Month: January 2025

A Year of Goober

One of the book challenges I’m doing this year is “A Year of Goober” from the book club that I belong to. The challenge is pretty simple, there’s two prompts for each month, and each one coincides with a flower. You can do either of the prompts, and at the end of the year you have a bootiful (beautiful, but Goober is a ghost, see?) bookuete (bouquete) of flowers. So far I’ve got January and February planned out, January is a Carnation “your favourite author” and I went with Holly Black, and then February is a violet, “continue a series” and I went with Iron Flame (I can’t wait to read the next book). On the left hand side I’m pasting the prompt along with the flower (I printed them out onto sticker paper) and on the right hand side I’m writing down the book and the author, but I think instead I might print out the covers and stick them there. This is my 2nd attempt at this layout, I had an earlier version that I just wasn’t loving at all. I can’t wait to see what it looks like when it’s completed at the end of the year!

2.5/5 Star Review: Astrophysics for People in a Hurry

To be honest this book was not on my radar at all, but I had some free time and saw it was available at the library, so why not. The book does a great job of reminding you that humans are small and know very little about the universe. It’s important to question things and ask why – and to trust in science. I’ll be honest, a lot of this book went over my head, but I’m still glad I listened to it, and I still feel like I learned a bit about the universe, dark matter, and how we’re all joined. Not a great read, but it was OK. Just not really for me.

2.5/5 stars

2/5 Star Review: A Christmas Duet

A pretty brainless romance, which I was looking for. A city girl heads to the country for Christmas to escape her overwhelming life, meets a fellow musician, then her family shows up with all of their own issues, and even her ex-boyfriend shows up. In true Debbie Macomber style though it all works out in the end and everyone lives happily ever after. It’s basically a Hallmark movie in book format. Not a fantastic earth shattering read, but I wasn’t expecting it to be, so no big deal. Sometimes I just want to shut off my brain for a while.

2/5 stars

2/5 Star Review: White Fragility

I’m not sure what to think of this one. It’s written by a white woman and she comes across as having a white savior complex, where blacks need to be rescued. I wanted to educate myself but I was pretty frustrated during certain parts. It was an OK book and I’m glad I tried it, but I think this subject is better coming from someone else.

2/5 stars

Reading Journal Spreads

The next spread in my reading journal includes my BBBC (bulletjournal buddies book club) books which are selected monthly, and my series tracker. I didn’t like how I initially set my tracker up, and eventually realized I NEED the titles in there, so I re-did it and I added a tip-in, since I ran out of room! Of course I had to add my favourite stickers, chickens!

4/5 Star Review: The Fox Wife

This book was beautifully written. I loved the language and while it was a very slow start, the last 25% of the book more than made up for it. I loved the world building, and the characters. The loss the main character felt was something I could feel and understand. It took me too long to read, but that is all on me. Very pleased with this book.

4/5 stars

Reading Journal – BINGO

I decided that 2025 would be the year I started my very first reading journal – and I’m so glad I did! I don’t have all of it planned out yet, but I do have quite a bit of it done, and I am looking forward to sharing it with everyone. I already wrote about the TBR page along with my star rating system, and this is the BINGO card I’ve added to the center of the book. I’ve already read two books this month so I’ve marked off two of the squares (Book w/a country you’ve never been & Listen to an audiobook) and I can’t wait to see how long it takes me to complete a line in this bingo game. I’ve got more pages I’ve set up and I’ll be posting those later in the week, so stay tuned!

2.5/5 Star Review: The Awakening

It was an OK book that I probably won’t remember by the end of this year. I was looking for something relaxing and available as an audio book from my library. I’ve read a lot of Nora Roberts before but this book felt forced and played on so many stereotypes that it felt awkward. We know the best friend is gay, we know he works at a bar with cross dressers, but it felt like every single time he spoke it was to remind us, the reader, of these facts. It did not feel organic at all. I would have loved to have seen queer representation done better. 15 hours was also one incredibly long time for a book where almost nothing even happens for the majority of it.

2.5/5 stars

2.5/5 Star Review: The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up

I borrowed this book from the library to listen to while I was working on other things like cross stitch. This system has been super popular but honestly I’m not as enthralled with it. I don’t like how little room there is for flexibility, and how relapse is guaranteed if you don’t follow the rules exactly. I did like learning how to fold clothes, but everything else was a lot of hit / miss. Sometimes it’s just not practical, plus what ‘sparks joy’ could change day to day, or year to year. What if Anne Frank threw out her diary one day while cleaning. I think it’s important to look at a bigger picture. So for these reasons it was an ‘OK’ read, but not the greatest.

2.5/5 stars