Welcome to Quick Lit: June 2025 Edition ( missed sharing last month), where I share books I chose for my own reading enjoyment in a mini-review format. These are not books I received for review, but books I’ve wanted to read or that have caught my attention. Most of them have been talked about ad nauseam or have been on my to-read list for a long time, so they don’t really need a full review. But I’d still like to give them some space here on the blog, so instead, I’m offering mini-reviews of the books that won’t get full-page space here.
I’ll be sharing with Modern Mrs. Darcy and her monthly Quick Lit post. Be sure to head over to see others share their Quick Lit posts in her comments.
This post contains affiliate links. Click here to read more about that.
Did you know I also regularly review children’s books? Check them out HERE. I’m also sharing my Summer Read-to-Learn series again. The posts are full of great children’s books to keep kids reading and learning all summer long.
I’m currently reading THE SIDE PROJECT and THE MARTHA’S VINEYARD BEACH AND BOOK CLUB for review, HORSE for book club, and I’m listening to ATMOSPHERE.
I recently reviewed THE WORLD’S FAIR QUILT, MY FRIENDS (easily a top book of the year for me), CREATURE NEEDS, YOU DIDN’T HEAR THIS FROM ME, and THE #PACE for publishers.
Follow me on Goodreads, HERE.
I recently finished a few shows: Survivor (I was so thrilled for Kyle, but I really hoped Joe would win). What do you think about the Survivor 50 cast? I think it’s weird that they are doing all this press for Survivor 50 when Survivor 49 hasn’t even happened yet. I loved this year’s American Idol (Breanna was my fave, but I loved Jamal, too). There was so much talent that I would have been happy with any of the Top 5 as winners. I also finished The Great American Baking Show on Roku. I loved Kim the whole season and am thrilled she won! With Reagan home for the summer, we plan to watch a few older rom-coms together. Do you have any that we shouldn’t miss?
This month’s list includes two memoirs, a notable book from 2024, and a couple of fiction books that I listened to on audio.
THE MANY LIVES OF MAMA LOVE
By: Lara Love Hardin
Narrated by: Lara Love Hardin
Published: February 27, 2024
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Memoir
Format: Audiobook through Libby
Suburban mom, Lara Love, has a master’s degree and takes part in the carpool. But what her neighbors don’t know is that she has a serious drug problem and is stealing their mail and their credit card numbers to support her and her husband’s habit.
My niece read this one and immediately told me I needed to read it. Surprisingly, I didn’t have to wait too long for the audiobook hold to come in on my Libby app. Lara narrates her own story, which makes it even more impactful. I have to admit, I had no idea who Lara Love was and had to Google her after I started listening. But she grabbed my attention in her first sentence, “Reading was my first addiction.”
Lara details the despicable things she did to maintain her drug habit. She struggles with the desire to be the best mom to her kids while also putting them in danger to get her next hit. Eventually, she and her husband are arrested, in front of all their neighbors, and lose custody of their kids. Lara is held on numerous charges and spends time in prison. Even with her status, her connections, and white skin, she still had to serve her time. The justice system is messed up, and it makes it nearly impossible for someone to get out of the cycle of drug use, which is why there is such a high recidivism rate.
“There are a million different ways for people to steal, but not all stealing is considered a crime. Nobody was going to get prosecuted for stealing from me. I shake this thought away. Who am I to judge?”
When her neighbors reported their losses due to her stealing, she was shocked by how much they claimed…thousands more than she had ever stolen. They took advantage of the situation, and Lara couldn’t do anything but take it. Yet, her white skin also likely allowed her different treatment, especially on the outside. Having a degree allowed her to come in contact with someone who believed in her abilities and put his trust in her to give her a job, which eventually allowed her to become a well-known ghostwriter, even meeting Oprah.
She leans toward me and whispers, “That’s power, Lara. That is real power.” (Oprah)… I think maybe real power isn’t always quiet. Maybe real power is saying things out loud and owning your own story like you own a company, or a network, or a magazine. Real power is putting your name on things. Real power is about using your power to shine a light on other people so they can find their own power.”
Lara’s story is important in that it reminds us to give people a second or third chance. That sometimes, all someone needs is the belief that they can do something and the encouragement to try. Since I used to work in the social work field, I could relate to many of her frustrations with the system and understand why she kept going back to her drug-addicted husband. But, I love that she fought hard, found her why, stayed focused, and made it out the other side.
“And that’s why I love true stories. Because real life is so much more fantastical than any scenario I could ever script in my head.”
THE GOD OF THE WOODS
By: Liz Moore
Published: July 2, 2024
Publisher: Riverhead Books
Mystery
Format: Hardcover
I chose this as our book club read last month. Even though this was one of the biggest books of 2024, I still wasn’t sure I wanted to read it. Since I got a free copy because it was the Book of the Month’s Best Book of the Year (members get that book free), I decided it was time to read it and knew it would make for a good discussion, which it did.
The basic setup is that in 1961, Bear Van Laar, age 8, goes missing in the Adirondack woods behind his home, never to be found again. Now, in 1975, his sister Barbara, a teenager, is allowed to attend the summer camp on the Van Laar family property, and she goes missing. Told through multiple perspectives and flashing back to Bear’s disappearance, we learn more about the Van laar family and their many secrets.
“Kissing someone—someone you want to kiss, I mean—is like living inside the best song you ever heard.”
My recommendation is that you create a list of characters at the beginning. Use a Post-it note or the notes app on your phone. There are more characters than in a typical book, including several side characters that come back into the story, and for me at least, they were hard to keep track of. The numerous characters and the underwhelming ending were two of the reasons that I didn’t give this 5 stars. Overall, this was a page-turner with lots of people and situations to consider. I did not guess the ending, but after a nearly 400-page build-up, I did find myself disappointed with how the story wrapped up. I guess I would recommend going into the story with fewer expectations. The other negative for me was that I really didn’t like most of the characters. Judyta, Vic, and Bear (of course) were the only ones who had redeeming qualities, in my opinion. The Van Laars and their wealthy friends were quite despicable to read about.
“Rich people, thought Judy—she thought this then, and she thinks it now—generally become most enraged when they sense they’re about to be held accountable for their wrongs.”
Moore’s description of the Adirondack woods and the camp buildings, as well as the Van Laar home, makes this a perfect setting for a summer read. If you went to camp as a kid, like to read a mystery with multiple points of view and suspects, or are one of the few people left who haven’t read this book, pick it up for your summer reading and read it with someone you can talk about it with.
ONE-IN-A-MILLION BOY
By: Monica Wood
Narrated by: Chris Ciulla
Published: April 5, 2016
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Fiction
Format: Audiobook through Libby
I was looking for an audiobook to fill the gap since my holds weren’t coming in, and this was available to borrow immediately. I had purchased the eBook several years ago, but this allowed me to listen to and read it at the same time. Chris’s narration made me want to listen rather than read, so I mostly listened. His various voices for each character were spot on.
Ona Vitkus is 104 years old, still lives alone in her home, and drives occasionally even though her license has expired. She is assigned a Boy Scout to come into her home and help her with tasks like filling her bird feeders. Instead, the boy and Ona form a friendship and share personal stories while he interviews her for a class project. Their visits every Saturday become a welcome joy to Ona’s week until one day the boy doesn’t show up. She assumed he was like all the other kids, but she really believed he was different. In their conversations, he decided that Ona was going to try to become the world’s oldest licensed driver in the Guinness World Records. He made it his mission to help Ona achieve this goal until he was suddenly gone.
“For a lot of people, war isn’t a topic, it’s a stone on their heart.”
The boy’s dad, Quinn, shows up at Ona’s home one day to finish what his son started. It was meant to be just 7 weeks, but Quinn began to learn more about his son, whom he didn’t have a close relationship with, and about Ona, and a new relationship began to form. Will Ona be able to complete the boy’s goal of being in the record books?
“He had not loved his son enough. This knowledge lived like a malignancy on his heart. He wanted to believe that the boy, in a future now lost and impossible, would’ve forgiven him, would’ve taken their blundering history and found its logic and shaped it into items on a list. And that this, eating cake with Miss Ona Vitkus, would be one of those items.”
This was a delightful story that gave me all the warm, fuzzy feels while reading it. I especially loved the ending. The boy appears to be on the autism spectrum as he is fascinated with lists, facts, and world records. Because he wasn’t into music and obsessed with lists, Quinn, a musician, wasn’t able to connect with him and frankly, didn’t seem to try very hard. His marriage had fallen apart, and he was on a path of loneliness until he met Ona.
This was a truly heart-warming story and was the right read at the right time for me. There is a nice combination of sadness and hope, lightheartedness and seriousness. I enjoyed learning about world records and imagining Ona, at 104, studying to take the driver’s test again.
YOU NEVER KNOW: A Memoir
By: Tom Selleck
Narrated by: Tom Selleck
Published: May 7, 2024
Publisher: Dey Street Books
Memoir
Format: Audiobook through Libby
I think I have loved Tom Selleck since I was a kid. One of the people I have always looked up to since I was little is my brother-in-law, Ken. I have to say, he and Tom look a bit alike. I grew up watching Magnum P.I. on Thursday nights. I remember watching Thomas Magnum get the bad guys every episode while also imagining being in Hawaii (I’ve still never been there).
To appreciate this memoir, you not only have to be a fan of Selleck, but you also have to have been pretty familiar with the show Magnum P.I. Even though he begins with his high school and college years prior to acting, a large portion of the book is devoted to his time as Magnum.
He refused to share deeply personal stories about his marriage or to debate or address the numerous tabloid stories about his divorce, only saying, “Just please know that my journey with Jackie was and remains treasured.” Instead, he chose to share about his career and his emotional journey over his years of acting as Thomas Magnum and other characters in various roles as well as the many close friendships he formed due to his acting career including Carol Burnett, Frank Sinatra, and the family that was created by the team at Magnum P.I. throughout its 8 seasons.
One of the funny stories Selleck shares was about the final episode of Magnum P.I. For their final episode of Magnum P.I., he admits to writing an anonymous note to the tabloids saying that the character Magnum dies in the final scene. Of course, Magnum doesn’t die in the end, but the tabloids published it, and due to all the hype, the final episode was viewed by millions.
Overall, I appreciated Selleck’s stories, how he struggled to find acting jobs, and how Magnum landed in his lap. I also respected that he didn’t throw anyone under the bus and kept his personal life personal, sharing only surface-level details about his marriages, his children, and his family. I wish he had talked about his time on Friends as Richard, Monica’s boyfriend, but maybe there will be a part 2, and he will have more to share from later on in his career. I certainly enjoyed the listening experience, as having Tom Selleck in your ear isn’t all that bad. Since I listened to the audiobook, I have no idea if there were pictures included in the print version. I plan to check that out next time I’m in a bookstore.
LAST SUMMER ON STATE STREET
By: Toya Wolfe
Narrated by: Shayna Small
Published: June 14, 2022
Publisher: William Morrow
Fiction
Format: Audiobook through Libby
I had never heard of this book until I heard Anne Bogel mention it in one of her Podcast episodes. Since it is a shorter novel, I figured I wasn’t out much and gave the audio a try. This is not a happy story. There are a lot of horrible things happening in this story, and I have to wonder if some of it isn’t from the author’s own life since she grew up in the Chicago Projects.
Felicia “Fe Fe”‘s last summer on State Street was the summer of 1999. She lives there with her strict yet loving mom and her older brother, who seems to have crossed over the dark side and joined a gang. Fe Fe spends her summer days with her friends Precioius, Stacia, and new to the Robert Taylor Housing Projects, Tonya. Their apartment buildings will be torn down by the end of the summer, and the families will have to move, but she can’t imagine how all of that will work out. This summer of 1999 changed everything for Fe Fe, and she has always wondered, did it have to do with allowing Tonya to join their friend group?
This book reminded me of when I used to manage a homeless shelter in 1997-1998. During this time, we had a lot of Chicago area families moving to Cedar Rapids to escape the violence, the lack of housing, and for the assistance they heard we provided them. Everything went well, and I met some wonderful people until we started to get rival gang members’ wives into our center. Then things got tricky, and I was calling on the local police force to help me out nearly every day. Reading Fe Fe’s concerns about her brother’s gang activity and her trepidation about what was happening to her teenage friends who were being forced into relationships and situations they were much too young for felt very real.
“Robert Taylor had prepped me for a life of living in close proximity to masses of people. But the list of how the Robert Taylor Homes was so drastically different from college life was too long to make. Most obvious was how the campus felt like one big park. It invited you to sit on the grass or perch on a bench. My childhood home warned you to keep moving. That it was unsafe to stand still for too long.”
Tragic, hard things happen in this novel. But, there is also joy and redemption, and hope. Fe Fe and her friends are only 12-13-year-old girls and have been exposed to things most of us will never see in our lifetime. Shayna Small narrates this with such great storytelling ability. She changes her voice just enough that you know which girl is talking. Wolfe creates a setting that is vivid in my mind while the girls are playing rope, and they first hear gunshots. The life she creates in this story isn’t as fictional as we’d like to think. Kids every day are growing up with drugged-out parents, teenage brothers in gangs, and girls being used as payoffs for debts. This book is a reminder of the harsh realities in the projects, but also the resilience of those who fight to escape them and make a difference.
What good things have you been reading? I’ve also read books that I reviewed for publishers. Check them out HERE.
You can see all my other Quick Lit posts by clicking HERE.
This post contains affiliate links. If you choose to make a purchase through the above links, I may receive a small commission without you paying a cent more for your purchase.
The post Quick Lit: June 2025 Edition appeared first on Sincerely Stacie.
