What I Read in July!

2019 Reading Goal: 57/80 - doing good!  

A note:  I LOVE audiobooks!  I particularly love nonfiction audiobooks because a good reader can really bring a book to life.  With lots of driving and increased running this month, I took advantage of my library's digital catalog and finally read multiple nonfiction books that have been on my list for a while!  

1.  The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes Us Happier, Healthier, and More Creative, Florence Williams (audio) - Simply put, this book reaffirms my personal belief system about the benefit of the great outdoors by backing it up with science.  It's been on my wish list for quite some time, and I'm glad to finally read it.  The best part was learning some of the initiatives happening around the world to improve people's health and wellbeing through outdoor programs!

2. The River, Peter Heller (audio) - I really shouldn't be a fan of Heller's.  The general plots of his sedond and third books (The River is his third) really aren't my cup of tea.  But man, oh man, is he ever a fantastic writer.  I adore his prose, which is why I keep going back.  This is the first time I've listened to one of Heller's audiobooks, and I found that listening turned the entire book into a dreamlike experience.  Beautiful.  

3. Vengeful, V.E. Schwab - Hmmm.... I liked it, but I didn't love it as much as I loved it's predecessor, Vicious.  It felt a little bit tired, and it felt a little bit bland.  These are essentially books about horrible people, and this time around I had a hard time connecting and rooting for any of them.  (Which was the brilliance of the first book.)  Perhaps it's the difference between having written the first book for herself and the second for her fans?  

4. Middlegame, Seanan McGuire - I don't know why it was so hard to get into this book.  I tried several times before it 'took.'  Once I was in, though, I was in 100%.  I love McGuire's ability to carry me away with a good story.  This stand-alone novel was a bit more complex and challenging than her other works, and I applaud her for stretching herself.  (Also, I did a whole bunch of research into a location used for a key part of the story.  I LOVE it when a book makes me do that!)  Roger and Dodger were amazing characters to get to know, and I may need to reread this at some point so that I can pick up details I know I missed the first time around.  

5. Killers of the Flower moon, David Grann (audio and print) - Truth?  It just made me mad.  As it should.  Yet another shameful account of how Native Americans were treated by this country.  Everyone needs to learn this stuff in history class.  (As a side note, I may be digging into some family history because of this book.)

6. A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, Becky Chambers - A close friend introduced me to Chambers recently, and because I loved that first book so much I knew I had to go back and reread the first two.  What I really love about Chambers' work is that she's very gifted at character studies.  Her plots are slow and gentle, which allow her to really focus on each individual.  It was fun, and it was meaningful, and I loved it.  

7. Holy Envy: Finding God in the Faith of Others, Barbara Brown Taylor (audio) - I've wanted to read this for a while, but saved it for Spec.  Our theme this year was Belong, and as part of that I found myself drawn to the idea that God is too big for any one religion.  It's a beautiful book, sharing Taylor's experience of teaching World Religions at a small college.  I don't know that I learned anything new, but I did reaffirm many of my own beliefs and open myself up to further curiosity.   

8. Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, J.D. Vance (audio) - One of those books that seemingly everyone has read, I'm late to the table with this one too.  I enjoyed it, but it wasn't quite what I expected.  (I would have known if I'd ever really stopped to read the description that it was a memoir, but having read reviews and such that was oddly lost on me.)  Still processing what I learned.  

9. A Closed and Common Orbit, Becky Chambers - and, of course, the third of Chambers' books.  What I would add is that I'm not normally a science fiction reader...but I totally would be if they were all more like this.  Also, Madeleine L'Engle once said that the best part of writing science fiction was that you could speak truth in a way that people couldn't hear if the book was set in a more familiar, everyday sort of place.  That's 100% true of these books.