A more productive reading week as my husband was away.

Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach

I finally read this novella during a slow day midweek. I have been listening to a new book podcast Overdue and this was one of the books they reviewed in 2024. It was as good as time as any. I vaguely knew that it was spiritual book from 1970. This book would have felt more meaningful to me if I had read it 15 or 20 years ago when I was more depressed and searching. I really liked The Alchemist, but it hit me at that point. This book really allowed for the reader to project onto it since it has themes of alienation, bullying, and lots of spirituality. There were Christian allegories to it and some Eastern religious things similar to meditation and enlightenment. The messages seemed jumbled. There were a lot of photos which was probably less effective on my black and white reader. I heard there was a fourth part but I only read the standard three parts. This book was overhyped but at least it was short. Not going to watch the movie.

Aug 27, 2025 on Kobo Libra 2.

The House Witch by Delemhach, Matthew Wolf (Narrator)

78% audiobook tandem. Very enjoyable fantasy romance. It was mostly cozy fantasy as the titular House Witch Finlay is a Royal Chef so there lots of food and found family moments. The audiobook narrator was excellent so I read it in tandem for most of the work. The book veered more towards romance as it progressed which was a tad less interesting to me though I liked both leads. However, Fin does act like a jerk to a friend and there was too much alcohol consumption for laughs in the book. This book could have been shaved about 50-100 pages. I am glad the sequels appear to be shorter. Looking forward to them.

2.25-2.75x. Aug 23-28, 2025 on Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Clara BW, and a bit on Kobo Mini.

Sociopath by Patric Gagne (Narrator)

A fascinating and dark memoir about the author’s experience growing up and being diagnosed as a sociopath. Like a lot of neurodivergence conditions, new research has shown that many conditions from birth can be a spectrum and also be alleviated by environmental and lifestyle factors. The writing was really well done and felt like a gripping novel at times. I appreciated that things are not clear cut and there were so many messy and dark moments through the book. I would write more from the author especially if she wrote fiction.

1.5x. Aug 29-31, 2025.

The Hounding by Xenobe Purvis

This was a debut novel about five sisters accused of turning into dogs in eighteenth century small town England. It was dark and very atmospheric. It was not my usual read as I do not like too many dark or horror elements these days. However, this had getting good buzz for awhile and there is not a lot of historical fiction from this era of England especially from the perspectives of working class characters. It had many themes about gender, prejudice, and parochial environments. It had some well written prose and not too long. I appreciated the amount of character work done so deftly. I would recommend if like a dark vibes focussed story.

Aug 31, 2025 on Kobo Libra 2 and Kobo Clara BW.