Day 104/366

What I'm Reading ATM - 

and another awfully long blog post.

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It's been one of those weeks...a busy/relaxed weekend with family and then I just crashed.

I loathe it when this happens, and spend my time thinking about all the 'other' things that I could be doing.

This time I decided to go with the flow.  It was still a scary time for me though.

Two weeks ago I received a request to return to my old position as accounts officer in the marine industry.  It's only part time (job share) for six months maternity relief starting at the end of the month and I jumped at the offer.  (I think I'm needing more cognitive stimulation.)

Then the breakdown with my health and I wonder if I'm able.

Three days in bed, stomach cramps, completely fatigued and sleeping most of the day.

Early on I decided not to fight it and just to let it run its course.

So I ate little, slept lots, did a lot of reading and some knitting.

My Bowen therapist suggests that this is my body 'clearing' itself and is not such a bad thing.  This is the third bout I've had since Christmas and so I've decided to have a break from Bowen and TRE.  I can take it up again later in the year.

So, here are the books I've been reading this year.  

I finished reading Fall of Giants some time ago now.  

I'd give it a ten out of ten.

The impeccable research into World War I, the different European cultures and customs and the impact the war had on most aspects of these societies was skilfully interwoven into the personal lives of the characters without making you feel like you're reading a text book.

The language I found a little distant at times, but that could be my personal preference for a more emotive language.  A highly recommended historic novel, the first in a trilogy.

Next book I tackled was Brida by Paulo Coelho.

I have very mixed feeling about this book and I'm not quite sure what to make of it.

It appears, to me, to be a delve into Wiccan traditions, and an exploration into the Sun and Moon Traditions with a sprinkling of Christianity.

Set in Ireland, the novel failed to impress me.

Perhaps I've missed the point of his writing.

I didn't learn anything I didn't already know (except how to organize my wardrobe in the future perhaps!)

 I give a read-it-if-you-want rating!

My Daughter read Water for Elephants(Sara Gruen) prior to me reading it and gave it a I-can't-put-it-down rating.

I found it to be an entertaining read but soon tired of the the main character, although I do love how Gruen tackles aged care with gusty humour.

I give it a maybe-the-movie's-better rating. At this point I'd like to explain that I RARELY stop reading a book simply because I don't like it.  

Di Morrissey's Silent Country caught my interest because of the novel's setting.

The story is sort of a milder version of Patrick White's Voss and set in the twenty first century.

A very thoughtfully structured writing, too structured for my liking but one which explores not only the Australian film industry over two centuries but also issues dealing with Indigenous Australians, the Australian mining industry and women's place in society in the twenty first century.

A tome of a book but a very light read with a  murderous twist at the end.

After Fall of Giants, Cecilia Ahern's The Book of Tomorrow would have to be my next favourite read out of the collection.

Written in the first person, Tamara had me laughing out loud, brought a lump to my throat countless times and made me cry.

Tamara is an irascible sixteen year old who looks seventeen.

She has a lot to be angry about in her life and her search for the truth takes both her and the reader into a mother's worse nightmare.

A foul-mouthed teenager, nuns, a mobile library and  a ruined castle in County Meath, Ireland, are an unlikely mix but the combination gives the reader a run for her money.

Probably the last quarter of the book is a bit predictable but this is saved by the unexpected ending.

Fast moving, great use of the English language (sometimes coarse), highly recommended from mid-teens up.