WWW Wednesdays – December 19, 2018

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Time for another WWW Wednesdays, which is brought to you by Sam @ Taking on a World of Words. If you too want to participate, answer the above questions and post that link on Sam’s page.

This will probably be my last WWW post for at least a couple weeks. I’m heading on a lengthy vacation (my first in a long while). I won’t have a lot of access to WiFi, so hopefully that means that I will have some good quality reading time!

Lately I’ve been enjoying a look back at all the books that I’ve read this year. I compiled My Top 20 Favorite Reads of 2018. I’m also looking forward to the next year of reading with some challenges I intend to work on: Reading the Classics 2018-2022 & A Focus on Authors Reading Challenge. I also have a side list of other books I’m looking forward to reading this year: My Must Read Book List for 2019. I will start making progress these challenges and goals with my Winter Reading list.

Currently Reading

Finished Reading

Going Solo by Roald Dahl – audiobook

I will listen to any audiobook narrated by Dan Stevens. He is an amazing narrator. Plus, who doesn’t love a Roald Dahl book every now and then, but this isn’t a typical Dahl book. This is part of his autobiography series that focuses on his time as a fighter pilot in World War II. 3/5

Killer Classics by Kym Roberts – ebook

Still working my way through my NetGalley backlog (hopefully I can get through more during my upcoming vacation), and this was one that became available to the public earlier this month. While this was a cute cozy read with a main character who has a pet armadillo and says “fuzz buckets” a lot, I was overall disappointed. This story takes place in a small Texan town of Hazel Rock. A woman, named Maddie, is found murdered. Shenanigans occur and the mystery behind Maddie’s murder is brought to a conclusion. Since I am reading this series for the first time and starting on book 5, I am happy to say that the characters were well introduced, and this worked as a standalone story. However, I found the story a bit tedious. I wasn’t sure I really cared about the characters and really wanted to have a story that focused more on the murder mystery. Instead, the book takes the reader through all these side stories, like the armadillo’s boyfriend, who is a skunk that is terrorizing the town, and a character who is running for a Texas Senate seat. Only about 5-10% of the book really had anything to do with the murder. Every time you started to forget about Maddie’s murder, the author would bring in a scene with Maddie’s brother, Tiny, to remind you. It was like the author was trying to distract you from the whole purpose of the story or from figuring out who the killer was. However, no amount of distractions could make you not realize who the murderer was, as it was a random character who wasn’t part of the main group of characters, who kept showing up in different scenes. Also, the killer’s reason for killing the victim seemed to have no backstory to support it. It was a crime of passion, but the reader would have had no knowledge of such a passion existing (unless that was mentioned in one of the previous books in the series). While this story was cute, it lacked the compelling thrill that mysteries are suppose to have. 2.5/5

The Good Neighbor by Maxwell King – audiobook

As soon as I heard that LeVar Burton was the narrator of this book, I had to get it through my Libby app immediately. The audiobook starts by playing the theme song of Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood. It turns out that I still remember all the words and as the book continues, I also remembered the characters, puppets and topics covered by Mr. Rogers. I never realized what an impact he had on my childhood and millions of other children. In fact, PBS as a whole had a huge impact on my childhood thanks to Fred Rogers, Jim Henson, and LeVar Burton. 3.5/4

Reading Next

Really looking forward to these reads. What have y’all been reading lately? What are you most looking forward to reading in 2019? Please post your WWW links below in the comments if I haven’t visited them yet.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!!