Well I think I read 6 books in December? However, I can’t remember what one of them was. We went away for a weekend in December and I’m sure I read 2 books but can only remember 1 of them. So anyhow, here’s my Reading Log for December 2019.
Think Write Grow: How to Become a Thought Leader and Build Your Business by Creating Exceptional Articles, Blog, Speeches, Books and More by Grant Butler
As the title suggests the book is divided into 3 sections how you can take your thoughts or knowledge on a particular subject, effectively communicate those ideas and use this to grow your business and profile. It was a very practical read with lots of examples and ideas that could be easily implemented.
Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton
I’ve heard about this book for a while but it’s taken me a while to get around to reading it. Set in Brisbane in the 80’s and the main character was a bit older than me. I knew many of the suburbs and places mentioned but in many ways it was a totally different world to what I grew up in. The world of drugs and mothers in jail was and still is a foreign world to me. As my sister-in-law said when we were discussing this book “We were the people who lived in ‘the cul-de-sac house in the Gap'”! A great read and a reminder that we just don’t know what others are dealing with.
A Christmas Candle by Katie Flynn
A story of children who were evacuated to the country in England, during World War II. Eve, her brother and others spend the war years on a farm near Plymouth. The story is “told” by Eve as she visits the farm about 60 years later and reminisces about her time there. You don’t fully know what happens until right at the end of the story. It made me think about how these children pretty much grew up without their families and how that would have changed who they were as adults.
The Country Wedding by Barbara Hannay
The story is about the people who’s lives are affected or associated with 2 weddings, fifty years apart. One has a bride who doesn’t show and the other was a shotgun wedding. Set mainly in a small country town in North Queensland but you hear some of what happened in Shanghai which shows how one of the characters ended up in this small town and explains her family background. I wanted to keep reading to see what was going to happen.
Home Truths by Susan Lewis
The story opens with a husband & father being killed when he goes to confront his son who’s fallen in with the wrong crowd. Angie the wife & mother is doing her best to try and keep the rest of the family together. Her son is missing, her daughter is trying to help but could be in danger and they may lose the family home. I struggled with some of the decisions Angie made, given what type of work she was doing. However the book did highlight how easy it is to lose it all and end up being in huge amounts of debt.
So with 6 books read this month, even though I can’t remember one of them this brings my total to 49 books read for the year. Less than the last 2 years.
I’m not sure whether or not I’m going to keep this as a regular blog post or not. I’m certainly going to continue reading but not sure that I’ll blog about it each month. Let me know whether or not you’d like to see this regular blog post continue? Or let me know what other posts you’d like to see that fit under the “mind” category?
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I smiled at your comment about Boy Swallows Universe. It was unfamiliar territory to me also. Did you know it will be a stage production later this year?
I didn’t know it will be a stage production later this year. I’ll look out for that now.