I MAY have had a slow month....

I did an awful job raiding again this past month. I blame my slip and fall. The pain meds had me more than a little loopy. But away we go.....

A Clash of Kings by George RR Martin (969 pages). Book 2 in A Song of Fire and Ice.  I can't tell if I've just forgotten things from the show or if they left stuff out. But I'm really enjoying the books so far. I feel like I know even more about the characters and their world than the show is able to actually portray. It took me 24 days (only 8 days of actual reading time)

So yep, one book. One measly book

April's lack of pool time led to lack of reading time....

April was a bit of a bust. I didn't really get a lot of reading done. Oh well. At least it was a long one. So here goes. 

A Game of Thrones by George RR Martin (807 pages). I bought A Song of Fire and Ice series about a year ago. The sheer length of each book was a little intimidating. So I held off. But finally decided to start reading it last month. And I'm glad I did. It was a great refresher before season 6 began this month. I had forgotten a lot of what happened in season 1. It was also kind of fun to read the way to spell all of those crazy names you hear on the show. Long story short- Dany is still my favorite. And I'm really excited to start the next book in the series. It took me 34 days to read (but only 8 days of actual reading time). The bulk of it was done by the pool in one weekend (yay for pool time!)

March came and went......

So I didn't do great last month. Only 4 books, 796 pages.  I just don't have tons of time that I'd like to devote to reading anymore. I know, that doesn't sound very much like me. But it is what it is. 

Below Stairs by Margaret Powell (212 pages). This was a memoir written in 1968 by a woman who started as a kitchen maid in a big house in England at the ripe old age of fifteen and eventually rose to be a cook. She spills the tea on all the behind the scenes (or below the stairs) events. The maids who were let go when they found themselves "in trouble". The crazy masters and mistresses of the house. It was a very interesting book, especially in light of this being the last season of Downton Abbey!  It took me 21 days to read (but only 4 days of actual reading time)

The Mother Goose Diaries by Chris Colfer (121 pages). This was an extra in the Land of Stories series. And it was super cute. Turns out Mother Goose has been around (and involved) for quite a few centuries. From fighting dragons to getting spurned by Henry VIII to fighting for women's rights, Goose has seen it all!  It took me just a few hours to read. So I decided to start the second extra in the series as well!

Queen Red Riding Hood's Guide to Royalty by Chris Colfer (120 pages). Another extra in the Land of Stories series. It wasn't quite as much fun as Mother Goose's. But then again, Red isn't always my favorite character in this series. She's funny, but conceited. And more than a little delusional. Her book was the same thing. All about how she's the best queen ever, even though her subjects can't stand her. It was okay. It took me two days to read. 

The Silent Sister by Diane Chamberlain (343 pages). O. M. G. Loved this book!  When Riley was nearly 2 years old, her older sister committed suicide. The family was never the same. Over twenty years later, Riley's dad dies and she goes home to settle his estate. Little does Riley know that the sister she thought was lost might have actually started a new life.  Why?  Because she was an accused  murderer. As Riley digs further into her family's past, she realizes that her family's future is going to be very different that what she had imagined. It took me 5 days to read (only 3 actual reading days). 

February was a bust (and I even had an extra day)

I literally got one book read in February.  And I read it at the beginning of the month.  I need to cut back on the TV binge watching and get some good reading done!

The Land of Stories: Beyond the Kingdoms by Chris Colfer (419 pages).  This is the fourth of this series.  And for me, the most exciting!  The twins and their friends are searching for the Masked Man aka the man the twins believe is their long dead father.  The Masked Man has a plan.  When he was a child, the Fairy Godmother made a potion for him that would open portals into books.  So now he is going to enter every work of fiction and recruit the villains from the stories to help him destroy the fairies and everything they stand for.  So Alex, Connor and their friends follow the Masked Man into other worlds.  Oz, Neverland, Wonderland, Camelot, all of them are just as the twins imagined!  And the Masked Man begins to see his plan come to fruition.  Meanwhile, Connor's classmate Bree (who has been to the Land of Stories with Connor) learns a little more about her own Grimm background.  This one was a lot of fun.  It took me 4 days, but only 2 days of actual reading time (hurrah for plane travel!)

I did start another book, but just haven't gotten around to finishing it.  Even though it's really good.  Hopefully March will be a little bit better.....

2016 is off to a bad start....

After Alice by Gregory Maguire (273 pages). I've read almost everything Maguire has written. And his books are totally hit or miss. Some of them I've loved, some of them I've hated. This was one of the later. It literally took me all month to finish. I read "finis" on the 31st!  Yet I only actually read for 4 days. That should definitely tell you something!  Admittedly, I read half of it in one day. But I was going to finish this book before January was over, by George. Anyway, this story is about Ada. She is Alice's friend. And is on her way to visit Alice when she finds herself falling down a rabbit hole, right into Wonderland, mere minutes behind Alice. She has her own set of adventures in Wonderland. Meanwhile, Alice's sister Lydia (only briefly mentioned in Alice's adventures) finds adventure herself in Oxford. I enjoyed that the book showed what was going on Up Here while the girls were Down Under. But that's about all I liked. 

The Grownup by Gillian Flynn (62 pages). This was a short story.  And the first one I've read by her that I didn't wonder whodunit. There wasn't a real ending here. The narrator is a psychic, of sorts. She is hired by a woman who is terrified of her Victorian home. And her stepson. But is it the house, the stepson, or the woman who is true the threat here?  Who knows. It was an easy read- it took me about an hour. Thus endeth January.   2 books, 335 pages. Ouch. 

2015 ended pretty well

In December, I read 4 books for a total of 1,968 pages. Not a bad way to end the year (thanks to a little beach vacay). Here we go!

Good Christian Bitches by Kim Gatlin (291 pages). This was a short lived series on ABC in 2012. Which I loved. So when I saw the book in the bargain bin, I decided to give it a read. The book was literally nothing like the tv series. But equally as enjoyable. Amanda Vaughn was born and raised in Dallas. And when her philandering husband finally causes her to give up hope on their marriage, she moves her children from Newport Beach back home. Dallas hasn't changed at all since she left. The neighborhood is still rich, the people are still big and some of the women are good Christian bitches. When two of her old high school friends decide to set her up to fail, Amanda manages to succeed. With a little help from her mother, her new friends and her new beau. It was a very easy read. I just haven't been in a reading mood. It took me 26 days to read it (but only 3 days of actual reading time). 

Hollow City by Ransom Riggs (396 pages). This was the second in the Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children series. Jacob and the peculiars are now firmly ensconced in 1940, dead in the middle of a war. A war that they now know has a lot to do with them. Their headmistress is still a bird, but they have vowed to find a way to get her back. As they travel around England, searching for other peculiars and loops, they eventually find one of the last remaining ymbrynes who can help them restore Miss Peregrine. Little do they know that their troubles have only just begun. I'm super excited that I bought this book and the next book at the same time. The world of the peculiars is completely fascinating!  It took me 12 days to read (but only 2 days of actual reading). 

Library of Souls by Ransom Riggs (458 pages). The third and final book in the Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children series. Jacob and Emma, the only ones left of their group of peculiars, must venture into Devil's Acre, the slummiest of slums of Victorian England, in order to save their friends, their ymbryne and their kind. The ensuing battle pits wights against peculiars, brothers against sister, in an epic battle to save peculiardom.  Once it's over, will Jacob be able to live a normal life ever again?  I'm kind of sad the series is over. But super happy I could read the last two together. So much better than forgetting characters and events, huh?  Anyway, I read this book in 2 days (hoorah for vacation!)

Winter by Marissa Meyer (823 pages). The final boom in the Lunar Chronicles. Cinder (aka the rightful Queen Selene) and her friends make their way to Luna. There, earthen Emperor Kai has agreed to marry lunar Queen Levena. But with many allies, including Levena's stepdaughter, the beloved Princess Winter, Cinder/Selene might just stand a chance. When the revolution breaks out, who will be victorious?  Some of the book reminded me of Hunger Games (the outer realms on Luna were dirt poor and provided a luxurious lifestyle for those in the capital). But all in all, a very enjoyable series. This book took me 3 days to read. 

So there we go. This year I read 48 books. For a grand total of 17,143 pages. Not too bad of a year!  Here's to 2016 being even better, reading-wise

This was seriously No Read November!

For some reason, I haven't been in much of a reading mood lately. Or really, at all. I finished one book last month. One. And it was a book that I began in October!  It's sad. But it happens. So here goes.

Under the Wide and Starry Sky by Nancy Horan (466 pages). Fanny Osbourne was in her late 30's when she met much younger Robert Louis Stevenson. He fell hard and fast; her love for him took a while to grow. But eventually she divorced her husband and they began a life together that saw his greatest literary successes, travel all over the world, and his constant poor health. Fanny was a fighter and a survivor. This author also wrote Loving Frank, which was an amazing book about Frank Lloyd Wright and his love, Mameh. This book was just as great. Unfortunately, I just haven't been in much of a reading mood lately. So it took me 40+ days to read (just 6 days of actual reading though). 

Ouch