I was so grateful for the breath that this week gave me, and yes, I spent much of it reading.
The first week of December made me feel like this could very well be the hardest holiday season I have ever experienced. So when I noticed there was a gaping hole in our schedule this week, I went to great pains not to fill it. And I think everyone in our family needed this.
Do I feel like I’m missing out on anything? Honestly no. I haven’t come across anything that even interested me this week. Is this the way the rest of the month will go? Nope. We pick things back up tonight with another hike and tomorrow is a volunteer project. I’m going to try to keep everything a little slower than that first week. We don’t need something every day.
And yes, I thanked God for these lessons when my daughter ended up getting sick and having to miss school. She was so disappointed. But a day off got her back to herself and she was ready to go full blast when I dropped her off the next day.
With that, let’s check out what I am reading this week.
Reading Social Media News
I’m the first to say that I’m not the biggest fan of AI. It’s being used too often to replace humans when humans are definitely needed in the process. But Christopher Penn is doing the 12 Days of AI Use Cases. Penn is a genius with AI and doing it right. I am very much seated for this series to learn as much as I can.
And yeah, I have to present the other side of that. PR Daily had a great article about how to be more human in your writing. When AI is taking over everything, our humanity is a huge asset. Learning how to bring that to your writing is going to be a huge asset going forward.
Reading Books, Books and More Books
Past
Darkenbloom by Eva Menasse was a surprise. I felt like the beginning was such a drag. That bummed me out. This is not the time of year for a book that drags. But by the end, I felt like this was the right book at the right time in history. The problem is that it’s a translated book. A lot of the magic has been lost because of that. And there are just so many characters. Even at the end, I couldn’t completely keep them all straight despite the fact that they all contributed to the story in a meaningful way. Part of that could have been the translation.
But still, I feel like this is an important book, because how it demonstrates our past and secrets can so affect our present. It feels so topical when compared to today’s world. I’m so glad I read it, and yet I won’t recommend it to anyone. Score: B+
Present
Except for one book, I have made it through my latest stash of library books. I don’t have it in me to read that last book quite yet, so I made a mad dash of requests. As per usual, they’re all coming in at the same time. Because this is how I do things. Oh those poor librarians that just had to put my holds on the shelf and probably realized I took up a whole shelf… again.
I’m going with the very first one that came in. Promptness should be rewarded after all. That is The Motherload by Sarah Hoover. I found it on a list of the best fiction books of the year. Will it live up to that title? Probably not. But I won’t know for sure unless I dive right in.
What are you reading? What books are you looking forward to?