I did something I’ve never done before this past month – I became a homeschool mom. I still got a lot of reading in as my way to de-stress. Here is what I read in September:
Life is made up of decisions. Some may be easy, but for big decisions it can be hard to know if you’re making the right one. Emily P. Freeman has taken to heart the best advice for those decisions – do the next right thing. We don’t have to figure out our entire life path or even know if something will completely work out. We just need to look and see what the next right step should be. She offers her advice from her personal life experiences in The Next Right Thing.
Success is something most people strive for in their lives. Scott Adams proposes that success is not always based on winning and doing the absolute best, but could be a matter of having the right skills at the right time … and maybe some luck. His journey from a bank employee to a famous and rich cartoonist wasn’t a straight line of steps. He has ventured in many other endeavors and while most of them were failures, he learned lessons with each one that helped him become better for the next step in life. He shares his thoughts in How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big.
If Blue Like Jazz had come out while I was in Bible college, I would have read it when it was released. However, it was two years too late and I read it this month because last month I read Nelson’s book about writing a movie based on Blue Like Jazz. It was interesting to listen to as he’s very honest about his spiritual struggles.
Just before final exams at college, Addie Cowherd finds out her parents haven’t been able to pay her school bill and she won’t be allowed to finish the semester. They’ve had to sell their house and move into a boarding house and have no room to take her back in. She needs to find a job and a place to live in a hurry. She had been working part-time at the local library during school and while they don’t have the funds to keep her on, the director hears about a job in Boone’s Hollow as a packhorse librarian and Addie applies. She leaves city life to live in a small town in Kentucky where family grudges are held for generations in The Librarian of Boone’s Hollow.
This is the first cookbook I’ve reviewed on my blog. It is half a cookbook and half an instruction manual for cooking. Samin Nosrat shares her knowledge of cooking from years of working in restaurants, studying throughout the world and learning her family’s recipes. Her focus is on four key things: Salt, Fat, Acid and Heat. She proposes that if you learn how to use these four things correctly, you can make any dish and make it delicious.
Seeking absolution, Joe Cullen walks into a confessional to admit to killing a priest. He didn’t directly kill him, but was present at the event. However, because he tells the priest he doesn’t believe in God, the priest won’t give him absolution. It’s hard for Joe to believe in God after what he did and saw in Vietnam. Without absolution, he goes to the police station and tells the cops. His confession is videotaped, but without evidence, they won’t arrest him. The rest of the details he spills about the gun and drug running put all of their lives in danger, though in The Confession of Joe Cullen.
The Last of the Mohicans has been sitting in my to-read pile for a long time. I have not seen the movie so I thought I’d read the book and then watch the movie soon. The book was hard to follow as it was written in a high style and then the characters were referred to by different names throughout the book. I’m curious if the movie will make the plot a little clearer to me.
I was contacted by the author of Dibs to see if I’d be interested in reading her book. The plot seemed interesting and it was a light read. It’s a romance, but while it’s a little steamy, it’s not graphic. Olivia is recovering from her divorce after years of her husband rejecting her. When a guy at a work retreat shows interest in her, she doesn’t believe it’s real at first. He doesn’t give up easy, though.
What did you read in September? Share in the comments!
