.08 What I'm Reading
Happy New Year!
I took an unintentional break from writing about what I am reading. The unintended break occurred because my workload ramped up in December, and I was unable to complete detailed write-ups of each book I read.
In the end, however, it was a good thing. This break forced me to reconsider how I can continue this habit even during busy seasons.
I love to read, and I love to hear about what other people are reading. The whole point of these blog posts is to give other readers book suggestions, and hopefully get some ideas from them about what books I should add to my list.
That said, going forward, I am going to link each book I read to a description of the book (instead of doing the write-up myself) and then write my opinion of the book.
Before I get into the books I read last week, I will list out the books I read over the last month.
Books for this week:
Dreyer’s English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style, Benjamin Dreyer
I purchased Dreyer’s English on a whim and am very glad I did. Benjamin Dreyer is the chief copyeditor at Random House and has an accurate and realistic grammar paradigm. I specifically like how he detailed ways to better copy through editing while also knowing when to allow writers to break grammatical rules.
I also agreed with Dreyer’s opinion no the term “Grammar Nazi” (don’t use it!) and appreciated his unashamed admission that he didn’t know the “rules” when he got his first job as a proofreader.
Honestly, I thought I knew a lot about grammar until I began studying it. Truth-be-told is that just because you know the difference between their, there, and they’re does not make you an expert (despite how often you gleefully point out when someone uses the wrong homophone). (Talking about a friend of mine, of course. I, for one, have never done such a thing.)
This book is well researched. Funny. And worth the read, if you’re into that sort of thing.
Where the Crawdads Sing, Delia Owens
This one has been on my list FOREVER. I have heard great things about Crawdads, and so I bought it for my dad for his birthday. He loved this book and handed it off to me.
First, this book is a quick read, and the story is engaging. I was disappointed in the language. The dialogue felt pretty clunky to me, and the love scenes read like a bad Hallmark movie (coming from someone who thinks all Hallmark movies are bad). I felt like Owens was explicit when there was no need, and it took away from the book.
However, I would recommend reading this book. It is the perfect book for a lazy day reading. I was sick over the holiday and was thankful to have an engaging, easy read. So buy or borrow this book, and save it for a day where you have nothing to do, have watched one too many episodes of The Office, and just feel like sitting down with a good book.
Educated, A Memoir, Tara Westover
Educated is another book that has been on my list for a while. My dad got this book for me for Christmas, and boy it did not disappoint.
This book is well-written, shocking, and downright page-turner. I could not put it down.
I think one of my favorite parts of this book is how honest she was about lapses in memory. We all think we remember things accurately, but the truth is that we don’t. It is disturbing to me. It is like those selective attention tests. Our brains can only process so much information, so we often miss obvious things because of how focused we are on our feelings and objectives. Someone else will go through the exact experience as us but have a different recall because they were viewing the world from their lens.
In the end, I thought that Westover was honest while still holding a place of love and understanding for those she was raised by. Great read.
Have you read any of the books mentioned above? What did you think? Let me know in the comments below!