I started this week with Hourglass. I don’t think I’ve ever read Dani Shapiro before and I am not sure what compelled me to pick this one but I am glad I did. I liked it. I can’t even put my finger on why. Maybe it was the honesty.

I then moved on to The Book of Polly which I had been resisting for some reason. I wasn’t sure I was going to like it but in the end I think I did. I certainly didn’t feel sad that I read it. 

I had similar feelings around The Stars are Fire. I’ve read Anita Shreve before and I sort of felt she was ok but not amazing. And while I enjoyed this book, it all ended a bit too neatly for my taste and I felt flat after it was over. Meh. Still not sorry I read it.

I wanted a bit of a break so I picked up the short South and West. It might be short but it wasn’t light and I liked it but didn’t really give it the attention it deserved.

I then moved to Mindshift. I’d taken a class from Oakley before so I knew I was going to like it and I really liked it. Her class and this book are both 100% worth it. It was uplifting and practical and interesting. 

I’d been looking forward to reading American War all week so I was really glad when its turn came (I have a lot of library books checked out so I have to create a discipline around which one I can read first depending on the due dates.) I read it in one day. It was both better and not as good as I had anticipated. It was very sad. I finished it as I am writing this so I am still thinking about it so I can’t say much more yet. 

And finally, I ended the week with Option B. I am still reading it but it’s almost over. I really like it. It’s not a happy subject matter but it helps to have reminders that life is unpredictable and I am so very lucky right now. This makes it book number 97 for 2017.

I’ve also started both Storm in a Cup and For the Love, both of which I am reading slowly, in between books because I like them so much.

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

A new Anne Lamott book is a cause for celebration and Hallelujah Anyway was no exception. She is amazing and I hope she continues to write and publish books for many years to come. Thank you for being you Anne Lamott. 

I checked out The Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down because it sounded like a book that would speak to me. And it was absolutely wonderful. Highly recommended.

I listened to A Little More Human on the way to Idaho. It started out interesting but then I didn’t like it and I kept waiting for it to be good again, but it never was. Put this one in the camp of “i want my hours back.” there were things I liked about it, but overall, not so much.

This is How It Always Is was my favorite read of 2017 so far. It might be my favorite read of the last 5 years. I loved every little bit of it. I loved it. Really, really loved it.

It was time for another Harriet Lerner so I devoured  Why Won’t You Apologize? Fantastic as all her books are.

I was going to read The Most Dangerous Place on Earth but decided it was too annoying for me. So it was finally time to read Waking Gods. I had read the first book last year and loved it and the second one didn’t disappoint. It was a super-pleasant surprise that this was book two of two so it came to a great conclusion, too. 

I sampled Word by Word and Idaho this week, too. I haven’t decided if I will finish either. Let’s see. I have some books that I’ve been looking forward to in my queue so that might take precedence.

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

A lot of books this week but several of them were very short.

I first picked up The Dry because the library had it and it looked interesting. But the narrator’s accent was so thick that I kept not following the story so I finally gave up listening to it and decided to just read it. It was an interesting story and I am glad I read it. But I didn’t love it.

I chose Always  because I’d read a different book by Jio a few months ago and it was easy and light and I was in the mood for that. This story was also easy and light and I am not sorry I read it but I doubt I’ll remember it for a long time.

I then listened to We Should All Be Feminists which I loved so very much and immediately moved on to her most recent: Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions which was also awesome. I loved them both!

After those, I read Milk and Honey which was also wonderful. Different. Poignant. Thought provoking, Honest. Lovely.

I would have never ever picked up My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry if it weren’t for a friend who told me her daughter really liked it. I’d read his previous book and didn’t love it (even though many others did.) So I was kind of done with the author. But I am so so so glad I picked this up. I loved every single minute of it and then I cried and cried and cried. It was absolutely beautiful. My favorite read of the week. 

I then picked up The Reader because it was about to expire and my friend Amy had said she enjoyed it. And I did too. It wasn’t the best YA read I ever read but it was interesting and thought provoking.

It was time for another nonfiction so I picked up The Five Dysfunctions of a Team which was recommended by one of the Directors I work with. It was a quick and fantastic read. I will have to revisit this one a few times.

And finally I had read the Wolf in a White Van a few months ago and decided to tackle Universal Harvester. I’ll be honest, I didn’t follow this story super-well but I still liked the style of writing this author has and how wildly different it is from everything I read. This was book #73 for 2017.

I have a few more books checked out from the library that I am dying to read so here’s to more reading 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 my week with Edgar and Lucy which I had been looking forward to. This book was really hard to get into for me. I didn’t connect with the characters and didn’t understand where the story was going. It goes back and forth in time and perspective which is especially hard on audio. But I decided to persist and moved back and forth between audio and reading. I’d say three quarters of the book ended up being reading because once I got into it, I didn’t want to stop and the audio just wasn’t fast enough at that point (even at 2x). By the end of the book, I really loved it. Even though it was haunting and sad and darker than I thought it would be, I am glad I read it..

I then decided to pickup Stranger in the Woods which I wasn’t sure I’d like. It was a short read and I will say that while the story is fascinating, the book was okay. Not amazing and not much better than a long magazine article would have been imho.

After that, I read The Rules Do Not Apply which I finished pretty much in one sitting. It was so sad and so beautifully written but I still felt like there was something missing for me. Something that stopped me from connecting with the author more. I am glad I read it anyway.

And then I moved to Ill Will. I’ve read Dan Chaon before and thought I would like it. This book is really unusual in style. Several chapters end in the middle of a sentence. There are random spaces in between words, etc. For this one, too, I went back and forth between reading and listening. I couldn’t decide if I hated the book and should put it down of if I wanted to finish. I finally finished after a long slog. In the end, I am glad I read this one, too. I disliked pretty much every single character but the book did make me think about memories and how we remember things. I usually dislike when things aren’t resolved but in this case it didn’t bother me as much.

None of the books I read this week were magnificent in my opinion. I am reading a book now that I am enjoying a lot and I have 20+ books checked out from the library so I am hoping next week’s bunch will be a better fit for me.

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 Small Admissions because I had nothing interesting checked out from the library and this was one of my purchases from Audible. It was sweet, light and it reminded me a lot of what last year was like when we were going through this admissions process. This year it’s just Nathaniel so it’s been a lot less crazy. Here’s to hoping we don’t have to do this again until college.

I then decided to tackle Pachinko which was about to expire and I wasn’t sure I didn’t want to listen to it. I dragged myself through a lot of the book and started and stopped it many times but I finally persevered and I am so glad I did. I was very attached to the characters and even cried at the end of the story. This historical time was all new to me and I am really glad I read it.

Since I was already crying I decided to pickup You Will not Have my Hate which I knew was about the man who’d lost his wife in the French terrorism recently. They had a little baby. I knew this story would be heart-wrenching and it totally was but it was also beautiful. Loved it.

I was ready for something light so I picked up The Impossible Fortress which was a 7-day loan from the library so I read it all in one sitting. It was just my type of book. About the 80s, programming on a Commodore, funny, sweet, quirky. I love love loved it.

What Light was also in my list of “about to expire” books from Overdrive so I decided to finish it while I could. It was a lovely little Young Adult story. Not as good as Asher’s previous book but I still enjoyed it.

And finally, I was able to get Faithful out of the library and had no idea how much I was going to love this book. I did not want to turn it off. I loved the characters and though it didn’t feel like a a Hoffman story to me, it really really spoke to me and I am so very glad I read it.

That’s it for this week. A wide mix but no non-fiction this time. Faithful was my 47th book of 2017. 

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

A lot of books this week.

I knew I wanted to read All Our Wrong Todays as soon as I heard about it. Time travel. Multiple worlds. Fun and scifi are definitely my cup of tea. And it was not a disappointment. I enjoyed this story and all the convoluted plot twists along the way.

Last week, I watched all the Bravel Girl Symposium talks and I fell in love with Erin Faith Allen. I then bought and swallowed The Underneath in one night. Painful and beautiful and thought provoking all at once.

I then shifted gears into A Truck Full of Money which was about to expire so if I planned to read it, it was now or never. I knew very little about Paul English but had of course heard of kayak. My husband interned at Interleaf when he was in highschool. It’s always a small world. I loved reading this story.

I wanted to read?This Close to Happy?and I got about halfway through before I decided it was too depressing and finally made the choice to put it down. I’ve read other books on depression but this one wasn’t my cup of tea.

I then listened to A Separation in one sitting. I can’t decide if I liked this book or not. It was a tough read. It didn’t have a lot of likeable characters and I am not sure what I took away from the whole thing but I still don’t regret reading it.

I heard of The Lonely Hearts Hotel from my library. When I looked up the book, it claimed to be similar to The Night Circus. I knew I wanted to read it as soon as I saw that. As it turned out, it wasn’t similar to the Night Circus at all. At all. However, I loved it anyway. I really loved the characters even though they seemed to go from one tragedy into another. I loved the atmosphere and the language. This book doesn’t sound like a book I’d like but I somehow loved it.

I then moved to Lincoln in the Bardo. It was my first Saunders and a weird one at that. I am still thinking about this one. The style was so weird. The plot comical and tragedy all at once. Weird, weird novel.

And finally I ended my week with The Three-Body Problem. When I was in Sydney, this book was recommended by my workmates. I checked it out from the library and decided it was finally time to tackle it. It was long and complicated and I didn’t understand most of the physics in it. But I did like it. I am glad I read it. I am not reading the sequel anytime soon.

That’s it for this week. Quite a few books this week in all sorts of genres.

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