Introverted Reader

Nonfiction and Fiction Book Pairings

This week for Nonfiction November, Julie at Julz Reads prompts us to create nonfiction and fiction book pairings: This week, pair up a nonfiction book with a fiction title. It can be a “If you loved this book, read this!” or just two titles that you think would go well together. Maybe it’s a historical novel and you’d like to get the real history by reading a nonfiction version of the story. I have several ideas for this post but after my nearly four-year blogging break, I haven't reviewed all the books that come to mind! Oh well. My explanations here will have to do for some of these choices. Space My first pairing is The Space Barons: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the Quest to Colonize the Cosmos by Christian Davenport (link to my brief review on GoodReads) and The Last Astronaut by David Wellington. I'm currently listening to The Last Astronaut and I'm glad I've already read The Space Barons. I don't keep up with a lot of space news so the nonfiction book filled in a lot of gaps in my knowledge. The Last Astronaut is a bit of a competition in the near future between NASA and KSpace, a private company that feels like a stand-in for SpaceX. While The Space Barons touts the benefits of privatized space exploration--accountability to share holders and competition should keep costs down and drive faster innovations--The Last Astronaut has me questioning what would happen if a private company was the first to make contact with alien life? It's an interesting question to me. Refugees of War/Violent Conflict The Bite of the Mango by Mariatu Kamara with Susan McClelland (Link to my review) and Little Bee by Chris Cleave--The Bite of the Mango relates Mariatu's appalling experiences at the hands of…

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November 9, 2020

Bookish Miscellany

Weekly Update for November 8, 2020

Welcome to my weekly update for November 8, 2020! My husband started his new work assignment last Monday so I feel safe to say that we left Portland, Oregon and we're now in Oceanside, California, just north of San Diego! We enjoyed our time in Portland but we're chasing good weather in our RV. We spent last winter in Newport Beach, California, so we're on slightly familiar territory. We were hoping to go to Arizona but the hospital my husband applied to isn't in a hurry to hire so he accepted this job instead. It feels good to be a 10-minute drive from the Pacific though! And temperatures right now are perfect for me! Copyright © Jennifer G. at Introverted Reader Posted: Book Review: Get Well Soon: History's Worst Plagues and the Heroes Who Fought Them--5 Stars Book Review: The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels by Jon Meacham--4 Stars My Year in Nonfiction for Nonfiction November Top Ten Non-Bookish Hobbies 6 Degrees of Separation: From Dissolution to One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Read: Hole in the Sky by William Kittredge Currently Reading: A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik The Last Astronaut by David Wellington, read by Megan Tusing The October Country by Ray Bradbury Watching: The Mandalorian Season 2--We love this show so much! We were planning to wait on watching season two until after all the episodes were released but we just couldn't. We tend to be slow watchers anyway, so why not get started? I'm not sure how my husband manages to actually watch it over my squeals of "Baby Yoda is so cute!!!!!!" Or "I love his baby Moses basket so much!!!!!!" We're talking serious tween squealing here. But he is so cute!!! Up Next: I realized today that it's been a little while since…

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November 8, 2020

Bookish Miscellany

6 Degrees of Separation November 2020

Hosted by Books Are My Favourite and Best on the first Saturday of every month, the 6 Degrees of Separation meme asks us to start with one title and create a chain of bookish connections to see where it takes us. This month, we're starting with our last link from a previous chain. I chose Dissolution, from my September entry, as my first book and ended at One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Dissolution by C. J. Sansom is a historical mystery series centered around Matthew Shardlake, a disillusioned "hunchbacked" lawyer working in Tudor England. His appearance singles him out for abuse, both physical and emotional, at the hands of a prejudiced public. Someone else who draws undue attention because of her appearance is... Mercy Lavinia "Vinnie" Bump, a real person and the titular character in the historical novel, The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb by Melanie Benjamin. Reaching a height of only 32 inches (81 cm), she could have been just as negatively impacted by public opinion as Shardlake was. But "Mrs. Tom Thumb" is made of sterner stuff and leverages her size into an advantage. She enters into a contract with P. T. Barnum himself and ends up touring the world and regularly dining with royalty and other elites. Another character who doesn't stay down for long and hobnobs with the rich and powerful is... Jacky Faber, the main character in the Bloody Jack series by L. A. Meyer. Jacky is a sailor at heart so she has seen a lot of the world in her short life. I believe she's circled the globe at least once, maybe more, by book nine, which is where I am in the series. Speaking of characters who cover a lot of ground... Allan Karlsson, The 100-Year-Old-Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared…

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November 7, 2020

The Soul of America by Jon Meacham: Book Review

I almost always have one nonfiction book on the go that I read exclusively before bed. I'm primarily a fiction reader so I don't usually fall into the "one more chapter" trap that keeps me awake way past my bedtime if I follow this plan. This was not a great book for that. It's intelligently written, presented, and argued, but [...]

Get Well Soon by Jennifer Wright: Book Review

5 Stars. This book fascinated me from the moment I started reading. I made heavy use of the highlight function on my Kindle, highlighting 53 passages. 53! I would like to share them all here but I believe that would get me in trouble for copyright infringement. This book about plagues was somehow hilarious! I’ve worked healthcare for [...]

Bookish Miscellany

Top Ten Non-Bookish Hobbies

Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl invited us to share our top ten non-bookish hobbies this week. At first I was like, "Non-bookish hobbies? Is that a thing?" But then my brain unfroze and I realized that I do, in fact, have hobbies outside of books. Travel--My husband I love to travel. In fact, we got frustrated with never having enough vacation time to go all the places we want. In early 2019, we quit our jobs and he signed on with agencies that let him travel as a healthcare professional. We generally stay in one place for three months, exploring heavily on his days off, and move on to another location. We travel in our RV while he's on assignment. I keep thinking about starting a travel blog as well but 2020 doesn't seem like the time to do that. States and countries visited. We feel well-traveled in conversation with most people and then a map like this makes me realize how little we've actually seen. Hiking--This kind of goes hand-in-hand with travel, but we love to hike. My favorite hikes are on ridgetops with views that go on forever. Home-home is in the North Carolina mountains, about a 15-minute drive from the Blue Ridge Parkway. If I need to think about something and don't have time for a hike, I'll head for the Parkway and check out that same view that goes on forever. Myrtle Falls at Mount Rainier National Park Postcards & Letters--Since we've been traveling, I've found that I love sending mail back home to family and friends to let them know I'm thinking about them. I'll even pick up little gifts and ship them when the spirit moves me.Games--I love board games, with Cranium being my longtime favorite. I don't care for "real" card games…

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November 2, 2020

Bookish Miscellany

My Year in Nonfiction

Katie at Doing Dewey, Leann at Shelf Aware, Julie at Julz Reads, and Rennie at What's Nonfiction are co-hosting Nonfiction November. This is my first time joining in! This week's discussion prompt, hosted at Shelf Aware is: Take a look back at your year in nonfiction and reflect on the following questions – What was your favorite nonfiction read of the year? Do you have a particular topic you’ve been attracted to more this year? What nonfiction book have you recommended the most? What are you hoping to get out of participating in Nonfiction November? My general goal is to read one nonfiction book a month and I've read eleven so far this year. Well, I'm 85% finished with Hole in the Sky, but I'm counting it. I think I've done pretty well. Favorite: My favorite nonfiction book of the year (so far) is Get Well Soon: History's Worst Plagues and the Heroes Who Fought Them by Jennifer Wright. Jessica at Book Ouroboros recommended it to me and I was honestly shocked by how much I enjoyed it. I haven't reviewed it yet, but Wright's humor and insight had me riveted to the pages. Look at this quote, located only 1% in: Because when plagues erupt, some people behave amazingly well. They minimize the level of death and destruction around them. They are kind. They are courageous. They showcase the best of our nature. Other people behave like superstitious lunatics and add to the death toll. I mean, really. Can anyone sum up 2020 better than that? And Wright published this in 2017. I guess there really is nothing new under the sun and we do repeat history that we've conveniently forgotten. Topic That Appealed to Me: In glancing through these titles, I can make a case that history has…

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November 2, 2020

Bookish Miscellany

Weekly Update for November 1, 2020

Welcome to my weekly update for November 1, 2020! I hope everyone had a safe and happy Halloween! How did you or you kids dress up? If you didn't, did you see any costumes that stood out to you? Did my readers in the US remember to set your clocks back an hour? I wish we would just pick a time and stick with it. If we must change the time, I prefer to "fall back." I don't like the early sunsets but it takes me weeks to recover from "springing forward." Which do you prefer? Also, Americans, your last chance to vote is this Tuesday, November 3! Make your voice heard! Visit vote.org, a non-partisan nonprofit resource, for locations, sample ballots, and more vital information. Posted: Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix--3.5 Stars The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix--4 Stars Gil's All Fright Diner by A. Lee Martinez--4 Stars Toil & Trouble: 15 Tales of Women & Witchcraft edited by Jessica Spotswood and Tess Sharpe, read by Amy McFadden--4 Stars My Top Ten Horror Books My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix--4 Stars Read: Small Spaces by Katherine Arden Currently Reading: The October Country by Ray Bradbury The Last Astronaut by David Wellington, read by Megan Tusing Hole in the Sky by William Kittredge Watching: I really am a horror movie wimp but I did get brave and watch The Shining after reading the book sometime in my early twenties. My husband and I decided to re-watch it last week since we visited Timberline Lodge, where the exterior shots were filmed, while we were in Oregon. It was a lot of fun to see a place we had hiked around in a movie. Since I knew what was going on, I have to admit I managed to nod off…

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October 31, 2020

Toil & Trouble edited by Jessica Spotswood & Tess Sharpe: Book Review

Any short story collection is going to be a bit uneven but I truly enjoyed the vast majority of these. I would like to read novels based on some of these characters and I will be seeking out longer works by some of these authors. I appreciated that the writers are a culturally-diverse group and their characters reflect that. [...]

My Best Friend’s Exorcism by Grady Hendrix: Book Review

I loved the way this ended and I hate that I can’t say more about it because I definitely have things I want need to say. But no one likes spoilers, right? Just know that the celebration of real, true friendship surprised me and made me so happy. A horror novel made me happy? Why, yes, it did. Now that that’s out of the way, I [...]