The Raw and The Cooked - Simple Rhythms for SAHM, Honest Motherhood, and Books Worth Reading

#191: The Summer 2025 Reading Roundup: Hits and Misses

• Season 5 • Episode 191

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0:00 | 26:52

I share my journey through 14 books read this summer - ten adult fiction and four children's books - reviewing the highlights, disappointments, and unexpected emotional moments along the way.

• My standout favorite was "The Wedding People" by Alison Espach, likely to be in my top five books of the year
• "Ask for Andrea" by Noelle Wehe captivated me with its unique perspective from murder victims in the afterlife
• Some highly-rated books like "The Grace Year" and "Don't Forget to Write" fell completely flat for me
• "The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane" by Kate DiCamillo made me ugly cry twice while reading it to my children
• Children's book "Pax" by Sarah Penny Packer dealt with themes too heavy for young children despite my initial excitement
• Some unexpected additions to my summer reading included Taylor Jenkins Reid's "Atmosphere" and Dr. Becky Kennedy's parenting guide
• Books that receive universal acclaim online can still be disappointing to individual readers
• The most satisfying reads often come from unexpected places


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Summer Reading List Introduction

Speaker 1

Hello everyone and welcome to the Raw and the Cooked, a weekly podcast that provides simple routines around the home plus raw and honest book reviews. My name is Dara, I'm a Midwestern stay-at-home mom to four young kids, and I thrive on simplicity. Hello everyone, and welcome back to another episode. Today we are reviewing the 10 books and four children's books that I decided to read over the summer. That is referring back to episode 174 that I released in May that just sort of gave an outline of 10 books that I wanted to read. I chose to do 10 fiction books, just everything really light, everything really easy and breezy.

Fiction Book Reviews 1-5

Speaker 1

Fall and winter time, especially around the new year, tend to be the times where I go pretty hard on nonfiction books, and so summer is just like. At least in the past couple of years, it's felt much more like loosey goosey and I just want to turn my brain off and just read, like I don't want to say trash, it's not trash, but it's not like, it's not. Like, you know, it's on the low brow side, right, like these like murder mysteries, these like rom-coms, right, like it's just not whatever. Okay, so I'm going to list out, just as a friendly reminder, the 10 that I had selected, plus the four children's books that I wanted to read with my kids this summer, and then just talk about my thoughts and reviews on everything. So number one was the Silent Woods by Kimmy Cunningham Grant. Number two is the Light Pirate by Lily Brooks Dalton. Number three is the Grace Year by Kim Leggett. Number four is Ask for Andrea by Noelle Wehe. Number five was the Wedding People by Alison Espach. Number six is the Drowning Woman by Robin Harding. Number seven was the Quiet Tenant by Clémence Michalin. And number eight, long Bright River by Liz Moore. Number nine was A Darker Shade of Magic by EV Schwab. And finally, book 10 was Don't Forget to Write by Sarah Goodman Confino. And then the four children's chapter books that I picked for my kids. I sort of guesstimated before I put this list together that this would be good for the age block of four to seven-year-olds, and I was wrong and I'm excited to talk about why. But the four books were the Wild Robot by Peter Brown. Number two, the Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiMicalio. Number three was Pax by Sarah Penny Packer. And finally, book four was Charlotte's Web by EB White.

Speaker 1

Okay, so let's just dive straight in. There's no point in beating around the bush. So number one the Silent Woods by Kimmy Cunningham Grant. So I started out enjoying the novel and then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, it just felt really slow and boring and annoying. I thought the ending I would say like 80% of the book felt that way. It was just like such a drag and I don't know why I forced myself to finish. But I did the end. I'm glad I did, because I felt like the ending kind of redeemed itself and I think the book wrapped up really well because a large chunk of this book you're left wondering like where this book could possibly go and then it magically gets you there. Overall, like I guess it was fine but I don't really recommend it. Although it does have really good ratings online. I just, I don't know, I don't really recommend it.

Speaker 1

Book number two and I'm so sorry in advance is the light pirate by Lily Brooks Dalton. I have been waiting on the library's list the entire time. Like I put my requested in May and then it came to fruition about two weeks ago and I missed it. Like you know, when the library's like okay, this book is ready for instant download and then it kind of gives you a window to do that. I missed that after waiting for like nearly 12 weeks. So that sucks. I have not gotten around to reading it. I don't have the heart to purchase it, I don't know why. I'm just like dragging my feet on it. But long story short, I do not have a review for you. It's still on my to read list, but like I just have no interest in getting around to it anytime soon.

Speaker 1

So book number three is the Gray Seer by Kim Leggett, and I really wanted to like this. I thought it had a lot of potential. I was really excited to read this book and I didn't like it. I didn't like it at all. I don't want to spoil it for you.

Speaker 1

I feel like anything I say negatively is going to kind of like give away the plot and like where it's going. I just it was not good. It wasn't good. Um, so I don't know. I'm just going to say no and I'm going to be an outlier here, because I think it's one of those books that I am an unpopular opinion on. You know what? Let me pull up Goodreads. I should have done this before I started recording and so I apologize in advance. I'm just going to keep talking while I pull this up. Okay, so the Grey Seer, currently on Goodreads, which is like my ride or die yeah, it has a lot of good reviews. It's holding steady at 4.14 stars with over 226,000 reviews, so I'm clearly an outlier here. But I don't know, like I'm, just I'm sticking with my convictions. I did not like it.

Speaker 1

Okay, so Ask for Andrea. By Noelle Wee. This book was really good. I really liked this book. This was told so it was a serial killer who just like goes around, like murdering women that he meets on online dating apps. But what's interesting about this book is that it's told in the. It alternates perspectives from his previous victims and so like they're ghosts and they're sort of like hovering in that you know that like limbo state between passing to the afterlife and death, and so I love books like that. Lincoln and the Bardo, most famously, is probably one of my favorite books ever Maybe not ever, but it's definitely like a top 10 for me, and so I really love that. And this book touches on it a little bit with how this author paints what she thinks is the in-between state between life and the afterlife, and so I just loved it and I loved that they sort of had this vested interest in bringing this killer to justice and the ghosts at some point meet and kind of band together. Like at some point meet and kind of like band together.

Speaker 1

And it was one of those books that had me hooked. I couldn't stop listening to it. I listened to it as an audio book. It was one of those books that, like, I had on while I was doing chores around the house, going for walks, that I didn't really need to or want to go on, but I just was like I need to, I need to listen. So I found myself like finding excuses to put my AirPods back in and just like, listen, it was a good it. So I found myself like finding excuses to put my AirPods back in and just like, listen, it was a good. It was a really good book. I really enjoyed it. I also loved book number five, the Wedding People by Alison Spock. Like loved it. So I had an entire book club episode dedicated to that. That is episode 179. If you wanted to go back and listen to that, I loved the Wedding People. I think that was probably not only my favorite book from this past summer, but I think it's going to be like a top five for me for the entire year. I loved it that much so I could not recommend that more.

Fiction Book Reviews 6-10

Speaker 1

Book number six is the Drowning Woman by Robin Harding. So I was into this novel at first. I really did enjoy where it was going. I didn't like our main characters at all, but during the first quarter of the book I would say, I was very intrigued just to the mystery that was building and the narrative that was sort of being drawn out for us. And then things got weird. And then things got really far-fetched and the train just left the station and the plot then made like very little sense and I'm still scratching my head as to how this book got published. I don't want to be too hard on Robin Harding. I read her first book, or I don't know a previous book by her, and it felt like a little wackadoodle as well, where, like just it was so far fetched. You're kind of like wait a second, what? Um? So I had a feeling that would happen here, but this, just I just no, thank you, sir. So okay, um.

Speaker 1

Number seven was the Quiet Tenant by Clemence Michalian, and this book was terrible. This book was horrible. Much of the plot made no sense. Um, I'm not going to spoil it for you, but like, why just a couple of questions here why would you move your sex slave into your new home in a bedroom like a roommate, with your teenage daughter there, and then you're expecting your prisoner, this woman that you took captive, to then provide free childcare for you over a holiday weekend and then eat dinner with you, and like it was just so odd, like nothing I, I, I'm I'm definitely familiar with Stockholm syndrome and how, like when, given the opportunity, these victims will not leave because of the Stockholm syndrome, like I get that, but like the whole thing just like leaves you scratching your head and you're just kind of like why am I reading this?

Speaker 1

And that. That's just sort of my overall like I asked myself that question. Like the entire book, I was just like why am I reading this? And so I read this after I read these silent woods, and I was glad I stuck through the end of these silent woods because it did tie the book together nicely. So I was really hoping for like one of those closure moments with this book the quiet tenant. I didn't get it. I was left with more questions when the book ended and then I was angry at myself for like sticking through this. I'm just like what, what am I doing? Um, so that was kind of depressing, um, but not in like a cute way. It was depressing in like a. I just wasted three hours, or however long of my life I spent reading this book. Okay, so book number eight, uh, was a more positive, uh, success story. It was the Long Bright River by Liz Moore.

Speaker 1

I really enjoyed this novel, even though it was very depressing and very difficult to get through at times. Not because of the writing the writing was great. It's more just, it was difficult to get through just because of these like crippling circumstances that these characters were in and it was just really heavy. If you're into family sagas, especially the bonds between siblings, then this one is definitely for you. We follow two sisters through the course of their lives and just different actions and results and how different their lives have ended up. It was a really good book. I thought it wrapped up really well. I thought everything, all of our loose ends. There were some scenes in there that I was just like on edge for. It was like really intense and really heartbreaking. So if you're looking for a book that kind of like brings out like catharsis in you. I didn't cry. It didn't make me cry, but it was definitely like a very good read Again. But just a forewarning it deals with some like pretty heavy topics, okay.

Speaker 1

So book nine is A Darker Shade of Magic by Evie Schwab. I downloaded this book on a Friday evening. I got 50% through more than 200 pages in by Sunday evening and then I just lost all steam, like all motivation. It was decent enough of a premise and I can definitely see the appeal, but it fell so flat for me and I just had no interest in picking it up again, like like at all, for like a week later. Anytime I had downtime and like had the opportunity to sit down and read, I would just like I would grab for anything else under than other than my kindle.

Speaker 1

I didn't care for the characters. I didn't like the world Evie Schwab built us for this novel. I didn't care for the characters. I didn't like the world EV Schwab built us for this novel. I didn't understand the parallels between Londons. Maybe I'm too stupid, I don't know. I didn't understand it. I had so many questions and I was not willing to find out the answers to them. I just didn't care, and it was so disappointing because I really loved EV Schwab's the Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. That is one of the novels that I read years ago that I still think about.

Speaker 1

I thought that book was phenomenal, so good, and I'm just like what is this book and not that book? This book, the Darker Shade of Magic, I just didn't like it. I didn't understand it. I just was not into it. And yeah, I don't know, just 200 plus pages in and I was done. So I don't know, isn't that weird Like you get halfway through a book and then you just cannot do it anymore? So I don't know what that says about me or the book, just probably not anything good. So okay, the last book on my adult summer reading list is Do Not Forget to Write by Sarah Goodman Convino, and again, I did not like this novel. I did not like it. I despised each and every single one of our characters.

Children's Book Reviews

Speaker 1

It was the story, the premise, a little bit interesting. I guess it was a tad fun, but I just, I just it fell so flat for me like I could see the humor and like I got where she was coming from with all these like cute little, like one-liners, but it just fell so flat and, um, even the ending with like it's like few little twists and turns were just so mundane and so eye-rolling. And I was so happy. When this book ended I was like, thank God, it's done, it's over, you can put it behind me. And again, I think I'm an unpopular opinion because let me pull it up, don't forget to write. We are looking at. Yeah, I'm definitely an outlier on this book as well. It has 4.49 stars, so like basically 4.5 stars with over 72,000 ratings. So I'm an outlier. I got that this book was set in the 60s, so I have a feeling a lot of boomers took heavy to this and that's sort of like the demographic it was targeted towards. I gave it a three star because, like, I found it really horrible but I also couldn't find myself putting it down at the same time, so I felt like that warranted a three stars. But as far as just like premise and characters and story arcs, I'm giving it like a two at best. So that's my generous opinion on that.

Speaker 1

Okay, so for the four children's books I'm excited to talk about, so we're just going to go ahead and like skip Charlotte's Web, because you all know that I love Charlotte's Web. It's like one of my favorite books that we've read with my kids. We've now listened to it as an audio book at least three times. It's so lovely. We love farm animals, we love animals in general. Like there's nothing we do not like about Charlotte's Web. Another thing that we loved is that the narrative like if you listen to this as an audio book, like on a road trip or in the car, eb White himself narrates the story, which makes it like 50 times more charming than it already is. So like, let's, we're gonna just like put Charlotte's up aside and we're gonna talk about the rest. So we downloaded the Wild Robot by Peter Brown for another summer road trip that we took and I liked the Wild Robot and I think I would have really liked to read it out loud. I think I would have connected with it more.

Speaker 1

But as an audiobook I was not impressed with the narrator. I did not like the tone and the inflection or the voices that she gave the animals, because we're talking about a robot who finds himself washed up on shore of an island and he makes friends and enemies and whatever. Like he works with all these animals and the voices that she gave to these animals was just like absolutely grating. Um, anytime, like an aunt, she was doing an animal voice Like I would have to like lower the volume. My husband and I would like look at each other and just like roll our eyes, like it was. It was rough, um, so as an audio book, it wasn't great.

Speaker 1

Um, I ended up purchasing, uh, while we were reading this as listening to it as an audio book, I ended up purchasing like a child's version of the book, like where it wasn't the full chapter book but it sort of gave like beautiful illustrations and like a you know, two sentences per page, kind of child's like iteration of the wild robot, and that was really cute and we read that a lot. My boys love it. We like have a lot of like one-liners that we like repeat and make each other laugh. Um, just like from the book. But yeah, it was, I don't know. I think it was the narrator's fault, so I'm just gonna put that out there. I think I'm gonna try to get it from the library and see if, like, the actual chapter book would be like not as annoying if, like, I read it or my husband read it. I don't't know, whatever. Okay, moving on.

Speaker 1

So the next book is the Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiMicolo. I loved this book. This was so cute. I really didn't know what to expect.

Speaker 1

When I came across this and added it to my list, I didn't really. I just kind of was like, okay, this is going to be a good book. It was really good. It was all about this rabbit's journey. He um like about love and relationships and it was just. It was so good. This poor rabbit gets lost, um, and is separated from his original owner and he has quite the journey and the ending. I'm not going to spoil it for you because I feel like it's worth reading to your children. I cried, um, I ugly cried. So we sort of split it up.

Speaker 1

I don't know how this ended up happening, but my original plan was to read it to my three older kids all together, but somehow my daughter ended up with it in her room. So when it was my nights to put her to bed, we would read a couple of chapters of Edward Tulane, and so I read it with her first, and as I'm reading the last pages, I'm like ugly crying. It was just so cute. And then my son heard about this the next day at breakfast and he was like, well, now I want to read it. So then the next, the next day, I started reading it to my boys when it was my turn to put them to bed. So I am currently in the middle of that my second go for Edward Tulane with my sons, and I love it. It's. I definitely recommend it.

Speaker 1

This rabbit is sassy but he has like such like an elegant posh way about like insulting people. I mean, sorry, no, that sounds like really negative. He's just very like uptight and proper and he does not like when people call him an it or like he gets offended by like bad manners and he does not like dolls and when people accidentally like put him with the doll. I mean it's just he's funny and very punchy and the characters and people that he meets along the way, it's just a really sweet story. It's a little depressing, but the ending is very happy and it caused me to ugly cry and I have a feeling it's gonna make me ugly cry again when my boys and I get to the end. So yeah, I would definitely recommend it.

Speaker 1

Okay, so the final book for our children's series is Pax by Sarah Penny Packer, this one, okay. I want to just say I love animals. Any story about an animal I'm probably going to enjoy. The illustrations are gorgeous. I was hoping for a little more illustrations I feel like there weren't as many, but the cover art is beautiful. I like wanted to like this book with every like.

Speaker 1

I was ready to give it five stars without even reading anything about it and then I read the first couple of chapters and I was just kind of like oh boy, like this is going to be a good one. I was very excited but then I just got kind of I don't. It got really heavy and I originally thought this would be good for my five and six year old. But this book deals with a lot of like really heavy topics not too much, but like we're talking about like war and amputation and just like a lot of like topics that are a little too heavy, I think, for my kids age ranges. But I can also see like if you were like a 12 or 13 year old boy, like this would be a really good book for you, but not so much for a five year old boy. My kids actually got kind of bored of it so they decided they didn't want to keep going after the second chapter. So I was like you know what, I want to know what happens. So I I read it myself.

Speaker 1

I took it on another family vacation we went on earlier this summer and I read it and finished it and again I really wanted to like it. But I I just, I don't know I felt like the story kind of it felt like very stagnant and like it's told in alternating points of view between Pax and his boy, peter, so they get separated at some point and so like they're reunited, so the chapters alternate between Pax and Peter, so we like get to hear a fox's point of view which is like really unique and awesome and cool, and then this boy who's like on a journey to go find his fox, and the boy's journey was like really heavy and like, but yet boring and I don't know it. Just it just didn't have like status. It like left a lot of things up in the air. It did not have a satisfying ending. The ending in fact made me kind of angry and I didn't like it. Like I knew that we were going to get that type of ending, but then when it happened, I wasn't prepared mentally for it, and then it just it made me angry.

Bonus Book Recommendations

Speaker 1

So would I recommend Pax? No, I hate to say it, but no, I am not going to recommend it, especially if your kids are like under the age of 12, it just not a good book. Um, so I'm gonna say it and embrace my heart to say it, because I was like, again, all set to give it five stars. So, whatever, um, overall I would say it was like a decent, a decent summer reading. Uh, you know, journey, whatever you want to call it, um, so yeah, and then I thought it'd be interesting to just quickly go over some other books that I also read this summer, because you know why not?

Speaker 1

So in no particular order, I read Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McNotty and I did not like it. I gave it two stars. I thought it was really boring, but at the same time, I could see this making an absolutely awesome Netflix series in like a way or like an HBO miniseries. So I can like totally see it going from book to screen and I promise the adaptation would probably be way better. I didn't like it. I didn't like it and I'm also another outlying opinion because it holds study at 4.1 stars. So what can you do?

Speaker 1

Another book I read was the man Made of Smoke by Alex North. I really like Alex North. I think he's like really dark and heavy and has very good ideas for murder mystery sagas, like in ties and family and just all these different things. I liked it a lot. The internet does not like it as much. The internet has an average rating of 3.7 stars. I gave it four just because I ended up reading it just like in one weekend. It was hard for me to put down. Was it the best novel? No, but just the fact that like it was so gripping that I kept turning the pages like yeah, I'm going to bump it up a little to four stars. Another book I loved was the Bright Years by Sarah Damnoff. I gave that five stars. I have an entire episode, a couple episodes back on that, so go listen to that if you want a further in-depth review.

Speaker 1

Another book I had read was Broken Country by Leslie Claire Hall. I liked this a lot. Again, another definite page turner. I had some questions. I wasn't totally in love with all of our characters and thought I felt like a lot of them made really poor choices and wasn't really in agreement with like a lot of it but at the same time, like it was interesting enough, the twist at the end was kind of like okay, it was heartbreaking and depressing, but also pretty decent, so I don't know. I ended up giving it a four star, and the internet agrees. The average is about 4.34 at the moment.

Speaker 1

A rom-com that I really enjoyed this summer was Is she Really Going Out With Him by Sophie Cousins. I've read one or two other Sophie Cousins novels and I liked them both a lot. They're just really cute and punchy and they're like perfect beach reads. So I definitely would recommend that if you have like any upcoming fall trips planned. It was like it was just cute. I don't know, I mean nothing of substance, it was, it was just cute.

Speaker 1

Another book I read was Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid. Y'all know that I love Taylor Jenkins Reid. It's very rare I read a Taylor Jenkins Reid book that I don't love, and this was no exception. It was so good. It was all about space and exploration and love and human connections and friendships and relationships and just it was perfect in like every time Taylor Jenkins Reid writes a book about like the human experience, so I really liked it. Five stars for me because it made me ugly cry again.

Speaker 1

Um, and then the other book that I had read actually read two non-fictions this summer even though I said I wasn't going to, but I had the opportunity to download Good Inside a practical guide to resilient parenting, prioritizing connection over correction, by Dr Becky Kennedy. If you're familiar with Dr Becky, you know, if you know, you know Dr Becky's awesome. I love Dr Becky. I don't subscribe to a hundred percent of her parenting. I feel like ideology is the wrong word. Parenting I feel like ideology is the wrong word. Parenting philosophy maybe that's the right word. But she has a lot of good ideas and suggestions and just ways to like be a good parent.

Speaker 1

I think my number one principle that I take away from a Dr Becky episode because I am a podcast listener of hers and, of course, this book overemphasized it a million times as well she always says that no matter what, even for adults, not just children but you're supposed to give your child the most generous interpretation. I think it's the MGI. And so if your kid does something absolutely heinous and horrendous, like just acts out, you're supposed to take a step back and do the most generous interpretation of that behavior before you like overcorrect and react and whatever. And I feel like it's just a good life philosophy to kind of like hold close to you, that being, you want to give people the most generous interpretation because they deserve it right, like most people deserve the benefit of the doubt, and so I think this is just a different way of wording that, especially when it comes to your child and their behavior, and if your children are acting out like what is the most generous interpretation there, and so to kind of like pay attention to that. So I really liked the book. I gave it four stars and if you don't know who Dr Becky is, she does have her own podcast. It's called Good Inside and it's really good. I recommend it.

Final Thoughts and Takeaways

Speaker 1

The second nonfiction book that I read was 4,000 Weeks Time Management for Immortals by Oliver Berkman. I really liked this book. I think the number one takeaway for me from reading this book is that we're all going to die and we're never. No matter what our circumstances are, we will never get to experience all the things and do all the things and try all the things and to just kind of like live your life and like make your decisions and just stick by them. And I don't know, it was a good book, it was easy to get through.

Speaker 1

I did listen to this as an audio book and it was good. I really enjoyed it. I'm glad I read it and as far as other books outside of those and the 10 that I selected for myself, that's kind of my entire reading journey for this past summer. So overall, pretty fine, pretty decent. Some really good nuggets of gold in there, as well as some duds, but you know, that's pretty decent. Some really good nuggets of gold in there, as well as some duds, but you know that's how it goes. So thank you for joining me on another book episode. I hope you're having a great week so far and I'll catch you back here next week.