Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (JK Rowling)

Why I have this book: Same as the previous Harry Potter review... we have both the print and audio versions. I listened to the audio version (narrated by Jim Dale) this time.

Another five star rating from me. I just am amazed at the author's brain, and I was super engrossed and entertained by her imagination and writing skills.

Interestingly, there was one part where Dumbledore referred to Voldemort as an "ancestor" of another character. That didn't seem right (based on the time line), so I went back and listened to that part again to see if I misunderstood. Then I looked it up online to make sense of it, and turns out that the author used the wrong word (ancestor vs descendent) which was later corrected in the book. I'm not sure why it wasn't corrected in the audio version since it shouldn't be difficult to do that in a digital product. What's strange to me is that nobody caught that in editing or performing the narration or whatever other processes the book goes through before publishing. Honestly, though, it feels like these books are pretty close to perfect in all the ways that matter... hence my five-star rating.

I don't recall any swearing. There's obviously a scary component to these stories, but so far the series doesn't feel too dark or gory. This book might have even seemed less so than the first book.

Counting the Cost (Jill Duggar)

Why I have this book: I borrowed the audio version from the ebook library.

I gave this one four stars on Goodreads. I liked it better than the book by her sister (which I read earlier this year) for a few reasons:

1) It wasn't religiously preachy like her sister's book. She obviously is still a faithful Christian, but she wasn't using this book as a tool to preach her version of Christianity to the readers.

2) I feel like she was more open and honest about her family. She shared both the good things and the hard things. That took a lot of courage, especially in regards to her father and how he managed their family/business/money. She also was brave in sharing where she saw her own shortcomings.

3) She didn't shy away from taking a stand about her brother and his issues.

All narrators are reading their material, but her narration definitely sounded like it. I don't know that I'd be able to do any better, though, so I give her a pass on that. I'm sure it was scary to put her story out there, and she has a lot of emotional risk and investment in this, so maybe her nerves came into play. She still kept my interest, and I'm glad I listened to her story.

For the record, I never watched the Duggar's show. Maybe I watched one or two episodes, but maybe I'm just remembering clips I saw online or something. My interest stems mostly from learning about how some of the adult children have deconstructed the faith of their upbringing and how they made sense of it.

Clean. There is some basic info about the sexual behavior and criminal activity of her brother.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (JK Rowling)

Why I have this book: I actually listened to the audio version this time. I love that Jim Dale narrated it (loved him in the old Pete's Dragon), although I hear there's another narrator that also did a great job.

In any case, I have all of the books in the series in Audible, so I decided to give them a listen. I had read through the fourth book before, and that one was a bit on the dark side for my sensibilities, so I never read any further. I think I watched the first three movies, too.

BUT... I'm determined to listen to all of them and to watch all the movies now, so here I go! I gave this first one five stars on Goodreads. I think JK Rowling has the most amazing brain to set up all these paths that will come to fruition in the future books. She's an excellent writer with an unbelievably creative mind.

Clean. I don't recall any swearing in this one, but if there was, it was mild. I know the story gets scarier as it goes on, but this one wasn't so bad.

The Lonely Polygamist (Brady Udall)

Why I have this book: My husband's cousin recommended it to me, so I bought the Kindle edition.

This was a tough one to rate. I thought the writing was actually very good. I had a hard time at first getting into the story, but I was more invested as it went along.

I honestly might have given it four stars because I found it easy to get to know the main characters and put myself in their shoes. I thought the part about the nuclear testing that happened in Nevada (and how it affected the residents of southern Utah) was super fascinating, especially the way he described it. A lot of the characters were quirky, and that was fun, as well.

Here's the problem (for me): There was way too much focus on sex. I'm not talking about descriptive sexual scenes. It was more that some of the characters were so focused on it... too many aroused men and boys, and there was too much talk about what was going on in their nether-regions. There was a particularly disturbing scene toward the end involving a young boy in the hospital and one of his "mothers" (one of the sister-wives). It was just weird and yuck. So... yeah. All of that made it so I won't really recommend the book to anyone, which is really too bad. It could have been so much better without all of that unnecessary stuff.

This book had the sexual focus as I just mentioned. There was also swearing, including the F-word once or twice, if I'm remembering correctly.

Everything Isn't Terrible: Conquer Your Insecurities, Interrupt Your Anxiety, and Finally Calm Down (Kathleen Smith)

Why I have this book: It was recommended somewhere online a few times, so I bought the audio version.

I gave this one four stars on Goodreads. I thought the author had a lot of good advice (mostly based on the idea of differentiation) for several different life situations (family, jobs, leaderships, etc.) The narrator of the audio version did a great job, as well.

Clean. I don't remember any swearing or anything, but I may be forgetting.

Worthy: A Memoir (Kerry Turner)

Why I have this book: I think Amazon recommended it to me? It sounded good, so I bought the Kindle edition.

Well, I gave it two stars on Goodreads. It had potential, but the writing wasn't super engrossing, and it badly needed an editor. It felt more like an outline of what happened, not a memoir with depth. I felt like I was being told what happened, but I didn't really feel it.

There were a few exceptions:

"My entire life I had been moving about the world as if I had no worth. As if my presence did not add value to people's lives." 

(I relate to that feeling.)

"I learned events are inherently neutral. They are just occasions that happen in a moment in time. Thinking is what changes them. We are the ones that assign the meaning of good or bad, right or wrong, negative or positive, life-sucking or life-enhancing, to the happenings in our lives." 

(I've heard this from other life coaches before, and I agree this is true with the majority of things that happen in our lives. However, I don't think we should just choose the way we see every single event in our lives in order to stay positive. Sometimes I think that idea is harmful. If someone has been through a tragedy or heavy sorrow or damaging relationship, trying to "think" our way out of the pain by telling ourselves to just see it a different way might not be the best or healthiest action, and might create a fake sense of coping instead of really going through the process of healing. Know what I mean?)

"When we deny our stories, they define us. When we own our stories, we get to write a brave new ending." (The author was quoting Brenè Brown here.)

Anyway, her life events definitely were compelling, and I'm glad she's found healing. She didn't really share how deciding to accept and embrace her own worth actually happened. It sounded like she recognized that she never felt worthy, decided that she was worthy, and then told herself that over and over until she believed it? I don't know.

The book deals with death (including suicide), drug use, rape, childhood trauma, etc. There are some swear words, including the F-word, if I'm remembering correctly.

Wherever the Wind Takes Us (Kelly Harms)

Why I have this book: My friend recommended it, and because it was so inexpensive, I bought both the Kindle and audio versions.

I liked reading the book more than listening to it. The narrator wasn't exceptional on the audio version. Maybe I would have given it a solid four stars if I had just read the whole thing instead of listening to a chunk of it, but I settled on three stars. If I had the option, I would have given it 3.5, probably.

There was one quote toward the end that struck me: "I close my eyes and let tears of relief leak out the cracks of my eyelids. It feels so, so good. I haven't cried myself to sleep in a very long time. I haven't let myself feel things this deeply for years. At some point, some years ago, all the shock, and sorrow, and pain gave way to a kind of numbness. It was a numbness that protected me. Let me stay in a bad situation for far too long, put far too much of my emotional energy on my own daughter. Made me believe my own life had come and gone... And now, the haze is clearing. My energy is restored. I've woken up to my senses, my desires, my capabilities."

I did enjoy it. I have a couple other books by this author (and I've already read a couple, as well) in my Kindle, and I look forward to reading them.

There is what is now common language in books... including the F-word. There is unmarried sex (mildly descriptive), talk about affairs that occurred, etc. Just your average modern-day book/life in America.