Instead of writing individual
reviews for all the books I have read, I am just going to condense them into
what I have read each month.
At the beginning of 2019, I set
myself the task on Goodreads to read 120 books this year, which means I need to
read about 2 a week. Between January and May, I managed to read 55 books. And throughout June I managed to read 15
books so have read 70 books so far which means apparently I am 11 books ahead
of schedule.
I love reading across genres, and
this month the genres I have read are:
- Autobiography
- Christian
- Crime
- Children’s
- Chicklit
- Humour
- Self-Help
The 15 books I have read in June are:
- Lost & Found by Lynda Bellingham
- Pleasing God: Kay Smith
- Forty Words of Sorrow: Giles Blunt
- The Angel Knew Papa & the Dog: Douglas Kaine McKelvey
- The Note: Zoe Folbigg
- The Moor: LJ Ross
- The List that Changed My Life: Olivia Beirne
- Kensuke’s Kingdom: Michael Morpurgo
- The Boy Who Could do what he Liked: David Baddiel
- Spectacles by Sue Perkins
- Six Degrees of Assassination by M.J Alridge
- The Power of TED by David Emerald
- The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness by Timothy Keller
- Guiltless by Viveca Sten
- Who is This Man? By John Ortberg
So what genre fits what book?
Under the genre of crime fiction
I read Forty Words of Sorrow by Giles Blunt which is the first in the Detective
John Cardinal series which I have loved watching on TV and now am going to
enjoy reading the book series.
I also read The Moor by LJ Ross
which is number 12 in the DI Ryan series set in Northumberland. She is still at
her best in the writing – the books never get dull and I can’t wait until the
next one comes out.
Also under the genre of crime was
Six Degrees of Assassination by M.J Alridge and the third in the Sandhamn Murders by Viveca Sten “Guiltless”. This is another great crime series, this
time set in Sweden and again am looking forward to reading the next books in
the series.
A month cannot go past really
without me reading a children’s book and this month they were “The Angel Knew Papa
& the Dog” by Douglas Kaine McKelvey, “The Boy who Could do what he Wanted”
by David Baddiel and “Kensuke’s Kingdom” by Michael Morpurgo.
As a Christian, I believe it is
important to not just read the Bible but also expand your knowledge of Jesus
and the Bible by reading other Christian books, and this month I have read “Pleasing
God” by Kay Smith, “The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness” by Timothy Keller (my
second time of reading both these books – and on the second time I learned more
then I did on the first reading – always good to re-read books) and finally “Who
is this Man?” by Timothy Keller.
In the autobiography genre, I read
“Lost & Found” by Lynda Bellingham – the Oxo mum and “Spectacles” by Sue
Perkins. They were both great reads. I was reading Spectacles on the Eurostar
on the way home from France and according to my sister who was sitting beside
me, I affronted myself and her by laughing out loud - Sue is as brilliant on
paper as she is on television.
My favourite book this month was “The list that Changed my Life” by Olivia Beirne. I did not really know what this
book was about but bought it as it looked good and it was so good I read it
within 2.5 hours. However, after reading the first couple of pages I nearly
didn’t read it as one of the characters has MS and as someone with MS I did not
really want to read a book about the illness – but I carried on anyway, and am
so glad I did. This book does not focus on MS, it is a book about a sister
promising to do everything her older sibling can no longer do which results in
a journey that will change her life forever. Such an uplifting book and it
helps raise awareness of MS, which is always needed.
