Astronaut Wives Club by Lily Koppel

I loved the cover of this book:

Grand Central Publishing

Not only was the cover wonderful, but the content was great! Koppel looks at the Astronaut wives from the Mercury 7 all the way through the Apollos. Most of the focus seems to be on the original wives, but that is where she received most of her material. Like the author, I can't believe that these women have never been covered in their own book or really even books. Their lives are equally as fascinating as their famous husbands or in most cases ex-husbands. The life of an astronaut took its toll on the marriages, because of the Cape Cookies, dangerous situations, and feelings of abandonment. The wives all felt "proud, happy, and thrilled," but at the same time had to struggle with being single parents, a barrage of reporters, and NASA's strict rules with no psychiatric help. Koppel was able to interview many of the wives and for the wives who have already passed, the other wives shared their stories. At times the coverage felt too brief, but Koppel had some great stories and made this a very readable history of the women. I think she could have made this 600 pages, but it works really well as a popular history. The history side of me would love to have seen some footnotes and a list of sources used, but this is mainly an oral history, so I can let that go. :) Awesome book about the brave women who gave their all to get man to the Moon! Everyone should read this and remember that behind every great astronaut there was a great woman. 5 cups of cocoa!!

Bookish Opposites challenge hosted by Kristelyn from Reading in Winter

Bookish Opposites is hosted by Kristelyn from Reading in Winter. You pick covers that are the opposite of each other and she said anything goes. Here are the covers I chose:


                     

                  

Page 99 Challenge hosted by Kayla @ The Bibliphilic Nerds

The page 99 challenge is hosted by Kayla @ The Bibliophilic Nerds. You read page 99 of a book you want to read, but haven't yet and write a synopsis without spoilers. Then you tell whether or not you would read the book.

I chose Daughter of Smoke and Bone, a recent purchase and one I haven't started yet.
Karou is trying to keep a door closed and shouting in Arabic at a woman. She needs to make a portal to escape an angel. She has tattoos on her hands which contain some kind of energy to try to keep the angel away.

This is an exciting page! I want to know who Karou is, why she is being chased by an angel, and who is waiting for her on the other side of the portal. I definitely want to read the book now!

Book Spine Poem challenge

For the Hot Summer Reads Read-a-thon Jennifer at Some Like It Paranormal is hosting a three part challenge. One of the parts is to make a Book Spine Poem and here is my attempt at this.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone
Once A Witch, Spellbound
Awaken The Lost Hero

This was a fun challenge! Thanks to Jennifer for hosting!

Hot Summer Reads Read-a-thon Updates

Day 1 update
Currently reading: Opal and Astronaut Wives Club
Pages/Percent read: Opal-2%, Astronaut Wives Club-48 pages
Page total: 56 pages
Mini-challenges: Jen's Why Am I Reading These Books?
Books finished: 0

Day 2 update
Currently reading: Opal and Astronaut Wives Club
Pages/Percent read: Opal-1%, AWC-40 pages
Page total: 44
Mini-challenges: Patrick's Cover Challenge, Jennifer's 3 Part Challenge including Book Spine Poem
Books finished: 0
Total number of pages: 100

Day 3 update
Currently reading: Opal and Astronaut Wives Club
Pages/Percent read: Opal-1%, AWC-20 pages
Total number of pages: 124

Day 4 update:
Currently reading: Opal, AWC, My Soul to Take, Monstrous Beauty, and The Prince
Pages/Percent read: Opal- 9 % and finished!, AWC-31 pages and finished!, My Soul to Take- 20 pages, Monstrous Beauty-18 pages, The Prince -15%
Books finished- 2- Opal and Astronaut Wives Club
Total number of pages: 244 pages

Day 5 update:
Currently reading:Monstrous Beauty, The Prince, and My Soul to Take
Pages/Percent read: Monstrous Beauty- 118 pages, The Prince 25%, My Soul to Take-20 pages
Mini-challenges: Page 99, Bookish Opposites, Creature Feature
Books finished-2 Opal and Astronaut Wives Club
Total number of pages: 407 pages

Day 6 update
Currently reading: Monstrous Beauty, The Prince, My Soul to Take, The Girl with the Iron Touch, Earthbound
Pages/Percent read: Monstrous Beauty- 159 pages and finished!, The Prince-16% and finished!, My Soul to Take- 20 pages, The Girl with the Iron Touch- 10%, Earthbound- 6%
Mini-challenges: Scavenger Hunt
Books finished- 4 Opal, Astronaut Wives Club, Monstrous Beauty, and The Prince
Total number of pages: 661 pages

Day 7 update:
Currently reading: My Soul to Take, Earthbound
Pages/Percent read: My Soul to Take- 50 pages, Earthbound- 14%
Books finished-4
Total number of pages: 767 pages

Stacking the Shelves #2

Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga's Reviews and is a meme for sharing books you've purchased, borrowed, or been sent for review. They can be physical or e-format. I did not buy any books this week, but I borrowed several, won one, and requested a few.

 

Library

I have tried three times to make this save the right way, but it won't.
The Lying Game by Sara Shepard
Mercury 13: The Untold Story of Thirteen American Women and the Dream of Space Flight by Martha Ackmann
Escape from Lemoncello's Library by Chris Grabenstein
If I Should Die by Amy Plum
Wolf at the Door and Other Retold Fairy Tales edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling

Won:

The Enchanted by Elaine Cantrell through the Summer Lovin' Read-a-thon Twitter chats. Thanks to Oh, Chrys!, Tumbling Books, Effortlessly Reading, Love Life Read, Shelf Addiction, Read Sleep Repeat, and Reviewing Wonderland for hosting and thanks to the author and publisher for donating the prize!

Review: I went a little crazy on Edelweiss yesterday. The review books are really helpful to me on determining what to purchase for our library, so that is my excuse. :) I will put a copy up this week and a couple next week. Thanks to HarperTeen, Balzer + Bray, and Katherine Tegen for the review copies!
I loved both Mind Games and Jinx, so I am so happy to have the sequels!

HarperTeen

Balzer + Bray

 

Katherine Tegen

Hot Summer Reads Read-a-thon Goals

This read-a-thon is hosted Patrick @ The Bookshelves and Jen @ YA Romantics. It runs from July 14-20 and is a no pressure read-a-thon. They also plan on having a few challenges, but the main focus will be reading. I am trying for a page count rather than a book count, since I keep jumping back and forth between books. I am going to try for 500 pages and since I will be on a staycation part of the week, I have a good chance of meeting that goal.

Mini-challenge by Jen @ YA Romantics
Why am I reading these books? Jen wants us to pick one of the books and tell why we are reading that book. I will pick the Astronaut Wives Club by Lily Koppel. I loved the cover on this book and I also wanted to know more about the great women behind the first astronauts. I sort of equate summer with space shuttles. When I was little our favorite place to go on vacation was Florida and although we never went directly to watch any space shuttles launch, we did see a few heading to space while there. This is seemed like a fun book and I need to brush up more on my Women's history.

Grand Central Publishing

Books on the list:
I would like to finish Opal by Jennifer Armentrout and The Astronaut Wives Club by Lily Koppel.

Novella:
The Prince by Kiera Cass

Other possible books:
Monstrous Beauty by Elizabeth Fama
Weather Witch by Shannon Delany
The Elite by Kiera Cass
Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey (reread)
The Girl with the Iron Touch by Kady Cross
My Soul to Take by Rachel Vincent
Earthbound by Aprilynne Pike