Failing to plan is like planning to fail

I'm now about two months further along in my experience keeping a bullet journal. And I finally got a hold of the bible of bullet journals, written by the guy termed the phrase and has promoted the idea.

In my Facebook group for bullet journalers, those who have questions about the method are frequently referred back to The Bullet Journal Method: Track the Past, Order the Present, Design the Future by Ryder Carroll. Ryder Carroll's approach is back to basics, considered by many to be the minimalist approach, requiring only a notebook and a pen.

Four months into keeping a bullet journal, having gotten all my information from blogs, my Facebook group and Dot Journaling: A Practical Guide by Rachel Wilkerson Miller, I was ready to check out the real deal. I will admit that my expectations were high. I mean... Ryder Carroll is "the guy." Who would know more? Who could guide me better?

Ryder Carroll's book was way more self-help-y than a how to guide to keeping a bullet journal. That's where it really fell short for me. I felt that his book was geared to those juggling busy work schedules with parenting and planning vacations (being a little sarcastic here) but I did not feel like he was speaking to me. I never felt that the book included practical applications of how to fully utilize what he was explaining. Perhaps more "show not tell" was in order? I read the e-book version so the graphics were cumbersome and made no sense. Perhaps those might have been better in the print version of the book.

I felt that Dot Journaling affirmed that what I was doing made sense. I feel the same now that I've finally finished The Bullet Journal Method.

I think I'd prefer the film version

The last book that Books and Beer Club read was The Wolves at the Door: The True Story of America's Greatest Female Spy by Judith L. Pearson. I'm writing this several days after I finished the book (which is what I often do), but I'm also writing after the book club meeting, something I tend to not do. A book club meeting can change my initial impressions about a book and I like my reviews to reflect how I feel at the time I finished the book.

Each book club meeting starts with us giving the book a thumbs up, thumbs down or sideways. We had 20 people at this week's meeting. A large majority (nearly everyone) gave it a thumb's up. I was one of the few sideways thumbs. Virginia Hall's story, being an American female spy in World War II France was incredible. But Judith Pearson's writing was at times very dry. I did need refreshers about some what was going on in France before and during WWII. But many of those sections read like a text book. Some of the narrative about other spies that Virginia interacted with read like a phone book. As a result, it took me three weeks to plod through this book.

Not only wasn't I swayed by other book club members' more positive reviews, many of them did comment that the writing style was a bit dry. So I wasn't the only one who had very mixed feelings about The Wolves at the Door.

More highly recommended to us at the meeting was A Woman of No Importance, written by Sonia Purnell, published this year. While looking up that book, I read this:

So why haven't more people heard about Hall? A quote from Hall on the agency display offers an explanation: "Many of my friends were killed for talking too much."
But now — more than 70 years after her wartime exploits in France, and almost 40 years after her death — Virginia Hall is having a moment. Three books have just come out. Two movies are in the works.

 I am still considering picking up Purnell's book. But then again, I might just wait for the movie.

Where the Crawdads Sing

I was so disappointed when I realized that I'd still be out of town when my community book club discussed Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens. I started reading when I thought I might be back home. This is a book with so much to discuss.

But how to describe this richly layered novel? It's a coming of age story. It's a novel about life - and nature - in the marshes of North Carolina. It's a murder mystery.

I'm not a mystery lover but that aspect of the story did not detract from my enjoyment of the novel. Even if I strongly suspected "who done it" long before it was disclosed. My heart broke for Kya, as a small child and then as a young woman.

Owens reinforces that prejudice is not just based on race. And that as many awful, terrible people there are in this world, there are also a few really good ones. She also reminds us that being educated isn't just about going to school. It's about being open to learning in whatever manner you are able.

I'd highly recommend this book. I've been told that the book club discussion was great. Sorry I missed it!

The Orphan's Tale

I can't recall where I first heard about The Orphan's Tale by Pam Jenoff. But it immediately made me think about Sara Gruen's Water for Elephants. The only similarities between the books are the settings, the circus, and the time period. I think. Both stories took place in the past. There the similarities end. What I liked best about Water for Elephants was that it was different. The same holds true for The Orphan's Tale.

The Orphan's Tale is the story of two strong women who are forced to work together in a traveling circus during World War II. There is no love lost between the two of them at the start. But over time, they become the family that each one of them has lost. It is based on a real circumstance. That of traveling circuses hiring Jews as circus performers as a way to protect them.

This is a book that I would definitely recommend to anyone who feels like can handle one more book about the Holocaust.

Meet Me at the Museum

I picked up Anne Youngson's Meet Me at the Museum as I was waiting for several books to  come in from the library. I enjoyed it much more than I expected.

When Tina was a child, a famous researcher dedicates a book to Tina and her classmates. Now an older adult, Tina writes a letter to the author, assuming he's no longer alive and not really expecting a response. Anders, the current curator of the exhibit Tina writes about, responds to her letter. And that's how a friendship begins.

I'm pretty sure by now you know that I really enjoy epistolary novels. This one was much more wonderful than many others I've read of late. Anne Youngson's style reminded me of the lovely feeling of meeting a new friend through letter writing, the process of transforming a pen pal into a close and trusted friend. It definitely helped that both Tina and Anders are about my age. Both Tina and Anders are at the point in life where they want to figure out what their lives are all about. I can relate to that, too.

The book was so engaging that I waited until after I was finished with it to research the Tollund Man, something I'd never even heard of before.

This was a wonderful book for me. I heartily recommend this to anyone who loves novels that are based on a letter writing relationship. If reading letters isn't your thing, this book might not be for you.