I went to the library last night to write a paper but ended up perusing the book sale half the time, instead. Oh how I LOVE books. Everything about looking at, smelling, and touching books carries me into a different time and place and reality til I am no longer standing in a tiny library in Cedar City Utah but instead am surrounded by people, places, stories, and adventures of which I cant wait to be a part of! I ended up going home with three books last night, which I will read when I don't have anything else to read. I like to always have extra books on hand for when I'm done with my monthly book club book. Then I have something else to read while I wait for the next book club book!
It's a rule in our house that you have to always be working on a book. My boys are pretty good at this because 3/4 of them love to read, too. The one who doesn't love to read takes a bit of motivating to find the right book. Here's a photo I took several months ago of what everyone was working on, from Micah all the way down to Malachi.
Here's the latest update of Books we've read for book club since 2014:
1.The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton
2. The Heart Mender by Andy Andrews
3. Orphan Train by Christina Baker Klein
4. The Rent Collector by Camron Wright
5. The Help by Kathryn Stockett
6. Unbroken by Lauren HIllenbrand
7. Dealing With Dragons #1 by Patricia C. Wrede
8. Words by Heart by Ouida Sebestyen
9. Wonder by R.J Palacio
10. Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper
11. The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis
12. These is My Words by Nancy E. Turner
13. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
14. Let Us Eat Cake by Sharon Boorstin
15. The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale
16. Doing No Harm by Carla Kelly
17. The Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera
18. Agenda 21 by Glenn Beck
19. Star Girl by Jerry Spinelli
20. The Traveler’s Gift by Andy Andrews
21. Moloka’i by Alan Brennert
22. Immortal Nicholas by Glenn Beck
23. The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs
24. Love and Gelato by Jenna Evans Welch
25. Cry the Beloved Country by Alan Paton
26. Because of Winn Dixie by Kate DiCamillo
27. Founding Mothers by Cokie Roberts
28. Does my Head look big in this? Randa Abdah-Fattah
30. The Education of Little Tree by Forrest Carter
31. Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns
32. Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks
33. Heaven is For Real by Todd Burpo
34. The Husband’s Secret by Liane Moriarty
35. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
36. Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians by Brandon Sanderson
37. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by Jon Boyne
39. Winter’s Tale by Mark Helprin
40. Love and Luck by Jenna Evans Welch
41. Educated by Tara Westover
42. The Broken Road by Paul Richard Evans
43. The Forgotten Road by Richard Paul Evans
44. Uncommon Type by Tom Hanks
45. Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Henry Ford
46. Not If I save you First by Ally Carter
47. The Orphan Keeper by Camron Wright
48.Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
49. The Road home by Richard Evans
50. My grandmother asked me to tell you she's sorry by Fredrik Backman.
51. Britt Marie was Here by Fredrik Backman
52. Sweetwater by Christina Kline
53. A Fall of Marigolds by Susan Meissner
54. Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
55. All the Light we Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
56. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson
57. Holly Banks Full of Angst by Julie Valerie
58. Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate
59. Enchanted #1 by Alathea Kontis
60. Daring Greatly by Brene Brown
61. Circe by Madelyn Miller
62. I’ve Got Your Number by Sophie Kinsella
63. The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See
64. Hold on but don’t hold still by Kristina Kusmic
65. Everything I Never Told you by Celeste Ng
66. Dracula by Bram Stoker (current)
The two fiction books I liked the most from the past year were Circe and The Island of Sea Women. Daring Greatly was my favorite non-fiction. Holly Banks Full of Angst was the overall worst book I read last year.
Books I've read in the past year that were not for book club:
1. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
2. A Well-Behaved Woman by Therese ann Fowler
3. Love the One your with by Emily Giffn
4. Divergent by Monica Roth
5. The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards
6. The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kid
7. Girl on a Train by Paula Hawkins
8. Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
9. The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls
My favorites of these were The Glass Castle and The Book Thief. I actually just finished the Book Thief yesterday and I loved it so much I am still thinking about it. It is one of the most beautiful and poetic books I've ever read. I laughed, I cried, and I fell in love with Liesel Memminger's big, thieving heart, Rudy's adventurous spirit, Mama and Papa Hubberman's unconditional love, Max's determination, and the perspective of the infiltration of evil Nazi Germany from their little houses in Himmel street. I even enjoyed the haunting perspective of the narrator, Death himself.
In other news, historical fiction is still my favorite genre.
-I also notice that I read a lot of books by female authors.
-I'm not excited to read Dracula this month, but hey--I can't always choose our book club book! The point of book club is to expand my mind and read things I never would've chosen myself.
-Last night I picked up a random fiction book called Mennonite in a little Black Dress and a current non-fiction book called Let's Talk About Race and a book for Micah by Richard Brautigan.
Happy reading from my online avatar who looks EXACTLY like me! ;)
