Final Thoughts on Kindle Unlimited

I've dipped into Kindle Unlimited whenever I could get a good deal, and have had mixed feelings as you can tell from this post, and this post.

Since I'd learned the trick of making a KU curated list, I had much better luck this time going straight to the books that were worthwhile. As I've stated before, I pay almost nothing for the KU subscription, but end up reading voraciously to "get my money's worth." Obviously, I didn't give some of these books their due, and ended up buying two of them to re-read and savor more fully. From most enjoyable to least, here are the titles that I read in December, January and February:

Cinderella - stunningly illustrated by K.Y. Craft

Ask of the Old Paths: Medieval Virtues and Vices for a Whole and Holy Life by Grace Hamman

Portrait of a Murder: A Christmas Crime Story by Anne Meredith (vintage detective fiction)

Unfinished Portrait by Mary Westmacott (aka Agatha Christie)

Baking for Two by Tracy Kabiku (and 7 other cookbooks)

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

Heroes of the City of Man - Peter Leithart (guide to the Greek classics)

The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein

Behind Barbed Wire and High Fences by Helen Angeny (WWII POW memoir)

Rochester's Wife - D. E. Stevenson (disappointing fiction from one of my favorite light authors)

I checked out two retellings of  classic books that were AI generated (I didn't know it at the time), and they were as awful as you would expect.

I paid 99 cents for three months, but ended up spending $15 on books that I wanted to keep. So it came out to about $5 a month (the normal price is $12). I could have done worse. 

Blessings,

Is Kindle Unlimited Worth It?

A few years ago, I gave Kindle Unlimited a try, but wasn't too impressed. Of the thirteen books I read, only four were memorable. In the years that followed, I would occasionally see a book I was interested in offered as a KU title and I began a KU list "just in case" I ever signed up for it again. Two years later I had a bit more success and read several excellent books including Tech-Wise Family, Trojan Mouse and quite a few D.E. Stevenson titles.

When I saw "three months of KU for 99 cents" last December, I took the plunge again. Because of my curated list, I didn't have to waste time on mediocre books. (Be aware that some of their titles come and go, but others are always there.) Yes, there were a few duds, but for the most part, I really enjoyed my recent foray into KU-land. These were my favorites: 

Light fiction: The Wayne Family trilogy by Elizabeth Cadell (reviewed here), Family Grandstand and Family Sabbatical by Caroly Ryrie Brink (of Caddie Woodlawn fame, both reviewed here)

Heavier reading: Ascent to Love - A Guide to Dante's Divine Comedy by Leithart. Extremely helpful commentary for people like me who are clueless when it comes to Dante, but would like to learn. I also took advantage of Gerald J. Davis' translation of Paradiso because I was struggling with the more stilted version that I was using. 

                         

Excellent non-fiction: O Come Ye Back to Ireland, and Pages from a WWII Chaplain's Diary (easily one of my favorite books of the year). Speaking of which, they have many WWII P.O.W. memoirs, which are just my cup of tea.

A surprisingly good (but heavy) novel was The Words Between Us by Erin Bartel. It's a love story about books, but also about very broken people.

I also appreciated being able to leaf through some beautiful magazines like "Vintage Cottage," and peruse several clean eating cookbooks, especially 100 Days of Real Food on a Budget.

If you like light reading that isn't pure fluff, KU has many D.E. Stevenson and Miss Read titles. And the wonderful British mysteries compiled by Martin Edwards (21 books on the list are available via KU.)

Their audiobook options were pretty trashy, so I can't recommend anything there. Still, once every few years, I will probably look for the year-end deal and sign up for it again. The only downside to the deal was that I felt pressured to read as much as possible during the three-month offer (as if 99 cents was a lot of money!) and had to force myself to slow down and savor the books. I was not always successful at that.

In all, I read 20 books (half fiction and half non-fiction) and was pleasantly surprised at the gems I discovered. Has anyone else every tried it? Any recommendations?

Blessings,

What I Read and Watched in February

I promised myself I wouldn't rush through books this year, but greed took over when I signed up for the Kindle Unlimited trial. I ended up gorging on seven D.E. Stevenson novels: The Empty World, The Tall Stranger, Peter West, Five Windows, Amberwell (re-read), Summerhills, and Still Glides the Stream. I disliked Peter West, but Five Windows was a new favorite (reviewed here).

Also on my KU stack was On Reading Well by Karen Swallow Prior, Evangelism as Exiles: Live on Mission as Strangers in Our Own Land by Elliot Clark and Kidnapped (audio book) by R.L. Stevenson. Kidnapped was the hardest to finish because I was unfamiliar with the current events of that time which were frequently mentioned.

The only physical book I read (apart from my Bible) was A Diary of Private Prayer by John Baillie, which I hope to re-read often. (reviewed here)

On the movie front, I watched a guy movie for my husband's birthday, Ford vs. Ferrari, which was surprisingly interesting and not as profane as I expected. A few days later we hooked up our Brazilian cable TV and could find nothing to watch (surprise!); we ended up watching the DVD of The Fellowship of the Ring, which is always a pleasure.

Blessings,

Five Windows by D.E. Stevenson

I've been plowing through D.E. Stevenson titles since taking advantage of the Kindle Unlimited deal that I got in December. The most famous books (Miss Buncle and Mrs. Tim) are not free through KU, but there are over a dozen lesser-known novels that I've been enjoying. Five Windows is one of my new favorites.

David Kirke, the only son of a vicar and his wife, grew up in a quiet country town in Scotland and moves to London to begin his career. Each of the windows in the title describes the view from his various places of residence. In each location he learns a valuable lesson. There are delightful characters such as Teddy (a girl), Barbie, the decorator, Mr. Coe, the book store owner, and Malcolm, the shepherd. There are despicable folks such as the residents of the boarding house. Because of his unfailing kindness and good manners, David gets mixed up with them, but through those relationships, he learns to be a better judge of human nature and to stand up for himself.

What I loved most about the book was watching David "make do" on very little money. Instead of complaining or borrowing, he made a game out of his poverty to stretch every penny. It is a hobby my own mother taught me and I was tickled to read of some of his tricks.

In addition to the delightful literary references sprinkled throughout (from Pilgrim's Progress, the Bible, Wordsworth, and Dickens), there were several very funny sequences. One described the literary efforts of David's friend, Miles Blackworth, who assumed that just because he had read a lot of thrillers, it would be easy to write one. Another humorous situation was when David's mother came to visit him in London and his office colleagues assumed he was making her up so as not to have to admit to having a girlfriend.

This is a book about second chances. For people and for houses. (If you know anything about Stevenson's books, the houses are almost human!) I thoroughly enjoyed this new-to-me book and look forward to re-reading it in the future.

Blessings,