With new library fines on late books, I’m making more of an effort to actually read the books I check out each week. There are plenty of times I pick up a stack of books and turn them back in without ever cracking them open. I’m also trying to be more selective in what I check out, quality over quantity. Although you get hits and misses in every bunch and my misses this week seem to all be focused on the fact that while I tried to pay closer attention to what I was checking out, I didn’t seem to be focusing that closely.
Lost Christianities: The battles for scripture and the faiths we never knew – Bart D. Ehrman
I got this due to a recent conversation about how the bible was put together and why certain books were chosen. I thought this would be along those lines but it was more about what was left out and how people in the early church had different texts. I know my brain and how easy it is for me to find reason in things so I quit reading in the first chapter. It might be a perfectly fine book, but it wasn’t really on the topic I needed.
Bound By Guilt – C.J. Darlington
I didn’t realize this was a sequel when I picked it up, and I’m glad that skipped my notice because I really enjoyed this novel and I would have passed otherwise. The story follows Roxi, a teen stuck in a bad situation that only gets worse when she’s involved in a robbery/homicide. The other half of the book follows the fiancé and sister of the man killed (who are characters from the previous novel) and their search to find the culprits. I really enjoyed the characterizations, and the story was paced well even with the switching between characters. For a Christian novel the focus on God was surprisingly light, but it was handled well when it was present. The only problem I had was that the ending felt like it was vague on what happened to all the characters, although that might be just set-up for a third novel in the series.
The Hum And The Shiver – Alex Bledsoe
I’ve had this book for a couple of weeks and am still stuck in the first 75 pages. It’s interesting but I’m struggling to get connected to the characters and the plot. It doesn’t help that I picked up the book based on the bit of the back cover that talked about a woman returning home injured from Iraq…and it turns out there is some quasi-supernatural aspects to the book. I don’t mind supernatural elements in my fiction, I just didn’t know that was what was going on in this book. Curse those stupid stickers that cover the back cover!
The Girls Guide to Homelessness: A Memoir – Brianna Karp
My best friend works at a women’s homeless shelter so the stories of homeless women have been on my mind lately. Again with the theme of checking things out without paying close attention, I didn’t catch the little pink “a memoir” on the front cover. This book wasn’t so much a guide as it was Karp’s story of her life, the title taken from her website, which, to be fair, does deal with homeless life. For my own tastes, the book dealt more with Karp’s family past and romantic relationship than I was interested in. I was more interested in her life and perspective as a homeless person and those parts of the book kept me the most interested. I appreciated her views on how people try to pigeonhole the homeless with their own ideas of who/how/why someone is in that situation. She dealt with people saying she didn’t ‘count’ as homeless because she had a job or nominal housing. Another part I appreciated was her perspective on so-called luxuries. People get so upset when they see a homeless person with a cell phone, laptop, good clothes or eating anything better than scraps, judging them as spending resources foolishly. Her quote from pg 109, “Whenever I meet a homeless person, I assume that if she were financially or mentally capable of affording and maintaining a home, then she would be in one, regardless of any “luxury” items I see in her possession. It’s that clear cut for me.” I need to remind myself of that more often when I find myself judging others, whether they are homeless or not.
Geek Widsom: The sacred teachings of nerd culture – Stephen H. Segal
Oh, this book. It’s a compilation of quotes from video games, movies, comics, tv and even t-shirts with commentary talking about how they help define or speak to geek culture. It’s no secret that I identify as a geek and this book had many of my favorite quotes. The commentary was insightful and funny (loved the footnotes!) and I found myself reading bits out loud to friends and family. As much as I loved the quotes that I was familiar with, what really pleased me was all the ones that were new to me. After I was finished reading, I flipped back through to write down a list of movies and books that I want to check out now. My only complaint? Too short!
Uh…that last book is The Hot Zone by Richard Preston and that’s actually one of my own books. I have a not-so-secret passion for epidemiology and I happily devour books, movies and tv shows on the subject. Preston is my favorite author in the subject because of this book and his novel, The Cobra Event. He writes in such a clinical way that there really isn’t a huge difference in writing styles between his fiction and nonfiction and he beautifully straddles that line between scientific explanation and watering it down for the masses. I always feel smarter after reading one of his books. These are my comfort books, the ones I read when I just want to get lost for a bit, one or the other is usually next to my bed. (I am aware that this might make me seem weird, I don’t care. The heart wants what the heart wants and mine wants deadly viruses.)
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