Monday, May 25, 2020

What I'm Reading! January Books

It has been SO LONG since I've done a book review! The first few weeks of "Shelter At Home" status, my mind was WILD. I couldn't concentrate on reading, I couldn't sleep at night, I wasn't eating. I would say about 3 weeks in some of that shifted (it helped when Eddie began staying at home, too) and I have been able to focus on some projects around here as well as some reading. I am still not pouring through books at a high volume, but it has increased tremendously.

One thing I will share is that my Kindle is one of my favorite purchases EVER. I got a Kindle for my birthday 10 days after James was born and I loved it. About a year ago I got myself a new version of the Kindle Oasis. It's their priciest model, but it has back lighting (my original model Kindle isn't lit - I had to use a light to read) and this one is WATERPROOF. Game changer. So I have been reading in bed at night to fall asleep instead of watching TV like I have always done for YEARS and I've been floating in an extra large baby pool and reading there as well. The pool has been MAGICAL. The boys have "quiet time" (AKA - Mama gets quiet time) for an hour every afternoon. I usually use 30-45 minutes of their quiet time for reading and floating if it is hot enough and sunny. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't. That gets me outside in some solid Vitamin D about 3-4 times per week. The rest of my outdoor time I'm usually in the shade. 

Since it's been a WHILE since I've shared what I'm reading, I thought I'd start back at the beginning of January and just get caught up. 

Love Does by Bob Goff
This one is really so good. Bob Goff is just a great guy and a fun story teller. He tells stories throughout this book that lead back to Jesus and what the Bible teaches us about love. I have the book, but I listened to it on Audible. It was a great audio book and Bob reads it himself. There's a kid version to and my two LOVE it.

Call Me God: The Untold Story of the DC Sniper Investigation by Jim Clemente, Tim Clemente, and Peter McDonnell
This is sort of cheating because it's not actually a book - it's an Audible original. It plays out more like a podcast than an audiobook. It was INCREDIBLY well done. If you recall the events of the sniper shootings around Washington, D.C. back in the early 2000s, you might be interested in this one. It is narrated the whole way through, but provides accounts from a multitude of people - FBI agents, police officers, the families of those officers, victims' families, etc. SO well done. I was very impressed. I listened to this on the way home from St. Simons late one night and every time I got to a traffic light I got a little uneasy!

Independence Day: Resurgence by Alexander C. Irvine
Meh. That's how I felt about this one. Just ok. If you don't know me well, you may not know that I am a closet sci-fi weirdo. Anything where animals go crazy (see several others below), I am all over. I loved Independence Day, the movie, when it came out years and years ago and I re-watch it every summer. I got this one on Audible a few months back and finally got around to listening to it in January. It's the novel based on the movie sequel that came out a few summers back. It was ok. Nothing great, nothing terrible. It follows the movie exactly and to me the movie was just ok. I loved that many of the original characters are back and that it's a true sequel, not a remake. I didn't love it or hate it.

Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
I am a HUGE Michael Crichton fan. I realize his writing isn't for everyone, but Jurassic Park is definitely one that I think most people can enjoy. Straying from the movie in some ways, the book follows Alan Grant and Ellie Sattler who are taken to Isla Nublar by John Hammond to see his "biological preserve." Obviously, what ensues after is animal chaos. The book can obviously go into much more detail (the raptors play a larger part in the book than in the movie and several characters don't survive the island). If the movie is a favorite and you haven't read the book, do yourself a favor!

Caldera by Larry LaVoie
Following my science-fiction trend in the early part of the year, I read Caldera which had been on my Kindle unread for a while. This one is about a super volcano and the political corruption that can occur when natural events transpire. (Hmmm....) I wanted to really enjoy this one, but it fell a little flat for me. This story flips between the view point of a few different characters - Carlene Carlson, an assistant to a Yellowstone volcanologist and Jason Trask, a USGS volcanologist. Trask and Carlson find evidence that Yellowstone is going to erupt, but they begin being targeted to quiet their findings. The story twists and turns as they try to uncover more evidence and reveal it to people who can alert those that need to know. It wasn't a bad story, it just didn't hold my attention.

I'll share February's books tomorrow. I'd LOVE to hear suggestions for you about what I should read. You'll see over the next few days that I will read almost anything. I don't have a particular genre that I gravitate to. What are you reading?

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