The "What Books Do You Read" Challenge

Better late than never.  Last night's genealogy fun challenge was "What books do you read now and do they reflect your genealogy hobby? What was the last book that you read?"  The blog post of the challenge along with the links to the blog posts of the various answers of those that accepted the challenge can be found HERE.

I consider my genre of choice to be historical fiction.  I do switch it up a bit and for some reason have read quite a bit of fantasy or science fiction this year.  I have also been adding in some non fiction for balance.   I don't think the books I read particularly reflect my genealogy hobby.  I read  parts of books as a portion of my research.  I read articles and blogs, listen to podcasts or or watch videos to increase my skills related to genealogy.  All that generally takes place online and not in a book.  Right now I am enjoying an online workshop  which I am very excited about that is teaching me some creative non fiction writing skills.   The site can be found HERE.

The last fiction book I read was Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel.  My review of it can be found HERE.  The last non fiction book I read was River of Doubt by Candice Millard.  My review of it can be found HERE.  I generally try to read for about thirty minutes before I turn out the lights at night.  It helps me sleep.  I read on my kindle fire and for the last several months I have been utilizing the State of Ohio's library to check out e-books on my kindle.  I have also been using them to check out magazines.  The magazines are in nook format so I read them on a nook app on my phone since I do not have a nook.  I did read the latest Family History Magazine in this manner.   While my blog is not exclusively book reviews,  it is mostly book reviews.  The other way I "read" is I listen to audio books on my 50 minute commute to and from work.

I find the books I read in various ways.  People know I am a reader so they will make suggestions which are always the best way.  TIME Magazine has good book reviews and I have found some good suggestions there.  I follow a couple of blogs that have book lists as their posts.   One example can be found HERE.  And I am in a library reading group.  I also still follow what the library reading group in the town I lived in before I moved are reading.  Sometimes when I want to find some ideas I will google a library such as the NYC library and see what their reading groups are reading.  Whenever I see a title I may like I add it to my wish list either on audible or on amazon.  So I always have two lists of books to choose from when it is time to select a new title.

Some of my go to fiction authors are:  Barbara Kingsolver,  Jodi Picolt, Dan Brown,  John Green, Phillipa Gregory,  Bernard Cornwell, Shirley Tallman, Victoria Thompson,  Elizabeth Peters,  and of course Diana Galbaldon.    Some of my go to non fiction authors are:  Bill Bryson,  Candice Millard,  Doris Kerns Goodwin, and Ruth Gruber.  I also have an obsession with purchasing hard copies of historical cookbooks.   Reading is an important part of my life.  One of my favorite sayings is "A good book will get you through a lot.".