Well, here it is the beginning of December already, and I am just now finally getting ’round to writing a new reading report update! Goodness. But life just keeps being complicated, and I simply don’t have the energy to sit down and string words together in coherent thoughts. Anyway, since my last update a while back (ahem!) I have finished quite a lot of titles. I think the best plan is just to give a very brief review of each one and note if a particular book was read for a club or challenge. Let’s go!
Finished Books:
Move Your DNA by Katy Bowman: FINALLY finished this one! I did appreciate many of the points in the book regarding different kind of movement. I do think this is a book that would have been better in print than it was in audio for the second section in which she gives recommendations for exercises/stretches. But overall, I do recommend this for anyone curious about fitness and/or natural movement.
The Happiest Man on Earth by Eddie Jaku: Read with my local nature group mom’s book “club.” This was a very good contrast to Elie Weisel’s Night which I read earlier this year. It illustrated so well how two men can go through virtually the same sort of experience and come out with a completely different outlook on the other side. Very uplifting and encouraging read.
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens: Another title that took me quite some time to complete, but what can you expect with Dickens? I can’t say this was my favorite Dickens book ever (that would still go to A Tale of Two Cities), but I did enjoy the story and the development of David’s character. I would say, however, that the ending felt terribly drawn out. I could see where the story was going several chapters before the end, and it started to feel rather tedious to keep waiting around for everything to finally get wrapped up.
Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift: Very interesting to actually read a book that has so many cultural references and see that there is much more to it than just the Lilliputians. I may have noted this in a previous reading report, but I probably would have done well to have had some hand-holding on this such as Angelina Stanford’s class on Jonathan Swift. But, even without that, I was able to pull out and appreciate some of the satirical critiques and humorous jabs he was making.
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen: This was a re-read for me, but I think it has been 10-20 years since I last read it. I used an audio version as a companion for my frequent insomnia, since I didn’t need to stay awake and worry about missing something in such a familiar storyline. Even so, I did sometimes catch little details or bits of dialogue that I had forgotten about since I am, admittedly, more familiar with the BBC miniseries than the book itself.
Coleridge’s Ancient Mariner and Other Poems: This was a read for the Tea and Ink Society prompt for November–“Romantic Poets.” I didn’t exactly finish the whole collection but did complete the “Ancient Mariner” and some of the other longish poems in the collection.
I Am Half-Sick of Shadows by Alan Bradley: I picked this Flavia DeLuce mystery because I needed a fun, engaging audio book to beat the reading doldrums recently. It had been some time since reading the previous book in this series, and I don’t intend to wait quite so long to start the next one. There is something so charming about Flavia and her family, in spite of their quirks and foibles, and Alan Bradley always sets up a compelling puzzle to try and solve. Highly recommend!
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley: I read this along with The Literary Life podcast series covering this book. I was glad it was not as heavy and dark as I expected, nor as long. I actually finished it very quickly. It was very helpful to have the podcast to help me think through some of the different layers of the story, and I do recommend that series for anyone wanting to gain some additional insight into what Huxley was doing with this book.
Better Than Before by Gretchen Rubin: This was another book I decided to use as a sleepy-time audio book. I did have to go back and re-listen to sections that I missed due to dozing off, but I didn’t mind doing that since it wasn’t a terribly long book. I didn’t find the habit-training concepts particularly earth-shattering, but it was still an interesting and helpful read. I think I would like to read more of her work specifically on the “Four Tendencies.”
Currently Reading
Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner: Still slowly plugging away at this book, although I haven’t picked it up as much recently because I have been prefering audio books to print so that I can knit or crochet as I listen. But I do fully plan on finishing it, hopefully before the end of the year.
Blackout by Connie Willis: I needed another potato-chippy sort of book to keep me going after I finished my Flavia DeLuce, and I already had this title on my TBR for this year. I have really come to enjoy Connie Willis’ storytelling and her Oxford Time Travel series. This one is keeping me on my toes and is definitely a page-turner.
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith: I have had this title in the back of my mind for quite some time but hadn’t actually added to my TBR until I was editing the most recent episode of The Literary Life in which is was mentioned. Even though I didn’t really want to have a new fiction audio book for sleeping that I hadn’t read before, I decided to try this one for night-time after finishing Better Than Before. I think I might be too engaged in the story now for that to work. It does seem to be my sort of story and writing. Yay!
When Life Was Young at the Old Farm in Maine by C. A. Stephens: This is a for fun bedtime read-aloud with my kids. It’s kind of been slow going because we just don’t read every evening. But we will definitely be finishing it eventually. It’s a charming but true account of childhood and life on a New England farm just after the Civil War ended. Definitely recommend!
I think that pretty much covers it all! I have to finish 5 books before the end of the year to make it to my goal of 50 books completed in 2025. Hopefully, I can stay on a roll and also find some short-ish books to help push me over the finish line on time. I will come back here next month (pinky-promise!) and let you know how that worked out. Until then, happy reading, friends!
Kiel
