The Little Things
December 6, 2016

November flew by faster than almost any month this year, so I’m hoping that December slows down just a little so I can fully enjoy the Christmas season! November was full of reading, where I averaged a little over a book every other day. SEND HELP! I’m not sure how that’s possible with how much time I spend working, with friends, and exercising, but somehow I’ve fit it all in! In November I read 20 books; I think that’s the most I’ve ever read in a month before. Scroll down to the bottom of the book list to see which ones were my favorites, and which ones you should add to your own list!

book-list-november-2016

Sully: My Search For What Really Matters: This book is about Captain Sully, the pilot who landed the plane in the Hudson a few years ago. I really enjoyed this story, and found it hard to turn off the audiobook multiple times. I gave it a 4 out of 5 stars.

Temptation Ridge, Paradise Valley, Forbidden Falls, Angel’s Peak:  More books from Robyn Carr’s Virgin River Series.

If You Only Knew: It took me a bit to really get into the story, but I loved the character arc for the main characters, and especially enjoyed some of the lessons they learned. This book, like a few others I read this month, looked at the dynamics in both family and marriage relationships! I gave it a 4 out of 5 stars.

The Singles Game: I enjoyed reading a book around the competition of tennis, as that isn’t something I generally read about. Entertaining enough, but not the best by any means. I gave it a 3 out of 5 stars.

The Good Goodbye: This story is a bit of a suspense, and all about family dynamics that play out. Two cousins are in a fire and are wounded and in the hospital. The story jumps around between moments in the past and the current story, slowly unfolding more and more information that keeps you guessing on who started the fire. I gave it a 4.5 out of 5 stars.

What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast: 3.5 stars. This was a very quick and easy audiobook full of fun little stories and examples of parents and people in careers making their mornings more healthy and productive. I enjoyed it.

Housebroken: Admissions of an Untidy Life: Meh- moments were funny. It was a good book to listen to in the car, but I wouldn’t have wanted to sit down and spend time reading it. 3 out of 5 stars.

Between The World and Me: Written by an African American male, this is a series of essays that he writes to his son about being a minority in the U.S. He talks a bit about the history of racism, and the lessons that racism has taught us today. An interesting and powerful look into a life that is very different than my own. I rated it 4 out of 5 stars.

Between Sisters: This book is by Kristin Hannah, who also wrote the Nightingale (which I absolutely loved!) and was about the complex family relationships that play out, particularly under times of stress. I didn’t care about the characters or story the first 40% of the book, was intrigued by 48% and was hooked by 58%. By the end I was definitely hooked and felt pretty emotional. Worth a read. 3.5 out of 5 stars.

All The Bright Places: So I started this book about 15 months ago but set it aside at 15% because I had hit an incredibly busy season of life. I finally sat down to read it about two weeks ago and I absolutely loved it! This is worth a read. Just a warning- this is about suicide, so if that isn’t something you’d want to read about or would trigger you, then perhaps this book isn’t for you!

A Little Bit Wicked: This is Kristin Chenoweth’s autobiography. She played the “good witch” in the musical Wicked, and I really enjoyed reading about how she came to do theater and what the experience of performing in Wicked was like!

A Stolen Life: This book, by Jaycee Dugard, is her story about being stolen on the way to the bus stop as a child. She spent 18 years being held captive, and the book chronicles what happened in those years. There were moments that were deeply painful to read.

Tell Me Three Things: I rated this a 3.5 out of 5. I was expecting/hoping for more.

Night: This book, by Elie Wiesel, is the first of 3 books in a trilogy. This book chronicles his time in Nazi Concentration Camps during WWII. I read the book in high school right before hearing him speak, but decided over Thanksgiving to sit down and read it again. It’s a short book and definitely worth a read.

It Ends With Us:  This was one of my favorite books of 2016 so far! I simply can’t put into words how good this book was and how important the message that it communicates is. This is a story of the deeply difficult decisions we make. Decisions that, from the outside, might appear cut and dry, but in reality are deeply complex and difficult. I loved it. Deeply.

Vampire Academy #1: A friend has been encouraging me to read this series, so I finally started it on my way home from Thanksgiving. It was a fun book about the “vampire world”.

The Perfect Girl: I didn’t even care about this book enough to write a review of it on goodreads, but I did give it a 3 out of 5 stars.

So- here are my “Must Read” books from the month: It Ends With Us, Night, All The Bright Places, and Between The World and Me.

Now it’s your turn to share! What have you read this month? 

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