Educated by Tara Westover

When I vowed to myself to stop reading first books in series, I reached out on Facebook for books to read. One person recommended Educated, the memoir by Tara Westover. I remembered hearing about it on the radio when it first came out, and mentally but not physically adding it to my To Be Read list. Then I promptly forgot about it. Thank you, Facebook friend, for reminding me of this book!

Book Club: Heaven is Here

I recently joined a neighborhood book club, and so far we’ve read two books. That’s two books I wasn’t expecting to read and weren’t in my To Be Read pile, and I wasn’t sure whether or not to include them on my blog.

Well, as must be obvious by now, I’ve decided to include them on my blog. After all, if I’m only going to read approximately one book a month, I’ve gotta review approximately one book a month. Hopefully, I’ll be able to increase it to at least two books per month in the coming year: Book Club book and my choice book.

Raised by Narcotics

Sometimes, you think you know someone. You chat with them fairly regularly, play board games with them, follow them on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, get together with them occasionally but never as often as you’d like. And then they write a memoir. And as you read it, you find heart breaking and yourself thinking, They’re so much stronger than I imagined. This is how I felt reading, Raised by Narcotics: Growing Up in the Opioid Epidemic.

Alyse Neibaur is a child of the Opioid Epidemic. Never having taken narcotics herself, her world was nonetheless shaped by them. Her first ten years of life, though not perfect, was still idyllic. Full of love. Safety. Relative security.

Then there was the car accident that changed everything. That car accident introduced narcotics into the household, and those narcotics came to stay.

Kids, Camels, & Cairo

Remember how in my last post I had to apologize to the author for taking so long to read her book. Well, it happened again. At the same time as I got a request to review The Vines We Planted, I got another request to review Kids, Camels, & Cairo by Jill Dobbe. The same depression and life events that slowed me down with Vines slowed me down with Cairo. And now it’s October.

I’m sorry for the delay. I even bought a copy of the Kindle ebook instead of relying on the file provided by Ms. Dobbe. It’s the least I could do. (Wait. I didn’t do that for Vines. I’ll be right back after I purchase a Kindle copy)

(Okay, I’m back)

Rash

Everyone gets wanderlust every once in a while.  I know I have.  I believed that if I just went somewhere else, tried a new job, went on a life-changing vacation, then things would be better.  I’d feel normal.  I’d feel fulfilled.

This is a lot like how Lisa Kusel feels at the start of her memoir, Rash.  Lisa is a published author with two novels under her belt, but when her third novel fails to find a publisher, her agent suggests she work on something else.  Lisa herself feels she needs a change of pace.  Her husband Victor, a middle school teacher, is also feeling the urge to do something more, something meaningful.  The perfect opportunity presents itself when Lisa learns about a new eco-friendly school opening in Bali.  Victor can go teach in a brand-new top-of-the-line school, Lisa can write in an exotic new locale, and their six-year-old daughter Loy can get a top-notch education. Victor secures a position as the 7th/8th grade teacher, they make their arrangements, and off they go to Bali.