My New Love

A few months ago I treated myself to a Kindle Paperwhite and I am now an eBook convert! 

I LOVE my Kindle! 

Without a doubt, I will always love traditional books but there is a lot to be said for eBooks too.

I can basically carry a library around in my bag. The Kindle Paperwhite is lightweight, comfortable to hold, better for the environment, eBooks are cheaper, and I don't have to worry about glare that can occur with my Galaxy Note 8 or iPad. That said, the Kindle app for Smartphones, computers or tablets is wonderful in that you can see pictures and book covers in colour. The Kindle app also gives you the option to change background colours. Another thing I love which is offered in the Kindle and the Kindle app is that I can choose a font style as well as enlarge it — a definite bonus for these old eyes. hehe 

Amazon offers tons of great Kindle eBook specials so my library is fast expanding. Like my taste in music, I have a broad range of likes in book genres. I enjoy reading memoirs, true stories, thrillers, horrors, crime series, information books, etc.

Since buying my Kindle Paperwhite I have read 24 books in just three months! That would be a record for me. I've detailed a couple of recent books below.

One of the first books read on my Kindle — Even Silence has an End by Ingrid Betancourt.
A real life account told by Ingrid Betancourt, a Columbian politician, who was kidnapped in 2002 by FARC — a terrorist guerrilla organisation. Ingrid was held hostage for SIX years! The conditions that she and fellow hostages lived under in the Columbian jungle were deplorable. How they survived at all is a miracle. I gave this book 5 stars on Goodreads.

I recently completed — Never Stop Walking by Christina Rickarddson (see below).
Parts of this book still stay in my mind — heart-wrenching in areas. It follows the real life account of young Christina who lived on the streets with her mother and younger brother until she was eight years old when she and her brother were adopted by a couple in Sweden. Christina shares her memories of what life was like as a child living in extreme poverty in Sao Paulo, Brazil, as well as sharing parts of her life in Sweden. She recounts her experience when, as an adult, she returns to Brazil in search of her biological mother. Some parts of Christina's story are very hard to read but I find it hard to condemn a starving child for making a spur of moment decision that led to bloodshed and the loss of life all over a scrap of food.

I also wasn't aware that, even in recent years, police death squads in areas of Brazil search the streets at night looking for 'rats' — rats being a term used for street kids. They actually catch and kill these poor, defenceless kids! Some of these kids are under the age of five. They call it social cleansing — I call it a crime against humanity! I am horrified that humans can commit such atrocities against their own kind, especially innocent children. It's bad enough what humans do to animals.

Christina does a lot of soul-searching in her book trying to meld her childhood in Brazil with the privileged one she came to know in Sweden. I gave this one 5 stars on Goodreads.

A Kindle page from Christina's book

I have also been reading a couple of detective series. One written by Patricia Gibney following Detective Lottie Parker set in Ireland and the other by Robert Bryndza following Detective Erika Foster set in the UK.

Expect to see more reviews in the future...

Feel free to share any of your own book recommendations in the comments.