Because I’m only one person, and one person with quite a lot of things to do, blogging is taking a bit of a back seat lately. Certainly I’m taking a break from blogging regularly just for the sake of blogging, but I still intend to post either when I have a specific reason or have an idea for a post.

And my mini-reviews certainly qualify as a reason to post. I enjoy sharing my thoughts, and I hope the posts are helpful for those looking to expand their reading lists. So I don’t know how often the reviews will come, but rest assured, they will all come!

All that said, here are books 6-10 of 2022.

I bought this book from my sister, and of course it was good (it’s Lewis!), but I knocked a star off because of the nature of the book. It’s not a single volume penned by Lewis, but rather a collection of his writings from other books, arranged by topic.

And while that sounded appealing, and everything in it was excellent, I found myself wishing as I read along that I was reading the actual source material rather than these excerpts. I kept thinking how much richer each section would be in its proper context. And reading more Lewis is actually going quite high on my priority list now, partly because of this realization!

I read this one as an introduction to intermittent fasting, since I intended to try it to aid in my weight loss journey last year. I had long wanted to try it, but had been almost constantly either pregnant or breastfeeding for quite a long time. Once my youngest at the time was weaned, I resolved to give it a go.

Spoiler: intermittent fasting ended up working extremely well for me. I lost 45 pounds before getting pregnant again, and found that I enjoyed the fasting lifestyle, had more energy, and had a healthier view of food in general. And this book is a really excellent overview for someone looking to learn more about fasting and why and how it works. Other books delve more deeply into the topic, but I recommend this one as a introduction.

So yes, this book is really basically a joke. It’s supposed to be the book written by Richard Castle, from the ABC show Castle, which I watched last year. My dad gave me this book a long time ago, since he knew I enjoyed the show, and I decided one night to finally take it off the shelf and read it.

It was not good. Not all that well-written, characterization was uninteresting, plot was mediocre at best. I found it hard to suspend my disbelief to feel that this was the “best seller” from the show. But pretending that it was was still kinda fun, which is why it ended up with two stars rather than one. I really don’t recommend it, though.

I read this one aloud to my daughters, after looking for awhile for something they could enjoy at their ages (they were only two and three when I read it). I would say my three-year-old was just old enough to comprehend the stories, so it was a good fit, though she’d probably enjoy them more if I read them now that she’s even just a little older.

I read these books when I was a kid, and always loved them. They consist of separate but related short stories in which a child is misbehaving and the child’s parents seek help from local eccentric Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, who supplies them with cures. The cures are either magical, or consist of the parents somehow showing the child how their behavior actually looks to others. They are really fun and have good morals for kids, though upon reading them as an adult I found them much more dated than I remembered!

This was our first book club book of the year. I didn’t love it, but I didn’t dislike it, either. It was well-written, and the main character was compelling.

It just wasn’t really my cup of tea, and I also found myself constantly wondering just how accurate a portrayal it was (the author didn’t actually grow up in the kinds of situations she describes for this girl, and I couldn’t help wondering how her Western education and viewpoint colored her expression of the scenarios). It’s also definitely difficult to read in places, and the end seemed a little abrupt to me. But it made for a good book club discussion.

I’ll be back at some point, as my schedule allows, with five more books for you! In the meantime, have you read any of these? What were your thoughts? Any you’re interested in reading?