Welcome to Words Live Here

Warning: this process is entirely unscientific! LOL I love to read, I love to think about and talk about what I read, and I love to write… so voila! Here I am sharing my opinions, sheerly and merely my opinions, about books as I read them.  My reading selections are as oddly mixed as my Spotfiy playlists. I capture highlights in each book’s review and then give it my overall Reader Rating Score.  Some books touch me to the core, others move me  in the moment like a song or sunset, others amuse, inspire or educate me….I love books…their very existence…the smell in a used bookstore…shared thoughts and creativity of authors across eras and places, classes and races. My favorite book is always the one I’m currently reading .  I have rarely met a book I dislike, but I obviously enjoy some more than others. So I’ve compiled this scale to pair with each of my reviews.

I applaud and admire any person who writes and publishes a whole book.  

I used a bookmark and it was always in the right place. I picked up this book, read a bit, and put it down again. Reading this was a little  like eating a sandwich – satisfying and functional. 

I laughed, I smiled.  I learned a bit, thought a bit. Maybe my eyes got moist…or maybe it was eye strain.  Either way, I enjoyed this book.

Caught my breath a few times, raised my eyebrows, laughed out loud, checked the locks, ignored my phone, kept on reading. Dog eared a few pages to make note of later…. cuz first I wanted to finish reading this book! Interesting conversations with friends about this book while reading it.

Breathless, like sitting in the warm sand, watching the full moon rising over my left shoulder, waves crashing against a pink stained sunset. I rarely read books twice…this one I would. I want more. The whole world deserves to know about this book!! 

 Thanks to each of you who have recommended a book. I look forward to more recommendations!

Martian Chronicles by  Ray Bradbury

Fifth Season by NK Jemisin

Dune  by Frank Herbert

The Deepest Well by Nadine Burke Harris

Any books by Jacqueline Woodson

Small Graces by Kent Nerburn

Pirates of Scurvy Sands/Hilde Cracks the Case/Mia Mayhem series

Educated by Tara Westover

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

• Enlightenment Now by Steven Pinker
• The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt
• Superintelligence by Nick Bostrom
• The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni
• How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan

• Climbing the Second Mountain by David Brooks
• Surrender Experiment by Michael  A. Singer

• The Biggest Bluff  by Maria Konnikova
• The Checklist Manifesto  by Atul Gawande
• You're Not Listening by Kate Murphy
• Peak Secrets from the New Science of Expertise by K. Anders Ericsson
• Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert
• Empty Planet: The Shock of Global Population Decline  by Bricker and Ibbitson

Where the Light  Enters by Sara Donati

Pick Three: You Can Have It All (Just Not Every Day) by Randi Zuckerberg

Chasing the Scream by Johann Hari

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

• Jerrai
• Nicole
• Shawn
• Marina
• Moira
• Maryke
• Carleen