Lately I’ve been doing all the reading. I’ve started to take advantage of my library card and I’ve been really diligent about reading more. I thought it would be nice to start doing a little round up of books I’ve been reading lately and what I thought of them. So here are the books I’ve finished reading since 2018 started! I’m on my way to meeting my 2018 goal of reading 20 books this year! I’m over 1/4 of the way there!
Living Well, Spending Less
I’ve read the blog post about how she got rid of her kid’s toys like 15 zillion times, and I love it. This book is okay. I appreciated her journey from being all about couponing for a good deal to realizing you just don’t need most of the stuff you acquire. If you’re fairly new to the whole simplifying/personal finance world, this would be a great entry point. If you’re already in it, consider it good encouragement to stay the course.
The Woman in Cabin 10
This book is what sparked my newfound love of my library card. It’s the story of a woman who witnesses a murder on a small boat (like Murder on the Orient Express, but boat) and nobody believes her. She doesn’t know who to trust or believe and everyone is a suspect.I’ve been wanting to read this one for awhile so I picked it up and literally read it in one day. It had a great premise, but about 3/4 of the way into the book it just got really absurd and the ending was so unsatisfying. I couldn’t put it down, though!
A Stranger in the House
I returned The Woman in Cabin 10 and looked for a book I’d been wanting to read (the Couple Next Door). The library didn’t have it, but they did have another book by the same author, so I picked that one up.After crashing her car into a pole while speeding through the wrong side of town, Karen has no memory of why she was there or what was going on. She and her husband, Tom, try their best to piece together what happened on the night of the accident.It was hard to finish because the writing was so boring. The plot line was okay at best. The twist at the end was alright, but definitely did not redeem the writing or the plot up to that point.
Eleanor is a quirky, socially awkward human being who is fine being alone. She and a co-worker have a chance encounter with an elderly man (and save his life!) and it starts a whole new chapter in her life.This book was good when I thought Eleanor was just a quirky, social awkward girl but as the book went on I started to feel sad about Eleanor’s story and how she saw the world. I couldn’t put it down, though. I do recommend this one!
I’ve seen SO MANY PEOPLE post about this book, so when I saw it on the news I was ALL ABOUT IT. I currently have my own reselling business so reading about a woman who built an empire from reselling clothes on eBay was REALLY exciting. It didn’t live up to the hype for me. It was good but I didn’t really LEARN anything and a lot of what was shared was really directly related to her own journey – which is super cool but definitely not my path.
When I heard Amy Kaufman interviewed on my favorite Bachelor podcast (Here to Make Friends), I was SO EXCITED to read her book. She had a lot of insight into the franchise and what goes on behind the scenes. I tried ordering it online but my card was expired and the payment wouldn’t go through. Justen and I were perusing the Amazon Store and as we were walking out I saw this book and lost my freaking mind.
