Review of my Last 6 Months of Reading

After our book club meeting, I got to thinking about what I've been reading since I last posted here and thought I would share some of the titles.

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain. According to Cain, "at least 1/3 of the people we know are introverts. They are the ones who prefer listening to speaking, who innovate and create but dislike self-promotion, who favor working on their own over working in teams." I found her book fascinating since I am definitely an introvert. Her discussion of "the rise of the Extrovert Ideal throughout the twentieth century" and how strongly this idea has influenced our society to be eye-opening. I highly recommend this book for extroverts in a relationship with an introvert, extroverted parents with introverted children, and extroverts and introverts in business/other relationships for learning to understand and communicate with each other better.

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green. This book was a gift from my husband, a play on my name of course. Delightful book about a young man who has 19 relationships with girls named Katherine and always gets dumped.  This "anagram-happy, washed-up child prodigy" goes on a road trip with "an overweight Judge Judy-loving best friend riding shotgun" to prove the "Theorem of Underlying Katherine Predictability." This book was delightful and entertaining.

Jennifer's Way by Jennifer Esposito the actress. I found this a sympathetic nonfiction story about Esposito's rough journey to get diagnosed with Celiac Disease. Since I also have CD and multiple food intolerances like she does, I could relate very strongly to her story.

Dancing the Cows Home by Sara De Luca. A memoir published by the Minnesota Historical Society Press in 1996 about a young girl's 1950s Wisconsin childhood in Polk County.

Over my Head by Claudia L. Osborn. "A Doctor's Own Story of Head Injury from the Inside Looking Out." I ordered this book after my father's head injury last year and found it helpful and scary when realizing the long lasting difficulties people can have from head injuries. Published in 1998.

Blue Highways by William Least Heat-Moon. I picked this memoir up several years ago at a garage sale and finally read it this last year. Loved it! A great travelogue about little towns along our backroads by a man traveling on little money and sleeping in the back of his truck. It was originally published in 1982 but I read the 1999 version with a new afterward included. I discovered some places I thought would be fun to visit and especially enjoyed his thoughts about the places he visited. I found myself underlining a lot in this book so thought I would share a couple of quotes: "The franchise system has almost obliterated the local cafes and grills and catfish parlors serving distinctly regional food, much of it made from truly secret recipes. In another time, to eat in Frankfort was to know you were eating in Kentucky." "Had I gone looking for some particular place rather than any place, I'd never have found this spring under the sycamores." Besides all the places William visited, the people he met on his journey were fascinating, often with succinct comments on "modern society."

I listed below several light fiction books I have picked up at library sales, garage sales, and that were passed on to me by family. All entertaining, good reading for the days I didn't want to delve into more complex books.

Season of the Dragonflies by Sarah Creech.

The Map of True Places by Brunonia Barry.

Rescue by Anita Shreve.

Good Grief by Lolly Winston.

Songs for the Missing by Steward O'Nan.

The Aeronaut's Windlass by Jim Butcher. If you love fantasy fiction, you will enjoy this one with the added flavor of steampunk. Butcher is also the author of the Dresdon Files series. This book was passed down from my son to my husband to me. Always love sharing books with them!

It was fun to review some of the books I've been reading in the last months. Hope there's a few here you hadn't heard of and might enjoy. Until next months book club meeting, happy reading!

The Next Book I'll Read

You pick up the last book in your stash and wonder, what will I read when I’m done with this one? Where do you go? What sources do you consult?

I used to browse tables in bookstores when bookstores were a thing. Hours slipped by as I read the backs, the dust covers, or three random pages from within.

I now subscribe to NPR Book Notes and listen to their regular pod casts. When I can snag a NY Times Sunday paper, I browse every page of the Book section. When various lists (e.g., Best Books of 2015) and awards (e.g., the Edgar Awards) are published, I go through those lists.

More recently I’ve been checking on a monthly Twitter conversation hosted by an author in the UK (#theyearinbooks). She usually starts by asking “What are you reading?” or “What’s next on your list to read?”

Regardless of the source, I find myself going to amazon to look up new prospects. I do that to read the description and perhaps a review or two, but I also want to see the image of the book. Because, after all, I judge books by their covers.

Where DO you find the books you read?

Recipe Exchange a Success!

This year at our holiday get together, some of us participated in a recipe exchange. We weren’t sure how it would go. Would it stopper creativity? Would it be any fun? I have just a couple photos from the exchange.

This was the recipe that I sent to Jackie. I added some decorative touches. The creative part came in the return address (I used Susan’s):

This is the recipe that I received from Debbie. Beautifully illustrated (those silly pretzels preparing their own bath!). Debbie put my address in the return area:

This is the recipe that Debbie received (sorry, I don’t recall from whom). Disguised as a card, unfolded it is a recipe from a very old cookbook.

I don’t have a picture of it, but someone found a recipe related to the Los Alamos wives! Talk about resourceful and creative!

We all agreed that we had fun with this and will do it again.

LibraryThing – How Did I Not Know About This?

OMG. From Twitter to a blog to THIS: LibraryThing. It’s an online site where you can enter what you’re reading. Keep that list available to you anywhere (unlike my Excel spreadsheet).

And, once you’ve added a book, you can see how many other people (members of the site) have also read it and what they had to say about it!

Holy Moly! I need a day off. No, two days off and a 20oz Starbucks. OK, slow down. You can enter 200 items (books, movies, music) for free. After that it’s $10/year or $25 life. Hmmmm. My personal list of books is well over 500. Even our book club list is over 200. I don’t know what to do!

A long time ago I joined Goodreads, but have never used it. Perhaps I should investigate that further, because I think that’s free and they have a larger membership. I feel the need this year to get even more organized with cataloging my reading and perhaps being a bit more social with it.

What do you think? Do you keep a searchable list of your books? How many of you are on Goodreads?