Friday (7/26) Reading Recap

[ufcasey]

What have you been reading?

QOTW:

If you could go back in time and change a major financial decision, what would it be? (think: house, car, wedding, vacation, school, etc.). If you can't think of anything for yourself, feel free to talk about something you would change for someone else.

[meowmaps]

I finished Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb. I absolutely loved it. I really needed it in my life at this time.

I started Daisy Jones & the Six last night. I know everybody loves it but I’m kind of indifferent so far.

QOTW: I think if anything I have regrets about financial leaps I didn’t take. I’m 36 and just now contemplating going back to school for a Masters. I wish I had done it years ago. Then again, I don’t think I was confident enough to know what path to take when I was younger. Also, we traveled a lot pre-DD but I wish we had traveled even more. Travel feels so much more complicated now.

[rainbowchip]

I finished The Nightingale. I'm currently reading Recursion. So far it seems intriguing.

QOTW: We did what we thought was a debt consolidation company but in retrospect I don't think that's what they were. They basically took our money and then said they would negotiate with our cc companies. We paid them a good chunk of money monthly and they told us to stop paying our bills. The first 6 months was us making payments to them and none of that money went to pay off our debt. Then they started calling is and saying, if you give us $5k, we can close out this cc when that was pretty much the beginning balance on the credit card (it was much higher at that point due to late fees and over drafts and such from not paying it for 6 months). AND if I could just come up with $5k, I wouldn't have needed this company. I was in a PP fog and I had a miscarriage so my H was handling it and he didn't research it at all.

[Nonny]

I just finished Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods last night, and I'm still working on To the Bright Edge of the World, Dead Wake, and Sandman Vol 7.

QOTW:  I would have actually spent more money.  Right before my ill fated black belt test, there was a trip to China and Tibet that was planned with my karate class (schools from all over the country).  It was mostly tourism, but they also trained with Shaolin monks for part of the trip.  It was like $8K not including air fair, food, etc., though, and at the time I felt like I couldn't justify the expense, and so I didn't go.  I stopped doing martial arts shortly thereafter, but I still regret not going.  It really would have been an amazing experience.

[Vespasia]

I'm reading Dread Nation by Justina Ireland. It's set in a post-Civil War US where the fighting ended early because the dead rose. Really enjoying it and the first part is set near where I live.

QOTW: I regret getting my Master's degree recently. I have some positive changes happening in my career that would have occured regardless. Maybe I'll feel differently eventually.

[mx27]

This week, I started "Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine" by Gail Honeyman. So far, I'm meh about it.

QOTW: I'm not sure, but my husband thinks we should have purchased a home in our previous town (at the time, the purchase price was fairly reasonable and has since skyrocketed). Oh well!

[travella]

I finished The Last Year of War by Susan Meissner,2*. I was very excited about this book and I just couldn't connect with any of the characters. It was a disappointment to say the least. I'm starting One Day in December by Josie Silver tonight.

QOTW: I cannot think of any financial decisions that I regret. My husband was not exactly excited about my grad school loans, but I have zero regrets. I might not be using my degree at the moment, but I absolutely loved grad school. It was one of the best periods of my life. Plus, I wouldn't have met him had I not gone.

[sarahswim]

This week I finished Harry Potter & The Order of the Phoenix, which has been my least favorite of the series so far.  
I also read Everything You Want Me To Be (Mindy Mejia) ****
The New Me (Halle Butler) ***
The Marriage Lie (Kimberly Belle) ***
Rain Reign (Ann M Martin) ****

Financial decisions I regret?  Nothing major (mine would be just inane little things that have added up).  For someone else, my FIL has made two financial decisions that I don't understand, both to do with housing.  He sold two different properties (one was a condo on the beach) over 20 years ago, and both would be worth SO much more now than for what he sold them.  Not to mention, you know, we could go use that condo on the beach!  

[dontlook]

I finally finished Harry Potter. It was great. DD wants to start the second book.

I also read Big Girl Panties by Stephanie Evanovich. 1 star. I have never read something so horrible in my life.

QOTW: I regret not spending more money going on vacations and eating out before we had kids.

Also, if I had to do again I would spend the same amount on my wedding but do a small destination wedding somewhere.

[ssmjlm]

Just started One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reed. Not far enough to have an opinion, although I did not like The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, so we’ll see.

QOTW: Having a big wedding. We should have gone small and used the money toward our first house. There was a lot of backstory/drama and I was trying to be nice, but someone should have tried to talk me into keeping it small.

[sassypants]

I finished Daisy Jones and the Six and started Fire & Blood (the GoT prequel). DJ was pretty good. Definitely some major Fleetwood Mac influences in it, which I didn't mind because I love most of their music.

QOTW: I can't say that I regret much because there were good things that came out of it. Buying a condo was an unnecessary investment, but I adopted one of my very beloved kitties because I was living there and I wouldn't have traded my time with her for anything.

[charlatti]

I finished The Dearly Beloved by Cara Wall, which I liked a lot more than I thought I would. It’s about faith and Presbyterian ministers, which sounds very far from my usual tastes, but the writing and the relationships were very compelling. Now reading Salvation Day by Kari Wallace — sci-fi dystopian thriller.

Qotw: I wish we had taken a more ambitious honeymoon trip and/or done more traveling in our early marriage years.

[wildrice]

I finished Pachenko on Friday. I thought it was really good, though I thought the ending was a little abrupt. I guess the story was just kind of meandering the whole book, but I felt like it didn't really come to a climax? IDK. I just started re-reading the Nightengale, but obviously won't be done by Wednesday. I'm also listening to An American Marriage, which I already read last year but my IRL book club is discussing in a few weeks so I'm brushing up.

QOTW: This one is hard because I feel like the two biggest ones led to my current life. I got a master's degree, and took out loans, in a field I don't really like very much and never should have studied. And I wasted money on my first wedding and subsequent marriage. But had I not gotten that degree, I wouldn't have moved to my last state, where I met my H and a ton of other great people, and if I hadn't married and then divorced my XH, I likely wouldn't have been in the right place at the right time to meet my current H. I think every decision has led to some bumps and crap along the way but ultimately I'm happy with where I've ended up, so going back and changing things would likely put me at a different ending.