This summer was a good one for me. I spent a full, glorious, book and family-filled week at the beach as well as many days in my backyard reading on the hammock. I learned about sour and gose beers, finally got to see one of my favorite books turned into a movie (I’m looking at you, Lara Jean!), and moved my career in an upward trajectory. I also thumbed my way through 14 books between June 20 and September 21 and below is a look at the cream of the crop. Continue reading
Ugh…spring has not been my best reading season this year. I think I have experienced my first reading slump, and I’m still sort of in it. I was very busy with work during the spring and felt exhausted every night, not really wanting to spend time reading. I also don’t think my book choices helped my case. I had a hard time picking enough books for this post to constitute a list. Of the 12 books I read, 5 were rated 3 stars or less. Despite the reading struggle, there were a few that I enjoyed (reviews linked): Continue reading
Mercifully, winter is over. Now I just need the weather to get on board–we are at the very beginning of yet another snow storm! During this very wintry winter, I have taken solace in some really good reads. I have spent a good deal of time cuddled up under a blanket with my pup by my side making my way through the pages of books. I have read some really good ones this winter, but here are my favorites (reviews linked): Continue reading
Audiobooks can be the ugly-step-sister of the book world. Some people are purists about their literature and only consider reading the words of a book as acceptable. I say, okay whatever, to them. If you want to turn your nose up to audiobooks, that’s fine I guess, but I think audiobooks are a great addition to the literary world. I like to listen to them on my decently long drive to and from work–they keep me happy while I sit in traffic. I like to pop on my headphones when I am doing chores around the house to help make the process a little more enjoyable. I like walking my dog around the neighborhood whilst getting swept away in a story. I love that audiobooks allow me to experience books when I don’t have the time to sit down and read a book. I tend to listen to books that I really want to read, but not enough to pick up the physical book. Sometimes they are books I fear I will have a hard time getting through, so listening to someone read the story to me with the vocal elements and voice inflections helps make it easier to get through. I also like to listen to light reads via audiobook; given how often I am doing something I don’t love (cleaning or driving in traffic), listening to a fun book helps make those moments better. I also like to do re-reads via audiobook. I love snuggling up reading a great book, but I also love listening to a killer audiobook when the story and the narration comes together for an impactful performance. Here are 6 books that I think accomplish all that I love about audiobooks in a fantastic way:
When I hear about a new book or am trying to decide which book to read next, without fail I head to Goodreads and check out the ratings and the reviews. My book choices live and die by the Goodreads rating. I have a hard time getting motivated to read a book that has a Goodreads rating below 3.80 and my preference is for them to hover near 4.00. I have come to rely on this method because I found it to be a great predictor of my level of enjoyment of a book. History has shown me that I usually like a book as well as the Goodreads rating or a little less. Occasionally, however, a book surprises me and I actually like the book more than the Goodreads rating. These are like finding hidden gems. Like a little secret that only I was privy to know. Well I am sharing the secret today about 10 books that I believe are vastly underrated by Goodreads and could be your next hidden gem book find: Continue reading
Reading didn’t come naturally to me. When I look at my nieces and nephews with their noses in a book since the moment they could read (some even before then) I regret that I wasn’t more like that as a kid. When I discussed this with one of my sisters recently, she observed that reading seems more popular for kids and teens today than it ever did when we were kids and teens ourselves. It’s hard to objectively comment on that idea since I clearly wasn’t in a circle that read often, so I decided to do a little research on the topic. I have discovered that reading was on a decline among children and teens throughout the 80s and 90s, which sort of makes sense when I think back to all of the reading programs in school and the amazingness that was Reading Rainbow (created in 1983). It wasn’t until a certain wizard appeared on the scene in the late 90s that this trend started to move in a positive direction making reading more prevalent again. It’s pretty amazing to think the impact a book or a series of books can have on the world. This has had me thinking about books that have changed my own reading trends and trajectory. What are those books that made me turn a corner, or summit a mountain on my reading journey and shaped me into the reader I am today? Continue reading
In honor of the movie Glass Castle coming out today, I thought I would make a list of some of my very favorite movies that were adapted from books. Making a movie from a book is a tumultuous endeavor on the part of the filmmakers, particularly for beloved books. Not every book has made a successful transformation to the silver screen. When I read a book I develop the author’s world into my head and assign faces to characters. I essentially make the movie my way, in my head. Nothing thrills me quite like finding out a book I love is becoming a movie. My expectations are great, perhaps unreasonably so, but in the end, here are a few books who have lived up to my hopes. Continue reading
