Off the blog

This has been a fun two weeks. I got lots of books read, and got lots of fun stuff done. 🙂 Last weekend, we went to the pumpkin patch / corn festival and had lots of fun in the corn pit:

A couple days later, we carved our pumpkins. Mine had a few rotten parts, so I carved them out and pretended that I planned my pumpkin that way from the beginning. The kids were so confused!

On Wednesday, Aaron and the kids went trick-or-treating. D was Hermione and M was Batman. Unfortunately, I was feeling really tired that night and didn’t end up getting pictures for you.

We also had parent-teacher-conferences. M is doing very well in school – the teacher is thrilled with him. D is also doing much better than last year, though we still need to get the anxiety under control. I think part of the improvement was that she clicks better with this year’s teacher (who is calmer) than she did with last year’s teacher. Sometimes that happens – it doesn’t mean last year’s teacher was bad, just that sometimes students and teachers don’t click.

I’m down to 6 weeks more of my pregnancy, and will start weekly doctor appointments now. *le sigh* But at least I’m in the last stretch! Today, in fact, is our day-long birthing class. I was skeptical that taking a birthing class would be a good use of time, but decided that my anxiety disorder has been acting up quite a bit with this pregnancy, and I’ll probably be calmer if I feel like I’ve considered everything that needs to be considered.

On the blog

I reviewed: Them, by Ben Sasse; The Cresswell Plot, by Elizabeth Wass; and The Hate U Give, by Angie Thomas.

In November, I have decided to participate in Nonfiction November, Margaret Atwood Reading Month, and SciFi Month.

I have decided to host a Dresden Files Group Read and a 2019 Year of Shakespeare (though I am considering combining with The Classics Club and hosting 3 months of a 37-month Shakespeare event).

Reading this coming week

Here are the books that I plan on making progress on during the next week. I know I read a lot of books at once. But that’s the way I roll. 🙂

Completed

Over the past two weeks, I have completed 7 books – leaving me on track to get to my goal of 75 books this year.

Acquired

I pulled off quite the book haul over the past two weeks. The Lies We Told is my BOTM book for October. Scriptures of the World’s Religions and A Survey of Hinduism will be enjoyed slowly as part of my personal education experience. Washington Black is my Litsy Markup Postal Book Club choice for November. I received The Quiet You Carry and A Bright Future as NetGalley ARCS. (Eventually they’ll stop giving me ARCS as my percentage of books reviewed is 54%. I’m currently working on reading down my list while only requesting one book per release-month. I’m out to May in Nonfiction and March in Fiction.)

SciFi month is starting today! (Hosted by imyril at One More  and Lisa at Dear Geek Place.) It fits in nicely with the Margaret Atwood Month that I’m participating in and my Dresden Group Read that I’m hosting (check my Challenges page). So here’s my reading list for the month. Small, yes, but I’ve got a lot going on.

So Margaret Atwood Month has started. It’s hosted by Naomi at Consumed by Ink and Marcie at BuriedInPrint. The first week’s prompt is to talk about the first Atwood book we’ve read. I am ashamed to say that I’ve only read one Atwood book: The Handmaid’s Tale, and that not until a couple of months ago (review here). This was an amazing book, and I wish I hadn’t taken so long to read it. I first heard about Margaret Atwood when I was a teenager, and I was asking someone about The Robber Bride, which I found them reading at work. She couldn’t quite describe to me what “genre” Atwood wrote – which now is funny to me. I apparently thought all books had genres. But I bought the book the next day, and still haven’t read it. lol.

I thought this event was a good opportunity to read a little more Atwood – though I will only be able to fit in one book, as I have a lot going on this month. It’ll be Oryx and Crake. I’m looking forward to seeing everyone else’s reviews!

 

I know this is late notice, but I have decided to read all the Dresden Files books in a little over a year. There are currently 15 of them. I will start with Storm Front in November. If anyone wants to join this project, let me know in the comments. This can be an informal event where I post a linky for people’s reviews, and you can read at your own pace – or pick up in the middle of the series if you wish.

Summary: In this heart-wrenching book, Starr Carter witnesses the shooting of an life-long friend during a traffic stop. At first, she doesn’t want to talk about it with anyone, as the pain is too deep. But eventually she begins to learn that speaking out is the only way stop such things from happening again. Stuck between two worlds – that of her family and neighbors and that of her mostly white private school – Starr must learn to navigate a life that is all her own.

My Thoughts: Wow. I’m not sure what I can say about this book. I cried pretty much every time I opened the it because it is so tragic and realistic. This is the most powerful book I’ve read in years, and it was aimed at teens. There are some complaints among parents about the violence and the language in this book, but you know what? Teens need to learn what the world is like right now, or nothing is going to change. I think EVERYONE needs to read this book. I wish I could give it more than 5 stars.

For those who are afraid that this book is anti-police, Starr’s uncle is an officer, and he’s one of the good guys.

Nonfiction November is an annual celebration of Nonfiction. This year it is hosted by Julie (JulzReads), Sarah (Sarah’s Book Shelves), Katie (Doing Dewey), Rennie (What’s Nonfiction), and Kim (Sophisticated Dorkiness). The first prompt is today, and is hosted by Kim.

Week 1: (Oct. 29 to Nov. 2) – Your Year in Nonfiction (Kim @ Sophisticated Dorkiness):Take a look back at your year of nonfiction and reflect on the following questions – What was your favorite nonfiction read of the year? Do you have a particular topic you’ve been attracted to more this year? What nonfiction book have you recommended the most? What are you hoping to get out of participating in Nonfiction November?

Here’s an overview of the Nonfiction books I’ve read thus far this year. I usually get more read, but I’m a little behind this year!

My Favorite Nonfiction This Year – I’d say the best nonfiction book I read this year was Killers of the Flower Moon, by David Grann. It was an account of the Osage murders in Oklahoma in the 1920s. Tragic and fascinating. I would suggest it to anyone who reads general nonfiction or recent history.

Particular Topic that I Read More Of – Well, I read two each of these three subjects: Mental Health (American Psychosis and No One Cares About Crazy People), Incarceration (Incarceration Nations and Beyond These Walls – not pictured), and Scientology (Beyond Belief and Going Clear).

Nonfiction Book Recommended the Most – Lol. Sorry, I have no idea whether there’s any one book I suggest more often. I tend to suggest books based on people’s interest subjects.

What Do I Hope to Accomplish by Participating in Nonfiction November – I hope to find more bloggers to interact with

Summary: Castella Cresswell lives in a world that is different from those she goes to school with – her father is abusive to her and her 5 siblings, and they are encouraged to believe that he is a prophet of God. When she meets a boy that talks to her as if she’s a “normal” person, Castella becomes confused about what she should believe about herself, God, and her family.

My Thoughts: I’ve seen plenty of mediocre reviews for this book, and I’m not sure why. The writing was engaging, and I cared (and worried) for the characters. There was enough suspense to keep me interested all the way through. And the plot was, on the whole, believable. I believe that families like this are rare, but they exist. And what’s more believable is the way the rest of the town ignored the obvious abuse that was going on in the Cresswell household. Overall, I thought this was a good book, and I would suggest it to people who like teen realism.

I am considering having a year of Shakespeare next year. Potentially with theme-based trimesters:

Jan – Apr Comedies

May – Aug Histories

Sep – Dec Tragedies

Would anyone be interested in joining? It would be very informal, with trimesterly linkups to post links to your reviews.

Summary: Senator Sasse’s book describes how the breakdown of community due to advancing technology, changes in the way we consume news, and general changes in how we interact with each other has led to heated tribalism.

My Thoughts: I totally agree with Sasse about several subjects – especially how we consume news. Instead of reading accurate, important, and informative news, our media outlets and social media feeds are focusing on stupid, distracting tribalism. For instance, why are we focusing on whether Melania Trump slapped Donald’s hand away (or what she’s wearing) instead of focusing on major issues like healthcare and border security? Focusing on things like this is hateful, useless, and silly. Because we are inundated with this information, it is more difficult to find the important news. I also agree with Sasse about addiction to screens, and how it is causing a breakdown in family and friend communication. However, despite agreeing with his main points about technology, I found his chapter on technology too long for the point he was trying to make. He’s not an expert on technology, he doesn’t need to write pages and pages of descriptions of upcoming technologies.

I did not relate to Sasse’s argument on a number of points. For instance, he grew up in a small town and describes the breakdown of that small town culture over his lifetime. Despite growing up in the same decade as Sasse, I can’t relate to this loss at all. I’m sure it’s great that everyone was able to sit around every Friday night at a small town football game and chat about politics amicably. But that’s not the life I grew up in. How does Sasse’s argument about the breakdown of culture apply to great number of people who, like myself, did not grow up in that situation? Or am I not his target audience? I can see Sasse’s point that loneliness and lack of occupation leads to depression-like symptoms, which can then lead to hateful speech and focusing on the negatives of life. However, I have not been lonely or lacked occupation. Though I mainly avoid hateful speech (I like to think), I do lean heavily to the left politically. (In other words, I have my tribe.) So there’s more to tribalism than the loss of small town dynamics, loneliness, and lack of occupation.

I thought Sasse did an excellent job of remaining as unpartisaned as he could, considering his strong right leanings. Of course, he had to include some partisan points because he needed to talk about subjects he was familiar with (which is why he focused so much on the breakdown of small-town life when many of his readers will not be able to relate to that subject). But he did a good job of keeping it down to a minimum and not saying anything strongly controversial for the sake of his more liberal-leaning readers. I really admired his restraint on staying as unpartisaned as he could.

In fact, the only objection I had to what was in the book was one comment in which he used the word “schizophrenic” in an inappropriate sense, using it as an adjective to describe people who move from job to job in an erratic way. Misuse of words like “bipolar” and “schizophrenic” is one of my pet peeves. Mental illness is real, Mr. Sasse, and it’s painful. Misusing these words minimizes the pain people with mental illnesses (like myself) go through. I would say that this is not a partisan thing, but I guess sensitivity to others’ feelings (a.k.a. political correctness) IS actually a partisan thing sometimes.

Anyway, enough of my rant. I want to give the book 3.5 stars because I felt that it made some very good points, but had some rather boring sections (like the overly-long chapter on technology). I’d like to give him an extra half of a star for remaining as unpartisaned as possible, however, so I’m settling on 4 stars.

And it’s that time of year again! I’m participating in Dewey’s 24 Hour Readathon starting 7am Minneapolis time. My goal is 12 hours of reading, though I usually pull off closer to 8.

Hour 0: I’m sitting here in front of my happy lamp, ready to start.

Overall Progress

Them, by Ben Sasse: 54% – complete

The Passage, by Justin Cronin: 29.5hr – 32.5hr

The Witch of Willow Hall, by Hester Fox: 42% – 52%

The Wasp Factory, by Iain Banks: 60% – 80%