The Sunday Post #348

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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 #348

On The Blog Recently

• Nonfiction November Reading List
• How To Make Fun Graphs With Canva
• It's My 10th Blogiversary
• Best Books Set In Mansions
• When Books "Talk" To Each Other

In My Reading Life

It took 40 days and a library renewal, but I did it! I read Moby-Dick by Herman Melville! You know what this book is about, right? It's narrated by Ishmael, a sailor on a doomed whaling ship. The captain of the ship had his leg stolen by a white whale. ("Stolen" seems like the wrong word because it's a leg. The whale's not going to give it back.) Anyway, the captain is determined to get revenge for the leg incident. He's so obsessed with revenge that he'll endanger his crew to kill the whale.

I was surprised at how readable this book is. Since so many people hate it, I assumed the plot would be hard to follow. It's not a confusing book at all! It's just a profoundly boring book. I actually enjoyed the beginning and the ending because that's where all the "action" happens. You get to meet a cast of quirky and deeply flawed characters and then watch them destroy themselves. It's a compelling plot.

The middle is where I struggled. The author was like, "Are you interested in whales? Allow me to tell you EVERY SINGLE THING I KNOW ABOUT KILLING WHALES." OMG, it's tedious. I hated it. It's literally like reading an encyclopedia.

I understand why this book is historically significant. It gives the reader an extremely detailed look at American life in the early 1800s. I'm glad I read it, but I never want to slog through it again.

Then I read another adventure story that ends in death. This one is nonfiction. It's Dead Mountain: The Untold True Story Of The Dyatlov Pass Incident by Donnie Eichar. A few years ago, I became obsessed with the Dyatlov Pass incident and read everything I could find on the internet about it. This is the first book I read on the subject. It's a freakin' terrifying mystery!

In 1959, nine hikers from a university hiking club in Russia went on a ski trip to the mountains bordering Siberia. They didn't come back. A few weeks after their disappearance, searchers found their half-collapsed tent in the snow. The tent had been sliced open from the inside. All of the hikers' stuff (including their boots) was still in the tent. The searchers fanned out from the tent and poked the snow with avalanche probes. Over the next few months, they found the hikers' bodies. None of the hikers were dressed for the weather. Some of them had died from hypothermia and others had died from massive injuries. So . . . what happened? What caused the hikers to slice open their tent and run into the freezing wilderness?

This book is the author's attempt to solve the mystery. He mixes the hikers' photos and journal entries with police reports and interviews. It's a short book, and it feels very personal. You really start to care about the young hikers. Even though I already knew all the theories about what happened to them, I couldn't put the book down. If you like unsolved mysteries or wilderness disaster stories, you need to read this one. I don't want to say anymore because I don't want to spoil the mystery for you.

In The Rest Of My Life

Five things that made me happy last week:

1. Christmas cookies!
2. And Christmas cards. I send a lot of holiday cards, so I get a lot back. They've already taken over half my bookshelf.
3. Does anyone listen to bilateral stimulation music for anxiety? I'm intrigued by it, but so far, I don't think it's working. What "songs" do you listen to, and when do you listen to them? Tell me what I'm doing wrong.
4. 9,000 Pinterest followers. My empire is growing.
5. This conversation with Baby Brooklyn:

Brooklyn: "MeMe (Grandma) did something to my room."

Me: "What'd she do?"

Brooklyn: "Made it so I can walk on the floor."

Me: "She cleaned up your stuff?"

Brooklyn: "Yeah! She cleaned. I forgot what it was called."

Um . . . excuse me? You forgot what cleaning is called! Clearly, I need to make this child clean more often.

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