What I have been reading -June 2021

 

It was a good month for reading with 3 books read this month and a variety of genre. It helped that I really enjoyed reading 2 of them. One had been on my list for a few months, the other I discovered when I was looking at something else.

Chicken Soup for the Soul-Readers Choices

This was the book I discovered on an app called Scribd. I had signed up for a 30 day free trial to do some extra reading in preparation for an exam I was taking and out of curiosity I looked to see what else was on there. Scribd has all sorts of books, magazines, sheet music and audiobooks. I had heard about and seen the Chicken Soup for the Soul books but I had never read one. I chose this one because it was first one the list. It is stories of people who have read the other Chicken Soup for the Soul books and have been inspired by them. The book tells their story and then the story that inspired them.

This book is perfect when you are feeling a bit down or fed up and don’t know what to do with your life. I wouldn’t say it was life changing for me but it made me appreciate my life and what I have. I also found that in some cases the readers story was more inspiring than the original.

 

The Yorkshire Shepherdess

The Blurb- Courtesy of Amazon

Amanda Owen has been seen by millions on ITV's The Dales and Channel 5's Our Yorkshire Farm, living a life that has almost gone in today's modern world, a life ruled by the seasons and her animals. She is a farmer's wife and shepherdess, living alongside her husband Clive and seven children at Ravenseat, a 2000 acre sheep hill farm at the head of Swaledale in North Yorkshire. It's a challenging life but one she loves.

In The Yorkshire Shepherdess she describes how the rebellious girl from Huddersfield, who always wanted to be a shepherdess, achieved her dreams. Full of amusing anecdotes and unforgettable characters, the book takes us from fitting in with the locals to fitting in motherhood, from the demands of the livestock to the demands of raising a large family in such a rural backwater. Amanda also evokes the peace of winter, when they can be cut off by snow without electricity or running water, the happiness of spring and the lambing season, and the backbreaking tasks of summertime – haymaking and sheepshearing – inspiring us all to look at the countryside and those who work there with new appreciation.

I have loved Our Yorkshire Farm on TV and so admire Amanda and Clive and the way they live and how they have brought their kids up. This book tells the story of Amanda growing up and how she met Clive right up until the birth of Annas. Because it covers the years before the family became famous you learn about the early years of the older children and how some of their births were not exactly ideal or straightforward, though I wish I had experienced labour the way Amanda did.

I devoured this book in a weekend and will definitely be buying the other 3 she has written.

20^th Victim -Women’s Murder Club

The Blurb- Courtesy of Amazon

Three Cities, three bullets, three victims.

Simultaneous murders hit LA, Chicago and San Francisco. SFPD Sergeant Lindsay Boxer is tasked with uncovering what links these precise and calculated killings.

Lindsay discovers that the victims all excel in lucrative, criminal activity. As the casualty list expands, fear and fascination with this shocking spree provoke debate across the country.

Are the killers villains or heroes? And who will be next?

This was the book club choice and my least favourite book of this year. I found the chapters were very short and there was a lot going on. I think because this was the 20^th book in the series the characters were already established. There were also several sub-stories that until I had finished the book and thought about them I wondered why they were in there. Then I realised the book was Victim, the 20 being book 20 in the series and that the characters in these stories were Victims as well just in a different sense to the main story. I found that thinks became clearer when I was able to spend a good length of time reading the story rather than just ½ an hour a day.