Northwest (including spending ample time with my sister and 1-year-old niece while my husband and son went fishing in Alaska!), and spending time in Georgia, summer flew by in a blur of boxes, cross-country trips, and absolutely zero routine.

But now that we're finally settling into those cozy autumn rhythms that make our hearts happy (even if the Florida weather hasn't gotten the memo about "fall" yet!), I'm feeling that familiar pull to reconnect over books.

You know how it is, I only post these when inspiration strikes rather than forcing it, because honestly, homeschooling (and parenting in general) and Simple Studies keeps me busy enough without adding pressure to my reading life.

But there's something about this time of year that makes me want to curl up with a good book and share what I've been reading with people who actually get excited about book recommendations.

So here's what's been filling my reading time:

books I read over the summer:

The Messy Lives of Book People ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Pearl by John Steinbeck ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Midnight Bookshop (Read for free on Kindle Unlimited) ⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Dance of Lies (Pleased to find out this Illumicrate featured book’s author is Christian) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Broken Country (Listened to the Audible version) ⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires (content warnings) ⭐️⭐️⭐️

A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession and Shipwreck ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Convenience Store Woman ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Breath of a Dragon ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Unwind (YA sci-fi) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Violent Bear It Away (Recommended by The Literary Life Podcast) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Ice Queen ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Blues in Stereo: The Early Works of Langston Hughes ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Anne of Green Gables ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Lantern of Lost Memories ⭐️⭐️⭐️

And just for fun, I’ve been enjoying Carnivore in the Kitchen and The New Essentials Cookbook.

books I'm reading right now:

📙 The Iliad (with my daughter)

📙 The Hobbit (Our current morning circle read aloud) 

📙 The Hidden Peace: Finding True Security, Strength and Confidence Through Humility

📙 Lady Tan’s Circle of Women (I’m attending my first local, in-person book club this weekend as we read this book and can’t wait to discuss this historical fiction book. It’s SO good!)

📙 The Scarlet Letter

📙 Robert Frost: Selected Poems

📙 Strong: Devotions to Live a Powerful and Passionate Life 

📙 The Inheritance Games (YA read that’s sat on my TBR for years)

📙 When We Were Animals (Coming of age story - content warnings)

📙 The Raven Scholar (Chunky book I received as a gift and so really enjoying it!)

📙 Story of the Romans (Ancient history pre-read for my daughter)

📙 The Story of the Thirteen Colonies by H.A. Guerber (American history with my daughter)

📙 Our Island Story (Our European/world history spine this term)

📙 Grimms Fairy Tales (sporadic read-alouds when we have some down time)

📙 Marvels of the Occident (Second-time read this time with our youngest)

📙 Marie Curie and the Discovery of Radium (science biography with daughter)

I’d also like to thank Julie Rothman for sending us her brand new Insect Anatomy book and Nature Anatomy Posters (which you can pre-order today)! We LOVE LOVE LOVE her Nature Anatomy series and our daughter loves to keep them all handy for her nature journaling expeditions.

What Will We Read Next?

I'm very much a mood reader, so who knows what I'll pick up next. That's half the fun, right? But I’ll be sure to update you later this fall.

Regarding our homeschool reads, we’re only halfway through Term 1 so I’ll be planning Term 2 books soon and hopefully sharing that with you as well.

I hope you're all finding your groove with the new school year and carving out some time for the books that are calling to you!

You can still grab my FREE 2025 Reading Challenge here!

☀️ Summer Reading Challenge, Book Ratings + US Travels

Our summer travels have officially begun! We visited Universal Studies Florida and the new Epic Universe last week and as I type this, I'm sitting north of Atlanta, Georgia, watching our daughter kayak the Chattahoochee River. 🚣🏼‍♀️ She's having the time of her life out there, and honestly? I'm a little jealous! Though I can't complain because I managed to sneak in a gorgeous hike earlier today.

I attended Mississippi State University and have traveled plenty throughout the South over the years, but somehow I'd forgotten just how much Georgia reminds me of Oregon. The rolling hills and the lush foliage. It's striking how similar they feel despite being thousands of miles apart. (However, it’s definitely warmer and muggier here!) 😅

But you’re not here to talk travels. You’re here for the BOOKS!

Here are the books I've been reading lately, plus some new finds from visiting local bookshops around Atlanta.

 
 

Over the past couple of months, I've been devouring books at a pace that even surprises me.

There's something about summer that makes me want to read everything I can get my hands on. But I’ve also noticed that I tend to jump into a lot of YA reads I can devour within a sitting or two.

Today I'm excited to share (in no particular order & with ratings when applicable):

The Eye of the World ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Violent Bear It Away (Catching up on my classics!) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Out of the Silent Planet (CS Lewis space trilogy pre-read for our son’s summer scholé class) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Screwtape Letters (another read with my son for summer studies) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Sunrise on the Reaping (Flew through this and am now excited to read the entire series!) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

My Next Breath (biography of the month) 

Hillbilly Elegy (last month’s biography) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Wind in the Willows (finished this RA with my daughter last week) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Uwind and Dry (YA Reads since I enjoyed Scythe) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Faith That Sticks: 5 Real-Life Ways to Disciple Your Preteen

Breath of a Dragon (Bruce Lee’s daughter writes epic MMA fight scenes - yes THAT Bruce Lee!) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Night Circus (Audiobook narrated by Jim Dale! For those of you who’ve listened to Harry Potter with your kids… IYKYK) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Heartwood (Audiobook) ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Apartment Women & Convenience Store Woman (I’m a sucker for short translations!) ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Radical: Taking Back your Faith from the American Dream ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Invisible Hour ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Gifted School ⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Sirens ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Flirting with Disaster: True Travel Tales of Fear, Failure, and Faith ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Metal Slinger ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Belladonna ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Better Decisions, Fewer Regrets ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Bear ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Beartown 

The Georgia Aquarium was INCREDIBLE! Thanks to those of you who recommended we visit!

 

We spent four days at Epic Universe, Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure… my head is still spinning from all the rides! (The Harry Potter worlds were my favorite parts!)

 
 

Thank you for journeying through books and the US with us… it’s a pleasure not only to read alongside many of you but to also hear what YOU’RE loving too!

☕️ Skill-Based Learning, Book-ish Updates, Fall Lessons and More…

Despite our family going through some major shifts, I still read as regularly as possible. In fact, reading helps me self-regulate! (You too?)

First, I’m sharing some books I’ve read (or am reading) this fall below, and I started a couple new book journals I’m excited to share more about in a later update.

Secondly, our Winter LIVE Classes are now enrolling. They’re about 1/3 full so while there’s still room if you’ve been on the fence, I wouldn’t wait too long!

Thirdly, I just completed another NEW, FANTASTIC Simple Studies Character Guide (woo hoo!) It releases November 12 - so be sure to check your email that day!

Love books? Me too! So glad you’re here!

Skill-Based Learning:

If you’re feeling tired and unmotivated – just know you’re not alone.

We ALL hit these slumps!

Sometimes lessons aren’t as fun as we think it’s going to be. I think that’s the case for so many of us who maybe enjoy our read alouds and then get everything in order, sit down and open up our daily lessons with our kids.

Just this week, our daughter was in tears (again) over math. I’m not doing anything crazy – in fact, we go slowly through each lesson and I’m privy to her individual needs – however, math just ain’t her thing (nor is it mine, no matter how “Charlotte Mason-ish” or “Montessori-ish” or hands-on I try to be).

I’m not ashamed to share this because I KNOW I’m not alone.

So instead of trying to crush math lessons every day, we take it a little bit at a time and instead, allow her to spend more time focusing on what she loves.

We don’t skip math but I can at least give her plenty of free time to explore the topics and activities she does enjoy to help set her up in life to use skills she’s naturally gifted with.

Encourage your kids to spend 80% of their time nurturing their natural strengths and passions. Dedicate the remaining 20% to building foundational skills in essential subjects—those areas that may not come as naturally but are valuable for life.

And when in doubt – read aloud! (Check out our favorite read aloud guides from past autumn months):

Let’s dive into the books!

Here’s a list of all the books I’ve been reading lately (they are not all clean - so please advise –it wouldn’t be fall without a bit of spooky mysteries and vampires!)

The Art of Living: The Classical Mannual on Virtue, Happiness, and Effectiveness (I’m taking diligent notes as I slowly chew on this book)

Odd and the Frost Giants (audiobook with the kids by one of my all-time favorite authors)

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Read aloud with my teen)

River Sing Me Home

The Serpent and the Wings of the Night (Duology, caution advised)

Meditations

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Audiobook with the kids – we have like 15 hours remaining and waiting for a roadtrip to knock it out!)

Our Narrow Hiding Places: A Novel (Audiobook)

The Secret History (Just starting this one - it begs to be read during the autumn season and comes highly recommended)


Just finished:

Woman in the Polar Night (One of my favorite books of the year. Talk about resilience! Last year I read Letters of a Woman Homesteader – I just love this non-fiction genre)

Weyward (They had me at the cover)

Blackbeard Audiobook (Short story based on a true story from 1920s - production was wonderful!)

Gray After Dark (based on a true story here in Idaho)

Into the Drowning Deep (Loved the creepy, marine biology/scientific approach to mermaid murder mysteries! Major caution advised with this one and I skip the parts that).

Annihilation: A Novel (My husband reminded me I’ve apparently seen this movie before but I can’t for the life of me remember how it was - he tells me it wasn’t that great).

Madwoman (a BOTM Club pick: Motherhood-focused mystery/fiction/thriller - kind of dark at times)

God of the Woods (Not bad! Not the best 500pg book out there but I love me some wilderness mysteries!)

Heartless Hunter (First in the Crimson Moth series - Better than I thought it would be but contains witchy stuff if you’re not comfortable with this)

More Days at the Morisaki Bookshop (2nd book in the series)

Burn (I love Peter Heller books since they’re super outdoorsy (too much unnecessary cursing IMO) but this one was a disappointment IMO)

On my TBR before Fall ends
(I can’t honestly recommend any of these yet so please advise!):

Why Literature Still Matters by Jason Baxter (available Dec. 1)
The Will of The Many (Over 4.5 stars on Goodreads I simply need to stop procrastinating and dive in! I see this being recommended everywhere!)
The Wild Huntress (a BOTM Club pick)
Here One Moment (a BOTM Club pick)
HEIR (Spontaneous impulse purchase)
A House with Good Bones (I’ve enjoyed T. Kingfisher short novels when it’s dark outside)
What you are Looking for is in the Library (Because I love books about books and libraries)
The Story Collector, The Ten Thousand Doors of January, Man’s Search for Meaning, Red Rising (All have been sitting on my shelf while I continue to collect and read other books).

I hope you enjoyed this week’s update! I’m not super consistent when things are busy for us but I’m so glad you’re here 🥰