Simplification

To simplify my life, I'm going to only update the books I read at Goodreads from now on. I can be found here: http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/237604-tanya

These Is My Words by Nancy E. Turner

I didn't expect to like this because it is basically a western, and had I known it was also basically a romance I would never have read it. (Romance + western = um, no.) However, my naivete was good because I gave it a chance and loved it. I laughed, I cried, I rooted for people to get together.

Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse edited by John Joseph Adams

A lovely collection post-apocalyptic short stories. Some were misses (maybe four?), but most of them were very good. I wished a couple were novels because I really wanted to know more about that world. Definitely an enjoyable read. Terrifying, but enjoyable.

The Year of Living Biblically by A. J. Jacobs

I really liked this book, though I was in the minority in my book club. I expected it to be more snarky than it was, but I found it interesting how the author found more depth to the exercise than he expected. I also enjoyed reading about some of the more obscure laws/rules/traditions and practitioners of the same.

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

Very, very good. It's a YA novel, so it's an easy read, but I was totally sucked in to the story. It ends annoyingly abruptly, though! Good for making you read the sequels, I guess. Regardless, it's a fabulous tale. If you're into dystopias, this is a highly recommended read.

Arabian Nights and Days by Naguib Mahfouz

Clever, fun read. Hard to follow the characters sometimes, but it was good to read something from another culture.

Crazy: A Father's Search Through America's Mental Health Madness by Pete Earley

So I kind of abandoned this place again.   Rather than go backward, I'll just start again where I am now, with my two most recent reads.

Crazy was a frustrating read because the U.S. mental health system is so incredibly screwed up and so incredibly immoral in the way those with mental illness are treated. However, it was definitely interesting and I learned a lot (primarily that things are even worse than I realized). Definitely a heartbreaking read. Everyone should read this, and then maybe something would change.

The author has a blog of the same theme. The book is better than that blog, though :-)