What I'm reading

Thanks to my sister for informing me of the "what i'm reading" party, sponsored by Emily of Jones Design Company.

So, what have I been reading?  Since the New Year began, I've been focusing on reading more... and I think it's working because this weekend I'm set to finish my 4th book of the year :)

I started off the year by finishing Return of the King - 2nd time through and I loved it!  But from my multiple blog posts / instagram pictures, I think you knew that ;)

After spending 6 months in Middle Earth (I read The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy and a bio of Tolkien last summer/fall), I wanted a quick, contemporary novel to pull me back into reading as a habit.  Little did I know how quick the book I picked was.  Last Monday night (all in one night) I read The Fault in Our Stars by John Green.  [For those of you aren't familiar, John Green makes up half of the "Vlog Brothers" with his nerdy, artistic, michevious counterpart being Hank Green, who is, among other things, the executive producer for The Lizzie Bennet Diaries.  Needless to say - they're a really cool pair.]  Getting back to the novel, it was unbelievable.  Tragic and literary and raw and thought provoking and beautiful. Wow!  Being as sad and raw as it was, I wouldn't recommend this book to just anyone, but if you're interested, ask me and I will tell you more.

[I'm skipping over the third book because it was just aweful... I'm pretending it didn't happen.]
And currently, I'm reading The Time Traveler's Wife - which has kind of sucked me in.  There have been some parts I've really liked, but quite a few things which bothered me. But it is definitely a novel that is easy to read.  I started 2 days ago and am now half way through - but I have a feeling I'm going to end up liking the first half a lot more than the last half :/  We shall see.

A few other books on my radar:

• The Four Agreements - Don Miguel Ruiz
• The Moonstone - Wilkie Collins
• The Crowd, the Critic, and the Muse - Michael Gungor
• The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald*
• Culture of Hope - Turner Frederik
• The Hours - Michael Cunningham
• Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen*
• One Thousand Gifts - Ann Voskamp
• Letters from a Lost Generation - Mark Bostridge
• Orthodoxy - G.K. Chesterton
• Sense of an Ending - Julian Barnes
• and some more Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

You know, just a few ;)  You can see what I've been reading or what I hope to read on my goodreads page.

*re-reads :)