January Reads

In an effort to keep reading consistently (gosh, I ALWAYS use an 'a' instead of an 'e' in 'consistently' - always!  My old boss, Tiff, used to shout out of her office at me in the good ol' BoPiz days when she would read my financial statement comments: 'Jules, consistent is with an 'E'!!!!!!'  I think it actually drove her a bit nuts.  Mental block on my part!), I am hoping to post my reads here.  I seem to go through spurts and stops with reading.  But I love reading when I'm doing it!  I just find that I can be uninspired on what to read next.  And this should help me remember what I've read over the course of the year for the NYE questionnaire.  I always just seem to be able to remember the last book I've read which is never my favourite and I always feel silly for that.  And maybe you'll want to read some of these too (or, you're welcome for saving you!).

The Silkworm - Robert Galbraith (aka JK Rowling):

I accidentally read this book first instead of the Cuckoo's Calling.  The whole time, I kept wondering what they were referencing in the past!  When I finally looked up the order of the booksonline, I was already too far in to stop.  It feels like I read this forever ago but it was just the beginning of January - which was kind of an entire lifetime ago.  In my opinion, JK Rowling does character development super well.  It was the best part of the Casual Vacancy (which I hated because I felt like the ending was rushed and didn't satisfy me - kind of like when my favourite TV shows end without notice and I don't get closure!  Hello Gilmore Girls!).  Anyways!  I really grew fond of Comoran Strike and appreciated the mystery.  I am horrible with mysteries.  I used to read the last page of my Nancy Drew books after the first chapter - in my (feeble) defense, I would always read the entire book afterwards.  It's difficult to be an impatient person and have the ending (literally) in your own hands.  My Kindle makes this a lot more difficult.  Thank goodness for Wikipedia. And yes, I did look up the whodunit.  This was a great read for me - nothing too heavy (amidst the life craziness), an engaging plot, and great characters.  I powered through it pretty fast!  It reminded me a bit of the 'Harry Hole' series by Jo Nesbo and of the 'Department Q' series which were also good reads.

The Cuckoo's Calling - Robert Galbraith:

I did end up reading this after The Silkworm even though I was out of order. I also found out the ending of this before finishing the book.  (In admitting this, I feel a little bit like Joey from Friends when he has to defend himself: 'I'm Joey, I'm disgusting'.  Take out Joey, replace with Julie and you'll know how I feel!).  This was very similar to the Silkworm and would be a good read if you want something light with some mystery.

Wild by Cheryl Strayed:  Cheryl Strayed is one of my favourite authors.  I loved her book 'Tiny, Beautiful Things' (I love short story collections that have some form of wisdom impacted onto me!  It explains why I read Maya Angelou's 'Letters to  My Daughter' in an hour at a Target in Florida).  I put off reading 'Wild' because it seemed too popular for my liking and I don't particularly care for hiking (reading about it seemed even worse).  I'm happy to say that I was foolish for waiting this long to read it!  It is more of a personal journey than hiking and, like her other books, she shares a lot of personal wisdom.  For me personally, Cheryl Strayed hits the nail on the head about how it feels to lose a mum so young.  I don't know how this is going to do as a movie because the greatness of the book was more in what she learned, not so much the hike itself.  Maybe it'll be narrated to include personal, inside musings?  Anyways, for me this was a must read!

Sorry for all the tangents, inside my head is a jumble!