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What I Read in November

Flowers from Pike Place Market

This month I spent more time finally catching up on my scads of magazines than I did reading hard or soft-bound books. I'd let my magazine pile get pretty tall over the past 6-8 weeks (some over 6 months) simply because of moving, and life. I love magazines and devour 3-4 subscriptions a year. I don't have a tablet but even if I did I might still pay the extra amount for the in-your-hand shiny paper feel. I love Relevant and just renewed that for my perhaps sixth year, though I was all caught up on those. I also have gotten Martha  Stewart Living for free over the last three years or so (Thanks, Recyclebank!) although that has recently come to it's end. Sad. I'll get over it.

The magazine that is the prize-winner, though, is Mental Floss. I literally had 3 issues backlogged because of moving and just reading them one after the other was like a week-long giant sundae with about 7 cherries on top. It's a random magazine that has all sorts of stories that are well written, witty, and fascinating. Who ever knew you wanted a magazine with a front cover picture of a Napoleonic cat riding a unicorn? Surely, you do!

Followed by my gorging plate of trivia, I slowed down to read front-to-back three quaterly issues of Taproot Magazine. This magazine is more like a book than a magazine, because there are no ads, the articles can be very long, and there are always a couple recipes for whole foods meals and DIY craft instructions. The photography and the artwork is usually really great, and although it's expensive (hence, no ads), I got it late last year when I found out one of my favorite artists, Geninne Zlatkis was going to be producing the 4 cover art pieces for the year.

The two books I did manage to finish this month were:
Sarah Bessey's Jesus Feminist  I really expected this book to be a bit more pushy and argumentative than it was.  I don't often follow Sarah's blog, but I have read a few things I liked and I wanted to know what was inside her book with the provocative title. The main gist of this book is to encourage the egalitarian view of women within the church and in their life's calling. I found this book to be repetitive, and I felt like the last page or two of each chapter was basically saying the same thing over and over again.

Small Victories by Anne Lamott: Anne has another book out and I waited quite impatiently with my library to have the privilege to be the first to pick it up. She can pretty much do no wrong and her books usually flatten me with her wordy metaphors and quirky personality flaws. I haven't finished this but I'm over halfway. I'll do a full review in December.

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