What I read: The Start of our Long Canadian Winter

Little Bun Reads:

• My First Book of Quantum Physics – We are doing a page a night, and we act out the scenarios too
• How to be good at math – We do a page a night, we are on fractions now, and I gave him a quiz the other day which he aced
• Heart & Brain Comics – He adores these comics! He thinks he is part Heart and part Brain like me.
• Nate the Great – He came back with a vengeance this month for Little Bun
• Berenstain Bears – He read 7 of them this month

CURRENT YEAR TO DATE BOOK COUNT: 244

• January: 41
• February: 24
• March: 24
• April: 17
• May: 20
• June: 11
• July: 28
• August: 28
• September: 23
• October: 18
• November: 10

What I read

Goodnight, Nobody

[ Mystery, Stay at home mother, Loss, Purpose, Sense ]

An excellent mystery. I really enjoyed it because it centers around a dead character, and revealing her life, peeling back each onion-like layer, was a good read. Plus, it made the main character blossom in the process. A good read, as her work is normally good fiction anyway, but when it’s a mystery too? Heaven for me.

All Fall Down

[ Drugs, Addictions, Housewives, Life]

Another hard topic covered by Weiner – accepted addictions to drugs and other such things to help you get through the days. It made me think of those 50s housewives, taking pills, and drinking all day long just to make their lives more interesting in some way. Actually, I wouldn’t be surprised if I would have done the same if I had no option to work like in the past, and I would be forced to stay at home.

Confessions of a Domestic Failure

[ Stay at home mother, humour, life ]

This mother, is all of us. Laditan is a hilarious writer who ran an account as if she were her 2-year old Toddler giving out terrible advice to other toddlers called “The Honest Toddler”, and I can tell you her tweets and all of her books got me through the rough early years of parenting. Worth a rad. It’s a funny fictional story.

Love and Other Words

[ Lost love, Ex, Painful memories, Fiction ]

What happens when you run into an ex, the actual love of your life and your own life is about to be upended? This was a painful story to be honest with you. The whole reading of it, and eventually finding out what happened, was quite emotional. All ends well, but man.. she keeps you dragging along in the book until the end, which I do not necessarily love, but I understand.

That Summer

[ Justice, Sexual Violence, Sense of Self, Worth ]

Spoiler alert, but this has sexual violence in it. Do not read it if you will be triggered.

I enjoyed it very much, even though it was a painful read (I have a tendency to feel and empathize quite strongly with all the characters I read about). I did enjoy the ending, but it was not what I expected at all.

Disconnected

[ Chilling, Mystery, Short Fiction, Drugs, Addiction ]

This extremely short and chilling story (more sexual violence) surprised me (the ending is good). It kind of still haunts me, which means her writing really got into my brain.

Chances

[ Memoir, Jackie Collins, Biography, Author ]

I watched her documentary Lady Boss and was intrigued to read her books. It’s pretty easy, fast paced, very sexual, and that was revolutionary for the era she first wrote the books. I found it all quite easy to read but obviously there is a lot of violence and trauma, sexual and otherwise in there. This book was 600 pages so… it felt like 3 books in one. Or at least 2.

Miss Moriarty, I Presume?

[ Mystery, Charlotte Holmes ]

Another knockout book in the Charlotte Holmes series. I devoured this one, and very much enjoyed it. I wonder if this signals the end of her books or if she is mimicking the death of Sherlock Holmes in the original, but plans on making more.

The Sleeping Dictionary

[ Fictional memoir, India, Inequality, Women ]

Her writing is ALWAYS excellent. It takes you on a journey of a young girl’s life and how resilient and smart she is to truly survive to the end. The ending was so happy I cried. I loved reading every page of her life and journey, even though some parts were full of anguish and pain.

Would like to meet

[ Chicklit, Forgettable ]

Pass. The plot is lame, the whole story is shaky about an assistant (I loathe low paying jobs for women in these books, to be frank with you), I do not even know why this book got recommended on Amazon as an Editor’s Pick. I really did not love it in any way.