One of my goals for 2015 is to read more, so I thought I would share what I’ve been reading this year thus far. It’s been an eclectic mix but a fun one nonetheless:)
1. Slaying the Debt Dragon: How One Family Conquered Their Money Monster and Found an Inspired Happily Ever After, by Cherie Lowe. One thing that has been bothering me lately is how wasteful we are in this house with money. Now, recently there have been some extenuating circumstances–the boys and I were all sick and my husband has been working some very long days, so I wound up ordering delivery (pizza and Chinese) where I have been unable to stick to a tight budget, but this book has given me some great ideas that I hadn’t thought of. My husband and I have two debts outside of our mortgage that we want to focus on paying off–the car and my student loans–and I think that if Cherie can pay over $100K in debt off, then we can easily handle $13K!
2. Dad Is Fat, by Jim Gaffigan. I have adored Jim Gaffigan ever since the day I heard him utter the words “Can we stop with the kale propaganda?” I enjoyed getting to know him and his family through this funny, insightful memoir on parenting. As a mom of three, I totally appreciated his look into life with five, and I could not stop laughing as I read this. If you like comedy, particularly clean comedy, Gaffigan is a sure-fire hit.
3. Normally, This Would be Cause for Concern: Tales of Calamity and Unrelenting Awkwardness,
by Danielle Fishel. Darn it, Topanga! I really wanted to love this book. Because TOPANGA! I grew up loving Boy Meets World and I always thought Topanga was a really cool chick. Danielle Fishel shares some fun stories but I think the main problem is she tries hard to be conversational but comes off as hard to relate to. She pretty much lost me with the story about how she bought $3000 sheets without checking the price, and then lied to the clerk in order to get her money back. I think if you are a hard-core Topanga fan you might enjoy it, but for me, Fishel comes off as borderline abrasive.
4. The Maze Runner (The Maze Runner, Book 1), by James Dashner. I am conflicted about this book. I would not dismiss it as “YA torture porn” like I have seen some reviewers do, although there is something to be said for that summation. I love YA and I was excited to give this a shot, but I found the characters to be pretty flat and I had a hard time feeling much of anything for Thomas, the protagonist. The plot is this: Thomas wakes up in a place called The Glade which is in the center of a giant Maze. Every day, the Maze Runners go out and try to figure a way out, while the rest of the Gladers sustain life. None of them can remember their lives prior, and there are horrible creatures called Grievers who you do NOT want to sting you. All of the inhabitants of the Glade are male..and then one day, a girl shows up, triggering “The Ending.” They have to race against time to find a way out before they all die. Dark, right? I found it easy to read but nothing special. That being said, the end of this book completely blew me away–I did not see it coming at all–and for that reason I will be reading the second one.
Not a bad start to the year, right? What are you reading?
