Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle by Betty MacDonald

We listened to this on audiobook on our drive to California and then finished it on our way home to Texas. The boys both loved it. I love how silly Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle is, and how many fun adventures she has, and how magical she seems. It's such a fun book for kids. I want to read the sequels with the boys. 

The Cafe by the Sea by Jenny Colgan

I loved the setting of this one too--it's hard not to love these Scottish romances with so much beautiful scenery to imagine. This book was set on the tiny (as far as I can tell, imaginary) northern island of Mure off the coast of Scotland. I kind of imagined it being like Iceland. That was the best part of this story--I just didn't really care for the romance of the book, though. I was super bored by Joel and could see no reason why anyone would be attracted to him. Just because he had this damaged past doesn't explain him being a total jerk. I started reading the sequel to this one and just got tired of the Joel issues and stopped. But I liked this first one and thought it was cute. (I have to wonder, though, if Jenny Colgan knows that it takes more than just knowing how to cook to run a food shop... it seems like in this book and in the Cupcake Cafe one they just open it up and everything goes smoothly.) Overall, a fun read.

The Friend Zone by Abby Jimenez

This is actually the prequel to The Happy Ever After Playlist, and I didn't love it as much. It's the love story of Sloan's best friend Kristen, before the motorcycle accident that changed the trajectory of Sloan's life, and it's cute and fun, but the whole premise of the book felt forced. Basically, Kristen finds out she can't have kids, and then spends the whole rest of the book refusing to tell anyone or to show the boy she likes that she likes him because she knows he wants kids. It was one of those fake conflicts that could be solved by just a little communication which I hate in books. But the characters were great. 

Meet Me at the Cupcake Cafe by Jenny Colgan

This was another super-cute, super-fast book by Jenny Colgan. I loved how cute and happy-go-lucky this book was, about a girl who got fired from her job in London and decided to open a cupcake cafe because she was an amazing baker. I felt like it seemed a little unrealistic how easy it was for her to get started, but it's okay, because it was super cute. Overall, a perfect vacation read.

The Bookshop on the Shore by Jenny Colgan

Last year I listened to The Bookshop on the Corner by Jenny Colgan, and I really loved it. But I never read any of her other books because the library didn't have any audiobooks of hers, and I didn't want to waste time reading them instead of listening to them. But while we were on our trip, I went down a Jenny Colgan rabbit hole and read some more of hers. I really liked this one, the sequel to The Bookshop on the Corner; it was a different enough plot and had totally different characters that it felt like a fresh, new story. I really like the setting of the Scottish countryside and I liked the complications of the new characters and family that Zoe was dealing with. 

Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah

This was a fascinating memoir by Trevor Noah. I realized reading it that this was the most exposure I've ever had to South Africa, which is probably super sad. I knew that Apartheid was bad and Nelson Mandela was imprisoned and got out, and that's about it. I really should learn more. But that's why this book was so fascinating, to learn a little more about Apartheid and about the villages that Noah grew up in and the world he lived in. And it was so interesting to think about how he grew up in that world and somehow is now the host of The Daily Show. I think that would be a really interesting story to find out how exactly he moved from one to the other. I thought his mother seemed like an amazing, tough person, and I liked his portrayal of her. This made me so much more interested in Trevor Noah altogether. 

The Happy Ever After Playlist by Abby Jimenez

I'll be honest--I absolutely LOVED this book. I thought it was so cute. This was one of those books that the audiobook format probably helped me love this book more than I might have reading it, because it forced me to listen to it slowly and not speed through or even skip ahead to find out what was going to happen. I loved how cute the two main characters were, and how their romance progressed, and how normal they both seemed. My only real complaint about this book was the number of f-words, again. I feel like this would have been just about perfect if it hadn't been for the language. I'm not super overwhelmingly picky about language, but this went over the top. But I loved the story so much it was worth it to me.