Reading Round-up

I am a little embarrassed to admit how much I have read this month. Trust me - that is not me doing the "I'm so awesome" but really humble brag tag line as discussed here. Instead, that is me saying, "Whoa Kitty - maybe you need to make some friends, get a life, watch some television, or even just a movie" All true things that I should probably be doing. For some reason, right now, I just don't have a lot of patience for crap tv. And my life is the worser for it. So instead - I've been reading. And reading. And reading.

Anyway. July's reading round-up -here we go (in two parts).

Part 1:

***1/2 (out of 5) - So Good They Can't Ignore You - Cal Newport - I believe in his theory - "following a passion" is bunk instead get good at something. Really, really good at something and then use that as an expertise to develop your passion. This describes me so maybe that's why I am probably nicer in my rating than I should be. Really, if you like this theory - skim through the book for 1 hour and you have got it. It's chalk-full of repetitiveness. However, I watched one of his webinars the other day and it was excellent. (Which made me read the book). So there you go.

*** (out of 5) - Everything That Remains - Joshua Fields Millburn -Greg also read this which is currently contributing to our KSL sales as we look at items in our home and ask ourselves "Does this bring us value or happiness?" We are trying to take a hard look at these things and really get rid of the "stuff."  If you want to learn how to do this - this book is not for you. If you want to learn how he did this in his own life - read this. But know that the writing style is so stifled and scripted it made some parts difficult to get through and not just roll my eyes.

*** (out of 5) - We Were Liars - E. Lockhart - Way fun YA read. A fun twist at the end that had me reading way past my bedtime. The only reason it isn't rated higher is because for me to really, really, really recommend a YA book it has got to be goood - gooood - goood.  This was fun.

**1/2 (out of 5) - Truth & Beauty - Ann Patchett - Since reading this book and thinking more about it I have downgraded it to 2.5 stars as opposed to 3. Their friendship was weird. I said this in my review on Goodreads - "If I had a friend that would go and sit on my lap at a dinner party and whisper in my ear 'I love you. Am I your favorite?' in front of a bunch of people - the answer would be a decidedly loud "NO".

**** (out of 5) - Chasing Gideon - Karen Houppert - such a great great great book. All about how the public defender system does.not.work. I love how things are portrayed on television compared to the reality of the underfunded / understaffed system. It left me thinking that I should be volunteering my time a little bit better. But then I think - "why would someone facing criminal charges want a sort of tax attorney?" Trust me, they wouldn't.

Part II:

***1/2 (out of 5) - The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry - Gabrielle Zevin - Cute (?) Sweet (?) Not as good as the book "The Rosie Project" but I liked it.

***.75(out of 5) - The Light Between the Oceans -M.L. Stedman - Well-written. While reading it I kept thinking, "How is this all going to end?" and quite frankly, it ended a little too nicely for me. Everything wrapped up in a brown paper package tied up with string - which didn't follow the rest of the book so . . . a little disappointing.

****(out of 5) - Veronica Mars - The Thousand Dollar Tan Line - Rob Thomas - This is exactly what you think it is going to be and as a Marshmallow - I devoured it. I didn't really think the idea of books for Veronica Mars would work - I thought it would read as if I was reading a screenplay - but nope, it read like a book. Really fun. But probably only really fun if you like Veronica Mars. But really - if you don't like Veronica Mars why not?

***(out of 5) - American Again - Re-becoming the Greatness We Never Weren't - Stephen Colbert - If you like Stephen Colbert, listen to the audio version of this book. He reads it. He has sound effects. It's fun. But it is definitely for more mature audiences. And I consider myself mature. Not for everyone but funny. I liked it. But I wouldn't listen to it again.

**(out of 5) - The Child Whisperer - Carole Tuttle - Blurgh. While I do believe that everyone has their own energy there are A LOT better books out there that discuss this. There are some things in there that were helpful but this is not well-researched outside of her own parenting experiences, she doesn't cite any of the real research and goes on far too long about some things. But you know, obviously, I'm a type 4 - so that is, of course, how I would approach it. Ha.

Whoa. My goal for August is more television - less reading.