Reading

It is so cold outside!!

The leaves are still gorgeous, but they are sure falling faster.

The jackets we have been wearing are soon going to be exchanged for heavy coats, I've already swapped out my Slurpees for hot cocoa and while I love the holidays-- I dread the cold.

My joints have started screaming at me each day.

Darn it.

This time last year though, we still had no power and we stayed warm by boiling big pots of water on the stove all day- so I'll count my blessings and turn up the heater, 

It's stay inside weather though and that means I'm reading a ton and listening to audio books. 

 I've been having a good run since school started.

And it didn't hurt that my sweet Sister and Brother in law sent us a care package with FOUR cans of Stephen's Hot Cocoa. 

You can't get it here and when I went to Utah I stocked up and then gave a bunch of it away to some of  my fellow Utah transplants here in New Jersey who miss it as much as I do. 

Matt is going out of town in the next while, and I am going to be putting my books down long enough to binge watch Pride and Prejudice and drink cocoa until the cold wind blowing outside is completely forgotten. 

(Thanks B & P- we miss you.)

Right now, I'm right in the middle of this:

It is so good!

If you liked Maze Runner, or Hunger Games- it's got that kind of feel, but so far, I'm liking it way more.

I have had this on my "to-read" list for a few years and I finished it:

I don't know what to say about it.

It was a good enough story, it was interesting and I liked the characters and the world he created enough.

But Orson Scott Card can sometimes get really wrapped up in some theological/political thing he's into and sometimes his books get lost in whatever he is trying to preach.

Ender's Game was wonderful, but the follow up books, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, Shadow of the Hedgemon, Children of the Mind- all of those-- bleah.  I read them all hoping for that spark that was in Ender's game to return and it just didn't.

It did come in Ender's Shadow, but I think that when Card writes about adults, he loses a lot and as Alvin in this series grows, I suspect I will get sick of it. 

I either love what OSC writes or hate it, and I could love this book, but I suspect I will hate the follow ups, so I think I'll just stop reading while I'm not annoyed with the author. 

By the way, we saw the Ender's Game movie- while the movie is never anywhere near as good as the book, it wasn't bad. My kids who hadn't read the book really liked it, those of us who did read the book didn't leave frustrated. Romy started reading it the next day. 

But back to what I'm reading....

I also read this:

Great story, but it has some crass language. Teenage swearing level, more than I'd allow Roe to read, but Zane could.

I think the author is a huge fan of old pictures and while it's great that creepy old pictures inspired the story, I think sometimes he just wrote things to include the pictures he wanted to use and relied on the images to do the writing for him. He uses the pictures that inspired him as a bit of a crutch.  His second in the series is coming out and I will read it.

I did enjoy it, I enjoyed it enough that I bought the author's book that was completely about found pictures:

It was a fun book.

Next on deck is this series:

Because THIS book still hasn't come out and I am just dying waiting for it:

Yeah, there isn't even a mock up of the cover released.

Come on Jim Butcher, the Olsons are DYING here. 

What are you reading?

Summer Reading 2012

Every summer I have great plans to read a bunch of books. I envision myself out in the yard while the children play and never ever fight as I sit and devour all of the things I meant to finish reading in the winter.

I tend to get about half of my planned reading finished and considering that for the first 10 years of my being a parent, it was a challenge to get through an entire magazine, I'll go ahead and feel good about that.

This summer, I've been doing pretty well. I have been listening to some audio books as well and it's a nice distraction as I deal with all of these boxes full of stuff that I simply have no place for.

So...without further blabbering, I bring you my Summer Reading:

I started book 2 of this series the day we moved in, and haven't stopped listening to them since.

I'm on book 6, which I thought I owned, but I had to order it yesterday from Deseret Book.

I still need books 10 & 11 and I'll be sure to order those soon, because it stinks to be at a cliffhanger in the story and I have to wait 2 weeks to find out what happens.

Anyway, as I often find with series books, I think the first one was the least interesting, the second one was awfully preachy but the rest of them have been really great.

While I wait, I'm starting this one today. Love Scalzi.

We went to a book signing a couple of years back and listened to him talk and do a Q & A. He wasn't very warm and fuzzy, but then I was snapping pictures like he was Brad Pitt and I am sure that was as annoying as heck.

I finished this book:

It was better than I thought it would be. I expected to enjoy it, (who doesn't love Stephanie?) but it was a really good read. It was much deeper than I assumed it would be and she's a great writer. Her story flows really well and shares the feelings of her soul without getting preachy in any way. She's completely real in her sharing of her experience and it's very refreshing and moving.  I completely loved it.

I also finished this book:

It was fine, not really what I normally read. I'd heard so many wonderful things about this LDS author and I'm a sucker for anything related to the Titanic so I figured it would be a good read. It's not really my style, I guess. It was a pleasant book and I enjoyed it, but I'm in any hurry to read another.

There is a new Dresden that's coming out this summer, Matt and I are counting down the days for that to be released.

Harry Dresden, plus a hat....

 They also had a really great deal on a pack of the 3 audiobooks in the Kane series by Rick Riordan. he wrote the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series.

 I read the first of the Kane books and didn't love it, it seemed like it was the same story as Percy Jackson, only with Egyptian figures in the story, so I didn't read the next 2 books. The deal on Amazon was so good for the audiobook set though that I figured I could give it another try, so I'll listen to that series in the background this summer.

When we take our summer road trip with all of the kids, we'll finish reading book 2 of the Beyonder's. We started it before we left and read book 1 last summer when we drove to Mount Rushmore. This year were' going to Washington DC with the kids and we'll have plenty of time to finish.

What are you reading this summer, my bloggy friends?