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I love reading, especially on my Kindle which allows me to have a library of over 200 books in the palm of my hand. This year, I surpassed the goal I had set to read 2 books per month. I also read 2 books with the kids. These are fantastic chapter books that all my kids thoroughly enjoyed and were engrossed in the stories:
These are my books, mostly read on a Kindle and a few as audiobooks.
The book that has had a huge impact on my physical and mental health is Gut by Giulia Enders. I highly recommend this book – it is a long read but worth it IMO.
Half the books were from joining the Reese Witherspoon Book Club – I decided that I needed to get out of my comfort zone. A book club seemed like a good idea as I got to read books that otherwise would have never piqued my interest. I will try to keep up with it in 2019 too.
For the first time this year, I ventured into audiobooks and I must say I am a convert! It all started with our trip to France/Switzerland/Italy this summer. We got Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials Trilogy for the trip. 2000 miles later we had were only 1 chapter shy of the end of the series. The kids (being a captive audience) really got into it and when we got home they were keen to also watch the movie based on the book. Spoiler alert – the movie is really bad :-(. Even the kids were disappointed but it was quaint to hear them discuss the differences between the book and the movie.
My oldest son is on the spectrum and dyslexic, he is not at ease around books as I am despite much cajoling from me. But it turned out the audiobooks were the thing for him. When it came time for him to read 1984 for school he asked me to find him an audiobook. We installed an app on his phone and he finds it much easier to listen to books.
I am looking forward to 2019 and what reading delights I will venture into. Have you read any of the books here? Any recommendations for my 2019 reading list? Please share, I’d love your input.
Table of Contents
Battle Mage (An Epic Fantasy Adventure)
The Mysterious Benedict Society
A Simple Favour: An edge-of-your-seat thriller with a chilling twist
The Ladies’ Room
Crazy Rich Asians
The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success: A Practical Guide to the Fulfillment of Your Dreams
The Courage To Be Disliked: How to free yourself, change your life and achieve real happiness
The Alchemist
The Darkest Minds: Book 1 (A Darkest Minds Novel)
How to Build a Girl
Relight My Fire
On the Shortness of Life
The Last Mrs Parrish
Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows
Behind Closed Doors
Little Fires Everywhere
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life
Gut: the inside story of our body’s most under-rated organ
The Rules of Magic
Big Little Lies
The Light We Lost
Year of Yes
What I Know for Sure
The Life-Changing Magic of Not Giving a F**k
Thanks for stopping by,
Peace and love,
Hila
‘LinkConnector Validation’
shoes15
December 14, 2018 4:45 pmI love Caitlin Moran – glad to see this on your list. Some of the other titles intrigue me. I will have to look them up. A book I really enjoyed this year was the novel “The Woman Upstairs” by Claire Messud. It’s a great portrait of the making of an artist.
steelyseamstress
December 14, 2018 6:29 pmWow, that’s an impressive lot of reading. And such an interestingly diverse bunch of books – so many different genres. Actually, I can say that I have read so much more since I’ve joined a book club – it really inspires me to read.
tialys
December 15, 2018 8:20 amI haven’t read any of those books – although I was tempted by the Caitlin Moran one, is it any good?
Audio books are brilliant for long car journeys aren’t they? I bought a set of CDs – Penguin Classics – containing titles like ‘Jane Eyre’, ‘Frankenstein’ and ‘Pride and Prejudice’ and all read by accomplished actors. I used these for when I used to drive the girls half an hour to school every day and it was very useful to introduce them to some of novels in the literary canon – whether they wanted to be introduced or not! When they were younger we had the set of ‘A Series of Unfortunate Events’ which they loved but started to drive me mad by the end.
Jenny
December 20, 2018 1:54 pmWow, seriously impressed with the book count! I think I will reach my (sad) goal of 10 by next week.
I haven’t joined Reese Witherspoon’s book club, but I follow the account on IG and they always select interesting books! I’ve been wanting to read Little Fires Everywhere.
Anne
December 31, 2018 7:21 pmSome fantastic ideas here. I’ve read more than usual this year but like the idea of joining a book club. I agree it would expand my horizons. Is this book club you’ve joined an online one?
Donnalee
January 24, 2019 7:03 pmGood for you for reading. I prefer my old paperbacks since somehow Kindle is too hard for my brain to read–maybe has to do with epilepsy. I’m glad you read and are encouraging the kids to read too and are finding ways that work for them.