Books to Read (OR NOT!)

I used to read all the time but three things have taken a major cut into my reading time.

1) My beautiful children.  A mother reading is like a blinking billboard saying, "Jump on me."
2) My Iphone and all the media it puts right into my hands.  That's right Hulu +, PBS on my phone, Netflix...you guys are putting a major cut into my reading time.
3) Finally my scratched cornea.  Two years ago baby Peach scratched my cornea.  The wound has mostly healed but my left eye still is/will always be a little blurry.  The result is reading for a long time gives me a headache.  It is like my brain keeps trying to correct the blur and when it can't it just doubles down and tries harder.  It can be exceptionally frustrating and has cut down on the amount of time I'm willing to sit reading.

The result, a girl who used to read a book a week in the very least is lucky to read a book a month.  A book a month???  I feel like I've lost my mind.  But that is where I'm at.  So these are the books I've read most recently.

John Grisham - The Racketeer.  A Wish I Hadn't Read.  Seriously the worst Grisham book ever.  I have a soft spot for Grisham since he was the one who first got me into mysteries, but seriously just not the best.  Grisham specializes in a flawed character who has a good heart.  I just never felt it, and if you hate your protagonist then what is the point.

Attica Locke - The Cutting Season.  I was reading this at the same time I was reading The Racketeer.  The Cutting Stone was definitely better.  It is a mystery about a migrant worker found dead on a historical plantation.  The mystery is sort of secondary to Caren Gray the protagonist trying to figure out what to do with her life.  I wouldn't say I enjoyed it, but I would definitely say it was better than the John Grisham.  Maybe Grisham it is time to take a little break.  

David Mitchell - Cloud Atlas - I decided to pick this book up because I knew Tom Hanks was in the movie and I love Tom Hanks.  Good grief it was a chore.  You have seven stories going on that loosely weave together.  You get each one in a half and then move on to the next so I spent the first half of the book feeling like nothing was being finished.  Then finally we got to the second half.  Unfortunately at that point I just didn't care anymore.  It was a headache.  

Finally the only book in the group I'd want to read again Leigh Bardugo - Shadow and Bone.  It is a teen drama book, so big surprise there for me right?  Well I was surprised because the last two series I've tried to start I hated.  Sorry Divergent, I just didn't like you, and Matched I didn't like you either.  Youth books I've loved, The Hunger Games (OBSESSED WOULD BE THE BETTER CHOICE), Harry Potter, Artimis Fowl, The Last Apprentice  The Host but none of the Twilight books.  I can't explain my taste but this one I knew I liked two pages in.  I started it at the gym while I was on the elliptical and had it done before the kids came home.  The positives, it was a quick read, it is a singular book so no finishing it and realizing you have three more years for the series to be finished, romance, magic, a dark lord, a protagonist who doesn't realize her own beauty.  This must be how a good majority of woman feel in their teen years because pretty much every girl youth book is written that way.  Anyway I loved it and would read it again in a heart beat.  Congratulations this is my winner of the four.