November Reading List

Since I picked up that first book back in January, I have been on a roll in my book reading!

This month, however, I hit a little bit of a slump and I only read 2.5 books. It has been an insane month, and I’m still happy with the books that I was able to read.

I read three very different books this month.

First up: The Book Thief

Wow, this book was deep.

It is so well-written and really drew me in. I loved the style of writing and the mystery involved in the plot. This story takes place in 1939 Nazi Germany. The entire story is about a young girl who sees the injustices all around her, but isn’t sure what to do about them. She had examples of those who stand up for the Jews, and examples of those who mistreat the Jews.

The entire story is heart-wrenching and beautiful and really, really made me think. I highly recommend this book, although it does have some language and some graphic scenes. Also, the story is narrated by a “grim reaper”, who collects the dead. I’m not into gory, scary or anything that makes light of death (like demons and much of Halloween), but this was a more realistic “grim reaper”, and it did not make light of the deaths of so many during the reign of Hitler

 

Next, I needed to read something a little bit lighter, so I picked up The Happiness Project.

This was the perfect book to read in November, because it gave me so many good ideas for goals for the new year. I LOVE making goals, especially ones like ‘write more letters’ or ‘drink more water’, so this book had some fabulous ideas in it.

Gretchen embarks on a year-long project aimed at making herself happier. She first thinks through the different areas that she thinks will make her happier, and then makes specific goals for each area. She focuses on one area a month.

At the beginning, I was really into the book, but as it went on I started to not enjoy it as much. Rubin is very intellectual, and quotes study after study for scientific reasoning on becoming happier. A lot of it was fascinating to learn, but it did start to get a little bit boring and research-heavy. I also didn’t agree with the authors conclusion on happiness, mostly in the area of religion. While Rubin felt like she could obtain happiness from trying out whatever religions might suit her best (she particularly focused on mediation in Buddhism), I know that my happiness comes from somewhere else entirely.

Overall, I recommend the book, but I found it wasn’t as light as I was expecting.

 

After two heavier books, I settled on a novel that I’ve heard good things about, The Royal We.

This novel was exactly the light read that I needed to get back into my book-reading groove! In a typical fairy tale style, a plain American moves to England and falls in love with the actual Prince of Wales. It was completely mutual. But unlike the fairy tale we might all imagine, the authors take us on a wild trip through the years of dating (and breaking up) with the Prince. It had enough plot twists to keep me entertained, although it is a fairly long book! I also HATED all the casual sex and drinking that the book contains. The sex is never graphic, but the characters are build around who is sleeping with who and I just thought the whole book could have done without. I would recommend it, but only for mature audiences.

 

And that’s it! What are you reading right now?

 

Jan//Feb//March//April//May//June//July//August//Sept//Oct

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