Blogmas Day One - The Books That I Read in November

 

It's here, December has rolled in with the wettest of nights.  

We had almost torrential rain bucketing down all night and only easing off with the early morning light of a dull December day.  But now we can relax into the twinkling lights that sparkle in all the shops and bop to the Christmas music they play in an effort to get us parted from our money.  But now there are no glares from the 'bah humbug' brigade as we are officially on the countdown to Christmas.

It's also perfect reading weather, so after I list the books that I read in November on here for posterity, I will be digging out all the Christmas themed books from my books shelves and getting myself ready to have a very booky December.

It wasn't such a good reading month again last month just three books completed and the beginning of a fourth ... I must do better!!

The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley

I started the month by reading the last quarter of this book.

It was a very good read, and while I thought I had solved the crime ... I hadn't.  There was a delicious twist at the end.  This would make a brilliant binge-worth tv series.

Donated

 ... just because I rarely keep fiction books for rereading, and obviously I know who did it and why.  😄

The Money Secret by Rob Parsons

This is a very unique book written in a very unusual way and it makes it an easy read.  

I enjoyed the quirky aspect of it and really sunk into it and it's message.  There was very little that I didn't already know, having paid of large debts myself in the past and lived with little to no money for a time.  But it reinforced an awful lot for me and made me happy that I had come through this stage of my life, and indeed come through it well and learnt a lot for myself.

If only I had had this book back then, perhaps my journey would have been shorter.

This book has been kept.

Floating Home by Adam Lind

This is one of the few books that I have purchased new this year, and I have to say it was worth every penny.

Adam has written the book of his life up to now, interspersing his story with segments called 'Humans of the Waterways'.  The stories of their lives from friends of his, both new and old, many of whom I have already watched on YouTube for a long time.  The whole book was a joy and at times very philosophical.  

There was one very simple sentence that changed my whole mindset.  Basically it's when you feel that something is too much for you to cope with, simply change that you have got to do it, to that you get to do it.  I have put it into action a few times since reading the book and it's really worked.

As an example, yesterday I might have said 'I have got to go and visit Mum today'.  To be truthful I was dreading the visit after the last one when she was virtually comatose, and we both came away so sad.  Instead I said to myself when I woke up...  'I get to visit Mum today'.  Because she is still with us, because we have a car to get us down the motorway, because while I have been too bad to drive Alan has cheerfully picked up the reins and is driving us.  Just changing one letter of one word turned my thinking around and made me feel gratitude, which completely turned the day around.  Happily when we got there she was awake and totally different, which obviously is just a completely happy coincidence, but it reinforced something very powerful in me.

So this book comes highly recommended.

Kept.

The McFlannels See It Through by Helen W Pryde

I started my final book of the month only a couple of days ago, but I keep putting it down.

It's written with the speech spelt out as a Scottish person would say it, and this messes with my brain!!  I've noticed this before with books, they have to be in 'proper English' for me to really enjoy them.  

It's not as though I can't figure it out, I've obviously been with a Scotsman for over twenty years so I can quite easily decipher most of it, and the story seems to be going in a good direction.  But my poor tired brain is taking a Christmas break from this one.

Kept - to try again in the New Year.

So there might not have been much reading going on last month, but what I read was mostly very good and with three books staying on the bookshelves I get to read them again at a future date.

Sue xx

I would like to point out, that although I provide links to Amazon for all the books that I read each month, not all my books are bought from Amazon.  If they are, some of them were bought from the Used section rather than at full price.  You do not need to spend a fortune to read good books. 💖

I share the links so that you can learn more about the books that I write about for yourself, or read reviews from others that have read them.  Of course most of the books I talk about would also be available from your local library, and if you are very lucky you might even find them in charity or thrift shops. 

There are so many ways to bring books into your home if you love reading. 📚