The Sunday Post #385

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The Sunday Post is a chance to recap the past week, talk about next week, tell you what I’m reading, and share news. It’s hosted by The Caffeinated Book Reviewer, Readerbuzz, and Book Date.

The Sunday Post

On The Blog Recently

• Quarter Year Reading Check In
• Best Adventure Fiction Books
• Most Challenging Books
• Best Darkly Atmospheric Books
• Best Adventure Nonfiction Books

In My Reading Life

I've read a bunch of books since we last spoke, but I currently have a respiratory infection and no gumption to review books, so here are the two reviews I wrote before I ran out of motivation.

I read You're Not Listening: What You're Missing And Why It Matters by Kate Murphy. It's about listening (obviously), and it was fine. It wasn't quite what I was looking for, which isn't the book's fault. I want to be a better listener. This book is about the importance of listening. I already know it's important! That's why I want to be good at it! This is not the how-to book that I require.

I'm skeptical that listening is a cure-all for society's problems. For example, my mom wants Donald Trump to exterminate all the Muslims. I understand that I can listen to her stupid idea without agreeing with it, but . . . why? It seems like an extremely stressful conversation that won't change anything. How do you decide which conversations are worth your mental energy? How do you have a relationship with someone who is your complete opposite?

See? This is why I need a how-to book about listening! I need a book with a lot more depth than this one. Recommendations, please?

Then I read The Archived duology by Victoria Schwab. These two fantasy books reminded me why young adult fiction is so addictive. The duology is about an alternate dimension where ghosts are stored like library books. Sometimes the ghosts wake up and try to escape from the library. It's our main characters' job to leave our world, enter the ghost world, and put the ghosts back on the shelf. The ghosts don't always go quietly.

These books are fun. They're twisty, angsty, mysterious, creative. There's even a love triangle. I couldn't stop reading. I enjoyed learning about the world where ghosts are archived. It's an intriguing take on the afterlife that I haven't seen before. I'm sad that this series got canceled. I would have happily read more books. There's so much that the author could do with the ghost library.

I wish I understood the characters' motivations better. Ghost hunting requires the teenage characters to miss school, lie to their parents, lie to their friends, miss out on social events, give up sleep, and cover up injuries. The kids aren't getting paid. Why are they doing this? Ghost hunting is cool, but not when it destroys your life and body. I never understood what the kids were getting out of this.

I want more books. I have questions!

In The Rest Of My Life

It's been over a month since I wrote a Sunday Post. Oops. Life is a lot, and I've been putting all my blogging time into my Tuesday posts because they're more popular.

If you're reading this on the day it's posted, then I'm at work, dealing with the holiday crowds.

What's been happening? I currently have the worst respiratory infection of my life. I've been sick for three weeks, and I'm still dizzy and have a headache that Advil can't touch. It has completely derailed my fitness goals. I'm frustrated. Luckily, work has been very chill about it. I've missed a lot of work because I can't get off the floor.

Speaking of work, I'm back at my park ranger job full time. It's been nonstop nuts, as always. The park where I work was voted the best state park in Colorado. I got to meet the governor, which was pretty cool. He gave us a trophy. Other than that, it's mostly just been our regularly scheduled chaos.

What else? Baby Brooklyn finished kindergarten. Here's a photo of her resisting the urge to let a squirrel into the house.

I think that's it. I need several naps.

It's A Holiday Weekend. Behave Yourselves.

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Take care of yourselves and be kind to each other. See you around the blogosphere!