what i'm reading

“We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.” 

Kurt Vonnegut - Mother Night

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Snippet from Goodreads: Mother Night is a daring challenge to our moral sense. American Howard W. Campbell, Jr., a spy during World War II, is now on trial in Israel as a Nazi war criminal. But is he really guilty? In this brilliant book rife with true gallows humor, Vonnegut turns black and white into a chilling shade of gray with a verdict that will haunt us all.

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Yesterday I started to read Mother Night. I'm such a fan of Vonnegut's work. His novels never fail to interest me. I've made it my own personal goal to read everything the man has written.

what i'm reading

It's been extremely windy and cold today. It keeps changing from rain to ice to snow and back again.
Aiden and I went for coffee, and I took my Kindle to read. I decided to start Curtsies and Conspiracies, as well as The Prince and the Pauper. Both are relatively quick reads. I'm enjoying them thoroughly.

I've always been a fan of Mark Twain. At the age of ten I read The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in elementary school and loved them. I was always partial to Huck Finn, even more so when Brad Renfro portrayed him in the 1995 movie Tom and Huck. My young heart swooned.

Curtsies and Conspiracies is the second book in the Finishing School series. It's very steampunk, which I absolutely love and is one of my favorite genres. I love the main character Sophronia. It's such a fun, inventive series. 

what i'm reading

I'm reading quite a few (& very different from one another) books at the moment. Instead of talking about all of them, I want to mention the classic.

Semi-recently I decided that I really want to read more classical literature, so I've been delving into that again.

I'm introducing myself to Kafka with his book The Metamorphosis.

I'm also planning to read two Jane Austen novels that I hadn't, The Hounds of Baskerville by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Prince and the Pauper by Dickens, and to reread Oliver Twist as well as the Complete Works of Shakespeare. 

What I'm Reading

"Just know that, whatever you choose, you will die today. The manner of your death, however, is up to you."

Taken from Goodreads: Allison Sekemoto survives in the Fringe, the outermost circle of a walled-in city. By day, she and her crew scavenge for food. By night, any one of them could be eaten. Some days, all that drives Allie is her hatred of them—the vampires who keep humans as blood cattle. Until the night Allie herself dies and becomes one of the monsters.

Forced to flee her city, Allie must pass for human as she joins a ragged group of pilgrims seeking a legend—a place that might have a cure for the disease that killed off most of civilization and created the rabids, the bloodthirsty creatures who threaten human and vampire alike. And soon Allie will have to decide what–and who–is worth dying for…again.

This book is phenomenal so far! I'm about 40-50% in. It's difficult to put it down. I can't wait to finish it, and start the next.

What I'm Reading

Taken from Goodreads:A postmodern visionary who is also a master of styles and genres, David Mitchell combines flat-out adventures, a Nabokovian love of puzzles, a keen eye for character, and a taste for mind-bending philosophical and scientific speculation in the tradition of Umberto Eco and Philip K. Dick. The result is brilliantly original fiction that reveals how disparate people connect, how their fates intertwine, and how their souls drift across time like clouds across the sky.

I'm approximately 15 -  20% in & really excited to finish this book. I absolutely loved the movie. 

What I'm Reading

Recently I picked up a copy of "Clockwork Angel" by Cassandra Clare. It is the first book in the Infernal Devices trilogy.
I adore watching book review vlogs or vlogs from readers in general. I found a video on Youtube from a vlogger who was showcasing her bookshelves and giving a brief description of each book. Clockwork Angel was one of those books. It looked insanely interesting to me.

From Amazon:

Magic is dangerous--but love is more dangerous still.

When sixteen-year-old Tessa Gray crosses the ocean to find her brother, her destination is England, the time is the reign of Queen Victoria, and something terrifying is waiting for her in London's Downworld, where vampires, warlocks and other supernatural folk stalk the gaslit streets. Only the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the world of demons, keep order amidst the chaos.

Kidnapped by the mysterious Dark Sisters, members of a secret organization called The Pandemonium Club, Tessa soon learns that she herself is a Downworlder with a rare ability: the power to transform, at will, into another person. What's more, the Magister, the shadowy figure who runs the Club, will stop at nothing to claim Tessa's power for his own.

Friendless and hunted, Tessa takes refuge with the Shadowhunters of the London Institute, who swear to find her brother if she will use her power to help them. She soon finds herself fascinated by--and torn between--two best friends: James, whose fragile beauty hides a deadly secret, and blue-eyed Will, whose caustic wit and volatile moods keep everyone in his life at arm's length...everyone, that is, but Tessa. As their search draws them deep into the heart of an arcane plot that threatens to destroy the Shadowhunters, Tessa realizes that she may need to choose between saving her brother and helping her new friends save the world...and that love may be the most dangerous magic of all. 

This book is truly magical.
The setting, plot, & characters are fantastic. I've fallen in love with Tessa & Jem, & have found myself in a love/hate relationship with Will (mind you I've a little over 50 pages before I finish it).
I have a feeling that this trilogy is going to be one of my favorites.


edit: Finished the book this evening. I absolutely loved it! I'm still a little iffy about Will. I know that so much more is going on with him than meets the eye. This book is a must read!

What I'm Reading

The Wednesday Sister's by Meg Waite Clayton

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I fell in complete love with this book while reading the first page.

A quick summary (from the authors site):

"When five young mothers—Frankie, Linda, Kath, Ally, and Brett—first meet in a neighborhood park in the late 1960s, their conversations center on marriage, raising children, and a shared love of books. Then one evening, as they gather to watch the Miss America Pageant, Linda admits that she aspires to write a novel herself, and the Wednesday Sisters Writing Society is born. The five women slowly, and often reluctantly, start filling journals, sliding pages into typewriters, and sharing their work. In the process, they explore the changing world around them: the Vietnam War, the race to the moon, and a women's movement that challenges everything they believe about themselves. At the same time, the friends carry one another through more personal changes—ones brought about by infidelity, longing, illness, failure, and success. With one another's support and encouragement, they begin to embrace who they are and what they hope to become, as The Wednesday Sisters welcomes readers to experience, along with its heroines, the power of dreaming big."

The characters are so real, so moving. Those that I felt that I connected most with were Ally & Frankie.

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What I'm Reading

I recently purchased the book "Womb Wisdom: Awakening the Creative and Forgotten Powers of the Feminine" from Amazon.

I was too excited and impatient to wait for a paperback shipment, that I bought the Kindle ebook. (I do want to buy the paperback edition also).

This book is amazing!

 

This book takes you through the 'womb spirals', and each spiral represents a part of our growth.

I believe that all women should read it and embrace it.

So many of us (I included) have forgotten how powerful our femininity truly is.

The description that I've given isn't the best, nor does it do the book justice. It's difficult for me to put into words just how amazing it is!

I highly suggest that you give it a read.

What I'm Reading

 

 (ah! so tired. very little sleep last night and 4 hrs. of driving today. forgive me if this is a bit jumbled or hurried)

Iyanla Vanzant caught my interest when I saw her new show on OWN. It's called "Iyanla Fix My Life". When I found "One Day My Soul Just Opened Up" while browsing at the library, I knew that I had to read it. Iyanla is a spiritual teacher, inspirational speaker, and author. She is a powerful woman. (If you haven't heard of her - you must!)
I'm not very far into the book. I only started it a few days ago, but I already like it quite a lot!

The other book that I picked up is "The Home Guide to Craft" by Katherine Sorrell. There are so many craft ideas in this book! I imagine that it could be quite overwhelming for a beginner (it was a bit overwhelming for me). However, I have gotten a handful of great ideas for crafts. 

What I'm Reading

To some of you this may seem crazy because it has been such a popular book for decades now, but I had never read "Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl". Never. Isn't this required reading in public schools?

Anyway, I found a battered, old copy at the library and had the above mentioned epiphany. How could I have never read this?

Most of you know the story of Anne Frank, a young Jewish girl who goes into hiding during the war with her parents, sister, another family, and a dentist.
The diary is full of Anne's thoughts about life, her youth, war, boys, her parents, her sister, etc. It reads like most any diary with the exception of the destruction around them in the form of a raging war and the possibility of being found and carted off with other Jewish members of her community.

Reading her girlish thoughts and chuckling to myself, I realized how sad it really is. She wrote these things, she felt these things. She didn't have a chance to become a woman, to grow and prosper, and find happiness in the world. She represents so many poor souls who were tormented and killed.

I'm enjoying the book because it lets me glimpse into her world, but it's also difficult to read because it's constantly in the back of my mind that I know what happened to Anne after it ends.

What I'm Reading

Libba Bray has me completely captivated with her 'Gemma Doyle Trilogy'. (I'm actually sad to see that it's only a trilogy.)
I recently finished reading the first book 'A Great and Terrible Beauty', and I immediately picked up the second book which I'm currently reading, called 'Rebel Angels'.

I'll only give info about the first book in the trilogy so that I don't give too much away for those who want to read it.

"A Great and Terrible Beauty"

I found this snippet on Libba Bray's website: "It's 1895, and after the suicide of her mother, 16-year-old Gemma Doyle is shipped off from the life that she knows in India to Spence, a proper boarding school in England. Lonely, guilt-ridden, and prone to visions of the future that have an uncomfortable habit of coming true, Gemma's reception there is a chilly one. To make things worse, she's been followed by by a mysterious young Indian man, a man sent to watch her. But why? What is her destiny? And what will her entanglement with Spence's most powerful girls - and their foray into the spiritual world - lead to?"


The books are intense, magical. The fact that they are sat in the 19th century lends a nice historical touch, and also confines the main female characters to what society believes that they should be, but they're able to step out of those roles that were defined for them and show their own personalities, ambitions, and adventures.

I can't stop reading them.

Yucky Weather & What I'm Reading

The weather has been really yucky.

Heavy rains today and insane wind. The kind of wind that rattles your doors and windows, and forces you back when you're trying to walk down the street. Snow is in the forecast, so I decided to take my library books back and get a couple of new ones in case I'm home bound for a few days. I certainly couldn't be stuck indoors without a really good supply of books to keep me entertained.

Lately I've been completely absorbed in 'cozy little mysteries'. I'm reading all that I can find at the library and also buying several for my Kindle. They're so much fun, the characters are very likable, and the plots are light and interesting. My favorite authors are: Rhys Bowen, Alan Bradley, M.C. Beaton, Laura Childs, and Cleo Coyle. I'm sure I'm leaving out a few. 

Currently I'm reading Liver Let Die by Liz Lipperman. Apparently it's her first novel. I'm enjoying it quite a lot.