January Reading List

A couple years back I tracked the books I read each month. I liked having a record like that, so I'm starting back up. While it looks like I didn't read much this month, I actually read a ton while researching a writing project I completed and doing more research for another project. This month, for fun, I read:

The Glass Castle: A Memoir by Jeannette Walls. I read this one on Alexa's suggestion (thanks, Alexa!) It was an interesting story, and I liked the fact that it was non-fiction. The author clearly had a great love for her parents, even though they were selfish and mentally unbalanced. I did like that it showed sometimes people choose a certain way to live, but I also wondered about all the early memories she shared. She seemed to remember way too much about her toddler years, which left me with a bit of disbelief about her story.

Bread Alone: A Novel I really wanted to like this book, but I didn't. The story wasn't new in any way, and I found myself skipping ahead and skimming just to get finished with it.

Hidden Kitchens: Stories, Recipes and More from NPR's The Kitchen Sisters This was very interesting and I thoroughly enjoyed the stories I read. I never thought about how useful George Foreman's grills were for the homeless population, or how they cooked at the racetrack during NASCAR events. My complaint about this book? They printed a lot of the text in yellow . . . which was extremely difficult to read. Maybe this was an issue only with the hardcover edition, but it was distracting and disappointing to me. I struggled to read the yellow text, but my old eyes just couldn't manage much of it, so I know I missed chunks of the book. Not sure why a decision like that was made?