With moving and overseeing house renovations and remodeling this past month, I have been exhausted at the end of each day. I usually do a lot of my reading at night right before I go to bed, but this month, there have been many days when my eyes would simply not stay open for me to read more than a couple of pages. For that reason, I completed only one hard copy book, however, I did finish five audiobooks, which Charly and I listened to in our vehicle as we were hauling things over to the house we are moving to. Five of the books I read were nonfiction and I completed only one fiction book this month. Here is a brief review and my thoughts about all of the books I Fnished in June.
Own Your Past, Change Your Future ****
by John Delony
Dr. John Delony is a radio counselor/coach/psychologist who works with Dave Ramsey on his radio show. In addition, Dr. Delony has his own podcast about marriage and relationships. Because I occasionally listen to Dave Ramsey, I was familiar with Dr. Delony, so I decided to listen to this book. Overall, there is nothing new or earth shattering in this book. The author goes over tried and true strategies for mental and relationship health. It was an interesting book to listen to and gives the listener/reader good food for thought and reflection. I gave this book 4/5 stars on Goodreads. I listened to the audiobook from the library.
Redefining Anxiety *****
by John Delony
As one who struggles with anxiety, I found this book very helpful. It is not a long book, and doesn't contain anything really new and earth shattering, but I love how John Delony explains important concepts and gives advice that I actually feel like I can follow. His professional credibility comes across in this book which is excellent and helpful for anyone who deals with anxiety - their own or the anxiety of someone close. I listened to the audio of the book which I checked out from the library and I gave this excellent little book 5/5 stars on Goodreads.
The Hoarders**
by Jean Stringam
This is a book about two young brothers, the sons of a young woman who is a neglectful (and possibly drug addicted - although the reader never really knows) single parent who sometimes forgets to feed her boys. The one person who the brothers can depend on is their Aunt Amy, who does her best to see that they are fed and provided for. When the boy's mother decides to run away, Aunt Amy steps in and becomes the legal guardian for the boys until Amy suffers a devastating medical condition and other members of their large and dysfunctional extended family decide to make other plans that don't take the real needs of the boys into account. I really wanted to love this book. but this was not a book that I could love. I am sure that the author had good intentions by writing about the plight of the two neglected boys, and how they took care of each other, but large parts of the book seemed to make no sense. The narrator of the story is the older of the two brothers, but the reader never knows exactly how old he is or other basic things like how their large affluent family got to be so dysfunctional, and how two little boys survived so long with so little care, eventually living in a wrecked van in the woods for several months, while their aunt was missing. There are huge holes in the plot that leave the reader with lots of questions and detract from what the author was presumably trying to make a story of perseverance and familial love. I don't think the author did much research or thought through some parts of the plot. I gave this book only 2/5 stars on Goodreads. I own the copy I read, but will be donating it to a thrift store because I have no desire to read it again.
Twilight of Democracy ****
by Anne Applebaum
This is a book about the history and politics of Europe with an emphasis on the 1980s forward until the Covid Pandemic in 2020. Applebaum has given the book a bit of a biographical twist with her own experiences with some of the major European political players of the time. The books seems to be well researched and it is very interesting. Applebaum's assertion is that European and Western Countries including the United States have lately gone far to the right politically and it is clear that Applebaum sees this as a threat to democracy and a path to authoritarianism. She makes some reference to Donald Trump, and although this is not a book about Trump, it shows how his 2016 election followed along with European swing to the right after the fall of communism in Eastern Europe and Russia in the 1980s and 1990s. This book is well worth reading for anyone interested in political history and concerned about the state of democratic governments around the world. I gave the book 4/5 stars on Goodreads, and while I listened to the audiobook while driving in the car with my husband, I also own a hard copy of the book, which I intend to hang onto.
House of Trump, House of Putin ****
by Crain Unger
This is a well-researched and documented expose of Donald Trump's connections to the Russian Mafia and Vladimir Putin. It isn't the most fast-moving book, and all the Russian and Ukrainian names can be confusing to the English (non-Russian) speaking reader, but the book makes a compelling case that our 45th president achieved that office with a lot of help and approval from Putin. The evidence, as presented in the book, clearly shows that Trump is closely connected to Putin and the Russian Mafia and has been for many years. Every American voter should read this book, especially since Trump is running again in 2024. I gave this book 4/5 stars on Goodreads and listened to the audio of this book, checked out from the library via the Libby app.
Nation of Victims ***
by Vivek Ramaswamy
When I checked this audiobook out of our library, I think I was expecting something different. I actually found out about two-thirds of the way through the book, that there was another book by almost the same title by Charles Sykes (the Sykes book is called A Nation of Victims) and it was that book that I had wanted to read. That book came out in the 1990s, so what I ended up with is this Nation of Victims by Vivek Ramaswamy (who I believe is running for president as a Republican). Anyway, I was expecting something different from this book which turned out to be part economics, part history, part psychology and part philosophy all with a clear conservative political slant. I don't disagree with much of what Ramaswamy says about the detrimental effects on our nation of individuals and groups seeing themselves as victims (and behaving accordingly), but I found most of the book to be quite dull and boring. I ended up giving it 3/5 stars on Goodreads because I did learn some things from listening to this book. I listened to the audio of this book on the library Libby app. I also found the book by the almost same name that I thought I had when I checked out this book. That book, A Nation of Victims by Charles Sykes is not available through the library, so I purchased a used paperback edition through Amazon.
As July begins, I am about half-way through with this novel, At the Edge of the Orchard by Tracy Chevalier. I am really enjoying it, although I am not reading it quickly.
Thanks for stopping by. I would love to know what you are reading this summer. Any good book recommendations?
Until next time,
😊Deb💖
"I have more books than I can read
in the years I have left
but I would rather have too many
than not enough."
~ Linda Chapman, blogger at Linda's Life Journal
