While in Sydney, I decided to give The Look of Love a go. I had it out from the library and I didn’t have the mental energy for anything more sophisticated. As it worked out, it was a lovely read. Very predictable but still enjoyable.

I wanted to read Carve the Mark because I loved Roth’s previous book, Divergent. This new book got a lot of controversial feedback and while I respect other people’s perspectives, I didn’t have that point of view when I read the book. I read it relatively quickly, mostly on the plane back from Sydney and found myself enjoying it. I like Veronica Roth. I like the stories she tells and I like the way she tells them. And Carve the Mark was no exception.

I only watched one movie on the 28 hours I spent on the airplane last week. It was called Denial and right after the movie was over, I read Man’s Search for Meaning which I had heard of many times over the years but hadn’t managed to read so far. The first part of the  book is as heart-wrenching as I was worried it would be, but the second part where he talks about logotherapy was fascinating and really thought-provoking and all new to me. I decided I needed to read a lot more about it. If you haven’t read this, it’s highly recommended (though a difficult read, of course.)

I then finished A Gathering of Shadows finally.

And that was it for this week. A light week.

Books I Read this Week 2017 is a year-long project for 2017. You can read more about my projects for 2017 here.

I started my week with Shrill because pretty much every end of the year book list had it. I kept resisting it for some reason but then finally broke down and put it on my hold list at the library. I am so glad I did. It was absolutely fantastic. It made me sad, it made me angry, it made me think. it made me cheer. it was really good. I highly recommend it.

I then read In Defense of Food because I saw it come up in the library’s list and I’ve been trying to educate myself about food. While I can’t get behind Gary Taubes’ recommendations because it’s just not possible for me to sustain eating like that, I really liked Pollan’s book. I like the idea of eating as fresh food as possible. I like shopping at our farmer’s market and decided to do it more. I don’t mind paying more for better food. My thought is that if it’s better, we will likely eat less of it to feel full and we will get much better nutrition. I’ve also signed up for a CSA again and I am buying my eggs and fruits and veggies as fresh as I can. I had a long talk with the kids, too, and we will move to eating bread (sandwich) only for lunch and we will experiment with buying better bread until we can learn to make our own. (I just bought a breadmaker to see if we can give it a try.) I am also looking into solutions around moving away from the ritz and graham crackers my kids eat for snack. We are considering extra fruit and nuts. One step closer to eating healthier. I love the idea of eating food where we can pronounce all the ingredient’s names and food that has no more than 5 ingredients total. This will be an iterative process of course and I am sure we will make mistakes along the way. Let’s see how far we can get.

I then read Chasing Secrets because it’s the book we’re reading for our Lit Club so I needed to read it first. It takes place in the 1900s in San Francisco. It’s about the plague outbreak. It was a book I would have never chosen to read on my own, but I really enjoyed it quite a bit.

I then decided to tackle The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck because it also kept coming up as a recommendation. I knew nothing about the author and nothing about much of the premise. I decided I’d give it a shot and see if I liked it. I will say that even though I curse and colorful language doesn’t often bother me, I wasn’t a fan of some of the comments the author made. I didn’t care for all of his verbiage but I did like the book. I liked the idea of picking the things you value and choosing to care about those. And not care about the other things. You can’t care about all. You have to choose and I know this and it was a good reminder to keep it at the forefront of my mind.

And finally, I started reading A Gathering of Shadows because it was about to expire in my library so I was able to get about two thirds of the way there so I am going to have to finish it in a creative way. The third book is coming out in two months and I am looking forward to it.

A middle grade, one young adult, three nonfiction this week. Not terrible, though I miss reading literary fiction, too. Will have to grab some of those next week.

Books I Read this Week 2017 is a year-long project for 2017. You can read more about my projects for 2017 here.

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.

I started the year by finishing The Regional Office is Under Attack! I had read in several end of year lists that it was an amazing book. That it was a bit like Hitchicker’s Guide to the Galaxy. I have this pet peeve about how books should just never be compared to classics. I hate it when I read that a book is like Catcher in the Rye or another book I love. I feel like it’s just setting the author up for disappointment. While I might have liked this book on its own, I will now be comparing it to this completely different book. Not wise. Anyhow, this book was ok. It was funny in parts and not so funny in other parts. It was definitely quirky and different. I feel it started strong and funny and sort of fizzled out in the end.

I then read Wolf by Wolf because I had it for an upcoming book club meeting. I had no idea what it was about and hadn’t read the blurb before I started it (which is quite rare for me.) So I didn’t know it was about WWII. I usually avoid books about World War II but each year seem to end up reading a few. This was wildly different than any other one I’ve read and I really really enjoyed it. It’s YA so the pacing was quite fast and action filled. And there was a bit of a supernatural bend to it. I really enjoyed this one and am glad I read it.

Books I Read this Week 2017 is a year-long project for 2017. You can read more about my projects for 2017 here.