What I'm Reading: 3 Books in 3 Weeks

I've always been a reader.  According to my mom, I learned to read before I went into kindergarten and before that I was memorizing books so I could read them to myself.  In 7th grade, I was reading at a 12th grade level.  But it wasn't until I hit my junior and senior year of high school when I really started getting interested in books other than fantasy (like Harry Potter) or sweet and clean romance novels.  When I was in high school, I took an AP Literature and Composition class, which introduced me to different genres and I found that I actually liked a lot of them.  Since then, I've branched out and read YA fiction, historical fiction, fantasy, classic literature, sci-fi, distopic and others.  My brain gets bored if I read too much of any one genre so I try to pick up a variety of books when I stop by the library.  In the last three weeks, I've read three different books and all were about different topics.

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Book Review: The Orphan Queen by Jodi Meadows {Plus Book Club Discussion/Questions}

 

If you've been around my blog for long, you'll notice that most of the books I do reviews on are young adult fiction.  Most recently, I finished The Orphan Queen by Jodi Meadows (who also happens to be a co-author of one of my favorite books, My Lady Jane--read the review HERE.)  Books have always been one of my favorite ways to escape from the world.  My husband often teases me that when I'm reading a book that I can literally shut everything else out and not be aware of what's going on around me.  I love a book that pulls you into its world and makes you feel like the characters are real people, leaving you wondering what happened to them after the book ends.  I love finding a book that I want to read over and over again, until the book is smudged with fingerprints and can't stay all the way closed because the spine is so broken in.  These are the things I look for in a book.

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Book Review: Bucket of Awesome + A Giveaway

For many years I've used writing as a way to help me work through and remember things.  I have poems written after a challenging break-up.  A stack of diaries and journals from elementary school all the way through today detailing whatever I was/am going through at the time.  Even this blog is a way for me to put my thoughts down and organize them in a way that makes sense.  Writing helps me unlock memories and remember details in a way that nothing else can.  I wonder, how often do we take the time to think back on the experiences in our life that shaped us and made us who we are today?  Are they positive or negative?  Which would you rather focus on?

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Book Review: The Magic of Ordinary Days by Ann Howard Creel {Plus Book Club Discussion/Questions}

Earlier this week, my book club met together to discuss our most recent book choice: The Magic of Ordinary Days by Ann Howard Creel.  Prior to the book being introduced at our last meeting, I hadn't heard of it but a few of the people in our group had and the general feeling was positive.  The title definitely caught my attention because it seems like a contradiction.  I was able to read through it in a few days and it kept my attention throughout.

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Book Review: Disneyland On Any Budget by Jessica Sanders

Before my family and I went to Disneyland last fall, I did a TON of research on a million different website and blogs trying to learn as much as possible about lodging and food and travel and strollers and souvenirs and anything else I could think of that I might need to know about when planning a trip to Disneyland.  I learned a lot and everything I found was really helpful.  Our trip to Disneyland was a huge success and I even learned a few things that I've been able to share with others.

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Book Review: The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh {Plus Book Club Discussion/Questions}

At the beginning of the summer, I put together a summer reading list and challenged myself to get all the way through the list before the official start of fall.  I'm happy to say that I made it through almost all of them, plus a few others that weren't originally on my list!  (You can find the list HERE and my reviews HERE.) The very first book I picked from my list was The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh.  I hadn't heard anything about it other than the synopsis I read on Goodreads.

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Summer 2016 Reading List Book Reviews and Ratings

At the beginning of the summer, I put out a reading list with all the books I hoped to read during the summer.  I loved being exposed to new genres that I wouldn't have normally picked up, although for the most part my favorites were still the young adult fiction that I stick to.  I did stray from my reading list a bit due to my book club, otherwise, I feel sure I would have finished all the books on my list.  I've included a short review for each book along with a rating out of 5 stars.  (If you want to read more about any given book, click on the title to be taken to the Goodreads summary.)

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Book Review: My Lady Jane by Hand, Ashton and Meadows {plus Book Club Discussion/Questions}

At the beginning of the summer, I mentioned that I am in a young adult fiction book club.  Each book we read is suggested by another member of the group and then we meet every other month to discuss it and, of course, visit and eat treats.

This month at our book club we talked about the book My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton and Jodi Meadows.  After reading it, I have to say that it is easily one of my favorite books and I don't hesitate to recommend it to anyone.

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Book Review: Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi {plus Book Club Discussion/Questions}

Every other month, a group of my friends and I get together for a young adult book club.  Someone in the group hosts and we all discuss the most recent book we read, eat treats and laugh a lot.

This month, we read Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi.

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How Do Dinosaurs Books Review

Ever since I was young, books have been a huge part of my life.  I have a memory from when I was about five years old walking home from the library with an entire wagon full of books we had checked out.  That little wagon sat in our front room where I could pick a book and look through it or my mom would read it to me.  Before the week was done, I had looked through all the books at least once.  The next week, we took the books back and got another wagon full to bring home.  This love of reading has stuck with me all my life.  I love getting lost in the world of books.  My husband laughs at me because if I'm reading a book, I have no idea what's going on around me.

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