Sunday, January 03, 2016

LEARN 2016

Learn is my word for this year. I plan to do a lot of purposeful learning and by that, I mostly mean reading. To keep up with what I've read and what I want to read, I use Good Reads.

I'm also doing the yearly challenge and I've set my goal at 30 books. Last year, my goal was to read one fiction and one non-fiction book per month, and this year, I hope to read more non-fiction. (I also plan on blowing the goal of 30 out of the water, but I feel better when I'm ahead of the game, so I set it low.) Last year I read 37. *high fives self*

I'm also going to use that space to do a general short review of the books I've read- mostly to practice summing up and to hopefully focus more on the general take-away from each one. Some books I read to find specific answers, and some I read for general information. 

Here's my list of Best Reads from last year: 

Reading John (Cascade Companions)
Reading John by Christopher Skinner. I blogged about how life-changing this book was for me. 



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A Midwife's Tale by Lauren Thatcher Ulrich. Oh my goodness and heavens above this was an amazing read. It is so well done. Ulrich takes the diary of Martha Ballard and guides the reader through it- showing how the norms and customs of the period can be discovered through deduction and analysis of one woman's journal. I'll tell you, though, that I will want to read it again, but I may have to skip the very nightmarish entry of April 1806. 



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The Art of Subtext by Charles Baxter. Bill kinda threw this book towards me while he was digging around at the TCU library last spring, and I started reading it in the library, came home and sat in a chair until I finished it. Compelling writing about writing. I mean, come on. Like I suppose you could do better than that, no way. 



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Cold Magic by Kate Elliott. I have an undying weakness for the fantasy of Kate Elliott. I love the worlds, characters and stories she creates, and have for many years. The Jaran series is my favorite, but I haven't finished this series yet, and it may be giving Jaran a run for it's money. 


As for the rest- some I liked really well (All the Light We Cannot See, Bittersweet, Jesus Among Friends and Enemies, Short Stories by Jesus, The Book of Life) , some I finished (Sculptor, Last Days of Dogtown, Let us Now Praise Famous Men), some I straight up quit reading (Taft, Suite Francaise, A Little History of the World.) 

Books I am looking forward to reading this year:   Cold Steel ,  Day of Atonement,  The Gospels for all Christians, and Jesus Against the Scribal Elite

If you are on Good Reads, please add me! I've reviewed a few books here and plan to add more and more as the days go by. 


Here's to a productive 2016!