Time for my recap of all the books I've read the second half of the year. I do this as much for myself as for you. I like to look back and reflect on what I've just read. I saw a recent post on Facebook today that I shared. It's a quote by W.H. Auden, "A real book is not one that we read, but one that reads us." Those are my favorite books, ones that speak to my soul and heart.
Another big thing I noticed as I was typing this was, "You are what you read". In September I read two books about suicide. Dear Everybody and 13 Reasons Why. Both these books looked at it from an interesting perspective, from letters written from those that killed themselves for those still living. I've always felt this drive to document my life and my stories for my posterity in case anything should happen to me, so this method sparked my interest. BUT, I found myself wondering if like the characters, I should write a letter to each of my family members and people in my life and not just in case anything should happen to me, but more as an insurance in case I decided I wanted to commit suicide myself. The choice would be all that much easier to make because you had prepared things in advance for your words to be left behind. I even told Ken I felt like I was being HAUNTED by the thought of suicide, and I didn't grasp and get over it until mid November, so it lasted about 6 weeks.
It's only looking back at this list now that I realized what I had done. By reading these books I had sparked the idea in my head, which grasped on to whatever weaknesses I had, and toyed around with them for weeks. Luckily during that time I was also reading some positive psychology books and my favorite book of the year, Imagine a women in love with herself, with meditations for women. Now THAT book was pure poetry. I don't think I regret reading the two books on suicide, but from here on out I will make sure to watch the feelings I have after reading a book and make sure I am not being influenced for the negative by what I just read. (Another reason I stopped reading novels like The Pilots Wife with story lines of men who commit adultery. As if I needed to be mad at my husband because some OTHER fictitious man couldn't be faithful)
So here goes using the Goodreads rating system:
1star: Didn't like it
2 stars: It was ok
3 stars: Liked it
4 stars: Really liked it
5 stars: Loved it
August:
A Lover's Dictionary: A Novel by David Levithan 4 stars
Sum: 40 Tales from the Afterlives by David Eagleman 5 stars
Mother Wove the Morning: A One woman play by Carol Lynn Pearson 4 stars
Schooled by Michael Korman 4 stars
September:
Dear Everybody by Michael Kimball 4 stars
My Secret: A PostSecret Book by Frank Warren 2 stars
13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher 3 stars
The Power of a Woman's Words by Sharon Jaynes 4 stars
The Year of Fog by Michelle Richmond 4 stars
The Reader by Bernhard Schlink 3 stars
October:
Secrets of the Heart by Khalil Gibran 4 stars
The Believing Brain by Michael Shermer 4 stars
Imagine a Woman in Love with herself by Patricia Lynn Reilly 5 stars
November:
The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar 5 stars
Authentic Happiness by Martin Seligman 5 stars
The How of Happiness by Sonja Lyubomirsky 5 stars
The Pioneer Woman: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels by Ree Drummond 5 stars
For Men Only: A Straightforward Guide to the Inner Lives of Women by Shaunti Feldhhan 5 stars
December
Why do Men Have Nipples by Mark Leyner 2 stars
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See 4 stars
Falling Leaves by Adeline Yen Mah 4 stars
Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex 2 stars
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