I have so much more time to read now that tax season is over. I read three books in the three days after the fifteenth. It’s so odd to go from 100% work to 100% free time and I’m still adjusting to the change even after three tax seasons solo.
The Lost Years by Mary Higgins Clark
We all know I love Mary Higgins Clark. This one had the promise of a biblical mystery, so double win.
Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead by Brene Brown
Brene Brown is a shame researcher and her book was very highly recommended to me. Her research fascinates me as I’m very prone to feeling guilty and worrying about what other people think of what I’m doing. I was particularly interested in her chapter on daring greatly and parenting as the idea of providing kids with the tools to handle or even overcome shame is fascinating.
The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
This book was recommended to me by my friend Theresa (so in reading it I was both assured it would be good and able to check off “a book that someone else recommended to you” on the Read Harder Challenge). I put the book on hold at the library and was about 500th in line. By a stroke of fate the book came available for me on April 15th, so it was the first thing I dug into post tax season.
And oh, it was so good. The protagonist, Rachel, has invented a backstory for two people she sees from her London commuter train each day. As the story goes on, we learn more about them – and how they differ greatly from Rachel’s preconceptions – and about Rachel’s own troubled history. Everyone in the story – like everyone in real life – had conflicting motives and reasoning. I devoured this book.
Becoming Mortal Gods by Michael Heitkemper
This book was self-published (or something along those lines – I googled the publishing house and it appears to be a platform offering a “partnership” of some sort with authors who want to get their stories published). Why would I google the publishing house? This is not something I’ve ever cared about before, but my curiosity won out as I waded through grammar errors. Please know that I’m hardly perfect in this regard myself but I tend to see other people’s errors as though they are glowing neon. I still find errors in books published by “big” houses but not nearly as many as in this book – many homophone errors (there/there, its/it’s), characters worried about “loosing” their jobs, inconsistencies with the spelling of characters’ names (most notably Adolph/Adolf Hitler, a key player in a book with a WWII story woven in). I told Will I was going to correct all the errors with a red pen and mail it back to the author.
This is not meant to be snarky – it’s very hard to read your own errors as your brain tends to read what you meant to say – but because I really liked the story and I felt the errors detracted and may put someone else off finishing. Ha, I just noticed that the one Amazon review says the same thing. I promise I’m not “Nana Annie”.
Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown
Determine what is essential and focus on that, to the exclusion of the fluff that life throws your way, to make your biggest impact in life and business. I love this message. I love shedding the glorification of busy. I read this book in a day because the premise – while solid – was conveyed in what I felt to be a little bit of a repetitive manner. I felt like I “got it” long before the author was willing to accept that I could have. I definitely skimmed towards the end.
Songs of the Humpback Whale by Jodi Picoult
Jodi Picoult is one of those writers I can always depend on when I want a good story. This particular story – in typical Picoult fashion – is told through the eyes of the characters involved. This time, however, while everyone else tells the story in typically linear fashion, we see the daughter’s story told in reverse. Towards the end of the book, I was waiting for events to converge, knowing the fate of certain characters before they did.
Theresa says
I love that you enjoyed ‘The Girl on the Train’. It’s one of my favorite books recently — exactly the kind of gripping, entertaining read that you can enjoy over a few days.
Helena says
Agreed! Thanks for recommending it!
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