Planner

I've tried bullet journaling.  Multiple times.  I LOVE the idea of it.  I love the freeness and flexibility of it.

But...it stresses me out.

I don't like things unfinished.  And with bullet journaling, it's never really 'done'.  So I found myself NEEDING to set up the whole thing at once.  If I have an appointment in December, and I don't have my December spread done, where do I put it?  Now, I know there are easy solutions and fixes for this.  But it still felt very unfinished to me.  And it was just always in the back of my head that I needed to get it done.

And then I would rush through it and not end up liking the spreads because they were messy (because of the rushing) and I just hated the whole thing.

I have issues.

So I got a 'regular' planner at Barnes & Noble.  

The one on the left is my main planner.

I love it so far.

There's monthly and weekly spreads AND habit trackers for each month (which I love):

There's a pocket in the front which holds bills, prescriptions to drop off, my Weight Watchers book, etc:

The book in the middle is for our finances.  I track what we owe, what's coming up, savings goals, etc.

And the little one on the right is for my books.  To be read, already read, wanted, etc.

And apparently I look books with elastic band closures.  :)

These books pretty much come everywhere with me.  They all fit in my purse.  So does this pouch (that my sister got me in Ireland!):

The pouch holds my pens.  I am fussy about my pens too (shocking).  

Random

*MUMS!  In our backyard.

*I went bowling Friday with my team for our quarterly team building event.  I did terrible, but it was so much fun!

*Trader Joe's has some really nice plants right now.  For cheap!

*The weather here has been beautiful.  We had two bad days last week (cold, windy, rainy, etc.) but since then it's been gorgeous.

*I have a reading buddy at my Barre class.  She brought me this mug last week.  So sweet!

*Someone named Macy has been enjoying the views from the front room (and the sun!)

Current Reads

(my most recently completed puzzle hanging in the library)

I have LOTS of new books that I am really excited about.  In fact, I don't remember ever being this excited about my TBR stack(s) before.

Here are the four books I'm currently reading:

Scarlet:  This is the 2nd book in the Lunar Chronicles Series by Marissa Meyer.  Cinder was the first book, this is the 2nd.  So far, so good.  These are easy books to read and I like to squeeze in a couple of chapters between 'heavier' books.

And the covers!  (Cress and Winter are the 3rd and 4th books in the series...they are up next)

Bridge of Clay:  This is the 2nd book by Markus Zusak. His first book, The Book Thief, was amazing.  I'm only 36 pages into this one, but it's REALLY good so far.

In Pieces:  This is Sally Field's autobiography. I checked it out from the library.  I'm not that far into it, but I like it so far.

Unsheltered:  Barbara Kingsolver's latest.  I.....don't know what to think about this one yet.  That's all I'll say.  I'm somewhat disappointed so far, but I'm going to wait until I'm finished to form my full opinion.

More fiction reads.  The Bean Trees, will be a re-read for me.  It was the book that made me fall in love with Barbara Kingsolver in the first place.

And my next non-fiction reads:

So I'm currently reading 4 'real' books.  I'm listening to two on audio.  This one is from Hoopla:

And this one is from Libby.  I actually own the 'real' copy of this book, but I like listening to audiobooks.

And I have a few more audiobooks on hold:

The first two books I don't own, the second two I own, but would like to listen to on audiobook.

AND....these two bookshelves are full of books to be read also. 

SO. MANY. BOOKS. SO. LITTLE. TIME.  Yikes.

September Reads (15)

One star = did not like it at all

Two stars = eh, it was okay

Three stars =  liked it

Four stars = really, really liked it

Five stars = absolutely loved it

2-Star (1)

**Black and Blue (Fiction, A. Quindlin)

I believe I have one more book on my shelf by Anna Quindlin and if I don’t like it, I’m no longer reading anything by her.  This one was just…ugh.  The writing was decent.  It’s just a HARD subject to read about.  I guess I was hoping for redemption or something MORE at the end, but nope.

3-Star (3)

***The Woman in the Window (Fiction, A.J. Finn)

Rear Window meets child psychologist meets alcoholic meets tragic past meets girl on the train meets gone girl.  Well done and an enjoyable read, but nothing earth-shattering.

***Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore (Fiction, M. Sullivan)

I think I need to lay off of the mystery genre for a while.  It seems like I’ve been reading a LOT of them lately and now I’m comparing any mystery I read to Louise Penny and Tana French.  But this one was definitely good.  I listened to it on audio and it held my interest.  But it was just a ‘like’, not a ‘love’.

***Vox (Fiction, C. Dalcher)

I wavered about this one whether to give it 2 stars or 3 stars.  This is a somewhat dystopian novel (although it’s presumed to be not that far in the future) where women and girls have to wear wrist devices that only allow them to speak 100 words per day.  If they go over that, they get shocked (and the shocks get more intense).  Men rule the country.  The main character (Jean) is a renowned neurologist, and when the president’s (a male) brother has a life threatening tumor, they call upon her to come up with a cure.  She agrees, but has conditions, one of them being that her and her daughter’s wrist devices be removed during the project.  And then things start to go downhill.  I liked it because it was very original, although Jean was not the most likeable person.  It also felt VERY political.  Meaning…if our current president were not our current president, I highly doubt this book would have been written.

4-Star (8)

****The Lost for Words Bookshop (Fiction, S. Butland)

I loved this book about a young woman with a troubled past who works at a bookshop in England.  She has a troubled past and she starts receiving mysterious packages.  The ending was a bit too neat and tidy for me, but I still loved it.

****Love and Ruin (Fiction, P. McLain)

Paula McLain never disappoints.  She manages to write a book about 2 unlikable characters (Ernest Hemingway and his 3^rd wife, Martha Gellhorn) that kept me reading and reading and reading.  Don’t get me wrong, I am a HUGE Hemingway fan, but the man was not a nice person.   And honestly, his 3^rd wife wasn’t either.  However, she was strong willed and the only wife (out of his 4) that left HIM (and not the other way around).

****A Fatal Grace (Fiction, L. Penny)

This was the 2^nd book of the Inspector Armand Gamache series by Louise Penny.  Inspector Armand Gamache is well, an inspector, in Quebec, Canada.  This particular mystery takes place in the small village of Three Pines.  I like these books because the mysteries are very character driven, and they weave the townspeople in the story.  Yet they are not cheesy or classified as ‘cozy’ mysteries.  Trust me, there is definitely some darkness in them.  But it’s NOTHING compared to what some of the other mysteries out there have.  There is no blood or guts or sex or excessive swearing.  And the writing is REALLY good.

****Cinder (Fiction, M. Meyer)

This is the first novel of a Y.A. series that was recommended to me by a friend.  I was hesitant and skeptical at first because I NEVER would have picked up this book if it weren’t for her (gentle) nudging.  And I’m so glad I did!  It took me a while to get into it (maybe 1/3?) but then I couldn’t put it down.  Basically, it’s post World War FOUR, there are earth people living among cyborgs (half robot/half human), and then there are Lunar people (from the moon obviously).  And androids.  The Lunars have an extremely tense relationship with Earth, and the Lunar queen (who is based on the evil queen from Snow White) comes to earth looking to marry the emperor from New Beijing to form an alliance and to better the relations between Earth and the Moon.  Plus…a plague has hit the Earth, and the Lunars have come up with a cure.  But they don’t want to share it.

Cinder is a cyborg.  So she has feelings.  But she can’t cry.  Her appendages are metal, but they are covered with silicone so she looks completely human.  And the emperor has taken an interest in her (of course…I mean…he’s an emperor).  And of course she has an evil stepmother.  There are plot twists as well (especially at the end).

I realize as I type this out that it sounds completely ridiculous.  I would totally think so too reading this review ha ha.  But the book was REALLY REALLY good.  The writing was excellent.  No cheesiness!  Cinder was sooooo likeable and TOUGH.  And even though it was very loosely based on Cinderella, it felt incredibly original.  There were times that I laughed out loud and times that I cried.  I am definitely reading the next books.  The next one is Scarlett, who is loosely based on Little Red Riding Hood, but it also picks up where Cinder left off (a cliffhanger, of course).  I’ve already started reading it and it is also REALLY good so far.  I’m about 150 pages in. 

(and for my sister who is reading this…Anne gave it 4 stars and Helene J. gave it 5 stars…I’m just sayin’.)  J

****Flight Behavior (Fiction, B. Kingsolver)

I can’t believe I haven’t read this book before now!  In a nutshell, it’s about climate change and how we are destroying the earth (true).  Also, there were MANY aspects of the main character that I didn’t like.  And many that I DID like.  Barbara Kingsolver knows how to write a great book, that is for sure.

****The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper (Fiction, P. Patrick)

This was a charming (hee hee) book about Arthur Pepper, a recent widower.  On the day that he decides to clean out his wife’s things from his closet, he finds a charm bracelet that he has never seen before.  So he decides to find out more about it (and where each individual charm came from), which leads him on a journey throughout England, France and India.  I enjoyed this book a lot.

****The Woman in Cabin 10 (Fiction, R. Ware)

Another mystery/thriller.  I really enjoyed this one.  It’s fast paced and it kept me guessing throughout the whole thing.  And there’s not too many characters.  It had an Agatha Christie feel to it, which was also nice.

****The Likeness (Fiction, T. French)

Book #2 in the Dublin Murder Squad series.  Although this one was VERY wordy, the story (and the main character) were much better than the first book in my opinion.  From what I’ve read on Goodreads, many people think this book reminds them a LOT of A Secret History by Donna Tartt (which I haven’t read but have heard good things about).  Tana French is known for being a literary mystery writer (which is hard to come by), and you can definitely tell.  Her books are dense (this one was almost 500 pages), but very enjoyable.

5-Star (3)

*****I’d Rather Be Reading (Non-Fiction, Anne Bogel)

Anne Bogel is the host of the ‘What Should I Read Next Podcast’.  While I did not enjoy her first book (all about personality types), I LOVED this little book of essays about the delights and dilemmas of the reading life.  It made me laugh out loud more than once and I found myself nodding along with so many chapters.  Well done, Anne!

*****Little House in the Big Woods (Fiction, Laura Ingalls Wilder)

Obviously this is a re-read.  And is it really fiction?  Or a loose autobiography.  Hmm.  Anyways.  It’s wonderful.  I love re-reading books I read as a child as an adult.  I loved them then, but I seem to appreciate them so much more now.  I plan to re-read the rest of the series.

*****Bibliophile (Non-Fiction, J. Mount)

Imagine a book full of lists.  Lists of cool bookshops around the world.  Lists of notable genres of books to read.  Lists of bookstore cats.  And many other lists.  And then combine those lists with charming illustrations on every single page.  And you have this beautiful book called Bibliophile.

Total Books Read: 15 (2 non-fiction, 13 fiction)

Formats

Kindle: 0

Audio: 9

Real Books: 6

Books I read for FREE via the library e-book/audiobook system:  8

Books I paid for (actual books/Kindle books):  7

DNF (Did Not Finish) 8:

The Boys in the Boat – I tried.  TWICE.  Just couldn’t get into it.

The Year of Fog – I enjoyed one of Michelle Richmond’s other books (The Marriage Pact) but I couldn’t get into this one and the writing wasn’t good enough for me to keep trying.

A Thousand Acres – Couldn’t get into it

The Rosie Project – Couldn’t get into it

A Spark of Light – This is the new one by Jodi Piccoult that is coming out next month.  I REALLY tried this book (I gave it about 100 pages).  But it’s written backwards.  The ending is the first chapter of the book.  And then it goes in reverse.  So you already know the outcome.  And there were too many characters.  Nope.

The Music Shop – Couldn’t get into it

My Brilliant Friend – Couldn’t get into it

Prodigal Summer – Couldn’t get into it