Books on My Nightstand

 A long while ago, as in a year or two, I decided to try and read one book a month. I succeeded for several months and actually wrote my personal review for each book I read. I think I almost made it an entire year, so I read about 12 books, I'm guessing. Then life got busy with the moving stuff and I didn't keep up with the book reading. I've thought about it a few times, but never got it picked back up again. I've actually started a few books over the past year, but have yet to finish any of them. And, they are piled on my nightstand waiting to be finished. So, I thought that maybe if I started doing my little book reviews again, I would get motivated to finish all the books I have started!

These are the five books I have started over the past year, or more. I don't think there is really any "theme" going on - it is quite a varied collection. There is only one book in the stack that I do not own and was loaned to me by a friend. The rest have either been purchased or given to us.

This Charles Dickens collection of stories is from Jason's personal library. I started reading this either in November or December of 2018, I believe. I had never actually read any of Charles Dickens, though I am familiar with some of his works. One thing that I clearly remember while reading in this book was that I was working at the Christian bookstore in Kansas during that time. And, an older customer came in looking for "a book that is kind of a Christmas story similar to "The Grinch," but it's not the Grinch." There were other key words that she used which made me positive she was looking for Dickens A Christmas Carol. I also remember being slightly shocked that she had never heard of it before and was looking for it based on someone else telling her about it. Anyways, back to my personal reading of this set of three books by Dickens....

I completed A Christmas Carol, and The Chimes, and only got part-way through The Cricket on the Hearth. I honestly can't remember a ton about the books, other than I thought they were a bit darker than I was expecting. And I remember telling Jason that at that point, I couldn't quite figure out what The Cricket on the Hearth was really about. I have yet to read up on Charles Dickens and his purposes for the books he wrote, which is something I tried to do with each of the books I was reading and reviewing here on my blog. I have not opened this book since 2018, so I think I will have to re-read most of all three books if I am going to write my little review.

I acquired this book, Gay Girl, Good God, while I was working at the bookstore in Kansas. Several of my co-workers had read it, lots of people bought it, and it sounded intriguing. I will confess that I flipped through it and read a little of it there at the store before actually buying it. And, I have picked it up to read a couple of times. I don't know that I have gotten past the second chapter at all. And, at this point, I cannot tell you exactly what it is about, nor can I tell you anything about the author. I do think that I should be able to easily finish this book within a month....once I start it!

Is God Anti-Gay? is a small little book - kind of pocket-sized, almost. Again, I purchased this book while living and working in Kansas. The reason behind getting it? I had one customer tell me all about it, gave it raving reviews, and we were almost always sold out of it. I have started this one a few times, but again, I don't think I ever got much past the second chapter. The author, Sam Allberry, if I remember correctly is a pastor, or was a pastor. I clearly will need to do my research if I'm going to share anything worthwhile about this book! I also believe that this book could be easily read within a month.

This book, How to End the Autism Epidemic, was loaned to me by a good friend in the middle of 2019. I was pregnant with our second kiddo, she has three kiddos, and we were talking about various doctor visit experiences with our kids, vaccines, people's opinions, our perceptions, etc., etc., and she gave me this book to read. It is about infant and childhood vaccines which can be quite a controversial topic. I flipped through the book and saw lots of charts, graphs, scientific mumbo-jumbo and thought, "There's no way I'll ever get this book read." But, I took it anyway because I respect my friend and cracked it open sometime in the middle of last year. And, much to my shock, I got at least half-way through it!!! I thought for sure I would get bogged down and bored of the scientific mud (for lack of a better word, as science is far from my strong subject!). And, while I did just skim some of the graphs and scientific study inserts, I was surprised at how engaging I found the book! It is a book that I do want to finish. Since I have gotten over half-way in it, and I need to return it to it's owner, I will be picking this book back up to complete before any of the previous books.

Building Better Humans is the most recent book to enter our library. It was a gift from one of Jason's students right when Pumpkin #2 was born. For some reason, Little Pumpkin fell in love with this book and has asked multiple times for me to read it to her. She has also sat down and pretended to read it several times herself!As a result, I have read the first two or three chapters more than three times!!! I think the last time I picked it up to read on my own I was around chapter 8. It is a fairly short book, but I have yet to complete it. So far, I have liked what I read and didn't have any complaints about their child-rearing philosophy or strategy. Again, though, I know nothing about the authors. Yet. Because I am the closest to finishing this book, and it is pretty easy reading, I am choosing to start my reading program with this book.

Well, now you know what I have sitting, waiting on my nightstand for me to read! And, if you like knowing what I think about books, hopefully I can start writing my monthly book reviews again. For curiosity and conversations sake, which of these books, if any, would you choose to pick up and finish first?