YES!! 52 Weeks!!!!
Let me preface this by saying I know I know I haven’t posted in two weeks, but I’ve been busy and stressed and not wanting to so what are ya going to do?.
A lot of people have been posting a lot of “it’s been a whole year of the pandemic” type posts but this is not one of those posts.
This is a I FINALLY GOT TO GO INTO A LIBRARY post!
When I left work last year on March 13th, I detoured to my local library and had to go inside to drop off some books I was using in my class for science and social studies.
Little did I know that it would be a year TO THE DAY!!!!! (minus like 2 hours) until I would be able to go back into a library.
I was so happy!!! And yes, my dear readers who don’t know, this is what I look like lol
I have been reading a lot lately. Like a LOT a LOT. I started the second week of January, and was picking up my first stack of holds when the city went into strict stay at home orders – only going out for emergencies. The library was my one exception. I was teaching online and was already forced to stare at a screen from 9-3:30 and I didn’t want to do it anymore. So I was allowing myself to get actual books. That’s the only rule I have broken this ENTIRE FREAKING PANDEMIC AND I WILL NOT APOLOGIZE FOR IT!
Usually I have to stand outside while a library worker gets my books and signs them out and then places them on a table that blocks the door way while she backs away and I take the books, but now that Toronto is in the Grey Zone, I was allowed to go INSIDE! An employee looked at my card and he found my books on the holds shelf and I was able to check them out myself. All. By. My. Self! Like the big girl that I am. *nods triumphantly*
Anyway, since I’ve read all these books, I thought I would share them and my ratings out of 5.
The Ragamuffin Gospel: 1 star
I heard about this book from the chat one Sunday during my church service. Apparently it was supposed to be this life changing book and super duper amazing awesome sauce. And ya know what? It wasn’t. Most of the life changing ideas I had already come to realize on my own last summer during my 100-days of Jesus and reconnecting with my God. On top of that, the author used derogatory language to describe a few groups of people and I honestly hated it after that. And sure, it was written 25 years before (legit probably more I just happened to have the anniversary copy) and they couldn’t have changed some words in their reprints? HUH HUH?! No. Be BETTER Christian community. BE BETTER!
A Fine Balance – 2 stars
This book was recommended by a FB friend. And I tried to finish it! I REALLY tried. But it was (seriously) 900 pages! And it was the type of book that I could read for 2 hours and only get through 30 pages. I’d be old and dead before finishing it and it wasn’t even that interesting to me. So I stopped reading about 200 pages in. It’s really hard for me to stop a book once I have started it but I am getting better at it.
She’s Come Undone – 5 stars
Same FB friend recommended this one. IT WAS GREAT! A little long and took about a week to get through but it was worth it. I loved it!
Tuesdays With Morrie – 5 stars
Same FB person AGAIN hahah she gave me a lot of suggestions. This was the first book I read. I finished it in 3 hours and loved every second of it! I had read Mitch Albom before and thoroughly enjoy his writing. I didn’t have any life altering moments like a lot of people claim to get from this book, but it was good all the same.
The Eyes of The Dragon – 5 stars
Suggested by Aaron, I was a little skeptical at first because I associate Stephen King with horror and I’m not that kind of girl. I thought this was the first King novel I ever read, but I had read one previously without knowing that it was a King novel. Or at least not remembering.
I loved it!! Excellent story and not scary.
Ps: if you are reading this and NOT participating in Aaron’s Sunday Scribblings, what exactly are you doing?! This week’s word of inspiration is pie so y’all best get to writing and tagging him so he knows you wrote a post!
Shantaram – 4 stars
For reals, this is the book that started my reading spree. I met a guy on FB dating and he suggested it. He turned out to be a poop, but the book was pretty good! Another legit over 900 pages book, and I didn’t have time to finish it before I had to return it and I wasn’t allowed to renew it because others were waiting for it so I HAD to give it back, but it was good. AND it’s based off this INSANE life story of a guy from Australia who escaped jail and lives on the run for 10 years. It was good.
Outlaw – 4.7 stars
If anyone would like to know, Ted DeKker is one of my all time favourite authors! He does thriller and suspense really well, he’s a Christian author, and just everything I have read (even the one horror novel I read without realizing until it was too late that it was horror) is amazing.
This is no exception. Great story, and interesting! But the ending was weak man. Weak and predictable and I was not impressed. But only the last 30 pages.
The Night Gardener – 5 stars
FB friend suggestion again! This was YA fiction, but ya know what, I don’t need anything deep and insightful all the time when I’m just trying to relax after a long day of children saying my name 50000000000000000000 times before first recess.
It’s spooky and intense but not enough to give me nightmares which is saying a lot because I get nightmares really easily. It’s a really interesting concept and idea and I am glad the author had it and wrote it because I really enjoyed it.
All the rest of the books are suggestions from Becky.
American Royals/Majesty – 7 billion stars each
Thank you Google for already having a picture of them together LOL
A book 1 and 2 from the same story. AND I LOVED THEM AND OH MY GOSH I WANT ANOTHER BOOK BECAUSE I NEED TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS NEXT!
Read the first book over 24 hours. And the other over 2.5 nights after work. AMAZING.
The Bromance Book Club, Undercover Bromance – 5 stars
Again a series! And It was good!! My first like actual real “romance” novels but ya gotta try it at least once! And the concept was cute and the story line was good too! I picked up the third one today too!
I think I liked the second one better than the first, although I did find a small handful of spelling mistakes and grammatical errors that an editor should have caught before it went to print, but whatever.
So there ya go! Did you read all the way down here? Congratulations! You deserve a cupcake!
LOL I’m not really eating cupcakes right now but I’ll lick my lips in memory of them. I miss the library too and maybe now we will be able to open a little more as well. I didn’t get the life changing thing with Tuesdays With Morrie either but it was good. Did you read The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto by Mitch Albom? That was a good one too.
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No I haven’t read it! I’ll add it to the list
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A lot of these sound too deep for me. These days when I read I want to escape.
I hadn’t heard of the Aussie, so I wikipedia’d him. Now I don’t want to read the book cause he sounds like a horrid person, lol. I know the book is fiction but all the same (I stopped reading Anne Perry when I found out her real identity).
Haven’t read any of those books, although I am familiar with the blurb for the Bromance Club. I’m reading lots of cozies and police procedurals at the moment, with a few romantic suspense thrown in.
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Haha only a few are deep and they are the ones I didn’t enjoy or finish haha
Wait the book is fiction?! I thought it was his story?!? Ugh. Disappointed!
Lately I am really enjoying the fluffy books. What’s a cozy?
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He said himself it is fiction. There are bits that he’s taken from real life (he did escape jail in Australia and go to India, and there are the names of real people in the book, but the others in the book agree it’s not true).
Cozy is what I write. They are traditional mysteries (think Miss Marple or Phryne Fisher). Key identifiers of a cozy are:
– an amateur sleuth solves the mystery
– the murder happens off the page
– no gore or profanity
– the focus is on whodunnit
– often part of a series with a hook
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Oooooohs okies!! To both things hahaha
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I haven’t read any of these books, but I’m gonna do some googling! Love some book recs, especially some fluffier ones.
Congrats on returning to the library!!!
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The last 4 are definite fluff but AMAZING fluff! The bromance ones definitely have some explicit sex scenes so be warned haha I didn’t realize until I was hit by the first one
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I never complain about definite fluff!!! Haha thanks for the warning, sometimes you just unexpectedly get smacked in the face with it
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The book that changed my life lately is ‘Boundaries’ not sure if the library has it, though.
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By Henry Cloud? If so it has some copies!
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Yes. It’s a serious book and tends to repeat itself, but I highly recommend it.
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Its on the list
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The big reveal! Now I can put a face with your posts! Pleased to meet you! ❤
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Haha My eyebrows are pleased that you are pleased to meet them 😂 Rob, you know you can have the password to my other posts right? 😂 they have pictures in them. I don’t write many password posts anymore but there’s a whole category “giggling followers” devoted to them lol
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I’m so happy for you that you were able to go inside!!! 🙂 I have my trip to the town library tomorrow night.
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Oooo yay!!!
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