Recent reading and personal news...

It's been a bit of chaos around our house lately, and my routines are all thrown off. A month ago I left my job with the State to take a new position at a private company. While I enjoyed my coworkers at the State job, the position itself had little room for advancement and lots of room for irritation. I was tired to dealing with the subset of people that I talked to all day long (literally all day, my job was as a telephone representative.) An opportunity came up to interview for a job that a good friend of mine was leaving (she relocated) and it was too good not to take. My new position is as an administrative assistant. I've been there a month now and it is so much up my alley. I'm using my brain! I often have to switch tracks mid-stream for something completely different and the variety of tasks keeps it interesting. Add to this better benefits, more flexibility, and potential for future opportunities, and I had to jump.

All that said, even though it's the same 8-5 as my old job, it's new routines to learn and my brain is tired at night. We've been watching Arrow as a family and doing not a lot else in the evenings. Every book I started was a no-go for a while, but lucky you, I have a backlog of books to review. Some of these I read so long ago that I can't write a full review, so you're getting some short mentions instead. Forewarning, these books have very little to do with each other!

First up, Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner by Judy Melinek. This was a fascinating non-fiction book about Melinek's first year as a medical examiner. If you like fiction like Patrica Cornwell, you'd like this one. Some parts are a bit gross, but not in a sensational way. This lead me to try Does This Mean You'll See Me Naked?: A Funeral Director Reflects on 30 Years of Serving The Living and the Deceased by Robert D. Webster. but I only read half of that one before I quit. Webster was all but a walking advertisement and his writing felt very amateurish. I'm hoping that Smoke Gets in Your Eyes by Caitlin Doughty shows up at the library or as a daily deal for Kindle soon.

I finally got around to reading the most recent Patricia Briggs' Mercy Thompson series book, Night Broken. This remains one of my favorite series, and is the first paper book I've read in over a year. The new ones usually come out in late winter, so I'm ready to go on that now.

I read Attachments by Rainbow Rowell a couple months ago. I remember enjoying it a lot, but the only real detail I remember is that I couldn't possibly figure out how Lincoln could make this turn out in his favor. I could only see it ending badly, but the ending is actually quite satisfactory and now I want to read all the other Rowell books.

More recently, I read What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe. Munroe is the man behind xkcd. That alone should tell you all you need to know about the book, but if you need my opinion too, it was hilarious and fun and I highly recommend it. Mike also read it, and we had lots of chats about the fun things we learned.  There was only really one question that was way too scientific for me, and they illustrations and commentary are terrific. If you're looking for good non-fiction this year, this is a good choice.

Next up: Nora Roberts and her alias, J.D. Robb!