The Sunday Post #37 (Nonfiction November)

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Morning readers!  It's a gloomy, rainy morning here so it's basically the perfect time to blog.  I've got a warm cup of coffee by my side and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is on TV.  Not too much new to report since my last reading update.  The fall sports season has ended leaving my nights much more open then they have been.  You would think that means more reading time but it hasn't.  Instead, I feel like that has meant more time on Litsy and Twitter.  Definitely more television time!  I need to focus on being online less and reading more.  It is hard though to strike that perfect balance.  I haven't been blogging (obviously) since I haven't posted in two weeks.  Oh well, one of these days I will find time to do it all.  LOL!

My husband and I finished season two of Stranger Things last night.  It was basically amazing and UGH- how am I to wait now for season 3???  I can see a series rewatch in my future just to tide me over as I absolutely adore this show.  Reading wise I've only finished one book since my last update.  It was 500 plus pages so that makes me feel a bit better but really I need to work on finding more reading time or I'm not even going to finish 60 books in 2017.  That might be my lowest number of reads since I first started keeping track.  (I could be wrong about that - I will have to check).  Anyways I finished the following:

Killing Floor by Lee Child - This was a pretty good read and I'm glad that I finally pulled it off of my shelves.  It's funny because the entire time that I was reading this I was trying to figure out how Tom Cruise ever played Reacher in the film.  I haven't seen the movie myself but he is completely opposite of the way he is described in the book.  I have already added the next book in this series to my TBR list - I will work on writing up my thoughts soon.

I'm now currently reading the following:

Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant is my current kindle read.  It is also about mermaids and I basically love it already for that reason alone.  Grant can just spin a tale (she wrote the Newsflesh books which I adore) so I'm loving this so far.  I'm not as far in as I would like to be but hopefully I will get more reading time in this week.  Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie is my next print read.  It has been years since I read anything by Christie (shame on me) but I couldn't resist grabbing this one from the library seeing as the movie is releasing soon.  I'm really looking forward to it as well!

Nonfiction November is here and you might notice that I didn't include Searching for Sunday in my currently reading list.  It had to go back to the library unfinished so now I need to figure out a new nonfiction read.  I really should pick one from my own shelves since these tend to take me a little bit longer to finish.  But there are also SO many good sounding books that I'm probably going to request one from the library.  I was thinking about one of these:

If you could pick one of these to read next - which one would you recommend?  These are just four of the many, many books that I've got on my never-ending TBR list.  Help a girl out and give me your opinion on which one I should request from the library??  I would really appreciate it as I can't not participate in Nonfiction November.  I already am adding more nonfiction reads to my TBR list thanks to it.

Plans for the day include a lot of laundry and a lot of blogging.  I really need to work on writing up reviews so I don't end the year with a bunch of books that I never shared my thoughts on.  Again.  I also need to focus on my laundry piles as usual.  I am really looking forward to tonight's episode of The Walking Dead.  And I would love to get some quality reading time on top of all of that.  At least I cleaned house yesterday so I can focus on other things today like reading.  LOL! 

Happy Sunday and Happy Reading!
   

Reading Rambles (Or Even More Reading Plans for November)

I'm always up for overachieving when it comes to signing up for read-a-longs or reading challenges.  I just can't seem to resist.  November has some really great reading events starting up and I want to do them all.  Ha, ha!  But seriously, I kind of am signing up for all of them.  I'm just not over-thinking the fact that I can't possibly read everything that I want to this month.  A girl can try!!!  Here are some lovely additions to my reading plans for the month of November and beyond:

 

I am basically ALWAYS up for a Harry Potter re-read so participating in a read-a-long of the entire series with other readers is just too good to pass up!  Sheila from Book Journey is hosting this fun event and I'm super excited to get started.  I've been listening to the audiobooks the past couple of months but this time around I'm going to be breaking out the actual copies from my shelves for the reread...I cannot wait!  Plus, my oldest son and I are going to be reading the first book together.  He has seen the movies but never read the books (the horror) so this will be a great experience for the both of us!  Here is the schedule in case you are interested:


Nov 1 – Nov. 16 – The Sorcerer’s Stone
Nov 17 – Dec. 6th – Chamber Of Secrets
Dec. 7 – Dec. 29th –  The Prisoner Of Azkaban
Dec 30th – Jan 20th – The Goblet Of Fire
Jan. 21st – Feb 13th – Order Of The Phoenix
Feb. 14th – March 7th – The Half Blood Prince
March 8th – March 31st – The Deathly Hallows

 

I am also hoping this month to participate in NetGalley November.  I have way too many books thanks to NetGalley that I need to catch up on and this is a great opportunity to do so!  I'm going for the "Easy Category" which just requires reading 1-4 books.  Ideally, I would finish more than that but let's be realistic here with the plans I already have in place.  I will hopefully finish at least one book!  More than that will be FANTASTIC in my opinion :)  Here are the books that I am hoping to read for it:

 

The Kill List is my current read on my ipad so I'm hoping to at least make it through that one this month.  Completely doable as long as I don't get distracted by all of the other books that I'm planning to read :) 

Other reading rambles include the fact that Nonfiction November is completely calling to me as well even though I haven't finished a nonfiction read in way too long.  I'm reading all of your posts though and adding to the never-ending TBR list.  In fact, I was thinking about adding one nonfiction read to my reading plans for November but at this point it is a bit ridiculous.  That doesn't mean I won't try to fit one in...that just means I haven't decided on which one yet.  Ha!  I'm leaning towards these one of these three:

 

I just can't choose.  Which of these three would you pick if you were wanting a nonfiction read?  Or even better, what nonfiction book or books is a must read in your opinion??  I would love to know!

Green Books Campaign: Life in the Hothouse by Melanie Lenart

This review is part of the Green Books Campaign. Today (or yesterday actually) 200 bloggers take a stand to support books printed in a eco-friendly manner by simultaneously publishing reviews of 200 books printed on recycled or FSC-certified paper. By turning a spotlight on books printed using eco-friendly paper, we hope to raise the awareness of book buyers and encourage everyone to take the environment into consideration when purchasing books.

I've got to apologize because I am way behind these days so not only is my review late (I had my days mixed up) but I'm also not quite finished with the book. So I still thought I would share some of my thoughts and a summary and then of course I'll review it when I'm finished :) I chose to read Life in the Hothouse: How a Living Planet Survives Climate Change for a couple of different reasons. First of all, it deals with global warming. I must admit that every since I took a certain science course in college I've been interested in the topic of global warming. I want to know more and figured that this book would do just that for me. Besides that this book is about weather and I find hurricanes, tornados, storms, and the like fascinating. I even like to watch Storm Chasers but that's a different subject. Suffice it to say that this book is all about the weather and how global warming and weather affect us.

My thoughts so far are mixed. The subject matter itself is interesting. I love reading about reasons why some hurricanes are stronger than others and how global warming is affecting this. But (and this is a big but) the book is slow reading for me. It is a little dry at times as the author goes on into details and research explaining her ideas. So for me I have to be in the mood to read this book which is why it is taking me longer to read than normal. I'll leave you with my mixed feelings and hopefully a final review will be posted soon!

Thanks to Eco Libris for hosting this and for sending me my review copy! My apologies for always being behind schedule!

Escape by Carolyn Jessop

What to say about this book other than scary???? Seriously, this is one of those books that makes me thank my lucky stars for everything that I have including my parents, family, and the life that I was born into. Sometimes it is as simple as that. And books like this make me remember to appreciate what I have.

This is Carolyn Jessop's memoir of growing up and living in the FLDS (otherwise known as Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints). The FLDS is a closed off religious group that keep to themselves and their community and are an offshoot of the Morman church. At 18, Carolyn was told that she was meant to marry Merril Jessop and become his third wife. He was thirty-two years older than she was. Carolyn's marriage was an unhappy one that was basically a power struggle between all of Merril's wives with Carolyn caught up in the mix even when she didn't want to be. It would take years before Carolyn would begin to realize that the religion and life that she grew up with might not be the life that she truly wanted. And it would take everything Carolyn had to escape.

Wow! That is all I had to say after reading this one. I can't even begin to imagine all of the things that this woman has had to endure...it is just too much. First of all, being told who you are going to marry, having no choice or say in the matter, it is almost too difficult to fathom. And how sad to go into a marriage and know that you may never love the person you are married to. Carolyn's marriage was a constant struggle from the beginning. All of Merril's wives were constantly competing for his attention which just made me a bit sick. Sex and the number of children that a woman had gave them status within their marriage. In other words, the more kids you had in comparison to the other wives gave a woman a better standing in this society and within her "family". Pretty scary in my opinion. Carolyn had no say in the life that she led and was constantly told what she could or couldn't do. And when Warren Jeffs came to power, things in the FLDS got even worse. Carolyn is very frank in the book and shares the reasons why she was content with living there for so long. I mean she grew up thinking that all of this was normal, was taught that the "outside world" was evil and meant for an apocalypse, and that she was one of the "chosen ones" by God. It took her a really long time before she began to think differently and realize that she wanted something else for her and her children. I must say that I think that Carolyn Jessop is an amazing woman!

All in all, one of those books that really makes you think. About the life you live and the freedoms that we have. Because not everyone has these freedoms so for me this kind of book makes me appreciate my everyday life just a little bit more.

Disclosure- Checked out from my local library.

*I read this book for the following challenges:

Women Unbound Challenge

Social Justice Challenge

100+ Reading Challenge

Support Your Library Reading Challenge

New Author Challenge

"E" Title for A-Z Challenge (personal)