So I Found a Spirit Animal…

In middle school, my library had a summer program to encourage reading: for every book you read, you could pin up an award on the wall with your name and the book title. Being the “bookworm” and competitive kid that I was, I was determined to have the most–and I’m pretty sure I did, I read something like 50 books…but you’d have to confirm with middle-school-me.

With high school, college, and a number of jobs, I suddenly became too busy to read that often. In fact, I’m ashamed to say I completed very few books throughout most of my higher education career–I simply didn’t have the time. (I apologize to all my English/Lit teachers over the years!)

However, as a recent graduate (sko Buffs!) who is  unemployed, I have been reading more often and I made an important discovery. I am not a bookworm (at least not anymore), I am a book-bear! That is my spirit animal. I came to realize that my lapse in reading and subsequent resumption of the activity is not unlike a bear’s life: it hibernates and then it wakes up and starts living its life again, eating berries and hunting fish and doing other bear things.

So, until I find a job, I will focus on curating this as a book review blog, with a new post at least once every week! (If you want to check out an old book review, you can go here. The other posts are more eclectic…) Hopefully even after I emerge from the cave that is unemployment, I can keep up the reviews, but I make no promises right now. For now, I’ll start with my small collection of books I have but have yet to read, but please feel free to send recommendations via the “contact” page!

I’ll save you the agony of reading a review of my most recent book, Red Riding Hood by Sarah Blakley-Cartwright. It’s not that I didn’t like it, but reading it felt somewhat like the literary version of a shrug. Somewhere, I saw its description as the “classic story but darker,” and that was accurate. The only big difference in the lore can be found in the bonus chapter on the website. Apparently, this adaptation is also a film, I didn’t see it, but the preview seemed more or less spot-on, so maybe the hour and a half film will be quicker but just as satisfying as the five-ish hour read it took me.

I hope y’all keep up with me in my non-hibernation period of being a book-bear. Look out for my thought’s on Mary Higgins Clark & Alafair Burke’s The Cinderella Murder!

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