It hasn’t been the best of weeks around here, mainly because my beloved uncle is in the neuro ICU with a brain bleed caused by a fall and worsened by his underlying liver failure. We’d love your prayers.
So today let’s talk about books, because books make me happy.
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I read 21 books from June to September, which is about right as far as my pace goes, and half of those were audiobooks. Here, in a sentence or two, is what I thought of them. (I’m not going to summarize, but the links go to Goodreads.)
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway: Short and touching, I appreciated it even more once I found out the main character is a Christ figure. (audiobook, 4 stars)
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams: Funny, silly, and kind of hard to keep track of what’s going on. (audiobook, 4 stars)
Nicholas & Alexandra by Robert K. Massie: I superfan loved this history of the last Romanov family. (5 stars)
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne Valente: Read by the author, who sounded bored with her own book, and thus I was sort of bored. (audiobook, 3 stars)
Sabriel by Garth Nix: A seriously amazing and unique YA fantasy that was a little overly descriptive but still one of the best I’ve read. (audiobook, 4 stars)
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak: Depressing without being depressing, sad but also hopeful. You gotta get used to the narrative style but I loved all the characters so much. (5 stars)
The Ruins of Gorlan (Ranger’s Apprentice #1) by John Flanagan: A decent children’s fantasy, nothing too deep going on but fun. (audiobook, 3 stars)
William Shakespeare: The World As Stage by Bill Bryson: I read Bill Bryson for his personality and wit, which was completely absent from this straightforward biography. (audiobook, 2 stars)
In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larsen: I learned a lot, but the focus was so narrow that it was overly detailed and dragged. (3 stars)
Lirael by Garth Nix: The sequel to Sabriel and perhaps even better. (audiobook, 4 stars)
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton: A classic that was surprisingly witty. Engaging secondary characters, tons of symbolism. (4 stars)
The Burning Bridge (Ranger’s Apprentice #2) by John Flanagan: Started out slow, good toward the end. Not really feeling this series anymore though. (audiobook, 3 stars)
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz: Surprised to learn after the fact that this won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. The whole thing revolved around getting it on, was super coarse and sexual. I did like the sweeping epic family history aspect. (3 stars)
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky: Really enjoyed this sweet, nostalgic, coming-of-age story, even though it dealt with about a million different heavy issues. (4 stars)
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn: Not my normal fare, and the characters were terrible people, but it was a page turner for reals. (5 stars)
A World Without Heroes (Beyonders #1) by Brandon Mull: We’ve got a good old-fashioned quest going on here. (audiobook, 3 stars)
Dinner: A Love Story by Jenny Rosenstrach: I was extremely inspired by this memoir/cookbook/self-help book about sitting down to family dinner. (4 stars)
The Looking Glass Wars #1 by Frank Beddor: This was a random library pick that I was pleased with. A fun spin on the classic Alice In Wonderland story. (audiobook, 4 stars)
The Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie: My first Christie, and turns out they’re perfect to listen to. Kept me guessing till the end. I want more. (audiobook, 4 stars)
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