What I'm reading this week (3/20/17)

Well, I'm on my annual spring break read-cation through Wednesday. Three glorious days of reading and not much else. I hope to get my study cleaned up a bit. There are piles of books everywhere. We'll see how that goes.

Last week I finished:

I really enjoyed Poems That Make Grown Men Cry. There isn't a whole lot more to say about it than that. It was addictively readable, because each introduction as short, and when one poem ended, there was another poem offered up by another famous-to-the-English Englishman. I can't wait to begin Poems That Make Grown Women Cry. My rating: 4 stars.

I adored Britt-Marie Was Here. I was heartened as well as a little disappointed that it was so much like A Man Called Ove. I hope I don't find that Backman only writes one character, but even if he does, it's a great character. Britt-Marie is a very particular person. She has a deep fondness for the properly organized cutlery drawer (folks, knives, spoons), is fiercely loyal to certain products, knows only what comes in handy when it comes to solving a crossword puzzle, is obsessively clean, and doesn't judge people (except kind of all the time). She's extremely rigid and has trouble with social interaction. I loved this character as much as I loved Ove who has much the same personality. But Britt-Marie finds her community and learns to blossom at last. It's a nice story, and it's told with Backman's signature wit. The only thing that disturbed me is that I found myself so often in Britt-Marie. A rigidity often bordering on obsessive-compulsive, a tendency to assume I'm being made fun of, a penchant for brand loyalty, a manic to do list keeper, and I even look like her from behind. Is this me in 20 or 30 years? Chills. My rating: 4.5 stars.

This week I continue with:

Whenever I force myself to pick up Short, I love what I read, but I'm having trouble wanting to read it with all the other book options I have going.

And I'm still enjoying Let It Go, but I don't think it's Peter Walsh's best book. And it might be too long. I should finish it this week.

I'm listening to:

I'll be finished The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society this week. (Insert big sad face here.) I've really come to love the characters, the post-war story, and Guernsey itself.

The Shadows continues to enchant me while I'm listening, but I do have to force myself to listen. Maybe I'm just not digging children's lit right now.

This week I'll be reading:

I don't know if I'll be reading one or both of these. And if I don't like Be Light, I'll have no problem moving on to something else. Christian lifestyle books can be hit and miss with me.