Off The Clock by Laura Vanderkam

Nonfiction

I was at the mall book store having a casual browse, which is incredibly dangerous, and I saw this in the discount section. I am so happy that I bought it, because I love this book. I did not have a hard time finding a block of time in the day to fit in my daily read because I always looked forward to it. This book is very well written, well organized, and it is full of helpful tips.

Off The Clock is divided into seven sections, each describing a different way to go about making the most out of your time. I found something useful or inspiring in every chapter and I even had a few moments where I was like, wow, that is a great way to go about thinking and why have I never considered it that way before. 

The first chapter, Tend Your Garden, is about dedicating time, you don’t need to schedule every minute to make sure you have enough time to do everything you want or need to do. Chapter two, Make Life Memorable, discusses the idea that we don’t really want more time, we just want our time to be filled with moments that we remember. The third chapter, Don’t Fill Time, deals with not over scheduling yourself. Chapter four, Linger, is about enjoying the moment and not thinking about what you have to do next. The fifth chapter is titled Invest In Your Happiness, which is all about doing the important things or things that really matter first, so that you have more time in which to do things that make you happy. Chapter six, Let It Go, tries to help you in letting go of unrealistic expectations. There was a really great sentence on page 177 about relationships that I particularly liked, and I won’t even try to summarize it because it was written perfectly. The last chapter, People Are A Good Use Of Time, gives advice on how to choose who to spend your time with and why it is good to invest in people. 

I can’t wait to try implementing some of these concepts into my own life, I’m optimistic that they will be helpful. I highly recommend this book for anyone who is looking for a self help read regarding how to better manage your time. It reads like a novel rather than a self help book, which makes it a much more pleasant read than your typical guide book.

Onyx by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Fiction

I find that I cannot move onto another non fiction book until I finish all the books in the Lux series, I need to know what happens. Things continue to progress nicely in regards to the overall plot, but the ever frustrating, chemically charged friendship-would-be-relationship between Katy and Daemon moves at a snails pace. I blame this mostly on Daemon. There are several occasions in the story where there is a misunderstanding, or Daemon sees something that he doesn’t like or agree with, and Katy is always ready to explain everything to him. But he doesn’t give her a chance, he either interrupts her, talking over her before she can even get a chance to explain, or he dismisses her, simply tells her he is done and then walks away. He is just plain mean. One of the new characters does contribute to the conflict between Katy and Daemon, and if he hadn’t been introduced into the story I think things would have moved past where they are at the end. There is also a twist towards the end, one that I think a lot of people will have seen coming, and a welcome surprise in the last chapter. My next fiction read will definitely be the third book in this series, Opal, if you want to read along.

Gutshot by Amelia Gray

Fiction

This book is something else. It is a collection of short stories divided into five parts. I don’t know how to describe it. The stories are disturbing, nonsensical, and I am under the impression that they all have a hidden meaning or message, but I haven’t discovered what any of those might be. It’s a good read if you like the unusual. It’s also a great read if you find yourself unable to read for long periods of time, the length of the stories makes for a lot of good stopping points. If you are a new reader, or trying to get back into a rhythm of reading more, I wouldn’t suggest this, it might turn you off. This is definitely a book for the open minded.

Obsidian by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Fiction

As much as I love to expand my mind and learn new things, I also love a good guilty pleasure teen romance. I love it even more when there is a supernatural factor. The Lux series by Jennifer L. Armentrout provides me with what I need to get my fix for a romantic, easy read. There are so many frustrating moments between the main characters Katy and Daemon, you are literally waiting until the near end of the book for something to happen. You aren’t satisfied with what happens though, at least I wasn’t, but it really makes you look forward to the next book. You’ll have plenty to look forward to in fact, there are five more books following Obsidian, a prequel, and additional spin offs. There is good strength of character in Katy, she doesn’t let herself get pushed around by the overbearing Daemon, but she is only a teenage girl. She does show weakness in the face of his good looks and flirtatious, teasing personality, but it’s impressive how much she is able to resist. I’m also proud of the decision she made at the end of this book, she won’t settle for the bare minimum and she won’t make compromises on what she believes she deserves. I think my next nonsense read will be the next book in this series, but next week I’ll be reviewing something with more substance.

Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs

Nonfiction

One of my favorite authors is Augusten Burroughs. I was fairly young the first time I read his memoir, Running with Scissors, and after finishing it I knew I had to read more of his books. I have a small collection of them, and a few more that I still need to add. It has been a long time since I read one of his books, so I thought it was time to re-read and write about his first autobiographical work.

The chapters aren’t numbered, they all have unique titles. Being a child was very different when Augusten grew up, that being the late 1960s into the 1970s. You were only required to go to school until the age of 16, it was easy to skip class, and everything seemed to be a lot less strict than it is now. Today, you absolutely would not see a 13 year old boy on a public transport bus by himself and think, oh, that’s normal, and this is probably the least concerning thing about Augustens childhood. It is incredible that child services or the police were never called on behalf of the author, because so many unusual and alarming things happened to Augusten that I find it hard to believe that no one ever noticed. 

This memoir is full of strange and distrubed characters, from the author’s alcoholic father, to his mothers mad psychiatrist. If you enjoy a crude writing style, he’s a very honest writer; nothing is sugar coated, and don’t mind if things get a little gross, definitely read this. After finishing it, you will absolutely be interested in reading the rest of Burroughs novels.