What I Read: The Start of Our Short Canadian Autumn Edition

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: 234

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

What I read

Note: Canadian Autumns are like 2 weeks basically. I make the most of it with my coats. It’s odd, but 75% of my coats are meant for this 2-3 weeks of beautiful chilly weather, and only 25% of my things at the most are really meant for super cold winters.

Rei Shimura Mystery Series by Sujata Massey: 11 Books

I love her writing. Massey is a master at mystery, intrigue and interesting, strong female characters. In some of her mysteries I figured out who it was immediately, in others, it took a bit more time. Her character of Rei is interesting, but I have to say, a bit clichéd at times, as a certain role being played. I do enjoy how the ending (by book 11 you will see), turned out for her. I thoroughly enjoyed it from Book 1 to Book 11 and it didn’t feel like a painful ordeal that I had to force myself through, just to figure out what the ending is (if you know what I mean).

Certain Girls

A typical Weiner book – about a character who is rethinking about what she really wants in life. It has a sad ending I have to tell you, so you may not want to read it if you are expecting a happy one.

The Guy Not Taken

This one confused the heck out of me. It’s a book made up of many mini short stories but I didn’t read it like that at the start because I was thinking we were flipping between two different plots. It wasn’t until I got to the third chapter (or story), that I clued in that they were different stories of people in various parts of their lives, left unfinished for us to come up with their own ending.

Between Two Kingdoms

A seriously depressing book. I am sorry to say this but it is. It talks about living with chronic and scary illnesses that can come back and kill you at any time, and all of the stress that comes with it. I read it, and liked it … but felt really quite sad afterwards which in turn made me feel grateful for my own life, which sounds terrible. It’s a good read, but the subject matter is painful. The two kingdoms she is referring to is the Healthy and the Sick.

The Biggest Bluff

One of the best books I have read all year. It’s about learning how to play poker. The strategies are completely over my head, as are the hands, but that is okay because you do not need to be a poker whiz or even a player to read this (I was and am still not). I skipped the detailed explanations of hands and rivers, and focused on the lessons and observations churned out instead. Very well done, and a nice insight into human psychology.

The Lost Gate: Mithermages Book 1

I like Card a lot. His Ender books were very sci-fi, but great for me to read (I think they dragged it on too long past the trilogy, to be honest), and I did very much enjoy his other fantasy-based-in-reality story Enchantment which remains one of my favourite books to date. This one is, based more in magic (more my style, less sci-fi), and is a read that really draws you in. Has a bit of a Twilight vibe to it, in terms of danger and vampiric-like/Lord of the Flies tendencies, but that’s what is making the story sing for me. I have yet to read the sequels, but I like it so far.

American Dirt

What a terrible book. The reviews hit it on the head – overpublicized, a white woman writing from a Mexican experience she has none with… I can’t. Do not read.

Everything I know about love

Meh. To be honest, I read it, and completely forgot about it. Another publicized book, I do not know who she is (maybe if I did, it would make more sense), but it read just really.. crass and disjointed. I cannot handle such writing. Do not read.