Looking for some books to read this week? Well, here are a few I’ve added to my to-read list and you should too!
The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood by James Gleick: We’ve all been there. You go online to check your email and two hours later you’re learning about the feeding patterns of an African spider. (Or more realistically you go online to check your email for 2 minutes and spend an hour or two on Pinterest wasting time and looking at cupcakes. Well, in Gleick’s book he tries to make sense of this flood of information and how it’s changed or society and how it may continue to change us in the future. As I’ve stated many times before, I’m really not a huge fan of non-fiction, but I am a fan of the internet. Just through this blog alone I’ve met all kinds of people I would never know existed otherwise, not just from other countries but from different parts of my own country, so as far as I’m concerned the internet does some good things. But it also does some bad things. Is there such a thing as too much information? I’m interested to hear what Gleick’s take on this information flood is and you have to admit the topic is pretty topical.
When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead: This books was winner of the 2010 Newbury medal and has been chronicled as a timeless classic. The plot contains a little bit of everything: time travel, physics, tragedy and heroes that have to overcome them all. Miranda is a girl growing up in New York City and seems content with her life and best friend Sid. But then strange things start happening and notes from someone who not only knows who she is but who she will be start showing up and Miranda sees there’s more going on with these strange events than she thought and someone’s life might hang in the balance. I’m a fan of young adult literature, especially of the fantasy variety so this book seems like a perfect fit for my to-read list.
The Long Goodbye by Meghan O’Rourke: This book takes a more serious turn than the others on the list this week. A memoir dealing with the author’s loss of her mother to cancer O’Rourke dives into the painful memories to write a potent and emotional story as she takes her reader on her road of grief to gratitude. After reading The Fault in Our Stars I’m not sure how quickly I’d like to jump into another book about someone dying of cancer, so this one might be at the bottom of my to-read list, but I do like a book that can make me feel grateful for what I have and it seems like O’Rourke’s book is praised for doing just that.
If you have any books you think should go on my to-read list please leave them in the comments section and I’ll try to post them in the upcoming weeks! And if you’d like to keep track of what I’m reading now you can follow me on Twitter @xstitchurheart or add me as a friend on Goodreads.