Reading Recap July through December 2017

With Jenni at Erin Summerill's book launch for Ever the Brave

With husband, son and his friend at the Oathbringer launch.

Here's what I read the second half of the year. Better than the first but not by much. I felt like it was tons better, but most of these books were in the just the last few months, so I was deceived. The summer was pretty scarce with the reading.

My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick: A girl finds out that the boy who lives with a crazy big family next to her is just exactly perfect for her.

The Paper Magician by Charlie Holmberg: A girl is apprenticed to the paper magician and she is at first disappointed, but in the end, she is okay with it, especially after she saves his life.

Hello, Goodbye and Everything in Between by Jennifer Smith: A couple who's been dating for a good long while need to decide whether or not they are breaking up or staying together when they leave for college. The book is their last day/night spend together as they approach that decision.

Our Lady Jane by Brodi Ashton, Cynthia Hand, Jodi Meadows: An alternate look at the Lady Jane Grey story.

Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things by Jenny Lawson: A book filled with funny crazy essays about what it's like to live with a mental illness. (Or two or three.)

Dark Matter by Blake Crouch: A guy finds himself kidnapped and sent to another reality where his life is completely different and all he wants to do is get back to is regular boring beautiful life.

I Believe in a Thing Called Love by Maurene Goo: A girl uses the formula found in Kdramas to help her get the guy.

Turtles All the Way Down by John Green: A girl suffers from terrible anxiety but despite that, she falls in love with the guy who's dad has gone missing and she is helping to find him.

Gem and Dixie by Sara Zarr: Gem is sick of her parents not taking care of her or her sister so she takes matters into her own hands.

Letters to the Lost by Brigid Kemmerer: A boy and girl come together through writing letters to each other.

Wild Bird by Wendelin Van Draanen: A girl gets sent to a wilderness survival program for troubled teens and learns how to change her life.

A Taste for Monsters by Matthew Kirby: A girl with a disfigured face finds refuge in a London hospital and befriends the guy there known as the Elephant Man.

Deacon Locke Went to Prom by Brian Katcher: Deacon Locke takes his grandma to prom and becomes an internet sensation.

Goodbye Days by Jeff Zentner: A boy has lost all his friends to a car accident and has to deal with the guilt he feels that it was his text who caused it.

The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen: Through strange and magical circumstances, a young woman finally comes out of herself to start her life.

The Memory Thief by Bryce Moore: A 12 year old boy ends up getting mixed up with a couple of strange people who give and take memories.

Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia: A girl who is famous online, but a recluse in her real life is faced with the problem of what to do when when she is discovered.


Favorites of the bunch:

I gave five stars to Deacon Locke Went to Prom, Letters to the Lost and Eliza and Her Monsters. They were all wonderful thought provoking complicated amazing stories.

Goals for 2017:

• Read more.
• Continue working on my huge overwhelming stack of books accumulated recently.
• Read Oathbringer.
• Read another Wheel of Time book with my son who is suddenly obsessed.