Julie's Journal : What I've Been Reading - Quarantine Edition

You would think that with all the time I've been spending at home that I would be checking books off my to-be-read list like crazy.  It hasn't really worked out that way.  The first few weeks of quarantine have been interesting.  My husband and I have both been attempting to work from home, which is a totally new experience.  He is a teacher, and 5th graders and online instruction are an interesting combination to say the least!   As for me, so much of my job is done online anyway that I have been able to adjust somewhat, although I miss seeing all our patrons and facilitating the programs for kids that I've been doing for years.  Also, for a time, both before and after we closed the library, the news about the virus was changing so fast that I was always on edge, wondering what was going to happen next.  It has taken me awhile to adjust and settle down enough to be able to focus on a book or a crochet project or any other project for that matter.  I seem to have gotten past that though, so hopefully I can start knocking some books off my list. 

I did decide that now would be a good time to read some of those books that I have brought home and saved to read "when I have time". 

I have had three of Pam Jenoff's books on my shelf for awhile and I pulled "The Diplomat's Wife"  off at random.  I enjoyed the story about a Polish woman who survived a Nazi prison, only to lose her first love in an airplane crash.  Her marriage to a British diplomat leads to her involvement in a spy mission in Czechoslovakia.  The people she meets while attempting to carry out her mission, along with the things she learns along the way, end up changing her entire life.  Several of Ms. Jenoff's books are available on Overdrive/Libby, but I don't think this particular book is.

"Mimosa" by Amy Carmichael is an old book.  Written in 1924, it is the biography of an Indian woman whose life was changed by a short introduction to Christianity.  Amy Carmichael was a missionary in Dohnavur, India.  She spent her life there and the school she started still exists.  "Mimosa" tells the story of one young girl who lived her life as a Christian in spite of ridicule and persecution by her peers and her husband.  It was 22 years from the time Mimosa first heard of the Christian God until she was able to learn to read and study the Bible for herself.  The story is inspiring, and the book is short, but the writing is very flowery and I sometimes struggled to follow it.  However, I was glad I read it because a big part of the story was Mimosa's dependence on God to provide her needs.  I thought that part was very timely, as we are currently experiencing empty store shelves for the first time in my lifetime.  Reading Mimosa's story, I realized how little we truly need and how much abundance we have, even now.  I bought this on Amazon several years ago.  Unfortunately it is not available on Overdrive/Libby.  I didn't even see an option to buy it. 

At the beginning of March, before everything went crazy, I read the first book in the Young Adult series, "Truly Devious" by Maureen Johnson.  Stevie Bell is surprised when she is admitted to the prestigious and free Ellingham Academy.  She has been obsessed with solving crimes for years, and is particularly interested in the disappearance of the wife and daughter of Ellingham's founder in the 1930's.  When she gets to the school though, more modern day mysteries rear up to distract her.  The first book ends with the murder/accidental death of a student and the disappearance of another.  I finally started the second book, "The Vanishing Stair" last week and blew through it and the last book in the trilogy, "The Hand on the Wall," very quickly.  The series is the first YA I've read in awhile, and the first without a fantasy element in a very long while.  I enjoyed both the historic and present day mysteries in the story.  Some of the characters are pretty wild, but it made for an enjoyable boarding school read.  It is important to read the series in order.  To me it reads more as three parts of one book rather than three separate books.  The entire series is available on Overdrive/Libby.

So now I have a hard decision to make - What do I read next?  I have "Dean's Watch" by Elizabeth Goudge and "Bonhoeffer" by Eric Metaxas from my shelf or "The Authenticity Project" by Clare Pooley and "These Ghosts Are Family" by Maisy Card waiting on Libby.  Do I want something deep and difficult, or something light and easy?  I'll probably have time for both!