Reading list

FYI, I did write 100 words (actually a lot more than that) yesterday, but I chose not to post it because it was for a story. :-) Promise.
Today Dane and I worked on packing up our stuff and a lot of my mom's stuff at my parents' house, which was really difficult. It was my second time endeavoring to work on sorting through all of my mom's clothes. However, the first time was by myself...it was definitely so much easier having Dane there to keep me focused on the task at hand. Since we worked hard all day and have to go to our respective jobs tomorrow for the first time in a while, I will be keeping today's post short and simple.

When I was a pre-teen and adolescent, my nose was always glued to a book. I used to read approximately  a book a day when I was homeschooled, and at least a novel a week when I started private school. As I read more and more required texts in college, I continued to read for pleasure but less consistently. The exception to this is perhaps my time at Oxford, when I got to study the kinds of things that I like to read about anyway...it was all research....;-)  (When you study the Inklings , creative writing and mythology you get to read all kinds of fun stuff for research)

However, I seemed to slow down on my reading after college. Suddenly life was full of so many other things, all in a rush: new job, Dane moved to Georgia, friends' weddings, I got engaged, married, moved in with Dane, newlyweds, nesting, new position at work, mom got sick, ect.

I still read several books during that year and a half, but I missed (maybe without knowing how much) that homeschooled girl would lose herself in a book for hours at a time. One of my new year's resolutions was to rediscover that girl, and doing so has given me a much needed means of escape as well as inspired me creatively.

Last night,  I found myself trying to list the books I read in the past month to myself, and I couldn't remember what some of them were! I decided to list them periodically on here to keep myself accountable and keep track of how many books I am reading. I also wanted to give a one-sentence
(sometimes a creatively punctuated "one sentence"...hmm) thought and a star-rating (from 1-5) based on how highly I reccomend the book. So, without further ado, here are my books read for 2014 so far.

1. The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
As always, whimsical genius Neil Gaiman sucks the reader effortlessly into a world of his own imagining, simultaneously creating a dark and beautiful universe and capturing the reader's  empathy for his intimately-everyman protagonist. *****

2. The Giver by Lois Lowry
Lowry's original take on the utopian society was so fun and interesting I had to read it in one sitting (and make my students read it, too!) ****

3. The Mermaid's Pendant (2 books)  by LeAnn Neil Reilly
A unique, descriptive writing style and the beautiful setting of the first book make this fairy-tale retelling stand out among others I have read, but an unlikeable hero and icky-feeling plot twists made me give up on its sequel.  ***

4.  Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
 Being a major Hunger Games fan, this was a re-read for me: compelling, blood-pumping...made me justice-hungry and mad...but I loved it.  *****

5. Love Story by Erich Segal
This is a story about love in an iconically 1960s American young-people setting, and I was slightly underwhelmed because of high expectations...."Love means never having to say you're sorry." ***

6. A Shade of Vampire by Bella Forrest
 Sounds like a bad rip off of Twilight/50 Shades of Gray, but it wasn't (and just to be clear, it wasn't sexually graphic)....I'm actually not really sure what it was.
*
Currently Reading: I'm bad about reading lots of things at once.

7. A Midsummer Night's Dream  by William Shakespeare
Will's rhythmic tale of comedic mischeif in the woods: fairies, young love, silly actors.
***** 

8. An American Heiress  by Daisy Goodwin
Lushly-written, compelling tale of a young American heiress who weds a broke duke in the 1890s...definitely a must-read for "Downton Abbey" fans.
*****

9. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
Started then stopped....was enjoying the setting and characters so far, but feel like I'm going to need to spend some time with it before it hooks me. I have to give it ***** based on what I know about it from others.


Always looking for good things to read next!