A Reading Vacation

I apologize for not posting for the last couple of weeks. We were out of town and away from readily available internet for a couple of weeks. A trip to a family reunion in Arizona was a great way to listen to a lot of great books. That is, when we weren't trying to appease a screaming baby who was done with the car ride after the first hour.

Idaho, The Bottom of the Ocean, and Victorian England

The first of these books was Educated by Tara Westover. This is an excellently written non-fiction memoir about a woman who grew up in a family of survivalists on a mountain in Idaho. Her parents saw both public education and doctors as evil. I really enjoyed this story and it taught me how grateful I am for my education and living in a home that was open to learning and developing personal beliefs and ideas. I would highly recommend this book if you enjoy reading memoirs or are looking for a good non-fiction story. The writing is beautiful, meaningful, and intriguing. 

The other book we read was Sphere by Michael Crichton. This is the same author who wrote Jurassic Park, which I didn't realize until half way through. This book takes place primarily under water. It's suspenseful and leaves you questioning everything. I'm not a huge fan of science fiction typically and the ocean terrifies me but I could see the merit in the prose especially when I was left second guessing everything I had thought. My one complaint is that some of the ideas of women and people of color felt a little outdated. It's an older book but it did make me a bit uncomfortable and made the story feel a bit unrealistic at times. 

Lastly, I've almost finished reading a book called The Map of Time by Félix J. Palma. This book features a Victorian London, time travel, and one of the main characters is even H.G. Wells. I wanted to like this book but I honestly didn't particularly enjoy it. I loved the voice of the narrator. It was witty and matched the Victorian backdrop. The characters were flawed and felt realistic in many good and bad ways. I believe my main hang up was the way the women were portrayed. They felt too similar and, to me, and I could be wrong, felt to be more of objects of affection, lust, and hatred for the male characters. Some good ideas were there but for the most part my heart broke a little when a women was abandoned or taken advantage of based on the feelings of men that I felt the book justified too much. I would have been interested in hearing more thoughts and feelings of women. I am aware perhaps this was purposeful, as Victorian England was very unfair to women, and that's definitely the feeling I get from the book. 

Nobody Loves this Game

I haven't had much time to play games due to the long trip, but I have really been enjoying Nobody Saves the World. It's such a fun Indie game that I want to play all the time. The artwork is interesting and the characters are delightful. I've been playing it with my husband which has been super fun. The only problem is, we both have to be available to play it and I constantly am wanting to play it when he's busy or unavailable. I think we're going to beat it in the next few days and I'm looking forward to see what the ending is like. It's a charming game that I would greatly recommend. I'd call it a dungeon crawler which my husband likes but it also has a fun story and characters which I enjoy. 

Thank you so much for reading my blog. What are some books you're reading right now? Do you like to read or listen to books while on vacation? Do you prefer to play games alone or co-op? Why? 

Keep dreaming and day dreaming of the beautiful worlds inside your head.