Every so often, I take time to reflect on the books I’ve read. I read like the house is on fire, like I’m running a sprint, like there will never be enough time to read all of the books I have stacked in my house.
200 of those books are cooking related, and I created another website just to be able to share those – and especially the more quirky of those.
And easily another 200 or more are purely for pleasure. There’s fiction from a friend, metaphysics of all kinds, mysteries, science-fiction, poetry, biographies. You name it, I’m probably interested in reading it.
Reading Through Winter
January and February I read voraciously, perhaps to keep my insides warm from the cold winter weather outside. By early March I had stopped reading. That happens every so often, too. I read so much in a short time span that I have to stop and do other things. Like clean the house or cook dinner.
This time on my ‘break’ from reading I decided to learn Delores Cannon’s hypnosis/past life regression technique called “Quantum Healing Hypnonsis Therapy.” I have to do some practice before offering that up to everyone.
And then the new Maisie Dobbs mystery came out, and I’m back to reading like a crazy lady again.
Full disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you click on a link and buy something (even if it’s not the particular book,) I receive a little compensation.
Chumpi Illumination by Eleanora Amendolara. After my experience at the Sacred Waterfall with twelve crystal Chumpi stones, I finally broke down and bought a set of seven. These are mystical stones from the Peruvian Andes mountains; mine are made of meteorite and are (without a doubt) alive. This deck of cards is helping me understand the basic principles behind the stones I have.
Mystery School: An Insider’s Perspective by Gayle Clayton. Reading and re-reading books written by your meditation teacher is a very, very good thing. It helps tickle my memories, and certainly reminds me of an amazing time in my life. And, if you’ve ever wondered what exactly a mystery school is like, this will help. Your brain will be overloaded with information: exactly what’s needed in this Western world to break through our overthinking over-obsessed-with-details-and-facts-and-figures world. A remarkable accounting.
Five Lives Remembered and Between Death and Life by Delores Cannon. If you’re unfamiliar with past life regressions and/or the work of Delores Cannon, these two books are good introductions. “Five Lives” is the retelling of how she and her husband started regressing people and found one person who was particularly good under hypnosis. “Between Death and Life” explores what happens to a soul after it leaves the body.
To Die But Once by Jacqueline Winspear. Move over all you other books, private investigator Maisie Dobbs is in the house. I read this in maybe two or three nights of intense reading. I would do it again – probably when the next book is released. My hopes are up that that will be next year.
The Maisie Dobbs series of mysteries stands out because the characters are true-to-life. They’re believable, likable, and tenacious. At this point in the series we’ve seen Maisie and her cohorts through the first World War, personal struggles, and now the second World War is starting. Sigh. If only Winspear could write as fast as I can read.
Stealing Shadows by Kay Hooper. I picked up a series of three Kay Hooper books at the autumn book sale at my local library because they looked interesting: a psychic helps police catch killers. Unfortunately, this got just a little too dark for my tastes, perhaps even a little too unbelievable. I’ll donate this series back to the book sale for next year.
A World Without Whom by Emily J. Favilla The subtitle for this book is “The Essential Guide to Language in the BuzzFeed Age,” and it should come with an English teacher alert: you won’t like this one bit. I did, but perhaps that’s because I am online so very, very much.
This truly is a guide for the new way of writing that has developed online. It’s not about proper sentence structure or well-developed thesis; instead, it’s about accessible, friendly writing. And she likes the Oxford Comma – hallelujah!
The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin. So many good series, so little money to go and buy all of the books. If you’re a fan of dystopian fantasy, you owe it to yourself to seek this series out. I’ve only read this first book, but it’s worth finding.
And as it’s the 2016 Hugo Award Winner, your local library may stock a copy or two. As I said, this is a trilogy, so if you’re able, you can definitely grab all three books here.
The Forgotten Room by Karen White, Beatriz Williams, and Lauren Willig. This is a pleasant, predictable read based in the gilded age of New York City. You know this story: servant girl falls in love with wealthy boy and there are complications. Yawn. How three successful authors can write such an average story, I’m not sure, but they definitely pulled it off here.
The Wall Of Night Series by Helen Lowe: The Heir of Night, The Gathering of the Lost, and Daughter of Blood. If you thought I was enthusiastic about The Fifth Season, you haven’t seen anything. This fantasy series by Helen Lowe blew me away. I gobbled these three up as quickly as I possibly could. That’s saying something because Daughter of Blood is more than 700 pages long. The series is epic – a battle between good and evil led by two awkward teenagers with impressive abilities – and the world-building is magnificent.
Still Life With Bread Crumbs by Anna Quindlen. This is more of ‘love’ story that I like. A famous female photographer based in New York City, newly divorced and financially unstable, rents her fancy loft-like apartment and escapes to a small country town. Naturally, she falls in love with a local boy, because doesn’t that happen to everyone? Fortunately, Quindlen adds just enough twists and turns to make this book charming.
The Brightest Fell is the ninth book in The October Daye Series by Seanan McGuire. I really tried to dislike this series, I really tried. At dinner one night I said I thought the first book was well written, but just too violent for me. And then I read another two or three, and didn’t stop until I finished the whole series. It easily took me less than two weeks to glide through all eight books; and now I long for the magical world of the faerie with all of the political intrigue, infighting, and imaginative world-building.
October “Toby” Daye is a half human half fae (as in fairy or fairy-ish) hard-boiled detective type who also happens to have considerable talent with the decidedly not human skill of ‘riding blood.’ When she tastes blood, she sees and experiences the story of whomever the blood has come from; and given that she’s a detective, that blood is often coming from a freshly dead body. If you love fantasy, this is a great series to consider.