Feburary was an excellent month for reading. My grad school classes also started up, so my reading will likely slow donw now, but I managed to squeeze in several Just for Fun Books before that happens.
Norse Mythology was the GoodReads top pick for nonfiction. As the title suggests, it's about Norse mythology. The Thor I know from the movies is very different that the Thor from actual mythology. This was a fun read, but I don't think I'd give it the number one spot. I read The Martian by Andy Weir a year ago and totally loved it. So Artemis has been on my list for a while. I had some problems with this book, mostly that I just didn't like the main character. For some reason, she just really bothered me. I comlained about her a lot while reading, yet I was unable to put this book down. So as much as part of me didn't like it, I was glued to it. That probably says a lot about this book. Oh my goodness. Burried in the Sky. You need to read this book. Everyone needs to read this book. The true story of the deadliest day on the mountian K2, focusing especially on the stories of the Sherpas. You'll learn a ton. As someone who is vagulely interested in high altitude mountain climbing, this book destroyed me. I cried just tell others about this book. Scott Careny became one of my favorite authors after reading The Red Market. When I learned he had written more books I couldn't control myself. What Doesn't Kill Us is his third book (I haven't read the second yet). He takes a look at Wim Hoff, a Dutch man who claims he can control his internal body temeture and even his imune system thanks to his system of breathing exersizes and cold exposure. Carney went to expose him as a fraud, but was suprsied when everything was true and backed by science. This book makes me excited to be a human, but I also wasn't sure if I believed any of it. So I tested it out. I took a measure of how long I could hold my breath - 36 seconds - and then tried Wim Hoff's exercises. After about a minute of this, I held my breath again. For 1 minute and 48 seconds. I've started taking cold showers now, completely because of this book. Cheers!
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My favorite book I read in January is a tie between Radium Girls and Little Fires Everywhere. Both came from the GoodReads picks of 2017. I liked them both, but I doubt I'd give them a number 1 spot for their genres.
January also saw two marriage books. When getting into new things, I tend to read as much as I can on the subject. Marriage is no different. Kyle and I have been reading and discussing these, and I think it's giving us a solid foundation to start our marriage on. Introducing Buddha was a surprising little book. It's an 'illustrated guide', so each page is anything from a few words to several paragraphs and doodles to go along with it. It wasn't super deep, but a good broad introduction to what so many of my students follow. There's a whole series of these guides over all sorts of topics, and I'd love to read more. |
AuthorHi, I'm Rachael Waggoner. I live and teach in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. ArchivesCategories |