When I read a book for Book Club, I like to save my final review and blog post until after the Book Club meeting. Sometimes discussing the book with other book lovers can drastically change my perspective. Occasionally, I feel a warm, gooey love for a book, and then my club-mates poke holes in my favorite parts and bring my final decision down a few notches. More often, a book doesn’t click with me and the discussion at Book Club helps me see the merits of a book I would have panned otherwise. Artemis falls somewhere in the middle. Perhaps Read More
Category: All Posts
How I Lost 100 lbs in 500 Days – Bright Line Eating, Part 1
My most personal blog yet… How I Lost 100 lbs in 500 Days The problem… These stories always start with, “I’ve struggled with weight loss all of my life.” I’m not sure that’s true for me. Sometimes it wasn’t a struggle. I lost a lot of weight without trying while I was going through my first divorce. (“It was really easy once I lost the first 200 lbs!”) Then I started to gain weight when I got my first desk job. I didn’t hate myself or struggle with it every day. I was doing pretty well. I just ate out Read More
Wool and My Own Story in Context
I liked this book. My book club was a bit up in the air on it. Some felt it dragged, but most enjoyed the story. It took me 2 months to read it, but I don’t feel like it was dragging… I had to put it down sometimes and go read something less depressing (like a retelling of Alice in Wonderland with sexual violence and cannibalism.) Don’t let that turn you away. This was my problem, not the book’s. It was a rough patch for me, and this book just took me deeper into that… in a literal sense. Given Read More
READ THIS BOOK – The Hate U Give
When my best friend asked if I was aware of this book, I said no. She read the entire book in one day and couldn’t put it down. I saw her a few days later, and she put the book in my hands. I’m a slow reader, so it took me a couple of days, but The Hate U Give is a serious page-turner. It’s YA, so that often leads to a quick read, but you may already know that YA can also handle some dead serious subject matter. I cried. I laughed. I felt overwhelmed, angry, sad, and guilty. Read More
The Subtle Art of Deciding Which F*cks to Give
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck is my favorite new non-fiction book. I listened to the audiobook twice from the library then bought the hardcover book. This is one self-help book that I find very helpful. And it says the F word a lot, and I’m an overgrown 8th grader, so, yes, I am thrilled. Cussing was SO not allowed in my house growing up. Until a certain age, I thought “fart” was the F-word. Mark Manson’s book is full of actual good advice that feels very relevant to me as I enter a transitionary time. I’m about Read More
Good Omens: Is it too late to have the Apocalypse?
This may be my year of re-reading books. I decided to cut my reading goal in half this year, because I want to spend more time writing. I also find that what-to-read voice inside my head turning frequently to books I have already read. And there’s another thing… I have an utterly embarrassing love of anything written by Neil Gaiman. This is not the first of his book that I have read repeatedly. I probably shouldn’t be ashamed – he’s really, really good – but it’s probably the literary equivalent of saying that you love The Beatles. But Neil (I Read More
How Alien Ant Farm Helped Me Appreciate the Ready Player One Film Adaptation
Ready Player One is an amazing book. At this moment I have listened to the audiobook twice and have seen the movie three times. I have read some reviews, and I have talked to a couple of my friends. The response to the book has always been incredibly positive- except for the one person who didn’t finish it because there was too much cussing, and y’all can guess my response: “There was cussing?!” F-bombs aside, this book is everything glorious about the 1980’s. Imagine an entire virtual world that revolves around all the things I loved as a kid (and Read More
Way Station by Clifford D. Simak
When I read something for book club, I try to wait to review it until after the book club meeting. Often my initial reaction to a book is changed through the discussion of the book. This is one reason I attend book clubs. For me, the best way to experience a book is by sharing it with others. This is why I am writing a blog about books. I listened to an audiobook of Way Station, and I felt that it went very quickly. At about 2/3 through the book I realized I was enjoying myself but that not much Read More
The Life-Changing Magic Of Literature
or 7 Books That Literally Changed My Life It is undebatable that literature is life-changing, so I will not try to convince you. Oprah would file this under: “What I know for sure.” When I think about my life and the book-related events that have influenced me the most, these are the books that I consistently mention and why: Heidi by Johanna Spyri I don’t think I ever read this book. I won’t swear to it, but I don’t remember reading it. Why would I list a book as being very influential in my life if I don’t remember having Read More