Luggage and Literature

The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page. - St. Augustine

September 2019 Reading List

by //

Every month I try to read at least one book from the following categories: nonfiction, devotional, and fiction. In 2019 I’m not participating in a formal reading challenge, but rather The Unread Shelf Project 2019, a challenge to read books that I already own. So I’ll be listing where each book came from this year instead of listing a particular challenge category. This is my September 2019 Reading List, my brief reviews and book recommendations for September 2019. Hopefully I’ll provide you with some inspiration for your future reading as well!

Books Finished:

Next by Michael Crichton

Purchased physical book this year.

This novel is an indictment of a runaway bio-genetic research system that does not value humanity. It follows several characters, whose plot lines intertwine with one another. The characters, as with those in all Michael Crichton novels, are compelling. This was an enjoyable read.

The Man Who Knew the Way to the Moon by Todd Zwillich

Audible Original book, so new but free.

This is the true story of John Houbolt, an engineer who pressed for the use of Lunar Orbit Rendezvous, or leaving a craft orbiting the moon while the astronauts went down to the surface. Without him pressing this, the Apollo moon mission likely would not have been successful. It was an interesting tale that I hadn’t every heard about before.

The Masterpiece by Fiona Davis

Borrowed from library using Libby app.

This novel is a dual storyline, one set in the 1920s with an artist working at the art school in Grand Central Terminal in New York, while the other is set in the 1970s with a housewife who has gotten a divorce and now must work in the terminal to support herself. Both characters were relatable and strong women. I liked this book.

Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don’t Know by Malcolm Gladwell

Purchased using Audible credit.

I’m a huge fan of Malcolm Gladwell. I’ve read or listened to all of his previous books, and especially like listening to the audiobooks as he narrates them himself. I also listen to both of his podcasts, Revisionist History and Broken Record. I just love how he takes seemingly different stories and situations and ties them together into a compelling narrative or lesson. This book is no different in that respect. And I’ve spent quite a lot of time thinking about it after having finished it. This likely will be a re-read (or listen) for me, as I just can’t decide exactly what I think about his premise or conclusion. And I do recommend listening to this one on audio, as he blends his podcast and writing styles, in that when he quotes others, he uses audio from that person when he can.

Be All You Can Be: A Challenge to Stretch Your God-Given Potential by John C. Maxwell

Already owned Kindle e-book.

I honestly didn’t love this book. I thought that it would be a great one about stretching yourself and maximizing what you are meant to do. But it appeared to mostly be written for pastors and those in the ministry, which doesn’t describe me. And the whole structure of the book didn’t seem to be one that helped me to remember the lessons within it. I don’t recommend it.

Chancer: How One Good Boy Saved Another by Donnie Kanter Winokur

Purchased Kindle e-book this year (using credits from IHG membership).

This was a sweet and sad memoir. If you want a good cry, there are scenes that will help you with that. But the subject matter of the book is the author’s experience adopting two children from overseas, one of whom has severe behavioral problems and is later diagnosed with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. The author convinces her husband to adopt a dog and have it trained as a service dog for her son, which ends up being the salvation for her son in terms of helping him to realize his potential and be successful in getting through his day to day struggles. The author talks a lot about training Chancer and service dogs. This was really interesting to me, I think more so because my work often means that I deal with children with past trauma, developmental delays, behavioral problems, and even FAS.

The Home Front: Life in America During World War II narrated by Martin Sheen

Audible Original book, so new but free.

I listened to this while I was doing a bunch of repairs and maintenance at my office building. It was wonderful for that, as it was interesting and kept my mind busy while my hands were otherwise occupied. Because it’s an Audible original, I’m counting this with my books, but it was more akin to a podcast series. The Home Front is about Americans’ lives up to, during, and after World War II. It covers women in the workforce, normal Americans’ views on the war and the president, mental health and PTSD, and soldiers’ return to and readjustment to normal life, to name just a few of the topics. This was a great listen, especially narrated by Martin Sheen.

American Prison: A Reporter’s Undercover Journey into the Business of Punishment by Shane Bauer

Borrowed from library.

Prisons are not supposed to be pleasant places. They are supposed to be places of punishment, and places of rehabilitation. But they are supposed to be controlled and prisoners are supposed to be kept safe from other inmates. This book examines the history of prisons and prison farms, particularly when turning a profit is the motive of the state. The author also went undercover to work as a prison guard in a for-profit prison in Louisiana. And the results of his investigative reporting are quite shocking. I am a generally in favor of privatization, but there are certain things that need to remain governmental functions, and I think prisons are among them.

The Heroin Diaries: A Year in the Life of a Shattered Rock Star by Nikki Sixx

Purchased using Audible credit.

As a fan of rock biographies, this was right up my alley. But even after reading several previously, the level of drug use, sex, and general depravity in this one was more than I expected. It’s amazing that Nikki Sixx survived all of this. Essentially this book is the actual diaries written by Nikki Sixx at the height of Motley Crue, commentary from Nikki well after he was able to get clean, as well as the commentaries from others in his life at the time.

The Rabbit Girls by Anna Ellory

Kindle First book, so new but free.

This book follows a woman named Miriam as she’s caring for her dying father right at the fall of the Berlin Wall. She’s a bit of an unreliable narrator, and it becomes clear that there is much more to her personal story. But her father keeps repeating a name that Miriam hasn’t heard before. And Miriam discovers an Auschwitz tattoo on her father’s wrist. Miriam becomes obsessed with her father’s story and finding out who this woman is. The book’s elements of mystery kept me engaged in the book. But I didn’t particularly like Miriam, and really didn’t like her terrible choices. So because of the fact that I couldn’t really get behind the protagonist, I didn’t really love the book.

Death & Honey by Kevin Hearne, Chuck Wendig, and Delilah S. Dawson

Purchased using Audible credit.

I picked this up, as it included an additional installment in The Iron Druid Chronicles, one of Oberon’s Meaty Mysteries. I loved the series so much that I thought this short story collection was worth the money. But I only finished the first two short stories, because the narration was so bad on the final story and I couldn’t understand what the narrator was even saying. Hearne’s story was fantastic, and definitely recommended for completionists like myself. And the second short story, by Delilah Dawson was weird but enjoyable. The title is Death and Honey because all of the stories in some form or fashion include both death and honey/bees.

Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances by Neil Gaiman

Borrowed from a friend.

I love Neil Gaiman, and dove right into this after my friend Sierra loaned it to me. It’s a series of short stories, all of which were great. I do recommend reading the Introduction, as it is written by Gaiman and gives a little primer of what is to come. Making this even more timely for me is that one of the short stories included is called The Case of Death and Honey, fitting right in with the other short story collection that I’d just listened to on audio.

The Murmur of Bees by Sofia Segovia

Purchased Kindle e-book this year (but free on Amazon on World Book Day).

Rounding out my month of inadvertently reading stories about bees and honey (and death) is The Murmur of Bees. This book was recently translated into English, and is so amazing. The characters are colorful and magnetic. The setting is vivid. And the story is such that I don’t want to say much of anything about it, but just want a reader to experience it for themselves without preview. I really recommend this book!

Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman

This was a re-listen/read for me on a road trip, but was new to the others in the vehicle. I listened to this on Audible, which was AMAZING! I read Gaiman’s American Gods a couple of years ago and loved it. Audible recommended this for me, and I didn’t hesitate to download it. I don’t really know what else to say about this book, other than that you need to read it.

 

Books In Progress:

Courageously Uncomfortable by Lisa J. Goins (Already owned Kindle e-book.) My bible study group is working through this book.

The Selected Letters of Willa Cather by Willa Cather, Andrew Jewell, and Janis Stout (Purchased physical book this year.)

Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as if Your Life Depended on It by Chris Voss (Purchased using Audible credit.)

Resistance Women by Jennifer Chiaverini (Borrowed from library using Libby app.)

To Live Is Christ by Beth Moore (Already owned Kindle e-book.)

Scottish Clan & Family Encyclopedia by George Way of Plean and Romilly Squire (Purchased physical book this year.)

 

Books Abandoned:

A Serial Killer’s Daughter: My Story of Faith, Love, and Overcoming by Kerri Rawson (Borrowed from library.)

August 2019 Reading List

by //

Every month I try to read at least one book from the following categories: nonfiction, devotional, and fiction. In 2019 I’m not participating in a formal reading challenge, but rather The Unread Shelf Project 2019, a challenge to read books that I already own. So I’ll be listing where each book came from this year instead of listing a particular challenge category. This is my August 2019 Reading List, my brief reviews and book recommendations for August 2019. Hopefully I’ll provide you with some inspiration for your future reading as well!

Books Finished:

Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Borrowed from library using Libby app.

I listened to the audiobook, and recommend reading this one that way. The cast of narrators (see the image above for a listing) is top-notch, and really brings the story to life. This is a novel telling the story of a fictional band in the 1970s. It is written like a rock biography, and is so well written that I kept thinking that I wanted to look up the people in the band or find the songs that they were referring to, before remembering it was fiction. The ending of the book tied everything together superbly. I can’t recommend this book highly enough.

It Burns: The Scandal-Plagued Race to Breed the World’s Hottest Chili by Marc Fennell

Audible Original book, so new but free.

An Audible Original, this audiobook was more like a podcast series. The author/narrator is a journalist who talks to several different people about the world’s hottest chili peppers. It was fascinating, and an entertaining way to spend a few hours while driving.

The Air We Breathe by Andrea Barrett

Already owned physical book.

A novel told from the perspective of a man in a tuberculosis sanitorium about some of the other people working and living in the sanitorium in 1916. It doesn’t seem like this setting would make for an interesting story, but it just goes to show that in the right hands any setting can have a compelling story. The characters were relatable while also unique. I really liked this book.

D-Day Girls: The Spies Who Armed the Resistance, Sabotaged the Nazis, and Helped Win World War II by Sarah Rose

Borrowed from library using Libby app.

This nonfiction book includes the true stories of French women living in the UK during World War II, who were trained and sent to France to act as spies and saboteurs. Not surprisingly, not all of the women survived to the war’s end. The women were brave and strong, and were able to do things that are so hard to imagine. I listened to this on audio, and it was well-read.

A Grown-Up Guide to Dinosaurs by Ben Garrod

Audible Original book, so new but free.

Another Audible Original that I enjoyed this month, this one was about dinosaurs. As a child I was really interested in dinosaurs (who wasn’t?), and my favorites were the Plesiosaur and the Brachiosaurus. This book talked about the evolution of dinosaurs, and corrected the misconception that I had that these large dinosaurs were all running the Earth at the same time (spoiler, they were not). It also talked about dinosaurs that are still living today. This was so interesting, and truly educational too.

What You Have Left by Will Allison

Already owned physical book.

This book is the story of a wife/mother dying, and a father dropping his daughter off with the grandfather. The whole thing frustrated me so much. No one seemed to understand or deal with the traumas that everyone experienced over the years. And the daughter’s character just made a sudden left-hand turn into alcoholism and gambling, and wasted the opportunities that her grandfather had given her, which made no sense. I read this book clear to the end, and the ending is somewhat satisfying. But the characters just made me incredibly angry throughout the book.

Eat Cake. Be Brave. by Melissa Radke

Purchased using Audible credit.

Melissa Radke apparently has viral videos, and has been in a reality TV show, but I didn’t know any of that before picking out this book to listen to. Honestly, I don’t know how or where I found out about this book, but I’m glad that I did. Melissa tells her story toward bravery and love (including love of herself), and it is fabulous. She narrates the audiobook, which makes it even more awesome. This is a message that all women probably need to hear.

Living on Purpose: Knowing God’s Design for Your Life by Barry D. Ham

Already owned Kindle e-book.

Dr. Ham covers the various areas of life where and how we can fulfill God’s purpose in our life. Each section is about a different area of life (i.e. marriage, career, parenting, etc.), and each chapter is a subtopic relating to that area. I really liked how the end of each chapter had all of the key points, so that you could put the chapter into perspective with the whole book and the whole idea of finding and fulfilling our purpose.

Scuba Exceptional: Become the Best Diver You Can Be by Simon Pridmore

Already owned Audible book.

Mike had purchased this book on Audible, along with several others by Pridmore. I’d listened to the others, and learned good information to help me be a better and safer scuba diver. Because we already had this one in our collection, I listened to it as well. I learned some really good information, and parts of the book sparked really good conversation with Mike as well as with some of our scuba diving friends. If you’re a diver, I’d consider Pridmore’s books must-reads.

The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto by Mitch Albom

Borrowed from library using Libby app.

This is my book club’s November book, and it was available from Libby as an e-book now. I picked it up and read through the whole thing in about three days. It was wonderful. I don’t really want to say much about the book’s plot, because it was so enjoyable discovering it as I went along. What I can say without ruining anything, is that Frankie Presto is a musician, with an interesting instrument and strings, and this is his story, told from his perspective, as well as the perspective of others. I’m really looking forward to discussing this with my book club, and hearing all of their perspectives.

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo

Already owned Audible book.

This was my book club’s pick for August. I’d listened to it once before, and listened to it again to refresh my recollection about the details before we discussed it. Marie Kondo has come into some fame recently with the Netflix series about her tidying up methods. I think this was the original book that she wrote and released about it. There are some components of her methods that make a lot of sense (i.e. keeping things that spark joy), but there are a lot of pieces of her methods that I find completely unrealistic or outrageous. For example, all of my spatulas don’t spark joy, but they’re all needed for cooking that we do, so I’m keeping them. Or, Kondo recommends getting rid of books after reading them, because she only sees books as valuable or important for the content inside of them, whereas I find joy from simply having lots of books on my shelves. Also, Kondo thinks that inanimate objects have feelings and emotions, which is just dumb. I do find the book kind of hilarious. So read this if you need some inspiration to help you tidy, but realize that I’m not advocating for all of her techniques.

Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive by Stephanie Land

Borrowed from library using Libby app.

On the topic of cleaning, I also listened to Maid this month. This is a memoir of Stephanie Land’s experience living in poverty, working as a maid, and caring for her daughter. She escapes a relationship with domestic violence, and gains independence, only to get herself into another crappy relationship and become totally dependent on another man. Her poor decisions really frustrated me. It appeared to me that her circumstances had much more to do with this sort of co-dependent relationship and emotional issues, rather than with her working as a cleaning lady. Her refusal to utilize all of the services that would be available to her and would have improved her circumstances also frustrated me. An example was when she admitted that she went hungry instead of utilizing food banks. Toward the end of the book, she did utilize grants and student loans to go to college, which I was thankful to hear about. But she could have continued her education immediately after becoming pregnant or having her daughter, and it would have (and later did) provide enough of a cushion for her to complete her education and then obtain a better job. I don’t mean any of this to criticize Stephanie Land, as it’s clear that she’s had a hard life, and her family supports were crappy. But I regularly work with folks in much the same position that she found herself in, and poor decisions and prideful refusal to utilize all of the available services set people back in moving out of poverty. And I don’t want anyone to think that she had to stay in the hard circumstances for as long as she ultimately did.

Dune by Frank Herbert

Borrowed from library using Libby app.

One of my book club friends recommended Dune to me, and it’s been on my TBR list for a while. I finally read it, and really enjoyed it. This book would best be classified as sci-fi, which was a step outside of my typical reading. But it reminded me a lot of The Name of the Wind, with it’s world-building and protagonist. It did take me a little while to get into the vocabulary and language used in the book, but once I figured out the vocabulary I was set for the next 800 or so pages.

 

Books In Progress:

The Heroin Diaries: A Year in the Life of a Shattered Rock Star by Nikki Sixx (Purchased using Audible credit.)

Courageously Uncomfortable by Lisa J. Goins (Already owned Kindle e-book.) My bible study group is working through this book.

The Selected Letters of Willa Cather by Willa Cather, Andrew Jewell, and Janis Stout (Purchased physical book this year.)

 

Books Abandoned:

A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving (Borrowed from library using Libby app.)

I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for me to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.