Second Week Wrap Up

Well, I've had another successful reading week. I read 5 books this week and DNF'd one.

The first book I read was The Trouble with Goats and Sheep by Joanna Cannon. I heard about this book from both Simon and Mercedes who both raved about it on booktube. Unfortunately, it wasn't that good. I like literary fiction, I like family sagas, and I like slow burns, but somehow I didn't really care for this book. It was boring. I felt like it focused on too many characters and you only got a shallow look into their lives. I gave it 2 stars.

Then I read Educated by Tara Westover. This is a new memoir about growing up in a survivalist family. The abuse, neglect, and paranoid mania that this girl endured was unbelievable. She didn't step foot into a classroom until she went to college. She didn't know about the Holocaust until she embarrassed herself in a class. But she triumphed. She got away from her family and went on to get an education. It was inspiring. I gave it 4 stars.

Then I read Inkheart by Cornelia Funke. This fulfilled my challenge to read a middle grade book that had been adapted into a movie. This story was so fun. The pace was quick and I feel that this was a book for book lovers. I rarely read adventure stories but I really should rectify that because I enjoyed this a lot. I gave it 4 stars.

Next I read El Deafo by Cece Bell. Another middle grade read about diversity. This is a graphic memoir of growing up as a Deaf child. I loved seeing differences represented in books. Children can be so cruel to those who are different. Even the people who were trying to help her seemed to just define her by her deafness. I really liked this book and finished it in one sitting. I gave it 4 stars.

I listened to the audio book of Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls. This fulfilled the challenge of reading a childhood favorite. This is a heartfelt coming of age tale about a boy and the love of his two dogs. It is so sweet and made me cry. I gave it 4 stars.

Lastly, I started Hunger by Roxanne Gay. I read about 100 pages before I decided to quit. While her story could be amazing and needs to be told, she is not the writer to do so. Her writing is disorganized and full of redundancies and generalities. She writes in short choppy sentences which I find irritating to the flow of the story. Additionally, it isn't written in a narrative which I expected but more like a high school essay. Overall, I was dreading picking it up so I decided to quit.

This week had some great reads. I hope to keep up my pace next week.