I started my week with Flawd because one of my libraries had it and it looked interesting. I had never heard of it and had no idea what to expect. It’s written by a twenty year old and it’s about a project she started when she was a teen. It’s quite lovely and upbeat and just not what I expected.
I then moved on to The Whole Town’s Talking. Fried Green Tomatoes is one of my all-time favorite books and I had never read Fannie Flagg, so when this came out, I wanted to give it a whirl and I am so glad I did. I really enjoyed the whole story from beginning to end, even the crazy unexpected parts. It was just lovely. I am glad I picked it up.
I read The Sleeper and the Spindle because my friend Amysaid it was her favorite read of 2016 and she is one well-read lady. I am always worried when I pick up a Gaiman because he can be scary at times. I both read and listened to this one and the audio version was quite fantastic. The drawings in the book version were also fantastic so I guess I recommend both versions. My favorite quote from this short, wonderful story came toward the end: Learning how to be strong, to feel her own emotions and not another’s, had been hard; but once you learned the trick of it, you did not forget. (Here’s to hoping I can learn one day, too.)
I had attempted to read Wolf in White Van when it first came out but never managed to make my way through it, so when I found out that the author is coming out with a new story this year, I decided I wanted to read this and see if I like the author. It was a very tough book to read but I did like it. I’m still thinking about it, in fact.
My copy of Messy: The Power of Disorder to Transform Our Lives was due back at the library in two days so I decided to listen to at least some of it and see if I liked it. And I did. I only listened to a few of the chapters and the premise of what I read so far is basically that life is messy and we shouldn’t try to create too much “fake” order out of it because we learn to deal with life’s mess better when we encounter mess along the way. I explained that badly but it’s a good book. Makes a lot of sensible points around autonomy, creating an environment where mess and creativity are encouraged, etc.
Still Life with Tornado was also on my list for a while so when my turn came up in the library, I was looking forward to reading it, even though I didn’t know very much about what it was about. It was another tough, tough book to listen to even though the style was quite interesting and engrossing (though also a bit hard to keep track of in audio). It was a great book. It’s YA so if that’s not your cup of tea, skip it.
And, finally, I also had Browsings:A Year of Reading, Collecting, and Living with Books checked out from the library so I decided to dabble in that a bit, too. I listened to about half of this book and plan to listen to more occasionally because it’s meant to be like a tasting menu. I always love books about books and even though I prefer Schwalbe’s book, I just loved hearing about someone who loves books (and pens and notebooks) as much as I do.
That’s it for this week’s reading. A wide range and good mix this week.
Books I Read this Week 2017 is a year-long project for 2017. You can read more about my projects for 2017 here.
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