What Did You Read This Month? Book Review Link-up #25

Welcome to the Monthly Book Report and Book Review Link-up #25 – AUGUST 2026!

On the First Wednesday of each month I will be sharing my latest read – which could be a cookbook, a celebrity chef biography or memoir, a lifestyle book, a gardening book, a homemaking book or maybe even a cozy kitchen mystery book. They may be paper books, eBooks, or audio books. I have challenged myself to read or listen to at least one book per week, and I plan to share that with you all here.

In addition to my Book Report, there will be a Book Report LInky – a chance for all of you to share your own book review blog post (TWO per blog, please). We want to see what had you page flipping, can’t put it down, totally captivated.

Lastly will be a few Featured Reviews from the previous month’s shared posts. This will be a post picked at random by the host. Each host will likely pick their own features – so that’s multiple chances to be featured!

If you have any suggestions for me on book I should check out – please let me know!

About the Author:

Helen Whybrow was a book editor for W. W. Norton before becoming a full time writer and organic farmer. Her book about the late designer and homesteader Bill Coperthwaite, A Man Apart, is part-biography, part-family memoir about the adventure of building a home by hand on a remote stretch of Maine coastline.

Brief Description of the book:

In the heart of Vermont’s Green Mountains, Helen Whybrow and her partner are presented with the opportunity to steward a two-hundred-acre conserved farm. Whybrow knows that “belonging more than anything requires participation” and radically intertwines her life with the land. Six months after purchasing Knoll Farm, they unload a flock of Icelandic sheep onto the field and Whybrow becomes a shepherd entering into “nature’s constant cycle of life into death into life” and all its unexpected lessons. The challenging and profoundly rewarding work unfolds for Whybrow in the everyday rituals of farmsteading and caring for her family—birthing lambs in the late winter, harvesting blueberries in summer, fending off coyotes and foxes, seasonal shearing—while instilling the lessons of the land in her daughter and caring for her mother. As life at Knoll Farm endures years both abundant and lean, she learns that true stewardship is about accepting change and adapting. She embraces a transcendent rhythm of blood and bone, milk and muck. At once inspiring and brave, deeply felt and gorgeously written, The Salt Stones is a loving look at the world through a shepherd’s interconnected ethos.

My Review:

My husband and I have recently started the journey of becoming Shepards by bringing a flock of sheep to our rural Montana property. So of course I sought out books to help ease us into the world. My favorite thing about this book is that it is NOT a textbook. Rather the author shares the stories that brought her to the lessons she needed to become the best sheep shepard she could be. The book starts with an intense story of delivering a lamb on her own with a young child in the middle of the night and you are instantly emmerged into the farm with her vivid imagery and storytelling skill. While I know this book is a very specific topic, I think a lot of people would enjoy the manner in which the story is told, and maybe learn a little bit about where your veal chops and wool sweaters come from.

This Months’s Featured Posts:

These are posts that stood out from the list of linked up posts last month. I hope you will hope over and check out their review. And don’t forget to link-up your own book-centric posts – YOU MIGHT BE NEXT MONTH’S FEATURE!

Good Joy Bad Joy

Shared by Sharing Life’s Moments

The Teacher’s Funeral

Shared by Marsha in the Middle

The Book Review Linky

Meet Your Librarians…errmmm I mean Hosts!

Now for the link-up!

Party Guidelines:

1. Please take some time to poke around and visit some of the other links.

2. Please take some time to check out your hosts and co-hosts on social media.

3. We appreciate the variety of blogs on the www; however, the Book Review Linky is for links related to Books. Please link accordingly.

4. All Captions need to be Family-Friendly and PG. If your post has EXPLICIT content, you must label it in the caption. If you DO NOT DO this your link will be removed.

5. You may add as many Book-Centric Posts as you like.

With your help, we can continue to grow the Book Review Linky Party ! Thank you!

We are looking for Co-Hosts. Help us Rock this party!

If you are interested, please contact Estelle at homemadeonaweeknight@gmail.com

By joining the Book Review Linky, you signify permission for the listed Hosts to share your posts and images here and receive an email reminder when our next Book Review Linky is LIVE. 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter