No.113: My Latest Reads // April

I love ports. I love the smell of tar and sea air, and the scream of the gulls. Maybe it’s years of taking the ferry to France for summer holidays, but a harbor gives me a feeling of freedom in a way that an airport never does. Airports say work and security checks and delays. Ports say… I don’t know. Something completely different. Escape, maybe.

I found The Woman in Cabin 10 at the thrift store and couldn’t put it down!  There are twists and turns throughout and I couldn’t quite figure it all out – a sign of a good book!

IN THIS HOUSE OF BREDE by Rumer Godden
My Rating: ★★★★☆

‘We don’t put much faith in ecstasies here,’ Dame Ursula had told them.  ‘The nun you see rapt away in church isn’t likely to be the holiest.  The holiest one is probably the one you would never notice because she is simply doing her duty.’ (p.41)

In This House of Brede is a beautiful look at monastic life.  I found the book to be a great reminder that priests and nuns, while living a holy vocation, are still human, with likes and dislikes and annoying character traits just like the rest of us!  I was also really struck by God’s hand in Philippa’s life, from beginning to end.  We can’t always see the “why” of situations in our lives, but God is faithful.


FLAT BROKE WITH TWO GOATS: A MEMOIR by Jennifer McGaha 
My Rating: ★★★★☆

Until that moment, self-sufficiency had been a strange and abstract concept, something my forebears had had to do, but nothing I would have chosen. Now, the enormity of what I had been missing all along struck me—this, the simplest of joys, the pleasure of nurturing living things that would then give back to me in return. (46%)

When I was in my twenties and even my thirties, fifty had been unimaginable—a lifetime away. I had so much to do before then. I had kids to raise, a career to tend to, so much to do and see and accomplish. But now, here I was on the cusp of fifty, and the only thing I really knew was how very much I did not know, how much I would never know. (82%)

My life before revolved around doing what I thought I should do or what I believed other people thought I should do, and I was so busy doing those things, I never really understood what I wanted. I didn’t stop consider other possibilities or to listen to those parts of me that longed for a simpler life, for some deeper connection to the people I loved. So I think I have made some progress toward figuring out how to do that, how to create a life that is meaningful with the people I love. (98%)

I stumbled upon this while it was on the front page of my library app.  While I didn’t necessarily agree with the way they handled their money (and the initial lack of responsibility regarding losing everything), I loved the goat antics!  I learned so much about raising goats and kept reading parts aloud to Mark. The lessons she learned because of the catastrophe were so good too.

BRAIN ON FIRE: MY MONTH OF MADNESS by Susannah Cahalan
My Rating: ★★★★★

The healthy brain is a symphony of 100 billion neurons, the actions of each individual brain cell harmonizing into a whole that enables thoughts, movements, memories, or even just a sneeze. But it takes only one dissonant instrument to mar the cohesion of a symphony. When neurons begin to play nonstop, out of tune, and all at once because of disease, trauma, tumor, lack of sleep, or even alcohol withdrawal, the cacophonous result can be a seizure. (18%)

Dr. Najjar, for one, is taking the link between autoimmune diseases and mental illnesses one step further: through his cutting-edge research, he posits that some forms of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and depression are actually caused by inflammatory conditions in the brain. (80%)

I wouldn’t take that terrible experience back for anything in the world. Too much light has come out of my darkness. (90%)

Brain on Fire is an incredible medical memoir about a twenty-something journalist who within the course of a month, went from being totally healthy to strapped to a hospital gurney with doctors debating whether to admit her to a psychiatric ward.  I found it so fascinating and couldn’t put it down!  I learned so much about the intricacies of the brain and the fine line between psychological issues and neurological ones.



LITTLE BROKEN THINGS by Nicole Baart
My Rating:  ★★★☆☆

Jack’s death taught Liz that sometimes the surface is not an accurate indicator of what lies beneath. Sometimes these things just happen. There’s no way to know. No way to predict. (6%)

Little Broken Things was another one that I stumbled upon at the library.  The story is about a mysterious request from one estranged sister to another to keep a little girl safe and hidden.  It was suspenseful, although I did figure it out quite early into the story.  A little slow-moving, but good.

THE ONE AND ONLY IVAN by Katherine Applegate
My Rating: ★★★☆☆ (more like 3.5 stars)

I can just make out Bob’s little head sticking out of Julia’s backpack. “You are the One and Only Ivan,” he calls.  I nod, then turn toward my family, my life, my home.  “Mighty Silverback,” I whisper. (p.300)

We read this one as our school read aloud for April.  This was a moving story about an adult gorilla living inside a glass cage in a mall and his mission to find freedom for his friend.  I found the book absolutely heart-breaking and said on more than one occasion, “This is just the saddest thing ever!”  I can’t believe it was inspired by real-life events too.

LOST BOY: THE TRUE STORY OF CAPTAIN HOOK by Christina Henry
My Rating: ★★★☆☆

We were still children, for all that we thought we weren’t. We were in that in-between place, the twilight between childish things and grown-up things. Childhood still held out a friendly hand to us, if we wanted to go back to it, while the unexplored country was ahead, beckoning us to come there and see what new pleasures were to be found. (73%)

A pick outside of my usual genres, Lost Boy explores the Peter Pan story through Captain Hook’s eyes.  The premise is a really interesting twist and I don’t think I’ll ever look at Peter Pan the same way again.  A good book, but super dark, violent and bloody.

FOUR SEASONS IN ROME: ON TWINS, INSOMNIA, AND THE BIGGEST FUNERAL IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD by Anthony Doerr
My Rating: ★★★★☆