Books July 26th through August 21st

I have been plugging along clearing up my currently reading list on goodreads. It was my goal last year to clear the 41 books off of it but I failed. This year I will succeed, I am a mere 3 books from accomplishing this goal!


In print I finished Abominable Science!: Origins of the Yeti, Nessie and Other Famous Cryptids which was interesting but too long. They could have conveyed the same facts in a much shorter book.  The next book was Finding Me: A Decade of Darkness, A Life Reclaimed- A Memoir of the Cleveland Kidnappings which was a heavy book to read. I had started it a long time ago and could not continue once I reached her kidnapping. I picked it back up and made it through this time. It is her story to tell but like a couple others I have read recently I was not overwhelmed. They need a ghost writer to tell their stories, one who can give them a coherent voice and time line. Once I finished this one I jumped into Life Without Oil: Why We Must Shift to a New Energy Future and that is where I am still currently. I should have it finished within the next week but we shall see.

In the world of audio books I have plowed through several starting where I left off on the last post with The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and the People's Temple which it turns out was written by a local author. It was a good book but really heavy on names and minute details. I started forgetting who people were and just focused on the central story. I picked up a light book after this with An Irish Country Doctor which is the first in a series taking place just after the war. I am on the fence about reading any more of the series. I have also checked out a bunch of parenting book lately and the first in the bunch was How to Talk so Little Kids Will Listen: A Survival Guide to Life With Children Ages 2-7. The tips in the book were good and most worked on my younger one for about 2 days and then he was wise to my tricks. The next book I listened to was supremely interesting. I love to know the origins of things so Birdseye: The Adventures of a Curious Man which you probably could tell by the name is the story of modern frozen foods. This was a quick listen so I went right into Payoff: The Hidden Logic that Shapes Our Motivations. This one was disappointing because it was a shortened version of another book I read and so all the information was not new to me. The only salvation for this book was it was only a 3 hour listen and then I was able to move onto something else.  Next up was another parenting book The Gifts of Imperfect Parenting: Raising Children with Courage, Compassion and Connection. This one was also short at just over 2 hours which was good as I really got nothing out of it. The next parenting book I listened to was also short but unlike the others I got so much out of it. From the beginning she was describing my child and I am really looking forward to reading more books by this author. Raising Your Spirited Child by Mary Sheedy Kurcinka. Finishing up that one led me to the current book of You'll Grow Out of It which I am about 1/3 of the way through now. There are a ton cued up to listen to as soon as I finish this one and hopefully I will have good things to tell you about them on my next post as well as be able to say I am done with my currently reading list!