One might say that I’m really into books, and you know what? One would be right! I have always been a reader and remember, as a child, receiving books as gifts and being so happy about that. I love books, reading, discovering new books and re-reading books; and I make sure that I spend some time every day in doing that. It relaxes me and brings a sense of calm.

For the amount of reading that I do, I could never afford to buy as many books as I read through in a year. Which means I utilize my public library frequently. Why pay for books when you can borrow them for free and return them when you’re finished? I don’t need to have a physical book in my collection to know that I’ve read it. That’s what I use Goodreads for…to keep track of what I’ve read! And it’s just as much fun browsing for library books as it to browsing to purchase books!

I only buy certain types of books to join my own personal collection. Those would be, to name a few, Harry Potter series, Outlander series, select Jodi Picoult books, anything by Kate Morton, a few classics like Jane Eyre, Sense & Sensibility, and Pride & Prejudice; or titles that I read in high school and really enjoyed. Also, The Chronicles of Narnia, a few books about Princess Di, The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. That’s barely scratching the surface of my collection, but it shows a bit of variety in terms of what I own.

I enjoy having my absolute favourite books in my collection, which then leads me to recommend books to friends and family and then I can lend them out.

I love the idea of shopping for books (whether new or used), browsing through the titles and keeping both eyes open for a hidden treasure! However, I’m very exacting as to what I welcome into my personal collection. Sometimes I’ll see a book that looks interesting but I always ask myself whether I actually need it in my home, taking up reserved space on my bookshelves. Usually I’ll snap a pic of the title/cover and check to see if it’s available at the library. That usually works! Since I have a lot of my favourite books already in my possession, there’s not much more to look for in terms of adding to the collection.

Receiving books as gifts is another completely different category altogether! I recently celebrated a birthday and was gifted a few books by people close to me. They were books that I’d never heard of but they all sound like great reads! I look forward to giving them a try!

What system works for you? Buying books or utilizing a library system? So many great options! Comment below how you acquire your books to read!

2018 Reading Challenge Prompt: A book with an LGBTQ+ protagonist: This Is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel

In trying to find a book for this prompt, there were so many titles in this category that it was difficult to narrow it down to just one. However, this one seemed quite interesting and I’m glad now that I’ve read it.

“This is how a family keeps a secret…and how that secret ends up keeping them. This is how a family lives happily ever after…until happily ever after becomes complicated. This is how children change…and then change the world. This is Claude. He’s five years old, the youngest of five brothers, and loves peanut butter sandwiches. He also loves wearing a dress, and dreams of being a princess. When he grows up, Claude says, he wants to be a girl. Rosie and Penn want Claude to be whoever Claude wants to be. They’re just not sure they’re ready to share that with the world. Soon the entire family is keeping Claude’s secret. Until one day it explodes. This Is How It Always Is is a novel about revelations, transformations, fairy tales, and family. And it’s about the ways this is how it always is: Change is always hard and miraculous and hard again, parenting is always a leap into the unknown with crossed fingers and full hearts, children grow but not always according to plan. And families with secrets don’t get to keep them forever.” (Goodreads)

What an interesting story! Totally out of my realm of experience, but great to read a fictional story/representation of some of the issues that families and transgender people go through.

I really really enjoyed the author’s style of writing! Great use of words and images. Would consider reading more by Laurie Frankel!

Red 5 gives this book a 3/5!!

2018 Reading Challenge Prompt: A book you meant to read in 2017 but didn’t get to: The Story of Beautiful Girl  by Rachel Simon

This was a book that a friend recommended to me last year, and I had it on my list but never got around it. So, finally, I’m glad to say I read it and could include it in this Challenge.

“It is 1968. Lynnie, a young white woman with a developmental disability, and Homan, an African American deaf man, are locked away in an institution, the School for the Incurable and Feebleminded, and have been left to languish, forgotten. Deeply in love, they escape, and find refuge in the farmhouse of Martha, a retired schoolteacher and widow. But the couple is not alone-Lynnie has just given birth to a baby girl. When the authorities catch up to them that same night, Homan escapes into the darkness, and Lynnie is caught. But before she is forced back into the institution, she whispers two words to Martha: “Hide her.” And so begins the 40-year epic journey of Lynnie, Homan, Martha, and baby Julia-lives divided by seemingly insurmountable obstacles, yet drawn together by a secret pact and extraordinary love.” (Goodreads)

This book was a great and interesting story and I got through it quite quickly! I loved reading about the relationship between Lynnie and Homan as they are together and then separated. And the beautiful journey on which they traverse.

Red 5 gives this book a 3/5!!

2018 Reading Challenge Prompt: A bestseller from the year you graduated high school: The Rescue  by Nicholas Sparks

I’ve read a few books by this author in my past, but they never really sparked (lol) anything for me. This one wasn’t any different. This was one bestseller in the year 2000, my graduation year, and was one that I hadn’t read before. So by process of elimination of books, this was the choice for this prompt.

“When confronted by raging fires or deadly accidents, volunteer fireman Taylor McAden feels compelled to take terrifying risks – risks no one else in the department would ever take – to save lives. But there is one leap of faith Taylor can’t bring himself to make: He can’t fall in love. For all his adult years, Taylor has sought out women who need to be rescued, women he leaves as soon as their crisis is over, as soon as the relationship starts to become truly intimate. Then, one day, a raging, record-breaking storm hits his small Southern town. Denise Holton, a young single mother, is driving through it when her car skids off the road. With her is her four-year-old son, Kyle, a boy with severe learning disabilities and for whom she has sacrificed everything. Unconscious and bleeding, she-but not Kyle-will be found by Taylor McAden. And when she wakes, the chilling truth becomes clear to both of them: Kyle is gone. During the search for Kyle, the connection, the lifeline, between Taylor and Denise takes root. Taylor doesn’t know that this rescue will be different from all the others, demanding far more than raw physical courage. That it will lead him to the possibility of his own rescue from a life lived without love. That it will require him to open doors to his past that were slammed shut by pain. That it will dare him to live life to the fullest by daring to love.” (Goodreads)

I wasn’t a fan of this one, and I must admit I skimmed over a few parts to try to get to some substance in this book! It was also highly predictable.

Red 5 gives this book a 1/5!!

2018 Reading Challenge Prompt: A book with a weather element in the title: Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See

The title of this book has the weather element of “snow.” This is something we here in Canada are all too familiar with…especially this month! There were so many books to choose from in this category of weather elements, but I chose this one as it sounded intriguing and I was curious to read a book about people outside of my culture and that with which I’m familiar.

“In nineteenth-century China, when wives and daughters were foot-bound and lived in almost total seclusion, the women in one remote Hunan county developed their own secret code for communication: nu shu (women’s writing). Some girls were paired with laotongs, ‘old sames’, in emotional matches that lasted throughout their lives. They painted letters on fans, embroidered messages on handkerchiefs, and composed stories, thereby reaching out of their isolation to share their hopes, dreams, and accomplishments.

With the arrival of a silk fan on which Snow Flower has composed for Lily a poem of introduction in nu shu, their friendship is sealed and they become ‘old sames’ at the tender age of seven. As the years pass, through famine and rebellion, they reflect upon their arranged marriages, loneliness, and the joys and tragedies of motherhood. The two find solace, developing a bond that keeps their spirits alive. But when a misunderstanding arises, their lifelong friendship suddenly threatens to tear apart.” (Goodreads)

This book was very interesting as it tells the story of these two girls, beginning with their foot-binding days and throughout their friendship and relationship as laotong. Foot-binding is not something I understand, in terms of why anyone would ever do that, but I learned a lot about this practice and what seemed to be important to people in that time period. Things like honour and obedience and doing what is expected of one. It was a very interesting story.

Red 5 gives this book a 3/5!!

 

2018 Reading Challenge Prompt: A book based on a real person: My Secret Sister  by Helen Edwards & Jenny Lee Smith

The remarkable true story of twin sisters who were separated at birth: one was kept by their birth mother and one was adopted out. Both experienced very different lives: one was abused and one was loved. Their story of how they grew up and how they found each other later in their lives.

It’s heartbreaking to hear how the one sister grew up in such a dysfunctional and violent home, to hear how people could treat a child when the most important thing she needed was love and it wasn’t found in her home.

I found the book to be full of detail and seemingly random moments in the lives of the sisters. It could have been condensed somewhat with less repetition (especially all of the golf exploits that seemed to blend together for me). But overall, it was a really great story.

Red 5 gives this book a 2/5!!

2018 Reading Challenge Prompt: A book about Time Travel: Kindred  by Octavia E. Butler

This was a really interesting book. Loved the concept and it kept me quite riveted, as to what would happen next as Dana travels back and forth in time, pulled by the same boy each time and always when he’s in trouble or danger. So interesting to see the perspective of an African-American woman from the 1970s

“The first science fiction written by a black woman, Kindred has become a cornerstone of black American literature. This combination of slave memoir, fantasy, and historical fiction is a novel of rich literary complexity. Having just celebrated her 26th birthday in 1976 California, Dana, an African-American woman, is suddenly and inexplicably wrenched through time into antebellum Maryland. After saving a drowning white boy there, she finds herself staring into the barrel of a shotgun and is transported back to the present just in time to save her life. During numerous such time-defying episodes with the same young man, she realizes the challenge she’s been given: to protect this young slaveholder until he can father her own great-grandmother.” (Goodreads).

I hadn’t realized that this book was first published in the 1970s…I thought it was a more recent publication. And, I had never heard of this book until a few months ago. I’d encourage anyone interested in time travel or the time period of the early 1800s to give this one a try!

Red 5 gives this book a 3/5!!

2018 Reading Challenge Prompt: A book set in the decade you were born: The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver

The Bean Trees was set in the 1980s, thus I chose it for this prompt. I could have gone with the traditional choice of reading 1984, but I wanted to read something I’d never read before. This was a somewhat interesting story, it wasn’t the most amazing book I’ve ever read, but it was entertaining and I enjoyed the characters. I really liked seeing how the characters eventually became some kind of family together, and their way of interacting with each other.

“Clear-eyed and spirited, Taylor Greer grew up poor in rural Kentucky with the goals of avoiding pregnancy and getting away. But when she heads west with high hopes and a barely functional car, she meets the human condition head-on. By the time Taylor arrives in Tucson, Arizona, she has acquired a completely unexpected child, a three-year-old American Indian girl named Turtle, and must somehow come to terms with both motherhood and the necessity for putting down roots. Hers is a story about love and friendship, abandonment and belonging, and the discovery of surprising resources in apparently empty places.” (Goodreads)

I can’t recall whether I’ve read anything else by Kingsolver, and not sure yet whether I will. But I enjoyed this one and it was a quick read for me. 🙂

Red 5 gives this book a 3/5!!

2018 Reading Challenge Prompt: A book by a local author: Holly Farb and the Princess of the Galaxy by Gareth Wronski

This was an okay book. I wouldn’t read it again and am still undecided whether I’d read something else by this author. It’s a Junior Fiction book which is usually not a problem with me, so I’m going to assume something about it just wasn’t my cup of tea. The story didn’t enthrall me or keep me really interested at all. But it was somewhat entertaining in a few places.

“Holly Farb is not the Princess of the Galaxy. She may be top of the class in every subject, but she can’t even win a school election, never mind rule the Milky Way. The aliens who kidnapped her have gotten it all wrong. Unfortunately Holly’s alien pirate kidnappers believe that she’s the princess they’ve been looking for, and so she finds herself hurtling through space on an alien pirate ship together with her teacher, Mr. Mendez, and Chester, the most annoying boy in her class. Now all she has to do is escape the pirates, find the missing princess, and get back to Earth in time for her big test on Friday. But it turns out that space is a pretty big place, and before they can go home, Holly, Chester, and Mr. Mendez must face down space cruise liners, bounty hunters, giant worms, perky holograms, cosmic board games, sinister insectoid librarians, and a robot who is learning how to lie. Between running from space pirates, defying the President of the Universe, and meeting a host of rather unusual new friends, Holly starts to wonder if there might be more to life than being top of the class after all.” (Goodreads)

Red 5 gives this book a 1/5!!

It’s that time of year again…time to share with you what my friends are currently reading or have been reading recently. I always like working on this post as it gives me (and all of you) some book ideas to add to my TBR list! I’ve only read 5 books on the following list, which means lots more ideas to look into!

Thanks to those of you who allowed me to share what you’re reading these days! I couldn’t do this without all of you!!

Jeff: The Overlook by Michael Connelly

Anonymous: Her Last Breath by Linda Castillo

Megan: A Hope More Powerful Than the Sea: One Refugee’s Incredible Story of Love, Loss and Survival  by Melissa Fleming

Katy: books by Elin Hilderbrand

Gary: God: A Human History by Reza Aslan

Hillary: The Cave by Jose Saramago

Lynnette: Keep You Safe by Melissa Hill

Cordelia: A Voice in the Wind by Francine Rivers

Anonymous: textbooks for American Sign Language

Joanne: Red by Ted Dekker

Nancy: Marrow

Amanda: Wonder by R.J. Palacio , The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah, and Teatime for the Firefly by Shona Patel

Annica: The Lake House by Kate Morton, and Hold Onto Your Kids by Gordon Neufeld and Gabor Maté

Sara: Two Hundred and Twenty-One Baker Streets: An Anthology of Holmesian Tales Across Time and Space edited by David Thomas Moore, and A Year of Biblical Womanhood by Rachel Held Evans

Anita: Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine  by Gail Honeyman, Soul Keeping by John Ortberg, Everest  by Gordon Korman, Circle Maker  by Mark Batterson, and Cartes Postale from Greece  by Victoria Hislop

Doug: Stranger in the Woods by Michael Finkel, Since We Fell by Dennis Lehane, The Rooster Bar by John Grisham, The Execution of Noa P. Singleton by Elizabeth L. Silver, and The Late Show by Michael Connelly

Elizabeth: Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly, and A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

Serena: The Brutal Telling by Joyce Penny, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson, and This Is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel